Test 4 Flashcards
Weber
Pioneer in the file of orchestral conducting without the use of either violin or keyboard.
Produced the first German romantic opera “Der Freischutz”
Among his greatest works were two concertos for clarinet.
The Weber “Clarinet Concerto No. 1” has…
masterful combinations of timbres, woodwinds with strings, and dynamic extremes of fff to ppp.
Robert Schumann
German pianist, composer and music critic.
Established the new genre of the character piece (and character cycle)
“The New Journal of Music”
A piano concerto has ___ movements.
3
Character Piece
A relatively short miniature for solo piano.
Schumann’s writings in music criticism…
championed the best young composers, Allemeine muskalische Zeitung, Neue Zeitschrift for music and Beethoven as great.
Hector Berlioz
Composer, conductor, and author of orchestration and music criticism.
His two main idols were Beethoven and Shakespeare.
His orchestral compositions consisted of genres like overture and symphony.
COmposed 4 program symphonies: Symphonie Fantastique, Harold en Italie, Romeo et Juliette, and Grande Symphonie funebre et triomphale
Wrote the Grant Treatsie on Instrumentation and Orchestration in 1843.
Used idee fixe and letimotiv and Dies Irae.
Awarded the Prix De Rome by the Paris Conservatory in 1830.
Virtuoso
One who is capable of playing magical feats on their instrument as if it was simple/easy.
Orchestral Effect
Expanded orchestration, muted divisi string(silencing some), colleno (with the wood of the bow).
Paganini
Italian violinist and composer.
Greatest virtuoso of the violin.
Child prodigy, training was at home with his madolin.
Performed concerts in Vienna, Austria in 1828.
Also concertized solo violin in Paris, London, Scottland.
Produced 6 Violin Concertos.
Did not pursue conducting.
Evaluated the role of the virtuoso.
The age of the traveling conductor was the…
Romantic Period
Who was a violin-maker?
Stradivari
Franz Liszt
Virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor.
Evaluated the role of virtuosity in art music.
In 1848 he became the conductor of the court orchestra at Weimar.
Invented the genre of the symphonic poem (13).
Used assistance from August Conradi and Joachim Raff.
Soloistic writing is evident in his works.
Inspired by the literary works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Typified the romantic movement because he had a charismatic personality and was a stupendous performer.
Used thematic transformation (unified contrasting moods) in many of his works.
Lived in Paris during his teens and twenties.
Heavily influenced by the performances of Paganini.
Created the concert overture.
Wagner
Composer, conductor, and author.
Transformed opera into music drama.
Thought that the human voice was just another instrument.
Leitmotiv technique used.
Politically active.
When he was in Switzerland, he no longer produced operas.
Got rid of the distinctions between recitative and aria.
Wrote his own texts - no librettist.
Wangers music dramas had the following traits…
- Music drama.
- Unendlische (unending) melody.
- Stabriem (alliteration).
- Composer as the librettist.
- Plots on Nodic mythology.
- Leitmotiv technique.
Chopin
French composer and pianist. "Poet of the piano." Born in Poland. His miniatures illustrate Polish nationalism. Shy and reserved.
Chopin’s miniatures
- Ballade (4)
- Etude
- Mazurka *
- Nocturne (20)
- Polonaise (15)*
- Prelude
- Waltz
Johann Mattheson
Composed Baroque music and wrote about the music of his Baroque comtemporaries.
Opened the door for future German music criticism.
Was a stage actor and harpsichordist.
Got in a duel with Handel.
Eduard Hanslick
Professor an music critic.
Highly praised Brahms.
Mendelssohn
Born in Hamburg, Germany.
Composer, pianist, organist, and conductor.
1829 performance with J.S. Bach, reestablished him as a great composer.
Elevated the place of oratorio in the 19th century.
Composed some operas, but only allowed one to be staged publicly.
Output of 5 symphonies, a violin concerto, 2 piano concertos, and chamber music.
Director of Leipzig Conservatory.
Brahms
Born in Hamburg, Germany.
Composer, conductor, and pianist.
Highly self-critical.
Claim-to-fame was his German Requiem.
Musical trademark included the use of 2 notes against 3.
Composed masterpieces in the traditional forms of dance suites, concertos, and program music.
Pucinni
Italian.
Excellent sense of theatre.
Short, memorable melodies.
“La Boheme” in 1896 was set in Paris and called a verismo opera, meaning that it is true to life.
Characters in Pucinni’s “La Boheme”…
Poet and main male character: Rodolfo
Musician: Schaunard
Painter: Marcello
Philospoher: Colline
Rissini
Born in Italy, moved to France.
Helped to establish Paris, France as the leading opera center in the world.
Giuseppe Verdi
Achieved a peak in the composition of Italian Grand Opera.
Known for elaborate staging and costumes/traditional distinction between aria an recitative/use of grand-sounding chorus with orchestra.
One comic opera, “Falstaff.”
Studied music in Milan.
Gaetano Donizetti
French grand opera.
Vincenso Bellini
bel canto Italian opera
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Height of the french grand opera.
Notably “Les Hugvents” 1836.
Johann Strauss Jr.
Followed in his father’s footsteps, who was the composer of Radetzky March.
Composed marches, polkas, quadrilles, and waltzes.
Musical brothers: composer Josef, an composer/conductor Eduard.
Quadrilles
Duple-meter ballroom dance.
Waltzes
Slow with roots in Southern Germany, German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and Austria, the landler.
Divided into 3 sections: slow intro, 5 variations of faster waltz material, and coda.
Smetana
Composer, conductor, and pioneer of Nationalism in music - celebrated and championed his native Behemia (Czech Republic) through the use of fold music.
Infused the string quartet (chamber music) with a program.
Most famous words were “The Batered Bride” and “Ma Vlast.”
Antonin Dvorak
One of the world’s greatest composers.
Invited to America where he served as the first president of the National Conservatory of Music in NYC (now Julliard).
Pursued African-American style of negro spirituals as a means of finding a grassroots folk style.
1893 found him along a Bohemian group in Spillville, Iowa.
His “The New World Symphony” celebrated patriotism and nationalism in America.
Brahms recommended him to his publisher.
Produced music much faster than Wagner.
Admired by Haydn and Mozart.
In the Romantic Period…
harmony tended to be colorful and more unstable, new forms developed, and there were greater ranges of tone color, dynamics, and pitch.
Bizet’s opera “Carmen” …
reflects the concept of exoticism.
Program music
Instrumental music associated with a story.
The aim is expression.
The purpose of using chromatic chords in Romantic music was to…
add color and motion.
Berlioz’s use of a lyrical melody from the opening movement of “Symphonie Fantistique” that is then repeated as a grotesque dance in the finale is an example of…
thematic transformation.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
One of the few composers fortunate enough to be supported by private patrons.
When music conservatories were founded, women…
were first accepted only as students of performance.
Polonaise
A dance in triple meter.
Lizst’s piano works characteristics:
Arpeggios, rapid octaves and daring leaps, and complexity of sound.
Concert overture
A one-movement orchestral composition based to some extent on a literary or pictoral idea.
Nonprogram music is also known as __________.
absolute music
The liturgical melody quoted in the last movement of the “Fantastic Symphony” is the _______.
Dies irae
Berlioz’s “Fantastic Symphony” is unified by the recurrence of a theme known as ________.
idee fixe
The most original and probably the greatest of the Russian 5, was ______________.
Modest Mussorgsky
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
The first American concert pianist to gain international recognition.
Verismo
An atistic trend of the 1890’s in which operas dealt with ordinary people and true-to-life situations.
