Works/Musical examples

Question 1

Ionisation

Answer 1

• Varese 1929/31
• First all percussion Classical work, using gongs, maracas, sirens
• Expansion and variation of rhythmic cells
• Emancipation of Noise

Question 2

Organ^2/ASLSP

Answer 2

• ’ As SLow aS Possible’, John Cage
• Written 1987; performed 2001-2640
• Continuous Organ piece lasing 639 years
• Organ in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt
• Time/Commemorative?

Question 3

Silent Prayer

Answer 3

• Prequel to 4”33, (1948)
• Intended for Muzak on the radio
• ‘recasting attention to the activity of listening quite apart from the activity of composing’ (Seth Kim-Cohen, 2009)

Question 4

4”33

Answer 4

John Cage, 1952

1) Audience is the music; noise/silence, soundscape, humanism
2) Performer discipline; control, interpretation
3) Mastery of form and compositional perfection; accessibility, academy

Question 5

0”00 (AKA, 4”33 No.2)

Answer 5

• John Cage 1962
• ‘Perform a disciplined action’

1) Allow interruption
2) Action cannot be repeated between performances
3) Fulfil an obligation to others
4) Cannot be performance of a musical compostion

Question 6

One^3 (AKA, 4”33 (0”00) + 𝄞)

Answer 6

• John Cage 1989
• Setting up a microphone in the middle of the stage on the edge of feedback
• Every sound the audience makes is amplified and played back
• ‘Listening to the music hall’; listening practices

Question 7

Music of Changes

Answer 7

• John Cage 1951
• Compositional choices decided by I-Ching
• Ancient Chinese divination scripture; spiritual probability

Question 8

Grapefruit

Answer 8

• Yoko Ono, 1964
• Book of conceptual art
• Chapter ‘Music’; actions include recording, singing, listening
• Defining the nature of music: process, interpretation, audition vs. notation

Question 9

‘I am sitting in a room’

Answer 9

• Lucier 1969
• Listening to the room
• Infidelity of recording (control)
• Process

Question 10

Piano transplants

Answer 10

• Annae Lockwood 1968-82
• Installations of broken pianos
• Reuse and return to nature - ecosystem
• Environmental/natural sounds: fire, tide

Question 11

‘O Saisons, O Chateaux’

Answer 11

• Lutyens 1946
• Poetic lyrics
• Serial piece with expressive elements
• not strictly adhering to serial means: splitting rows and omitting pitch classes

Question 12

‘Projections’ and ‘Intersections’

Answer 12

• Morton Feldman

- Chose your own path

Question 13

Feldman String Quartet No.2

Answer 13

• 5 hours long

- Altering perception of time, scale and form

Question 14

The Rite of Spring

Answer 14

• Stravinsky 1913 (ballet)
• ‘Pictures of Pagan Russia in 2 parts’
• Self-exoticism for a French Audience
• Violent scenes with dissonant music
• Primitivism - rhythmic focus

Question 15

Firebird

Answer 15

• Stravinsky 1910 (ballet)

- Based on Russian folk take of the firebird

Question 16

Petrouska

Answer 16

• Stravinsky 1911
• Set Shrove Fair in St. Petersburg
• Characters are hand puppet, popular in market places of common people

Question 17

Structures I (for piano)

Answer 17

• Boulez, 1951-52

- Integral Serialism

Question 18

‘Mode de valeurs et intensities’ (No.2 Quatre Études de rythme)

Answer 18

• Messiaen 1949-50
• Numerical organisation to pitch, duration, dynamics, and mode of attack (timbre)
• Precursor to integral serialism

Question 19

Meditations sur le mystiere de la Trinite

Answer 19

• Messiaen 1969
• Religious scripture
• Language Communicable
• Modality

Question 20

Gesang de Junglinge

Answer 20

• Stockhausen 1955-6
• Seamless combination of human voice recording and synthesised electronic sound; marrying musique concrete and Elektronische Musik
• Spatial element of panning; assembling musical cells

Question 21

Poeme Symphonique

Answer 21

• Ligeti 1962
• ‘Micropolyphonic’ piece for 100 metronomes set at different speeds
• Left until they run out (reverse fugue)

Question 22

Disintegration Loops

Answer 22

• Baskinski 2001

- Tapes looped until they disintegrate and fall apart

Question 23

Children’s corner

Answer 23

• Debussy 1908
• Serenade for the Doll : pentatonics
• Golliwog’s Cakewalk: Ragtime, blackface minstrel shows, quotes Tristan and Isolde

Question 24

Estampes

Answer 24

• Debussy 1908
• Pagodes: Balinese gamelan, slendro scale, gong textures, title
• La Soiree dans Grenade: habanera rhythm, whole tone scale (Moorish invaders), folk guitar textures
• Jardin sous la pluie: Normandy: traditional French folk melodies

Question 25

March of the Women

Answer 25

• Ethyl Smithe 1910
• Anthem of WSPU; used at rallied and in prison hunger strikes
• Lyrics have no clear reference to the movement or women at all
• Simple, joyful, major key