music examples

Question 1

Winterreise No. 5, Der Lindenbaum

Answer 1

schubert

• modified strophic
• expression in piano part

Question 2

Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair

Answer 2

foster

• parlor/sentimental
• attached to theatrical prods. (considered more pop than art song)
• themes of loss/love/nature
• strophic form
• muted musical expression of text compared to German trad. but there
• elements of folk ballads from British Isles

Question 3

Nocturne in D flat major

Answer 3

chopin

• hidden virtuosity
• shows off new innovations of piano
• very quiet LH compared to RH (characteristic of nocturnes)
• song-like melody from opera
• pretty chromatic for time period

Question 4

Concert Etude: Un Sospiro

Answer 4

liszt

• reflects his piano skills w/ huge leaps/hand crossing, melody on black keys
• expressivity (“a sigh”, program)

Question 5

Souvenir de Porto Rico (Marche des Gibaros)

Answer 5

gottschalk

• character piece
• subtitle = Puerto Rican peasants
• theme derived from folk song
• variations (shows off, Latin American rhythms)

Question 6

Scherzo

Answer 6

clara schumann

• Scherzo: prev. minuet, more intellectual, not dance based but often in 3 (musical ex.)
• Score as representation of precise work → primacy of composer
• V aware of tradition → commentary on historical genre, elaborate for a scherzo

Question 7

Im wunderschonen monat mai

Answer 7

robert schumann

• “in the beautiful month of may”
• no ending cadence (sense of longing)

Question 8

Ich grolle nicht

Answer 8

robert schumann

• (“I’m not grumpy”)
• ex. of romantic irony (says he’s not complaining but he is)
• steady stubborn 8th note pulse (inc. importance of inst. music)

Question 9

Symphony No. 4 in D minor, mvmt 1

Answer 9

robert schumann

• both traditional and innovative
• basic elements of sonata cycle:
• Played w/o break (attacca, Beethoven)
• Joined by harmonic, thematic lines
• No true recap in 1st mvmt → but then 2 themes from expos reappear in finale
• Whole symphony can be interp. as big sonata form mvmt (1. Expos, beginning of dev 2/3. dev 4. Recap and coda)

Question 10

Symphony No. 3, “Scottish” mvmt. 4

Answer 10

mendelssohn

• folk music everywhere in music at this time (political move)
• larger orch (Classical)
• emotional extremes (Romantic)
• rhythms (Scottish)

Question 11

Barber of Seville, “una voce poco fa”

Answer 11

rossini

• roots in 18th c. comic opera (esp. Mozart)
• cavatina
• no tempo di mezzo

Question 12

Lucia di Lammermoor

Answer 12

donizetti

• Avoids cadences
• Uses musical material to signify/tell events in the story
• Expansive approach to scena ed aria form, unbalanced melodies, emotional extremes, increased importance of orchestra (Romanticism)

Question 13

Les Huguenots

Answer 13

meyerbeer

• Plot: Catholic massacre of protestants in 16th c.
• Music: Rossinian Plan (Scena ed Aria)
• Big chorus
• Quote of lutheran hymn

Question 14

Der Freischütz

Answer 14

von Weber

• Elevated singspiel (Orch, Folk → Hunter’s Chorus)
• “Wolf’s Glen” scene:
• Interesting harmonic relationships
• Huge orch, contributes greatly to narrative
• Form in service to narrative

Question 15

Symphonie fantastique

Answer 15

berlioz

• Programs, idee fixe (cyclical)
• 4th mvmt “March to the Scaffold” → moment by moment depiction of scene, orchestration: ophicleide, march form
• 5th mvmt “Witches Sabbath” → orchestration: E-flat clarinet, col legno strings, Dies Irae melody used to rep. death, massive fugue at the end

Question 16

how schumann’s symphony no. 4 is interpreted as one big SONATA FORM movement

Answer 16

1. Expos, beginning of dev
   2/3. dev
2. Recap and coda

Question 17

4th mvmt of symphonie fantastique

Answer 17

4th mvmt “March to the Scaffold”

• moment by moment depiction of scene
• orchestration: ophicleide, march form

Question 18

5th mvmt of symphonie fantastique

Answer 18

5th mvmt “Witches Sabbath”

• orchestration: E-flat clarinet, col legno strings
• Dies Irae melody used to rep. death
• massive fugue at the end

Question 19

Ring Cycle

Answer 19

wagner

• 4 opera cycle
• combination of German/Norse stories
• Die Walkure is second one: leitmotifs (each one represents a character/theme)
• descending notes rep. fire god

Question 20

Tristan und Isolde

Answer 20

wagner

• Tristan chord
• modernism (rejecting past musical traditions)
• wrote his own libretto
• no sep. #s (continuous)
• leitmotifs

Question 21

La Traviata

Answer 21

verdi

• Rossinian
• orch. plays narrative role
• realistic characters/situations/emotions in his current time

Question 22

Madame Butterfly

Answer 22

puccini

• Japanese music that was westernized (“hybrid style”)
• used pentatonic scale in Japanese motive, later becomes more Western when she wants to convert to his religion

Question 23

Boris Godunov

Answer 23

mussorgsky

• NOT wagner (not continuous, pauses before arias)
• a lot of people on stage (serfs = poor)
• no lush theme/idee fixe
• not functional harmony/doesn’t resolve
• rare ex. of him borrowing folk tune

Question 24

Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique” (1893)

Answer 24

tchaikovsky

• Combination of influences from Germany, Italy, France as well as strategic “non-other-nation-ness”
• Unusual structure
• 3rd mvmt operates as climax
• March → (w/ Russian military history) more like sonata without development
• Main theme gradually emerges
• Filled with Nationalism
• 4th mvmt completely different

Question 25

3rd mvmt of pathetique symphony

Answer 25

3rd mvmt operates as climax - March → (w/ Russian military history) more like sonata without development - Main theme gradually emerges - Filled with Nationalism (4th completely diff)

Question 26

“After the Ball”

Answer 26

harris - Sentimental waltz - 32 bar form → aaba, verse-chorus - Teaching women “appropriate social code” for white middle class

Question 27

Symphony No. 4, mvt. 4

Answer 27

brahms - Developing variation - Chaconne (Baroque form of dance, repeating bass line w/ variations on melody) - Modeled on e minor chaconne by Buxtehude - Relationships between variations similar to works by Francois Couperin - Basso Ostinato modeled on a mvmt from J.S. Bach cantata - Other models → Beethoven Eroica symphony & J.S. Bach Partita No. 2 D minor

Question 28

what symphony no. 4, mvmt 4 was modeled on

Answer 28

- e minor chaconne by Buxtehude - Relationships between variations similar to works by Francois Couperin - Basso Ostinato modeled on a mvmt from J.S. Bach cantata - Other models → Beethoven Eroica symphony & J.S. Bach Partita No. 2 D minor

Question 29

Quintet for Piano and Strings

Answer 29

brahms - 19th c. chamber tradition - retrospective/classicist in itself - Schubert string quartet - Developing variation, hemiola - Emphasizes in more expanded way the melodic gesture

Question 30

Don Quixote

Answer 30

strauss - Tone poem - A lot of visuals (i.e. wind mill) → similar to programaticism from Berlioz - Theme and variations: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza theme, each variation has a new texture - Huge orch, deploying every expressive tool imaginable within limits of Common Practice Era rules: - Tonality, diatonicism, primacy of melody, etc. - Non-tonal “sheep” part, cello = Don Quixote

Question 31

Gretchen am Spinnrade

Answer 31

schubert - poem is strophic, music is NOT - through composed - piano plays role of spinning wheel (also her mind going in circles) - sudden modulations = restlessness