pieces Flashcards
1
Q
Bartok, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
A
- lots of tritones
- examples of symmetry
- night music style - glissando, fast moving pitches
2
Q
Shostakovich, Symohony No. 5 mvt. 2
A
- Shostakovich wrote symphony no. 5 after being warned by Stalin for earlier works. Stalin and Soviets wanted music to be heroic, lyrical, and popular (not dissonant).
- One critic called no.5 “a creative artists response to just criticism.”
3
Q
Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire
A
- about Pierrot, a stock clown character with psychological problems
- uses motives to organize and hold the piece together (instead of tonality)
4
Q
Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time
A
- Written in a German prisoner of war camp for the musicians he had immediately available
- refers to the Biblical prophesy of the apocalypse
- uses retrogradable (symmetrical) rhythmic figures
- transcribed bird calls
5
Q
Debussy, Trois Nocturnes: Nuages
A
- influenced by Whistler’s painting “Nocturn: Blue and Silver”
- used many impressionism ideas: uses overlapping and parallel chords to blur clarity of phrases and tonality
6
Q
Arthur Sullivan, Pirates of Penzance
A
- Pokes fun, satirizes opera’s of the past
2. pattern songs - sylabic, very fast rhythms, gets through words fast “I am the very model of a modern major general”
7
Q
Verdi, La Traviata Act 3 Scena and Duet
A
- very controversially makes a prostitute the main protagonist, moral giant
- light motives - recurring themes in an opera that provide unity
8
Q
Rossini, Barber of Seville
A
- not known for innovative melodies or harmonies
- 2 part-aria: cantabile (slower), cabaletta (faster, more ornaments)
- scena - long sections of non-stop music
9
Q
Weber, Der Freischutz
A
- singspiel - german opera, simple vocal line, supernatural libretto
- gives a lot of importance to the orchestra
10
Q
Brahms, Quintet for Piano and Strings Op. 34 mvt. 1
A
- developing variation - using tiny motives to create melodies and accompaniment variation, very subtle, not easily noticed
