Possible exam questions for counterpoint Flashcards
Basic premises of twelve-tone music
in a piece, the pitch classes of a row are presented in order,
2. once a pitch class has been presented, it can’t be presented again until the next row is
heard. Or put differently, the point of 12-tone music is to complete the aggregate as
quickly as possible without needless repetition of pitch classes.
Is 12-tone music a style
No
4 basic forms of a row
Prime (P): the original ordering, defined by its opci’s (and all transpositions of it)
Inversion (I): an inverted form of P’s intervals (and all transpositions of it)
Retrograde (R): P read in reverse order (and all transpositions of it)
Retrograde Inversion (RI): an inverted form of R’s intervals (and all transpositions of it)
What is compositional verses listening grammar?
- Compositional Grammar: What the composer did to put a piece of
music together. - Listening Grammar: How a listener hears musical structures
Who was Luigi Dallapiccola?
Italian composer known for writing twelve-tone
music. He was born in Istria (then part of AustriaHungary) and died in Florence
Who invented the 12-tone method of composition
Arnold Schoenburg
What was Schoeneurg’s first entirely 12-tone piece
Op.23 Five Pieces (“sonnet” only)
What is Hexachordal Combinatorality
“combining a collection with one or more transposed or
inverted forms of itself (or its complement) [create] an aggregate.”He always does this by creating a row where the first and second hexachord are
inversionally related to each other (this means that H1 and H2 are part of the same set
class, share a prime form).It creates compositional justification for choosing which row forms to accompany a
melody
Features of Schoenberg’s string quartet #4
Uses inversional hexachordal combinatorliality
* Schoenberg uses the row to create tonal-like structures
* This is useful for evoking older styles:
* instrumental recitative
* sonata without a development
* Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto
give some characteristics of ultramodernism
integration of vernacular elements
* systematic avoidance of triadic harmony and melody (or reference to tonal harmony)
* search for new harmonic combinations
* new melodies
* new rhythms
* avoidance of repetition
* commitment to dissonance;
* new timbres
* elaborate precompositional plans to
What is spectral music
“A term referring to music composed mainly in Europe since the 1970s
which uses the acoustic properties of sound itself (or sound spectra) as
the basis of its compositional material.”
Associated with composers of the French Groupe de l’Itinéraire and the
German Feedback Group
* Gérard GriseyAmong the most influential techniques of spectral music is instrumental
synthesisAnother technique…involves the instrumental simulation of ring modulation
techniques to modulate the music away from and back to pure harmonic
spectra.
Primary parimeters
Projects closure through syntax
* Is hierarchic
* Is described through class-like
relationships
* FUNCTIONAL HARMONY, FORM, METER
Secondary parimeters
Can support sense of closure
through context
* Cannot “specify a definite points of
termination”
* Is non-hierarchic
* Is described in terms of “amounts“
* TEXTURE, TIMBRE, DYNAMICS,
ARTICULATION…
* (more or less, greater or smaller,
faster or slower, etc
Diegetic sound
Sound whose source is visible on the
screen or whose source is implied to
be present by the action of the film:
* voices of characters
* sounds made by objects in the story
* music represented as coming from
instruments in the story space ( =
source mus
Non diegetic sound
Sound whose source is neither
visible on the screen nor has been
implied to be present in the action:
* narrator’s commentary
* sound effects which is added for the
dramatic effect
* mood music
Non-diegetic sound is represented as
coming from the a source outside
story space
