Weeks 1-6 stuff to know Flashcards
- Identify at least 6 characteristics associated with the classical style in music (in HWM).
i. Noble and entertaining
ii. “Natural”
iii. freedom from excessive ornamentation or frills
iv. Short vocal phrases over sparse accompaniment
v. Simplicity
vi. Balance
Identify galant style and Empfindsam style.
Galant
i. Catch-all for everything modern, chic, easy, and sophisticated
ii. Freer, more song-like
Empfindsam
i. Surprising turns of harmony, chromaticism, nervous rhythms, rhapsodically free, speech like melody
- Describe 5 characteristics associated with opera seria.
a. Italian opera
b. Serious themes and subject matter
c. Included and emphasized Da Capo Aria
d. Alternating Recitatives and Arias
e. Three acts
- Who was the most prominent composer of opere serie in late Baroque?
a. Johann Adolf Hasse
- What is opera buffa
i. Full length work w/ 6 or more singing characters
ii. Plots centered on ordinary people
iii. Aimed at middle class audience
iv. Entertained by showing caricatures of nobles
v. Dialogue set in rapidly delivered recitative accompanied by keyboard continuo
What is intermezzo
i. Performed in two to three segments between the acts of a serious opera
ii. Comic characters given own separate story
iii. Alternating recitatives and arias
- What is the genre of Pergolesi’s La serva padrona? When was it composed? What is the plot about?
Genre: Intermezzo
Date: 1733
Plot: Social hierarchy is questioned as Serapina (Soprano) manipulates her master, Uberto (Bass), with his mute valet, Vespone, into proposing marriage to a rival suitor (Vespone in disguise)
Why was the ballad opera a popular genre? How does it satirize opera seria?
a. Popular because the work satired opera seria, and included popular songs, folk songs, etc.
b. The work took the traditional opera’s modern heroes and replaced them with thieves and prostitutes but with the same plot and conflict
- Who was Metastasio and what was his contribution to opera seria? Who was Ranieri da’ Calzabigi?
a. Pietro Metastasio was an italian poet whose works were set to music. His poems were included in Opera Serias by famous composers such as Gluck and Mozart. His works promoted morality and the enlightenment thought (p. 482).
b. Ranieri da’ Calzabigi, was Gluck’s librettist for the opera, Alceste (p. 492
- Name two reform operas by Gluck.
a. Orfeo ed Euridice
b. Alceste
- What are the elements associated with Gluck’s opera reform?
Did away with Aria da Capo
gave greater importance to ensembles and choruses
Added more drama to plot, less virtuosic singing.
Simple rounded binary form?
||: A - B :||: X A - B
I - V mod I - I
Sonata Form
Exposition - Theme 1 (I) - Transition - Theme 2 (V, v, or iii) Development - No one set key - develops from prior material Recapitulation - Restoring of theme 1 & 2 - Restatement of Tonic - I
Domenico Scarlatti
What is the form of this sonata? How many sonatas for keyboard did Scarlatti compose?
Balanced Binary Form
555 sonatas
called them “Essercizi per gravicembalo” (Exercises for Gravicembalo [Harpsichord])
Empfindsam style
” Empfindsam style (or emotional style) included “different and surprising harmonies, chromaticism, and speech-like melodies.” (470)
“ The composer most associated with this style is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
Classical Symphony outline
3 movements 1. Allegro 2. Andante 3. Allegro Sonata Form
Instrumentation Strings - Violin I, Violin II, Viola, bass played by cello, bass viol, harpsichord and bassoon Winds - 2 oboes - 2 horns
Haydn Symphony size and make up
4 mvmts
- Fast Sonata form
- slow
- Minuet and trio
- fast finale (sonata or rondo)
London Symphonies
12 symphonies
- expanded orchestra (trumpet and timpani)
- woodwinds and string bass
- solo strings
Premiered in London, not necessarily written there
no. 93 - 98 (1791-1792)
no. 99 - 104 (1794-1795)
94 - Suprise 96 - Miracle 100 - Military 101 - Clock 103 - Drum roll
- What is the outline of a typical classical string quartet in terms of movements, forms, and tempi?
2 violins, viola, cello
- Allegro
- Allegro (minuet)
- Largo
- Presto
Minuet form
||: a | b :|| (a’)
Rondo form
ABA - 3 part
ABACA - 5 part
ABACABA - 7 part
Haydns contract
required to compose on demand, present concerts, repair instruments
Haydns oratorios
The Creation and The Seasons
5 sections of a Mass
Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei
Where was Mozart born?
When did he move to Vienna? Why?
How long did he live there?
Salzburg Austria, 1756
Moved in 1781; Felance composer
Till his death in 1791
6 Haydn Quartets?
6 string quartets (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, 465) dedicated to Haydn
When did he compose symphonies 39, 40, 41?
39 - June 1788
40 - July 1788
41 - August 1788
The Abduction from the Harem composition date?
Genre?
1782
Singspiel (german comic opera)
Name the titles and years of composition of the three opere buffe that Mozart wrote on Lorenzo Da Ponte’s librettos. (In Italian!)
La nozzo di Figaro - 1786
Don Giovanni - 1787
Cosi fan Tutte - 1790
Pants role
A woman (Mezzo Soprano) wears pants and plays a mans role
Plot of Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni, Leporello, Don Giovanni's servant Il Commendatore (Don Pedro) Donna Anna, his daughter Don Ottavio, her fiancé
3 Opera Buffa by Mozart
La nozzo di Figaro - 1786
Don Giovanni - 1787
Cosi fan Tutte - 1790
2 Opera Serie
La clemenza di Tito - 1791
Mitridate, re di Ponto - 1770
2 Singspiel
Bastien und Bastienne - 1768
Die Zauberflöte - 1791
Provide the titles and genres of Mozart’s last two operas.
La Clamenzo di Tito (1791) Opera Seria
Die Zauberflöte (1791)
Singspiel
Mozart Opera with Freemasonry
Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) (1791)
Name four works Mozart composed in the last year of his life, and their respective genres.
Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) Singspiel
La Clamenzo di Tito (1791) Opera Seria
K. 622 Clarinet Concerto in A Major
Concerto
Mozart’s Requiem K. 626
Mass
Who commissioned it?
Why did Mozart compose this work?
Count Franz von Walsegg, who commissioned the piece for a Requiem service to commemorate the anniversary of his wife’s death on 14 February.
He needed the money for his family (was poor)
Why did Mozart leave the Requiem incomplete?
Who completed it immediately after his death?
He died while writing it (December 5th 1791)
Mozart’s student - Franz Xaver Süssmayr
