Unit 1

Question 1

periodic melodies

Answer 1

-natural, expressive, and immediately appealing to a wide variety of listeners; marked the Enlightenment

Question 2

Europe in the Enlightenment

Answer 2

• started in mid-1600s, 1730-1803 is music Enlightenment though
• Britian beat everyone in the Seven Years’ War
• farming was booming, middle class developed
• intermarrying everywhere/cosmopolitan
• reason, nature, and progress
• pursuit of human things, love of art and music

Question 3

Social Roles for Music

Answer 3

• public concerts in many cities
• larger middle class means more amateur musicians buying keyboard and singing books; women couldn’t sing, but they could play keyboard
• magazines about music
• music is decoupled from the church
• music for the people

Question 4

Values for Music

Answer 4

• instead of contrapuntal complexity and instrument spin-outs in Baroque, people preferred and praised short phrases over spare accompaniment
• noble as well as entertaining, pleasing to the listener, and natural
• extended techniques for instruments because technology improves
• what goes up must come down (Newton) question and answer

Question 5

galant

Answer 5

• French term for the courtly manner in literature that had become a catchword for everything modern, chic, smoother, easy, and sophisticated
• alberti bass
• so it’s influenced by opera, literature, and fashion
• homophonic
• originated in Italian operas and concertos
• Scarlatti wrote in this style
• plethora of melodies

Question 6

empfindsam style

Answer 6

• surprising turns of harmony, chromaticism, nervous rhythms (dotted), and rhapsodically free, speech-like melody
• more closely related to fantasias and slow movements by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Question 7

classical music

Answer 7

• today, this is a tradition that covers many centuries and a multitude of styles
• in the past, it was noble simplicity, balance, formal perfection, seriousness or wit as appropriate

Question 8

Classical period

Answer 8

-all-embracing term for music of the period that includes galant, empfindsam, and “the Haydn idiom”

Question 9

periodicity

Answer 9

• frequent resting points break the melodic flow into segments that relate to each other as parts of a larger whole
• two or more phrases were needed to form a period
• compared music to natural speech

Question 10

Introductory Essay on Composition

Answer 10

• Heinrich Christoph Koch (1749-1816), one of the several treatises written for amateurs who wished to learn how to compose
• learned how to organize phrases

Question 11

harmony

Answer 11

• hierarchy of cadences, with the weakest marking off internal phrases
• slower harmonic rhythm

Question 12

Alberti bass

Answer 12

-developed as an animated musical texture to compensate for slower harmonic rhythm

Question 13

form

Answer 13

-every phrase was recognizable as beginning, middle, or end gesture

Question 14

emotional content

Answer 14

• in classical times, emotions were constantly changing and sometimes contradictory
• contrasting moods within one movement or within the themes themselves

Question 15

opera buffa

Answer 15

• comic opera originated in 18th century Italy (also drama giocoso, drama comic, etc.)
• full-length work with six or more singing characters and was sung throughout, unlike comic operas in other countries
• plots centered around ordinary people in the present day in contrast to the myths or history in serious opera
• aimed at middle class

Question 16

arias in comic operas

Answer 16

-typically in galant style, made up of short tuneful phrases, repeated or varied, organized into period with simple harmonies and figurations

Question 17

Leonardo Vinci

Answer 17

• -“Le zite ‘ngalera” (The Spinsters in the Galley)
• a libretto in Neapolitan dialect, premiered 1722
• arias were substantial, in da capo form, and accompanied by four-string ensemble
• aria: “T’aggio mmidea:

Question 18

intermezzo

Answer 18

• performed in two or three segments between acts of a serious opera or play
• this is another type of Italian comic opera
• like the comic relief short skit in between
• parody

Question 19

Giovanni Battistia Pergolesi (1710-1736)

Answer 19

• known for his intermezzo “La serva padrona” (The Maid as Mistress 1733)
• characters: Uberto (bass), Serpina (soprano), and Vespone (mute)
• simple recitative with Serpina accompanied by harpsichord and sustaining bass instrument; speech-like rhythms
• the recitatives have more conflicting emotion, more natural emotion
• aria is more syllabic like natural speak

Question 20

later comic opera

Answer 20

• Carlo Goldoni and his sentimental, more serious libretto

- ensemble finale when everyone is onstage at the end

Question 21

Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793)

Answer 21

• refined the comic opera libretto by adding serious, sentimental or woeful plots alongside comic
• “La buona figliuola” (The Good Girl)

Question 22

opera seria

Answer 22

• serious opera
• received its standard form from the Italian poet Pietro Metastasio
• classical plots from Greek myth because it’s a revival of Greek drama; retelling grand stories; during these times, you’re not supposed to sit and be quiet
• rigid structures
• the centers of attention were the singers

Question 23

Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782)

Answer 23

• the guy who wrote the standard form of opera seri a
• he’s an Italian poet
• stories based on ancient Greek or Latin tales
• three acts, switching between recitative and aria, and orchestra is just accompaniment to singers

Question 24

Enlightened Despot

Answer 24

• before the Enlightenment, there were divine kings, and rulers weren’t interested in the people
• these people are rulers who have a responsibility to people
• they promoted musical literacy for the general public
• the state funds more popular musical venues

Question 25

Industrial Revolution Affects Music

Answer 25

• easier to print music and make instruments

- mass market music

Question 26

Nationalism in Music

Answer 26

• composers start to be emblematic
• different national styles start to develop
• art can represent your nationality

Question 27

Da Capo Aria

Answer 27

• ABA scheme
• there is trouble developing characters over arias
• several moods
• orchestra is harmonic support instead of just adding lines
• short unit phrases

Question 28

Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783)

Answer 28

• popular opera composer

- “Digli ch’io son fedele” (Tell him that I am faithful) is the famous aria from “Cleofide”, his first opera for Dresden

Question 29

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Answer 29

• praised Italian opera over French because Italian composers could express emotion through melody and focused on melody
• intimate Italian recitative

Question 30

opera comique

Answer 30

• French version of light opera for suburban parish fairs
• consisted of popular tunes known as vaudevilles
• used spoken dialogue instead of recitative like Italian
• this is it’s own opera, not like an intermezzo

Question 31

ballad opera

Answer 31

• English version of opera in local language
• element of parody; parodies the language, metaphors, similes in the opera recitative, contemporary news (Bordoni vs. Cuzzoni who are two famous vocalists who hated each other and there was a riot between their followers)
• doesn’t use original music, so it’s parodying the idea of what an opera actually is, pretty much all of it is known music
• this old music thing is specific to ballad opera

Question 32

The Beggar’s Opera

Answer 32

• libretto by John Gay
• music probably arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch
• “My heart was so free”
• “Where I laid on Greenland’s coast”
• both set to known music
• contemporary news parody (Bordoni vs. Cuzzoni who are two famous vocalists who hated each other and there was a riot between their followers, so in the opera there is a kind of battle between the two)

Question 33

John Gay (1685-1732)

Answer 33

-wrote The Beggar’s Opera, a famous English ballad opera

Question 34

Singspiel

Answer 34

• German for “singing play”
• an opera with spoken dialogue, musical numbers, and usually a comic plot
• many tunes were published in German song collections and some virtually became folksongs
• The Magic Flute

Question 35

Opera and the Public

Answer 35

• comic operas became more about the public than the upper class which was good because it was in line with the Enlightenment ideals
• because operas tended to different areas of people of Europe, different styles became national styles

Question 36

Niccolo Jommelli (1714-1774) and Tommaso Traetta (1727-1779)

Answer 36

• these two worked where French style was preferred
• Jommelli used more continuous dramatic flow and gave the orchestra a more important role including use of woodwinds and horns
• Traetta aimed to combine the best of French tragedy en musique and Italian opera series in his “Ippolito et Aricia”
• he included a number of choruses, common in French but rare in Italian, so he brought them together

Question 37

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)

Answer 37

• synthesized French, Italian, and German operatic styles
• made most of his living in France
• brought opera buffa and comique into seria opera
• he doesn’t like that singers are the main point of the operas and that there is too much ornamentation and repetition and it’s all artificial
• he wants to make opera natural, not pause for ritornello, not slow down for recitative
• “Orfeo ed Eurydice”
• ballets are in operas, so that’s why there is a specific form before the singer comes in during the Hell part
• one of the most dissonant pieces up to this point
• orchestra there is to set the mood in the overture, not just to accompany

Question 38

Querelle des Bouffons (1752-1754) “Quarrel of the Clowns”

Answer 38

• this happened in France in the mid-18th century
• La Serva Padrona showed up at the Paris opera, and it was a hit; this started a pamphlet war debating the merits of the Italian comic opera and the great French tradition of the tragedie lyrique)
• merits of comic Italian opera (opera buffs and intermezzo) versus dramatic French Opera (tragedie lyrique)
• political implications; opera became a proxy for the larger political issues that were at play in France
• tragedie lyrique became a symbol for the French aristocracy, so the idea that you are attacking the music is that you’re attacking the system of patronage and societal structure; the French Revolution isn’t that far away
• resulted in the development of opera comique; this is not exactly funny opera; it means opera that is based on real-life characters, uses dialogue, popular tunes, more like operetta

Question 39

pianoforte

Answer 39

• this replaced the clavier and harpsichord

- it allowed the performer to play different dynamics and styles

Question 40

string quartet

Answer 40

• these groups were made just for performers to have fun together, and not necessarily to perform
• more polyphonic
• the concertante quartets were created so that all instruments can be soloists instead of just violins
• no clear, immediate precursor
• divertimento, private genre
• Southern Germany (Haydn was in Hungary, which is close to this area)
• Austrian, Hungarian, South German genre
• 1770, four movement structure emerges

Question 41

clarinet

Answer 41

• was accepted by the 1780s into the woodwind family

- people didn’t really play woodwinds

Question 42

orchestra

Answer 42

• the 18th century concert orchestra was smaller than today’s
• the leader of the group was originally the harpsichord player, but as that died out, it was the leader of the violins that led rehearsal
• basso continuo died out because other instruments could take care of that part

Question 43

music genres

Answer 43

• a lot of Baroque styles died out like toccatas, dance suites, preludes, fugues, etc. that didn’t have a very set structure
• the concerto stayed, and the sonata was popular
• symphonies started happening: three movements in closely related key, then added four movements later
• definite preference for the major mode because it’s more pleasing and natural
• major and minor were connected to emotions and minor was used for contrast

Question 44

forms

Answer 44

• binary form was the basis of many Classical forms
• what was played in the dominant will return in the tonic, which is the important dramatic part of this form
• Classical forms were greatly influenced by opera, not just one emotion or theme
• periodicity beginning, middle, and end
• simple, balanced, rounded
• return to tonic was very important
• sonata form: thought of as a two-part form organized by phrase structure and harmony
• later view of sonata form: after Koch, people started looking at sonata form as a three part form with exposition, development, and recapitulation
• Koch is good for music before 1780 and the later view is better fit for music after 1800

Question 45

Heinrich Christoph Koch (kock)

Answer 45

• wrote the Introductory Essay on Composition (1793) where he described sonata form as an expanded version of rounded binary form
• his model comes from looking at pieces and finding their similarities

Question 46

Other Classical Forms

Answer 46

• slow-movement sonata form which is sonata form without development
• variations form which presents a small binary form as a theme followed by several embellished variations
• minuet and trio forms are in quartets and symphonies, and they join two binary-form minuets to produce an ABA pattern
• rondo form is ABACA or ABACADA

Question 47

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)

Answer 47

• one of the most original and creative keyboard composers of the 18th century
• published a collection of 30 harpsichord sonatas under the title “Essercizi” (Exercises)
• wrote 555 sonatas all in binary form and emphasized returning to tonic
• each sonata is identified by its number in the standard index by Ralph Kirkpatrick

Question 48

Empfindsamkeit

Answer 48

• emp-FIHND-sahm-kite
• popular in Northern Germany, sentimental, rhythmically free and expressive, thin texture
• the composer wants you to be gently weeping
• C.P.E. Bach (Carl Philip Emmanuel) (Bach’s son)
• scotch snaps are popular, and that’s “short-long, short-long”

Question 49

symphony

Answer 49

• the major orchestral genre
• ancestors are the Italian sinfonia (opera overture), Baroque concerto, with three-movement structure, Torelli, Italian church sonatas
• more instruments added gradually, and they influenced the shape and sound of the genre
• the movements were not always performed together; they were interrupted by a piano piece, overture, a song, etc.

Question 50

Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700-1775)

Answer 50

-writer of some of the first symphonies

Question 51

Mannheim (mahnheim)

Answer 51

• active musical center in Germany under the leadership of Johann Stamitz
• Stamitz demanded a conductor, four part structure, grandeur, and orchestral effects (Mannheim steamroller large orchestral crescendo, Mannheim rocket where solo instruments will shoot up playing arpeggios)
• the Mannheim orchestra became famous for its discipline and technique and thrilling dynamics

Question 52

symphonie concertante

Answer 52

• concerto-like work with two or more solo instruments in addition to the regular orchestra, in which the main material is entrusted to the soloists
• gave composer-performers an opportunity to show off their abilities to the public, attract students, and encourage sales of their music

Question 53

concerto

Answer 53

• this genre remained popular since Baroque because virtuosic players could show off
• Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) the youngest son of Bach, and he influenced Mozart
• three sections, kind of like sonata form, and four ritornellos
• performers typically did cadenzas that ended with a big trill over a dominant chord

Question 54

entertainment music

Answer 54

• background music to be played at a meal or party

- genres are divertimento, cassation, and serenade that might mix dance in

Question 55

music for the public

Answer 55

• professionals and amateurs, composers had opportunities to earn money
• concerts in the Baroque era were usually private events, and the court composer would compose something, and the private musicians would perform it
• they had benefit concerts where the composer or performer reap the benefits
• concerts weren’t only full orchestra, chamber, or solo; they were mixed with different genres

Question 56

sonata form

Answer 56

• PTSK in exposition, development/retransition on V, and recapitulation
• set of conventions and expectations to fulfill and subvert
• 18th century: key areas, not themes
• optional components: slow intro, transition may start with a restatement of the first theme, grand pause after transition, second theme a little bit more lyrical and softer
• some are monothematic (P and S are the same)

Question 57

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Answer 57

• symphonies and string quartets
• represents what composers are doing to earn money
• he spent most of his time serving the Esterhazy (ESTER-hahzy) family, the most powerful family in Hungary where he originally couldn’t sell or give away any of his compositions until 1779 when a new contract allowed him to sell his music while continuing to direct opera and musical activities at court
• his style was very individual, and enriched by contrasts
• he was influenced by the galant style, empfindsam style, and counterpoint
• he was known for his witty, humorous use of music that only musicians could hear
• it’s very sophisticated, but clear for greatness as well as popular success
• father of the symphony because he set patterns for later composers such as four movements
• his Symphony No. 92 in G Major is also called Oxford because it was performed when he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1791
• he plays with listener expectations

Question 58

sonata-rondo

Answer 58

• the A and B sections resemble the first and second themes in a sonata-form exposition
• ABACABA
• development begins with the first theme in the tonic

Question 59

Haydn’s Symphonies

Answer 59

• early symphonies were light and for the court
• 1768-72 were more serious, as he was taking his music more seriously; longer, more rhythmically complex, contrapuntal, and challenging, richer harmonic palette
• 1773-81 embraced a more popular style, composed more for the public, and embraced a large range of emotion
• the London symphonies were his crowning achievements, intensified rhythmic drive, more daring harmonic conceptions, and more memorable thematic inventions, the instruments have expanded
• around his time, the opera was the main genre that made composers good composers, but then the symphony became the new goal of composers
• he wrote two sets of symphonies, one for Paris (special effects) and one for London (more stately, intellectual)

Question 60

minuet and trio

Answer 60

• generally rounded binary form
• “topics” are tropes, when you hear a brass fanfare, you think of military; when you hear a drone, you think of bagpipes
• minuet in one topic and trio in another

Question 61

Haydn String Quartets

Answer 61

• he has also been known as the father of the string quartet
• they were addressed to the players, for amateurs
• early quartets were like divertimenti
• Op. 9, 17, and 20: same four-movement structure as the symphony; all instruments had melody, “enlightened conversation” written in groups of 6
• Opus 33: lighthearted, with, and tuneful; scherzando plays tricks on the courtly dance by breaking normal metric patterns, first time scherzo was used as a term
• later quartets: more for performance
• instrument called the Baryton, he wrote trios for Barytons

Question 62

Haydn’s Vocal Works

Answer 62

• Stabat Mater (1767)
• believed that vocal music was more important
• Armida was an opera he wrote under Esterhazy, more conventional than Gluck or Mozart, but not as popular
• six masses, large scale, festive, criticism that they were too cheerful
• highly moved by Handel’s Messiah, wrote oratoios like the Creation and The Seasons

Question 63

rondo form

Answer 63

• mostly used in final movements
• refrains and episodes
• ABACA (sometimes ABACABA)

Question 64

Mozart

Answer 64

• 20 years younger than Haydn and started his career very early
• Mozart and Haydn had two very different career paths, Esterhazy and freelancing in Vienna when he was so unhappy with a patron
• commissions, teaching, performing, tried to carve out a new path for composers because of the changes in economics and industry
• his father took him across Europe as a child prodigy and kind of sold him like a freak
• all of his traveling influenced his ears, fascinated with orchestral effects
• tends to be more melodic than Haydn’s small motifs, and we think that’s an influence of the Italian style
• he starts a subscription series of himself

Question 65

Mozart Piano Concertos

Answer 65

• written for himself
• combination of sonata form and the baroque concerto (ritornello form) (Ritornello in I, solo from I to V, ritornello in V, solo V to I, ritornello in I, etc)
• double exposition concerto (sonata) form with the orchestral exposition and the solo exposition

Question 66

Mozart’s Symphonies

Answer 66

• approximately 50, despite numbers
• early symphonies were lighter Italian model; fast, slow, fast;
• he starts to experiment with harmony and counterpoint because in 1782, he met:
• Baron Gottfried von Swieten and he introduced Mozart to the Masons (Magic Flute and stuff); Baron was a huge fan of Bach
• he and von Swieten stay together in their country home, and Mozart was encouraged to use the giant Bach library that Swieten had; starts learning Bachian counterpoint, and it makes it into his symphonies
• 10 late symphonies

Question 67

Mozart Opera

Answer 67

• most prestigious genre (even more so than the symphony)
• dominated by Italian opera (comic traditions are in the vernacular)
• firm divide between Opera Buffa and Opera Seria
• composed his first opera at age 12
• operatic “bad boy” because he starts to push the boundaries musically and content-wise; wrote in German as if it were an Italian opera
• Lorenzo da Ponte is a librettist; Le Nozze di Figaro (emperor Franz Josef bans the play because it makes the servants look smart, but Mozart did it anyway, and everyone loved it, especially in Prague), Don Giovanni (commissioned by Prague and da Ponte, it wasn’t super successful, so they tweaked it), Così fan Tutte (These are called da Ponte operas)

Question 68

Don Giovanni

Answer 68

• technically an opera buffa, but it’s not very funny, just concerns ordinary people
• Don Giovanni is a nobleman who lives to seduce women and has a servant named Leporello
• it starts with Don Giovanni either raped or something Donna Anna; her father, Commendatore shows up, they fight, Commendatore is killed
• Don Giovanni runs off to Zerlina, a peasant girl who is engaged to Masetto
• Donna Elvira shows up and drags Zerlina away
• in the end, Don Giovanni has a big dinner party, the ghost of Commendatore shows up and drags him into Hell
• two versions; final sextet, to perform or not? which aria for Don Ottavio, to have duet for Zerlina and Leporello
• Prague (1787)
• Vienna (1788)

Question 69

Innovations in Don Giovanni

Answer 69

• Mozart mixes buffa and seria style
• small ensembles with singers (duets, trios, quartets, etc.)
• action outside recitative

Question 70

Don Giovanni’s Legacy

Answer 70

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Faust)
• E.T.A. Foffman “Don Juan” in 1813
• Soren Kierkegard “The Immediate Stages of the Erotic, or the Musical Erotic” (1843)

Question 71

Fall-out from the French Revolution (1789)

Answer 71

• fall of monarchies, aristocracy
• “liberty, equality, fraternity” is the motto of the French Revolution
• surrounding countries and regions get scared, so governments start to crack down
• backlash: repressive governments

Question 72

Romantic vs. Classical

Answer 72

• supernatural vs. natural
• emotions vs. balance
• instrumental vs. vocal music

Question 73

Ludwig van Beethoven

Answer 73

• figurehead of the Romantic Era
• three periods: early (Classical), middle (heroic), and late (introspective) post 1815
• Haydn was his teacher
• his symphonies were grander (15 mins to 25-30 mins), new ways of listening, formal expansion
• this is the era when the lights started going down because the music was so interesting, the audience member was more involved
• he inspired a new culture of reverence for music, interiority
• starts messing with form, sonata form going to minor mode instead of major V
• Eroica (new theme in the development) heroic analysis: modern invention, trying to overcome the initial C#, struggle against duple meter

Question 74

Beethoven Early Period (Classical)

Answer 74

• Bonn (not a big cultural center), Cologne (slightly bigger city, worked for the elector of Cologne)
• started to take notice of him in Cologne not as a child prodigy
• Haydn starts to notice Beethoven
• his father was abusive, drunk, kind of market Beethoven as the next child prodigy
• had two younger brothers that he was responsible for
• 1792: leaves Cologne and first goes to Vienna, piano virtuoso
• studies with Haydn, Beethoven counterpoint exercises graded by Haydn are still in existence
• his music from this period sounds like Haydn, he hand-coped Haydn’s string quartets to learn how to do it, still very homophonic, light, bouncy, galant feeling, Beethoven string quartets are difficult, weird harmonic swerves

Question 75

Beethoven’s Middle Period (Heroic)

Answer 75

• 1802: Heiligenstadt Testament (letter where he tells his brothers this is his last will and testament, farewell forever, and then comes out of it changed to explore new musical areas)
• life in Vienna: fame and patrons
• personal struggles
• political involvement, pro-French Revolution, veneration of Napoleon before he becomes emperor
• this is the first time a composer managed without a patron
• his music becomes more “romantic;” Eroica; bigger orchestras, more dramatic, public genres, added trombones to the symphony, specifically to the 5th symphony; era of his greatest symphonic writing, most of his piano concertos, explicitly links movements together (cyclism), instrumental music can tell a story

Question 76

Beethoven’s Late Period

Answer 76

• life troubles (illness, depression, can’t perform, one of his brothers dies and there’s a giant custody battle over the nephew)
• repressive government, no group assemblies
• Beethoven abandoned his public persona and returns to intimate genres, string quartets, piano concertinos
• extreme difficulty, influence of early music (Palestrina, 16th century kind of stuff), vocality (including voice in instrumental music), a lot of counterpoint, contrasts, formal innovation over entire pieces (and even between pieces?)

Question 77

Quartet in C# Minor op. 131

Answer 77

-seven movements, “attaca”; fugue, sonata-rondo?, recitative, theme and variations, scherzo, rounded binary, sonata form