Unit 5: European Composers from the 20th Century Flashcards
Describe Mahler’s symphonies:
“Mammoth,” last word in this orchestral genre and serves as a glorious summation of the Viennese symphonic tradition.
What types of forms did Mahler use?
Traditional forms, such as sonata, rondo, theme and variations.
What Romantic style elements did Mahler use?
Heightened emotionalism, Sehnsucht (yearning), Weltschmerz (world-weariness), lush chromatic musical language characterized by broad lyricism.
Who represents the next step in German Lieder tradition established by Schubert, Schuman, Brahms, and Strauss?
Mahler.
Who developed the orchestral song cycle?
Mahler
Orchestral Sound Cycle
A group of songs for solo voice and orchestra.
Give examples of how Mahler made progressive use of harmony and tonality:
Sudden unexpected modulations; beginning in one key and ending in another; bitonality.
How did Mahler make use of exoticism?
Use of the pentatonic scale, Chinese texts in his last symphony.
Who were Mahler’s symphonies influenced by, and how?
Beethoven; included choirs and soloists, and employed cyclic structure.
What does Mahler’s No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand” exemplify?
How he expanded performing forces on a grand scale.
True or false? Schumann was known as a master of orchestration, and often treated instruments in a chamber-like manner.
False, this was Mahler.
What was Mahler’s choice of subject matter influenced by?
Nostalgia, soldier’s marches, folk dances, drinking songs.
Mahler frequently used texts from a collection of poems entitled…
Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn).
Mahler was preoccupied with issues of…
Life and death, humankind’s purpose on earth.
How does Mahler achieve organic unity in his Symphony No. 4 in G Major?
Cyclical construction. The same thematic material appears in more than one movement.
What is the genre of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major?
Symphony.
What is the language of the text in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major?
German.
What is the source of the text in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major, fourth movement?
Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn).
What is the structure of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major?
Four movements.
What are the performing forces in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major, fourth movement?
Large orchestra with mezzo soprano soloist (fourth movement only).
Symphony
A multi-movement orchestral work developed in the 18th century, especially by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Typically in 4 movements, generally includes at least 1 movement in sonata form.
Cyclical Structure
Material heard in one movement recurs in later movements. Creates structural unity in a multi-movement work. A characteristic employed increasingly by Romantic composers in various genres, but notably in their symphonies.
What is the key of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G major, and what key does it end in?
It is in G major, but it ends in E major.
What is the formal structure of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G major?
Can be viewed as modified strophic with a rondo-like design.
What is the summary of text behind Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G major?
The folk poem presents a child’s optimistic and naive view of heaven. describing the bountiful feast prepared by the saints.
Scordatura Tuning
When the solo violin has been tuned a tone higher than normal. Imparts a course, rustic sound to the instrument.
Ravel is primarily known as an ___ composer.
Impressionist.
Describe Ravel’s musical style:
Brilliant orchestration, incisive rhythms, and Lisztian virtuosity.
True or false? Ravel’s stage works (both ballet and opera) demonstrate a clever wit and an eye for the theatrical.
True.
Birth/death years of Ravel:
1875 - 1937.
Where was Ravel born?
France, in the Basque village of Ciboure. Family moved to Paris three months later.
What is Ravel’s ethnicity?
Father was Swiss, mother was Basque.
When did Ravel begin piano lessons?
Age 7.
Where did Ravel study piano?
Paris Conservatoire.
In 1889, where did Ravel attend where he encountered diverse international music that left a lasting impact on his compositional style?
Paris World Exposition.
What was Ravel’s first published work?
A piano solo, Menuet antique.
Who did Ravel study composition with?
Gabriel Faure.
True or false? Ravel gained popularity and was known outside the Conservatoire, and won the Prix de Rome many times.
False, despite his popularity, he failed to win the Prix de Rome after several attempts.
Who were the “Les apaches” (“The Ruffians”)?
Ravel and friends (like-minded progressive artists). Among them was Ricardo Vines (pianist) and Erik Satie (composer).
True or false? Ravel struggled financially.
False, he maintained a comfortable lifestyle and frequented the salons, cafes, and nightclubs of Paris.
True or false? Ravel grew in popularity as a composer after his studies, and explored many genres.
True.
Who commissioned Ravel to write Daphnis et Chloe?
Sergei Diaghilev and his Les Ballets Russes.
What did Sergei Diaghilev and his Les Ballets Russes commission Ravel to write?
Daphnis et Chloe.
How was Daphnis et Chloe scored?
Large orchestra, wordless chorus, and even a wind machine.
Who entered WWI military service as an ambulance driver in 1915?
Ravel.
Why did Ravel write Le tombeau de Couperin?
As a dedication to his mother and to friends who perished during the war.
Why did Ravel reject the designation of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (one of the highest awards bestowed by the French government for outstanding achievement)?
As he felt that this honour should have been granted earlier.
In 1927, which composer visited the United States and developed a friendship with George Gershwin?
Ravel.
Where was Ravel awarded an honorary doctorate?
Oxford University.
What were the final years of Ravel like?
Failing health and reclusive behaviour. Brain damage from taxi accident.
How did Ravel approach harmony?
Tonal, but marked by chromaticism.
Ravel’s bass lines often followed traditional ___ progressions.
Diatonic.
What are Ravel’s Impressionist style features?
Use of modes, pentatonic and woke tone scales, parallel chord streams, unresolved seventh and ninth chords, aggregate chords (chords built one on top of the other).
What are Ravel’s neo-classicist style features?
Lean textures, contrapuntal writing, traditional forms.
Who was Ravel’s rich orchestral writing influenced by?
Debussy and Russian composers such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Igor Stravinsky.
Ravel had a natural affinity for Spanish music because of…
His mother’s Basque heritage.
In which of Ravel’s works are Spanish influences evident?
Rapsodie espagnole, Bolero, and the opera L’heure espagnole.
Ravel’s attraction to American jazz is evident in…
The first movement of his Piano Concerto in G and the second movement – entitled “Blues” – of his Violin Sonata.
In which types of work did Ravel set the poetry of French Symbolists?
In his art songs (melodies) and song cycles.
Ravel’s friendship with gifted soloists resulted in…
Highly virtuosic works.
True or false? There are hints of humour and gentle, even naive, charm in some of Ravel’s works.
True.
Whose piece was Jeux d’eau by Ravel inspired by?
Liszt (Fountains at the Villa d’Este).
What is the genre of Ravel’s Jeux d’eau?
Solo piano work.
What is the English translation of Jeux d’eau?
Water Games.
Who was Jeux d’eau dedicated o?
Gabriel Faure.
Who was Jeux d’eau premiered by?
Ricardo Vines.
Glissando
Derived from French glossier, to slide. On the harp, a quick strumming of all the strings with a broad sweeping hand movement creating beautiful, shimmering effects. On the piano, a rapidly ascending or descending “strumming” of the keys (white or black).
Whole Tone Scale
A non-traditional scale employed by composers of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Consists of six different pitches, al spaced a whole tone (whole step) apart, for example, C-D-E-F♯-G♯-A♯-(C).
Pentatonic Scale
A scale consisting of five different pitches, for example, C-D-E-G-A-(C). Can be rendered easily by playing the five black keys on the piano. Common to the folk music of many European and Asian cultures.
What is the key of Jeux d’eau?
E major.
What is the form of Jeux d’eau?
Resembles sonata form.
Which composer was known as a Hungarian nationalist?
Bartok.
Folk music played an important role in the expression of nationalism in the 19th century in the countries Bohemia, Norway, and Germany. Which composers are representative of this?
Smetana, Grieg, and Brahms, respectively.
Bartok approached folk music with a more ___ approach compared to his nationalistic predecessors.
Scientific.
How did Bartok use folk music scientifically?
Preserved authentic folk songs and dances. Notated music, created historic sound recording at the source of the music.
Birth/death years for Bartok:
1881 - 1945.
Where was Bartok born?
Nagyszentmiklos, Hungary (now Romania).
What was the occupation of Bartok’s parents?
Father was headmaster of agricultural school. Mother was teacher. Both were amateur musicians.
When did Bartok begin learning piano, and with whom?
At age five with his mother.
Why was Bartok’s schooling disrupted for six years?
Due to frequent moves after the death of his father.
What were Bartok’s earliest works?
Dance pieces such as waltzes, Landler, and polkas. Some early piano works were programmatic.
Where did Bartok’s family end up settling in 1894, and what role did Bartok occupy?
The larger city of Poszony (now Bratislava, capital of the Slovak Republic). Bartok appointed the chapel organist at a local school that offered specialized music studies.
Why did Bartok refuse entry to Vienna Conservatory?
Because he wanted to study with the same professors that taught his idol, Erno Dohnanyi.
In 1899, Bartok entered the ___ Academy with advanced standing in piano and composition.
Budapest.
Bartok’s enthusiasm for composition grew after…
Hearing a performance of Richard Strauss’ symphonic poem Also sprach Zarathustra.
Describe Batok’s nature and health.
He was rather shy and pessimistic, and his health was never robust. Had serious lung issues early in life.
What was Bartok’s first major success?
Nationalist symphonic poem Kossuth.
Why did Bartok find Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies and other “gypsy music” problematic?
It was not an authentic Hungarian “voice.”
Why did Bartok decide to start researching and annotating folk music at the source?
He became captivated when he overheard a maid singing authentic Hungarian folk songs at a resort.
Who was Zoltan Kodaly?
A musician who shared Bartok’s interest in ethnomusicology. Maintained an enduring personal and professional friendship, and they went on many folk song collecting tours together.
Who is known as an ethnomusicologist?
Bartok.
True or false? Bartok studied Hungarian folk songs only.
False, he also collected and recorded folk songs in Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and North Africa.
Where did Bartok teach for over twenty years?
Budapest Academy.
Who inspired Bartok to write ballet music?
Igor Stravinsky’s music and Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography at a performance of Les Ballets Russes on Budapest.
Who was Bartok’s second marriage with?
Ditta Pasztory (his student).
Who received the French Legion of Honor in 1932?
Bartok.
Which composer became a committee member in the League of Nations and witnessed deteriorating human rights and growing intolerance?
Bartok.
In what country was his historic recording of his trio Contrasts made?
USA.
In 1940, Bartok moved to ___.
The United States.
Who worked at Columbia university as an ethnocmusicologist?
Bartok.
Why did Bartok struggle financially in the USA?
Because he could not access overseas royalties because of the war.
Why was Bartok unable to finish his second lecture series at Harvard University?
He was hospitalized due to leukaemia.
Who paid for Bartok’s medical treatment, despite Bartok not being a member?
ASCAP (American Society for Composers, Authors, and Publishers).
Who was Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra commissioned by?
Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
What are the style traits most closely associated with Bartok’s music?
Rhythmic complexity, folk elements, traditional forms, and dissonant harmony.
Bartok’s early compositions reveal enthusiasm for…
Richard Strauss and post-Romantic style.
How was Bartok’s Hungarian nationalism manifested?
In various folk elements, including pentatonic and other non-traditional scales, irregular rhythms and phrase structures, dance types.
Expressionist elements are present in Bartok’s…
Opera, Bluebeard’s Castle.
Bartok was influenced by Debussy and ___, Stravinsky and ___.
Impressionism, primitivism.
Bartok often displays a ___ approach to instrumental writing and biting harmonic dissonance verging on atonality.
Percussive.
Bartok employed contrapuntal textures and neo-classical forms such as…
Fugue, sonata, rondo, cyclic structure.
Bartok was fond of palindromic forms. What does this mean?
“Mirror” forms.
Which composer used formal structures influenced by mathematical principles, such as the Fibonacci series?
Bartok.
Who wrote the pedagogical work Mikrokosmos?
Bartok.
When did Bartok write Concerto for Orchestra?
When his health was failing in 1943. Wrote it in just seven weeks.
What is the genre of Concerto for Orchestra?
Orchestral work.
What is the structure of Concerto for Orchestra?
Five movements.
Changing Meter
A common trait in 20th-century music. The time signature changes frequently and unpredictably. A rejection of standard metrical patterns in favour of non-symmetrical groupings.
Ostinato
A short rhythmic or melodic pattern repeated throughout a section or a work.
Polytonality
The simultaneous use of two or more keys.
Quotation in Music
Music that parodies another composition or style. Draws a melody from a pre-existing work and presents it in a new guise.
Modality
The use of non-traditional scales, in particular, those scales that date back to antiquity. For example, Lydian mode.
What is the key of Interrupted Intermezzo, fourth movement, from Concerto for Orchestra?
Begins in E Lydian, ends in B major with modal inflections.
What is the form of Interrupted Intermezzo, fourth movement, from Concerto for Orchestra?
Rondo-like (introduction ABA’CB’A’’).
What is the time signature of Interrupted Intermezzo, fourth movement, from Concerto for Orchestra?
Changing meter.
What genres did Prokofiev focus on?
Classical forms, ballet, opera, film scores, and children’s music.
Birth/death years of Prokofiev:
1891 - 1953.
Where was Prokofiev born?
Sontsovska (Ukraine).
Descrive Prokofiev’s family background:
Well to-do family; father Sergei was an agricultural engineer and mother Maria was an amateur pianist who gave him his first piano lessons at age four.
Which composer started composing at age five?
Prokofiev.
Which composer loved opera, and wrote four as a youth?
Prokofiev.
Who did Prokofiev take lessons with first, besides his mother?
Reinhold Gliere.
Who studied at St. Petersburg Conservatory as the youngest student ever admitted?
Prokofiev.
Who garnered a reputation as an enfant terrible for his wild playing style and percussive, dissonant compositions?
Prokofiev.
Prokofiev garnered a reputation as an enfant terrible for…
His wild playing style and percussive, dissonant compositions?
Who were Prokofiev’s compositions teachers?
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov.
