Mus120C Final

Front 1

(1) Describe Sergey Diaghilev's goals for the Ballet Russes in Paris in the early 20th century.

Back 1

- 1906: To start an "export campaign" to Paris which included operas, which were not successful.
- 1909: Started Ballet Russes: commissioned ballets on the Russian folk subject

Front 2

(1) What is primitivism? In what ways might the Rite of Spring be primitivist?

Back 2

- Primitivism: looking back to the past to escape the present
- Rite of Spring uses subjects of primitivism, like sacrifice, disorder, paganism, chaos, "living in the forest like the very beast..."

Front 3

(1) How does Stravinsky utilize folk songs in his 3 ballets? What sources?

Back 3

- Firebird and Petrushka have origin in Rimsky-K's 100 Russian Folk Songs (1877)
- Rite of Spring has origins in Lithuanian wedding songs
- Beginning a piece w/ folk "reality" and applying a radical new technique to it Stravinsky sought authenticity & modernity at once

Front 4

(1) What rhythmic and melodic innovations lie at the heart of the Rite of Spring? How did Nijinsky's choreo complement these innovations?

Back 4

- Unusually high bassoon, vamping bass, folk melody, octatonic countermelody, dissonances, dislocation of meter, emancipation of rhythm, irregularly spaced downbeats

Front 5

(2) Describe the key musical features of Neoclassicism. Why were jazz and ragtime sometimes included in a Neoclassical aesthetic?

Back 5

- Neoclassicism is a rejection of Romantic ideals that harkens back to the 18th c. objectivity and with the diliberaate adopton of a "pre-romantic stnace, announced externally by the unexpected ressuraection of 18th c. gestures.
look to classical, baroque, jazz.
could be atonal.
jazz and ragtime used because it was fundmentally American. interting because of the opposition to German music which was seen as very romantic.

Front 6

(2) In what way can Neoclassicism be considered a response to the first World War?

Back 6

The Romantic ideals of Pre-War Europe were no longer relevant. People who have lived during the war did not want to go back to how the world was before the war.
Anti-German stance.

Front 7

(2) What views did Stravinsky express about art during his Neoclassical period?

Back 7

"My octuer" is not an 'emotive work' but a musical composition based on objective elements which are sifficient in themselves"
No aim but to be sufficient in iteself
objectivity

Front 8

(2) What is a "sound mass" and how does Edgard Varese "sound masses" in his Hyperprism?

Back 8

Sound masses: use of sound as planes or blocks of sounds to differentiateed by texture or timbre.
Hyperprism (1923) use of round mass in percussion, brass, woodwind listen to it bitches.

Front 9

(3) How did Schoenberg's attitude toward expression and conscious control change after WWI?

Back 9

Rejection of Neoclassiscm. Neoclassicism was going backwards while his emancipation of sound was the true future.
12 tone techniques by rationalixzing the compostion fo atonla muci and making it more orderly and coheretn, significantly stregnthened the bonds that connected atonal music with formal methods of the classcal mainstream

Front 10

(3) Why did Schoenberg believe he was carrying forward the German music tradition? How does this conviction inform his Piano Suite Op. 25?

Back 10

because he happens to be German and because he was writing in a new style he believed that he was moving music forward progressing it.

Piano Op. 25.
12 tine, Row forms FU*K YOU, inversions,. etc.
FU*K YOU again.
Allo movements based based on a single row
refer to above. In this sense it was also a neclassical move, anoter reposnse to the postwar "call to order"

Front 11

(3) Compare and contrast the approaches to 12-tone techniques in the music of Anton Webern & Alban Berg.

Back 11

Webern was short, succinct, expressive, structural, extensive use of row.
EX: Symphony Op. 21 (1928)
Berg's approach was to have Romantic tendencies using 12-tone techniques. They called him a Romantic modernists b/c he put hidden messages in his music & that's what makes it Romantic while using 12-tone technique
EX: Opera - Wozzeck (1922)

Front 12

(4) Why, after WWI, was Cage interested especially in duration as one of sound's primary characteristics? How did he use duration as a formal principle in his piece First Construction (1939)?

Back 12

Interested in duration b/c it's the one thing that included *silence* in the list of how he defined music which was pitch, timbre, dynamic, and duration.
In FC, 4-3-2-3-4 form, like Schoenberg's conscious control, which is a Neoclassical aesthetic

Front 13

(4) Describe the "chance" procedures that Cage used to create music. Why did he describe his Music of Changes as "Frankenstein monster"?

Back 13

(look it up)
Turned to Zen Buddhism, which was spiritual elimination by systematically the illusionary safety of rational thought, which it regards as contrary to nature. He got this from the book called "I Ching," which means "book of changes," which was a Chinese manual of divination.

Front 14

(4) How Earl Brown think that performers should relate to the 'score' for "November 1952"? How does this piece embrace elements of indeterminacy?

Back 14

"November 1952" relates to the performer based on their unique choices in what they play in the piece. This piece embraces indeterminacy by allowing each performer to define what notes they want to play.

Front 15

(5) Describe Steve Reich's views on musical process. How are they reflected in his music?

Back 15

Switch to rhythmic profile (?). His music is called process music, which is an interest in a perceptible process, which means the ability to hear the process/the audience able to see/hear
- perceptible
- gradual
- ability to run itself

Front 16

(5) Describe Socialist Realism and describe two ways in which it impacted Shostakovich's work and life.

Back 16

Socialist Realism is the doctrine used to guide the arts in USSR - a creative method based on the truthful historically concrete artistic reflection on reality in its revolutionary development. Art was to be rooted in folklore or at least in styles familiar and meaningful to all without special training.
(Music that was controlled by USSR; music for the people)
Shostakovich was living w/ the threat of a "bad end".
1) Beginning w/ Lady Macbeth in 1932, he started his 4th Symphony, which did not premiere until 1961
2) B/c of the threat, his Symphony 5 (1937) was stereotypically patriotic, purposely falling in line with Socialist Realism doctrine