Test 4

Question 1

Why were Still’s achievements so unusual for the era?

Answer 1

Still was an African American man whose work was the first symphonic work by a Black composer to be performed by a Major American orchestra. Encompassing black musical elements with European frameworks.

Question 2

Who were Still’s colleagues and African American contemporaries?

Answer 2

Took compositions studies with George Chadwick and Edgard Varese, who was very experimental.

Question 3

Define Bebop.

Answer 3

Style of jazz criticizing big band music. Built around virtuosic solos and imitation. It took chops to play this complicated style of jazz

Question 4

Define Cool Jazz.

Answer 4

A style of Jazz that took the extremes of Bebop and slowed them down. Small bands with a more relaxed pace.

Question 5

Define Modal Jazz.

Answer 5

Type of jazz inspired by French composer Ravel characterized by slowly unfolding melodies over stable relatively static modal harmonies. So What Davis

Question 6

Describe Coltrane’s style.

Answer 6

Very fast playing
Motivic development
New sonorities
Greater dissonance, density of sound

Question 7

Define operetta and name one French composer and an English composer/librettist team.

Answer 7

operetta: 19th century kind of light opera with spoken dialogue, originating in opera buffa. Gilbert and Sullivan

Question 8

What was the source work for Peter Grimes?

Answer 8

George Crabbe’s the Borough

Question 9

Describe the early history of musicals and the genres that contributed to it.

Answer 9

Burlesque: parodies of serious plays, operas, dance. Black-face minstrelsy. European operettas: Gilbert and Sullivan.

Question 10

Describe the significant innovation of Showboat, including its handling of racism.

Answer 10

Son of a minister who was a former slave. Went to Rutgers and went to study law. Learned that American Law was racist and he didn’t want to do that. Got in trouble during the Cold War because he said that the soviet union was better than America because they were less racist.

Question 10

Describe the most significant musical and social issues in Westside Story

Answer 10

Dealing with serious social issues while using appealing music and settings. Cutting edge because New York had a large number of Puerto Rican immigrants. Shows in the gangs in the musical. Angular melodic lines come from bebop
Tritones. Disjunct melody, separated by rests

Question 11

Define minimalism

Answer 11

Rebelling against the chaos of Abstract Expressionism. 1 element of design, rectangles of different sizes

Question 11

Describe Crawford Seeger’s career and the reasons her career track changed.

Answer 11

Decided to concentrate on being a wife and mother. Work with Alan Lomax. Charles Seeger got into left-wing politics and wanted his new works to involve the larger community.
The three of them worked on Folk songs written by white Americans to relate to the broader community
Convinced preserving folk songs would be a greater contribution

Question 12

Define post minimalism

Answer 12

longer melodies, chordal harmonies, canonic, constantly shifting irregular meters (Compared to minimalism)

Question 13

Describe the contrasting styles (polystylism) that are present in Adams “Batter my Heart.”

Answer 13

Introduction: minimalism
Baroque monody– scotch snap: expressive dissonances
Baroque concept of ritornello with modernist music
When the lyrics come in it is more Baroque than post minimalist
Style of music matches when words were written

Question 14

Describe the contrasting elements of Symphony no. 5 mvt. by Shostakovich

Answer 14

Scherzo (March like)-Trio (dainty) -Scherzo

Question 15

What are some of the sources for Adams Doctor Atomic libretto?

Answer 15

US government documents. Bhagavad Gita. Tew Indian Songs

Question 16

Discuss the countries of inspiration for Golijov’s Passion According to Saint Mark (nos. 24-226)

Answer 16

Melodic lines and ornamentation influenced by Spanish Flamenco. Sung in conversational Spanish. Percussion form Africa and slave traditions. Claves from Cuba .

Question 17

Describe in detail the repetition and sequences in Quartet for the end of time mvt. 1 by Messiaen

Answer 17

Cello: 5-note sequence/15 durations
Piano: 29 chords overlapping a rhythmic pattern of 17 durations
Symmetry: 2 non-retro gradable rhythms (4-1-1-3-1-1-1-1-3-1-1-4) in eight notes

Question 18

Discuss the retrograde patterns in Seeger’s String Quartet 1931 mvt. 4

Answer 18

1st violin: each phrase gets one note longer until m. 55 where there are 21 notes. Next phrase is 21 notes then it moves in reverse transpose up one semitone, loosing a note each phrase.
Low Strings: starts with a 20 note phrase and loses a note until m. 55 where there is 1 note. Retrograde a semitone higher. 10 note row that rotates.

Question 19

Name Golijov’s piece

Answer 19

Passion According to Saint Mark nos. 24-26

Question 20

Name Shastakovich’s piece

Answer 20

Symphony no. 5 mvt. 2

Question 21

Name Adam’s piece

Answer 21

Doctor Atomic “Batter my Heart”

Question 22

Name Messiaen’s piece

Answer 22

Quartet for the end of time mvt. 1

Question 23

Name Sheng’s piece

Answer 23

Seven tunes heard in China no. 1 “Seasons

Question 24

Name Seegers piece

Answer 24

String quartet 1931 mvt. 4

Question 25

Name Stills piece

Answer 25

Afro-American symphony mvt. 1

Question 26

Name Chavez’s piece

Answer 26

Sinfonia India

Question 27

Name Coltranes piece

Answer 27

Giant Steps

Question 28

Name Shaw’s piece

Answer 28

Partita for 8 voices mvt. 3 allemande

Question 29

Name Brittens piece

Answer 29

Peter Grimes Act III Scene 2

Question 30

Name the Kern and Hammerstein piece

Answer 30

Showboat “Ol’ Man River”

Question 31

Name Bernstein’s piece

Answer 31

West Side Story “Cool”

Question 32

Name Davis’s piece

Answer 32

So What

Question 33

Name the Parker and Gillespie Piece

Answer 33

Anthropology