MUSIC 120B Midterm - People

Question 1

Pope Gregory the Great

Answer 1

standardized & codified Latin/Gregorian chant

MEDIEVAL ERA

Question 2

Hildegard von Bingen

Answer 2

medieval abbess, dramatist, composer, essayist, mystic, poet & author on health & science

First major composer for whom we have biographical info.

Alleluia, o virga mediatrix

MEDIEVAL ERA

Question 3

Anonymous IV

Answer 3

14th-century monk & commentator on:
Leonin
Perotin

MEDIEVAL ERA

Question 4

Leonin

Answer 4

13th-century composer at Notre Dame

MEDIEVAL ERA

Question 5

Perotin

Answer 5

Best 13th-century composer of three- and four-part organum.

MEDIEVAL ERA

Question 6

Guillaume de Machaut

Answer 6

b. 1300, his Missa Notre Dame establishes the “mass” as the ultimate musical genre for Renaissance-era composition. Leading figure of Ars Nova innovations in notation, etc.

RENAISSANCE ERA

Question 7

Josquin de Prez

Answer 7

Renaissance master: motet, “Ave Maria . . .”; critical feature is a contrapuntal technique: points of imitation.

“Ave Maria . . .” also presents shifts in texture, from polyphonic to homophonic. Composer of “El Grillo,” a frotolla, i.e., a secular song in homophonic style.

RENAISSANCE ERA

Question 8

Giovanni Palestrina

Answer 8

legend has it that his Pope Marcellus Mass “saved polyphony” in liturgical music from banishment by The Council of Trent. Palestrina’s approach to polyphony was the first musical style established as pedagogical foundation (“Palestrina counterpoint”)

RENAISSANCE ERA

Question 9

Jacques Arcadelt

Answer 9

Belgium-born composer of Renaissance Italian madrigals. Madrigals could be rich in text or word painting and double-entendres, including Arcadelt’s “greatest hit,” “Il bianco e dolce cigno” (“The White and Sweet Swan”

RENAISSANCE ERA

Question 10

John Farmer

Answer 10

composer of English madrigals, a Renaissance a cappella genre that contributed to the invention of opera. Fair Phyllis

RENAISSANCE ERA

Question 11

Claudio Monteverdi

Answer 11

Early Baroque composer who wrote the music for the first operatic masterpiece, L’ Orfeo. Monteverdi’s opera was informed by his madrigal composition AND by Camerata theories. Monteverdi worked for Count Gonzaga at his Mantua court.

BAROQUE ERA

Question 12

From L’Orfeo - Orfeo, Euridice

Answer 12

Orfeo: world’s greatest musician; see “Tu se morta,” an expressive recitative, rich in word painting. Euridice: Orfeo’s bride. La Musica: strophic aria prologue

Question 13

Henry Purcell

Answer 13

English, masque/opera “Dido & Aeneas”;

“Dido’s Lament” aria for singer and string orchestra. Basic musical structure and form is based on a descending ground/ostinato lament bass.

Performed at girl’s school in Chelsea.

BAROQUE ERA

Question 14

Dido

Answer 14

queen of Carthage sings a paired recitative & “lament” aria: basso ostinato despair & fated death.

BAROQUE ERA

Question 15

Antonio Vivaldi

Answer 15

“the red priest” wrote ca. 450 concerti (solo & grosso).

His “laboratory” for composition was at a girl’s school in Vienna; the Pieta orchestra.

The Four Seasons, four concertos for solo violin and strings;

La Primavera, Baroque programmatic work; each movement prefaced by sonnet.

BAROQUE ERA

Question 16

Arcangelo Corelli

Answer 16

first major composer specializing in instrumental works (e.g., Baroque sonatas; inspiration to Vivaldi)

BAROQUE ERA

Question 17

Jean Baptiste Lully

Answer 17

Early Baroque Italian-born French composer at court of Louis XIV; Director of Royal Orchestra; an autocrat who closely coordinated violin & string sections; stabbed his own damned foot.

BAROQUE ERA

Question 18

Joseph Fux

Answer 18

an 18th-century composer who penned Gradus & Parnassum, a widely published & influential instruction book on counterpoint in the Palestrinian style.

BAROQUE ERA

Question 19

Johann Sebastian Bach

Answer 19

J.S. Bach represents the culmination of Baroque style; synthesizer of international styles – Italian, French (suites), and German Lutheran tradition.

Composer of Chorale Cantata No. 140 (“Wachet Auf . . .” ), fugues, and concerti, and of all major Baroque forms, except Italian opera.

“Sleepers Awake”: a tenor “aria” based on chorale melody and text.

BAROQUE ERA

Question 20

George Handel

Answer 20

German-born English composer: master of Italian opera & originator of English Oratorio. [Oratorio: originated in Rome; sacred text and subjects; has plots & characters but no costumes or scenery, as per opera; does have aria, recitative, ensemble, orchestra, continuo – all operatic musical forms. A critical feature is a narrator, called a historicus.

BAROQUE ERA

Question 21

Joseph Haydn

Answer 21

One of the Viennese Classical School, Haydn established the string quartet and symphony as principal Classical-era instrumental genres. Haydn was composer of over 100 symphonies. Working at Esterhaza Palace for Nicholas “the Magnificent,” Haydn’s was “forced to become original.”

CLASSICAL ERA

Question 22

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Answer 22

wunderkind wonder performer; master of all “Classical” genres, including both Italian & German operatic forms, string quartet, symphony, and concerto.

CLASSICAL ERA

Question 23

Don Giovanni

Answer 23

anti-hero of Mozart’s opera of the same name; murderous Spanish nobleman who seduces women.

Question 24

Ludwig van Beethoven

Answer 24

the first free-lance composer, Beethoven comes on the cusp of the Classical and Romantic eras. Beethoven influenced all of Romantic period and beyond. Nine symphonies (cf. Haydn’s over a hundred symphonies).

CLASSICAL ERA - cusp of Romantic

Question 25

Napoleon Bonaparte

Answer 25

French Revolutionary war hero, general, and later First Consul (dictator); the original dedicatee of Beethoven’s Eroica (“Heroic’)
Symphony No. 3.

CLASSICAL ERA

Question 26

Friedrich Schiller

Answer 26

Beethoven’s favorite poet and author of “Ode to Joy,” whose text was set to music in the finale of Beethoven’s last symphony, Symphony No. 9, “The Choral”

CLASSICAL ERA