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34 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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12-bar blues chorus
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many blues lyrics were strophic songs with stanzas in the form of three four-bar phrases making a 12-bar stanza likely to be supported by a harmonic progression.
First four-bar phrase revolves around a tonic chord; second is divided into two bars of subdominant and two of tonic; and third begins with two bars of dominant and then tonic. -usually emphasizes the flat-seventh scale degree as a blue note |
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multi-strain forms (e.g. rags, marches)
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Rags: -AA syncretic music that emerged at end of 1800s. Reflects aspects of oral tradition. Popular through first couple decades of 20th c. High level of syncopation in music (=putting accent in other places than strong beat)(where name "rag" came from) and polyrhythm. In 1890s, ragtime combined 2 types of dance music of whites: slow march and fast waltz. March=two beats in the bar; waltz=3 berats.
-unlike 1890s when ragtime was a popular music and not played as solo piano, in 1970s focus on rags as solo piano music -big part of ragtime culture: dance and singing at end of 1800s. -Joplin is famous for these March: 4 bar intro, then AABB, then key change (drop to lower key), then C(=most melodic part of piece)CDD (this is the trio). -Sousa famous for these -four-bar phrases, 16-bar strains, and repetitions of all sections. Joplin used this to write his ragtime music. -Both marches and rags usually ease into the melody through an intro. In contrast to marches, first strain in rags carry the main melody, not the trio. |
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popular song forms (32-bar aaba, abac)
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2 parts: verse and chorus
-in 20th c, verse shrinks and starts fading away b/c by 1920s, verse is optional part of song while main part is chorus. -32 bars long (4 phrases of 8 bars). -AABA usually, sometimes ABAC (like in Gershwin brothers song) |
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Tin Pan Alley
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(see flashcard on this from before for more basic details)
-Irving Berlin was a music publisher on TPA. He mastered many of TPA's song genres, including ballads, novelty songs, ragtime and other dance songs, and show songs. -from 1919-1924, a strain of blues emerged from TPA that spurred a blues fad: some numbers were syncopated fox trots and some were simply pop songs, and others were "real blues" (songs with 3-line poetic stanzas and 12-bar choruses). -TPA disconnected the idea of the blues from its racial origins, sometimes uising the word simply as a trendy way to talk about gloom -George Gershwin worked TPA's blues vein a lot in early 1920s -trademark convention of TPA blues: succession fo repeated chords in a marching, quarter-note rhythm, appearing in the accompaniment's lower reaches as if hinting at a suggestive kind fo dancing (ie in I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise"). -Jerome Kern worked as a song plugger in TPA -Songs of Broadway and TPA's Golden Age connect 3 separate elemnts: social outlook of individualism, romantic love, and musical idiom that blends conventional form with nuanced, sometimes unstable harmony. emphasized love, risk, and loneliness |
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Rhapsody in Blue
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-by Gershwin. He performed the piano part in the premiere in 1924. It is a "jazz concerto".
-brings together 3 separate strands of music development: rise of blues as popular song form, spread of jazz as an instrumental music, and push for artistic modernism in the classic sphere. -Had a huge impact b/c Whiteman's publicists cleverly cultivated NY critics and performed it at a concert called "An experiment in modern music." -claims AA folk music, apprpriate and transformed by the composer. Gershwin's experience writing pop songs also leaves its mark. Rhapsody's title and length, as well as sections of near-symphonic devel., and soaring character of final theme, show influence of piano concertos by Euro composers like Grieg and reflect Gershwin's early classical piano training. -restates first phrase before moving -takes on character of a medley or a broadway overture -other themes: pro broadway composer, melodic structure, start-and-stop rhythmic profile -in addition to combinign elements from diff spheres (blues, pop song, symphonic themes harmonized as if they were broadways), G also sets one style against another -G took a near-cinematic approach to it, giving it spontenaity yet also satisfying melodies. |
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114 Songs
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-published by CHarles Ives in 1922
-ends with a rambling 2-page "Postface" -created of songs writtent rhoughout Ive's life as a composer. Huge variety of musical style. -carries listerners beyond the experience of amnner and into that of substance, then changes in voice work toward the end. Nonblending layers, quotes, changes in frame of reference, shifts in persepctive and voice |
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Essays before a Sonata
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-prose companion to Piano Sonata No.2 written in 1920 by Ives.
-explains in it that sound could never reflect more than a part of musical composition's esssence -by accompanying his sonata by this, he admits that a composer of music like this needs to explain (it is the ultimate Ivesian synthesis: honors New ENglanders in an esteemed Euro form, commemorating literary americans linked to transcendental philosophy, infuses traditional form with multivocal elements, combines sonata with quotation and layering) |
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syncopation
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a stress on a normally unstressed beat- (putting stress or accent on other than the down beat)
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opera
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singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text (called a libretto) and a musical score
-classical sphere -goal of transcendence -intended for the upperclass |
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operetta
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-sometimes called comic opera
-between musical shows and opera -depend on speaking to carry the plot -usually involve high born characters who search for true love and find it -still relies on operatically trained singers- but lacks prestige of opera |
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musical comedy
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form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance.
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revue
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type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches
-most famous for their visual spectacle, revues frequently satirized contemporary figures, news, or literature |
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The Concord Sonata
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-the sonata following "Essays before a Sonata". A highly original, large scale Piano Sonata No.2; printed in 1920
-first performed in 1939 -attempt to present his impression of the spirit of transcendentalism associated with the minds of Mass people. -Reflects two Ivesian traits: his practice of working on compositions for a long period of time and his preference for program music. (see more in Essays before a sonata). -large place for Euro musical past: spirit of Beethoven's late sonatas are in his first 3 movements. Movements named after people like Emerson. Fourth movement, Thoreau, is firs thtat b reaks with usual character of Euro sonata. THoreau attempts to bring listeners into anticipatory aceptance and stop battling forces of nature -end of Concord: humans aren't separate from nature, music is progressing (not declining) as an art form and its progress is understood best by perople singing, playihng, and composing in their daily lives; key to music's progress lies in ability to explore connections btw nature and numan. |
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ultramodernism
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-attempt to sever connections to past. radically rethink what we're accustomed to in mood of experimentalism. open-minded and try wierd things.
-formation: through late 20s, Pan American Association and League of Composers found themselves on opposite sides of currnet musical issues.Pan American members included Ives, Cowell, Varese, Chavez. Pan AMericans concentrated on works by North and Latin Americans and rejected Euro trends and made their own musical materials from scratch. Pan Americans didn't have wealthy patrons but kept going through Ives' financial backings. wanted to create an indigenous American tradition |
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New Musical Resources
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-a treatise exploring fresh acoustical possibilities in the overtone series, published by Henry Cowell in 1930.
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In Dahomey
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the first black-produced show to run at a regular Broadway theater
-includes "Swing Along" -based in the syncopated rhythm of the coon song, the cakewalk, and ragtime -African America persona- used terms like "honey" "baby" |
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Ziegfeld Follies
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Annual revue by white producer Florenz Ziegfeld
-combined spectacle, music, dance, and comedy -won a racy reputation for featuring scantily clad women -starred Bert Williams |
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ragtime
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defining characteristic of ragtime music is a specific type of syncopation in which melodic accents occur between metrical beats.
-intended effect on the listener is actually to accentuate the beat, thereby inducing the listener to move to the music. -king of ragtime= scott joplin |
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blues
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vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes. It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The use of blue notes and the prominence of call-and-response patterns in the music and lyrics are indicative of African influence.
-earmarks of blues: -blue third and seventh scale -rasping singing style -regular exchange b/w voice and instrument -chorus=12 bars |
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blue note
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notes sung or played at a lower pitch than those of the major scale for expressive purposes.
-usually said to be flattened third, flattened fifth, and flattened seventh scale degrees |
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indeterminacy
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-the creation and performance of music created through chance operations
-John Cage was a proponent of this; he said it was an invitation for freedom -Example: 4'33 (silent song or noises in background) |
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prepared piano
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-attaching different items to the piano strings (ex coins) so that each note played becomes a different percussion instrument
-Cage experimented with this |
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electronic music
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-Came into popularity after WWII
-Allowed for complete composer control -John Cage experimented with this --he said that inventors of electronic music tried to make it imitate the sounds of real instruments but they were capable of a wide variety of sounds that should be explored |
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microtone
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-intervals smaller than the half step
-as Charles Ives put it, the "notes between the cracks" of the piano -anything not in 12-tone equal temperament |
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overtones (partials)
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-a natural resonance or vibration frequency of a system
-notes over the fundamental sound -the relative volume of them is what we hear as timbre -notes present in other notes |
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just intonation
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-any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of whole numbers
-the two notes are members of the same harmonic series -written as ratios (ex 3:2) |
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equal temperament
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-a system of tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio
-temperment is the intentional mistuning of notes and equal temperment is every note being thrown off by the same tiny amount -all instruments of western music have to be adjusted to this because of the piano -only ratio that's correct is the octave |
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Ethnic novelty Song
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btw 1990 and 1920, lots of italian and jewish people immigrated to U.S. Berlin's songs drew on a variety of ethnic types: immigrant blacks, rural whites, make fun of ethnicities in one way and acknowledge presence in another way.
Bert Williams' NObody song: ridiculous AA stereotype in minstrelsy and you can't help but laugh at the persona's situation; undertone of bitterness though. Songs like Sweet Italian Love: songs where you can see what ethnicity the characters are (the accented words, the spaghetti lyrics). Blue Skies: minor quality came from Jewish music |
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Genesis of a Music
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-a book first published in 1947 by microtonal composer, Harry Partch
-in it Partch first presents a polemic against both equal temperament and the long history of stagnation in the teaching of music, then goes on to explain his tuning theory based on just intonation, the ensemble of musical instruments of his own invention, and several of his largest musical compositions -This book has been highly influential to succeeding generations of microtonal composers |
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tempo canon
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-one person/instrument plays on tempo and one plays slightly faster
-they start together and then grow gradually apart creating new rhythms as the piece goes on |
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minimalism
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-music derived from a small amount of materials
-qualities include slightly varying repetition, gradual change, frequently there is a steady beat/strong pulse, and often a clear sense of key -Steve Reich and Terry Riley were prominent minimalist composers -famous piece is "In C" by Terry Riley |
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process music
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-Reich used this term to describe music that utilized the tempo canon
-you hear a process happen -set up that process, load it with music, and let it unfold -Example = "In C" |
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American Communist Party (CPUSA)
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-Identified itself with such demoncratic traditions as ethnic pluralism
-When Party was trying to Americanize itself, the federal government was in the process of preserving and collecting folk culture -The Workers Music League (WML) became major music association connected with CPUSA -Charles Seeger helped lead the way in the movement; he formed the New York Composer's collective to encourage the creation of proletarian songs |
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Folkways Records
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-A record label that documents folk and world music
-The label became very influential on a generation of folk singers because of its release of a great number of old-time recordings by re-discovered performers from the 1920s and 1930s like Dock Boggs and Clarence Ashley, as well as contemporary performers like the New Lost City Ramblers -The Anthology of American Folk Music originally appeared on the Folkways label -First bluegrass LP made on this label |
