Music Appreciation Test 2

Front 1

Franz Schubert

Back 1

Born in Vienna. Wrote symphonies, string quartets, sonatas, and a few operas. Focused on songs on poetry. Wrote over 600 songs meant to be played in house salons because of the expanding middle class

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Gioachino Rossini

Back 2

Very popular artist who focused on comic and silly operas. These operas were important for restoration post-revolution in Paris. Made a lot of money. From Italy, moved to Paris. Wrote Barber of Seville

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Niccolo Paganini

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Born in Italy. Virtuoso in violin. Composed music for himself to play. Toured Europe in 1828 and had really good publicity

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Hector Berlioz

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Wrote off of Shakespeare plays. Obsessed with Beethoven. Wrote a monumental piece in 1830 about the rebellion in France that really put him on the radar. He wrote a grand symphony (Symphonie Fantastique) for an actress women to woo her. Used "Idee fixe" through this symphony

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Frederic Chopin

Back 5

Born in Poland. Great pianist who moved to Paris. He wrote intimate music to be performed in salons. Wrote books of 24 preludes and noctures

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Franz Liszt

Back 6

Born in Hungary. Great pianist who travelled to Vienna and Paris. After seeing Paganini, wanted to become the virtuoso of piano and successfully did so. He played solo recitals with no accompaniment. Wrote collections called "years of wandering" and used expanded harmonies.

Front 7

Richard Wagner

Back 7

German composer. Loved theater and Beethoven. Wrote operas but was his own libettist. Believed in the total work of art (wrote music, words, and directed operas). Becomes success in Dresden and when an uprise began there, he was on the front lines of the revolution. Had to escape to Zurich, but King Ludwig II of Bavaria paid for Wagner to finish his grand operas. Wrote and played the ring. Anti-semite

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Robert Schumann

Back 8

German pianist and literary. Became a music critic (critic of Berlioz, Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin) and married another impressive pianist. Wrote songs and song cycles.

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Felix Mendelssohn

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German composer. At 17 years old, wrote overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Also violinist and wrote a violin concerto that used fast, slow, and fast.

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Giuseppe Verdi

Back 10

Born in Italy. Wrote operas during the risorgimento. Almost exclusively wrote tragic operas. His piece in opera Nabucco "Va, pensiero" was a metaphor for feelings in Italy (sand by Isrealite slaves). Most famous operas were Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, and La Traviata. Wrote operas also using Shakespeare.

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Romanticism

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personal expression, middle class, literature, supernatural, FAUST (sold soul to devil), Goethe, expanded harmony, virtuosity, new techniques, passionate love = the ideal, monumental

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Song

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solo voice + piano, for intimate middle class salon setting.

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Lied, Lieder

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German word for song. Ususally describes setting of Romantic German poems to music, especially during 19th century. Centers on pastural poems or those about romantic love.

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Prelude

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an introductory piece of music, most commonly an orchestral opening to an act of an opera, the first movement of a suite, or a piece preceding a fugue.

Front 15

Waltz

Back 15

Dance in 3. Root of chord on first note and lighter 2nd and 3rd beats. Associated with balls

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Nocturne

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Musical composition inspired by, or evocative of, the night

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Etude

Back 17

An instrumental musical composition, usually short, of considerable difficulty, and designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano. Liszt and Chopin used these.

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Overture

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an orchestral piece at the beginning of an opera, suite, play, oratorio, or other extended composition. Gives insight into what the opera or suite is going to be about

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Program music

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Started by Berlioz with his symphonie fantastique. Wrote a program to go with his music so the audience would understand what was taking place during the music.

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Literary tendencies

Back 20

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Expanded harmony

Back 21

Used to muddle the mood in Liszt's pieces

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Miniature forms

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title given to many single-movement works during the Romantic era. Small-scale work. Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Chopin all wrote these.

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Monumentalism

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Has large or grand characteristics. Symphonies and operas that use tons of different techniques. Symphonie Fantastique is an example

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Song cycle

Back 24

a group, or cycle, of individually complete songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit. The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarely a combination of solo songs mingled with choral pieces. Schumann wrote these

Front 25

Ballet

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music form progressed from simply a complement to dance, to a concrete compositional form that often had as much value as the dance that went along with it. Used often in operas

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Virtuoso

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a person highly skilled in music or another artistic pursuit. Paganini (violin), Liszt (piano), and Chopin (piano) all examples

Front 27

Libretto

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the text of an opera or other long vocal work.

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Consonance

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the combination of notes that are in harmony with each other due to the relationship between their frequencies.

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Dissonance

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lack of harmony among musical notes. a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements.

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Chromaticim

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compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. is in contrast or addition to tonality or diatonicism (the major and minor scales).

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Improvisation

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Making up music as you go

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Nationalism

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a belief, creed or political ideology that involves an individual identifying with, or becoming attached to, one's nation.

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Music Drama

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Used and created by Wagner. An opera that avoids discrete numbers such as arias, recitatives, or ensembles, and in which the music reflects or embodies the action of the drama.

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Leitmotif

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a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation.

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Idée fixe

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Melody put throughout (like in symphonie fantastique) that relates to a specific person or idea that continues to appear throughout the entire symphony.

Front 36

Symphonic poem

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piece of orchestral or concert band music, usually in a single continuous section (a movement) that illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. Used by Liszt often

Front 37

Tristan und Isolde

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an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. Based on Schopenhauer philosophy

Front 38

The Ring of the Nibelung

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4 Operas that use norse myth. Use nymphs and dwarfs and tell the stories of Siegfried and other Norse characters. 4 Operas called Dos Rheingold, Die Waküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. Played in one specific opera house in Bavaria. First performance in 1876.

Front 39

Rigoletto

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Opera by Verdi. About a duke jester who's daughter (Gilda) falls in love with duke so Rigoletto hires hit man to kill duke. Instead, ends up killing Gilda.