Styles of composers (Final quiz)

Question 1

Franz Liszt

Answer 1

Combines incredible virtuosity with beautiful lyricism
- Develops harmonic possibilities
Influences
- Hungarian music
- Viennese and Parisian virtuosos (Chopin, Paganini)
Chromatic harmonies
Very long and flexible fingers
Interlocking scales shared between both hands
- Liszt octaves
- Interlocking of scales with octaves
- Fast repeated notes
- Tremolos
- Leaps
- Glissandi
- Played with nails, with no flesh
- Moments of recitativo
- Third-hand technique (Un sospiro)

Question 2

Frédéric Chopin

Answer 2

• Chopin wrote mostly for the piano, almost exclusively
  
  • Has beautiful Cello sonata, songs, concertos, trios
• Wrote in an organic way for piano, knew exactly what felt good
  
  • It may not feel easy, but it fits the hands
  • He also knew how to play in an organic way, and knows what intervals make the piano resonate at its best
• Made use of lyrical melodies, influenced by Italian Operas and Bel canto singing
• He never forgot the style of Poland throughout his life
  
  • Mazurkas
  • Polonaises
  • Popular airs from Poland
• Adventurous harmonic progressions
  
  • Dissonances and chromaticism
  • Polyphony
• Narrative pieces (Ballade, Scherzos, Impromptus, Polonaises, Sonatas)
• Chopin’s inspiration from Bach is shown in his use of counterpoint and purposeful ornamentation in his later works (4th ballade)

Question 3

Felix Mendelssohn

Answer 3

• Influenced by the past; mostly Bach and Beethoven
  
  • Counterpoint (Preludes and Fugues)
  • Inherited a formal clarity in his music
• Music wasn’t particularly virtuosic, although he did compose some virtuosic music
  
  • In contrast to Liszt
• Romantic expression
  
  • Beautiful melodies
• Three-hand technique or texture
  
  • Melody in the middle shared between hands
  • Both hands play accompaniment over and under the melody
• Simple structure (In Songs without Words)
  
  • Introductions and CODAs
    
    • Melody + accompaniment

6 songs without words can be divided into 3 categories
- For solo ‘‘voice’’
- Duets
- Part-songs
- Choir texture, homophonic

Question 4

Franz Schubert

Answer 4

Searching for subtleties in the poem has led him to search for new sonorities
- Unusual modulations: to the VI and bVI
- Major to minor unprepared modulations
- Uses sectional forms of the day, but injects his own special lyricism (from reading assignment)
- Constant flow of notes
- most of the time in the accompaniment, which helps carry the melody forward
- In general, long forms
- Ex: B flat sonata no. 21, 20 mins for the first movement
- Heavenly length - Robert Schumann
- Most quiet dynamics for the most special places
- pp or ppp
- Variety of textures
- Homophonic
- Ex: Musical Moments D 780 No. 1 and No. 2
- Chords in RH (Formed with 8ve + one note in the middle)
- Moments musicals No. 2
- Beginning of sonata in B-flat major
- Three-layer texture (Melody + melodic bassline + flow of notes)
- Variations: Melody + om-pah rhythm on the offbeats + repeating bass)
- Ex: Moments Musicals No. 3
- Ex: Sonata in Bflat major D960
- Mixture of the traditional with the forward-looking (from reading assignment)

Question 5

Robert Schumann

Answer 5

• Influence of literature
  
  • Worked in a world, part-real and part-imaginary that was intertwined with the characters and places of the literature he knew and loved
  • His music would find many times, multiple personalities
    
    • Eusebius - introverted, dreamy, passive
    • Florestan - the improviser, virtuoso, outgoing
    • Raro (a play on words that combines ClaRA and RObert)
• Abegg Variations (Thematic codings)
  
  • Name of a family he knew, created a musical melody
• Carnaval Op.9, drawn from German of HACH
• SCHA (letters present in Schumann)
• Collections of short character pieces
• Syncopated rhythms
• Hemiolas
• Blurred barline
• Lyrical style, influence of songs
• Polyphony
• Wide emotional array, turbulent emotional array
• Thematic connection
• Quotes
  
  • from his own pieces
  • from other composers
• Self-destruction

Question 6

Ludwig van Beethoven

Answer 6

• Sonata form always evolving
• Thick textures, orchestral effects
• String quartet textures
• Unprepared dynamic changes
• Rests used in a powerful way
• Virtuosic
• Momentum in the music (the engine)
• Pushes the limits of the piano
• New sonorities
• Thematic unity
• Gorgeous slow movements