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25 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Schoenberg
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-Born in Vienna
-Considered to be one of the most important composers of the 20th century -Studied violin -A self-taught composer, very innovative -1899: Transfigured Night -Stayed tonal until 1910, when he started to work in expressionist period (extension of tonality. Focuses on everything but tonal) -Two most important students were Webern and Berg. The three of them make up 2nd Viennese School. o Each student took one element of Schoenberg’s style and personalized it. o Berg wrote Wozzeck (expressionist), Lulu (12-tone), and Lyric Suite. |
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Stravinsky
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Had three periods of composition, each with a unique style.
o Born near St. Petersburg o Grew up in a musical environment (father was the leading bass at the imperial opera) o Student of Rimsky-Korsakov o Experimented with rhythm and new instrumental combinations o Noticed by a famous Russian dance impresario named Serge Diaghilev Stravinsky’s primitive period (1910-1914): Diaghilev commissioned him to compose three works for the ballet • The Firebird • The Rite of Spring • Petrushka (about putting on a clown face) o write "The Rite of Spring – Scenes of Pagan Russia" (1913) |
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Polyism
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o Have polymeter or polyrhythm
o Lots of different instruments playing against each other o Mixed meter 2/4, 6/8, 2/4, 2/2 o Polytonality: two or more melodies playing simultaneously Copeland, Charles Ives |
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The Rite of Spring – Scenes of Pagan Russia (1913)
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Used in Disney’s Fantasia
A two-part ballet About Pagan, primitive cults Interaction between rhythm and meter Started a historic riot when it was first performed because of shocking nature |
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Background information about Neo-classicism
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o Composers: Stravinsky, Copeland
o Emulated composers of the early 18th century o Preferred absolute music o Had an objective style o Structured, but had unexpected elements o Polytonality, mixed meter o Chromaticism o Lots of theatre music |
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Two main trends of the twentieth century
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Expressionism and Neo-classicism
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Background information about the twentieth century (music qualities, mindsets)
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• Paradigm shift resulting form Psychology
o Self-conscious, Started thinking about ourselves more deeply Idea of sub-conscious o Freud, Jung = prominent thinkers o Looking at the interior instead of the exterior (i.e. impressionism) • Music o Uses dissonance o Chromatic o Melody is adjunct |
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Stravinsky: his three periods
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Three periods:
Period I: primitivism, Rusian (1910-1913) - wrote the firebird, petrushka, and rite of spring - rhythm - unusual, chromatic scales. - Polytonality - Russian folk music - Lots of percussion and drums Period II: Neoclassical (1914-1951) - Classical traits: absolute, clarity of texture, balance of form. Refined. - Dissonance - Wrote a lot for winds Period III: Serial (1951-death) |
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Sprechstimme
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(spoken voice)
- melody is spoken rather that sang on exact pitches and on strict rhythm. Results in a weird but effective vocal line. |
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Klangfarbenmelodie
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(Timbre, color, melodie; a.k.a. tone-color melody)
= uses pitches and rhythms to create sense of melody. Each note of a melody is played by a different instrument. |
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Pointilism
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- Goes hand in hand with Klangfarbenmelodie. Doesn’t have smooth, melodic sound
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Pierrot Lunaire, No. 18
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- By Schoenberg
- Date: 1912 - Genre: song cycle - Medium: solo voice and five instrumentalists o Pierrot is the clown. He’s a mezzo-soprano. - Text: 21 poems from albert giraud’s Pierrot Lunaire, all in rondeau form; cycle organized into 3 parts. - No. 18: The Moonfleck o Pierro finds a piece of dirt on his coat and he can’t get it off (like Macbeth) - based on Comedy of the Arts - Sprechstimme used against fast, solo dissonant accompaniment - Complex contrapuntal structure, with canonic treatment - Musical and poetical refrain - Flickering effects created by instruments, playing independently from vocal parts. |
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Serialism
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(a.k.a. Twelve-Tone Method)
- devised by Schoenberg - method of composing with twelve equal tones. - Tone row: particular arrangement of the twelve chromatic tones. The tone row is the unifying idea and basis for a particular composition. - Principle, inversion, retrograde (see written notes) - Creates more control for composer, inhibits performer’s expressiveness. |
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Bela Bartok (1881-1945)
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- Father was a director of agriculture.
- Studied at the Budapest Royal Academy - Hungary had a rise in nationalism due to the fall of Hapsburg. - Died of Leukemia Wrote the Concerto for Orchestra |
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Concerto for Orchestra
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- Date: 1943
- Genre: orchestral concerto - Has five movements o Introduction o Game of Pairs o Elegia o Interrupted Intermezzo o Pesante/Presto - Each section of the orchestra gets a solo. - main message is that they cannot be held down/crushed - Incorporates lots of Hungarian themes = very nationalistic. |
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Charles Ives
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- (1874-1954)
- used dissonance, put consonant works together, juxtaposes different tunes - characterized by Americana sound - Created new tuning systems (two pianos tuned ¼ tone apart) - wrote The Things Our Fathers Loved o a child reminiscing about music of the past o very Americana, patriotic - Carl Stalling wrote cartoon music, inspired by Ives |
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Aaron Copland
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- (1900-1990)
- grew up in Brooklyn, a first generation American - his parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe - homosexual - One of the first composers to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, a famous Parisian composer - Music based on cowboy westerns and jazz (African music) - Wrote a lot of ballets - Worked with Martha Graham o Wrote Billy the Kid for her - Wrote lots of symphonic works: concertos, symphonies o Wrote Fanfare for the Common Man -Written for the civilians during WWII, in light of many fanfares being written for military men |
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Billy the Kid
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- By Copland
- Date of work: 1938 - Genre: orchestral suite from ballet - Basis: story of the outlaw William Bonney (Billy the Kid) - About Billy’s mother being killed by a gunshot in a fight. - Has six sections - Extensive use of percussion - a ballet - polytonality, dissonance - mixed meter |
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John Cage
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- 1912-1992
- Composer of music and a philosopher - Invented the “prepared piano” in 1938 o Weaves various objects between the piano strings turned the piano into a percussion instrument - Studied with Cowell at San Francisco State University - Percussion ensemble: wrote the first pieces for them - One of the first people to use Indeterminancy/Alleatory music: means chance - One of the first people to use graphic scores - Wrote music for dance - One of the first people to write using electronic media - Explored the role of silence o Wrote 4’33” |
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Basic definition of minimalism
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repetitive melodic, rhythmic, harmonic patterns, with slowly changing variations
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American Minimalism
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- small amounts of musical material
- repetition, with gradual change - influenced by o eastern spirituality (Buddhism, Hinduism) o meditation o trance - Steve Reich o Phasing o Different – electronic sampling - John Adams o From Berkeley o A major composer o Wrote road runner - Terry Riley o Composed In C |
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Arvo Part
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o Born 1935. From Estonia, lived in the Soviet Union. He was a major representative of spiritual minimalism
o Tintinnabulation = His own style. Sounds like the ringing of bells o Influenced by medieval music and the Eastern orthodox church |
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Post-Modernism
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- came out on the Dada movement (anything is art, don’t need context)
- juxtaposition of unrelated aesthetic concepts - look at anything as beautiful, a movement away from formalism - John Zorn o King of post-modern composition o Played at the “Knitting Factory” |
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Joan Tower
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-Wrote Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, a feminist version of Copland's work
-mostly wrote concertos -Born 1938 in New York -founded the Da Capo players -used serialism in her earlier works |
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Spiritual Minimalism
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a music inspired by religious beliefs, expressed in simple, endless chains of modal/tonal progressions. Deeply meditative music. Arvo Part and John Taverner were the major representatives of this style.
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