• Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
Reading...
Front

Card Range To Study

through

image

Play button

image

Play button

image

Progress

1/76

Click to flip

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;

Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;

H to show hint;

A reads text to speech;

76 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
nationalism
1. took on new importance in 20th cent; composers were driven by desire to return to cultural roots through musical idioms connected to the people
2. growing political/cultural aspirations of ethnic groups through Europe/Americas
3. each region of Austro-Hungarian empire has own language/culture, music important in asserting ethnic id
4. bartok set out to record melodies sung/played by peasants, attempting to capture repertory of songs, id of ethnic group singing them
5. belief that folk songs represent untarnished purity of pre-industrial society
6. modernists: folk music offered important stylistic alternatives to traditions of conventional melody/harmony; different sets of melodic possibilities: irregular rhythms/meters, unconventional harmony, internvals 2nd/4th/7th, nondiatonic, odd scales
7. write distinctly for country: Wagner, Musorgsky, Verdi, Russian 5
modernism
1. attitude: self-conscious striving for novelty at any cost
2. based on conviction that new must be as different as possible from old
3. 20th cent took on new centrality, rejection of fundamental elements (forms/tonality)
4. extreme: erase all links to past
5. popular=shallow; if the audience doesn't get it, it is their fault
6. begins with Wagner Tristan and Isolde
symbolism
1. Debussy’s Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun, based on tone poem by French symbolist poet
2. symbolists envied music’s ability to suggest without stating, to construct form without burden of representation, sought to recreate this in poetry
3. in place of narrative, succession of images, connected loosely, in place of description, symbols, allusions, suggestions
primitivism
1. often used as derogatory term, but as aesthetic movement, was considered positive, purifying force in all the arts
2. rejection of self-imposed, arbitrary conventions of Western culture
3. primitive peoples were uneducated/unrefined but for that reason genuine/pure
4. regarded as source of beauty/strength, stage of civilization unthreatened by decadence and self-consciousness
5. Stravinsky strived to use primitivism as aesthetic, part of modernism’s rejection of tradition
impressionism
1. one of earliest attempts to explore new approaches to music
2. first used in painting (Monet) short brush strokes instead of continuous line to create impression not representation, color precedes line
3. In music, blurring of harmonies, rhythms, forms, greater use of color (timbre)
4. impression of rawness in Rite of Spring, Ravel, Debussy Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun (hazy, always moving timelessness)
neoclassism
1. return to classics
2. after WWI, quest for order; Serialism (idea of theme comes back)
expressionism
1. rejects conventional techniques of representation, favoring devices that exaggerate/distort
2. driven by attempt to confront innermost corners of human psyche, including unpleasant (inner emotion takes precedence over external reality)
3. psychological truth becomes object of art (not beauty)
4. art bypasses conscious self, aims straight for id, instincts/drives, confronts human condition (Scream: not product of civilization; reaction to something that caused fear)
5. music: Schoenberg Pierret lunarie, innermost sentiments of clown
6. Related to primitivism: both attempt to strip away veneer of civilized behavior, reveal darkest recesses of human emotion
Sprechstimme
1. style of singing “speech voice” neither speech nor song, means of declamation between the two
2. vocalist must articulate specified pitches/rhythms, instead of sustaining pitch as in singing
3. allows to drop as in voice
4. Indicated by notes with x through stem
5. unique effect: as song, not lyricism, as speech: exaggerated, overblown delivery
6. Had been in use in theater since 1890s, cabaret singers used
Leitmotif
A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element
polytonality
the use of more than one tone, Stravinky’s Rite of Spring, challenges listeners
Serialism
1. developed by Schoenberg in 1920s
2. based on premise that established unit of music, mostly a row or series, of 12 different pitches, can be varied repeatedly in such a way as to provide the structural basis for an entire work
3. part of quest for order after WWI, part of Neo-Classicism, idea of Theme comes back
4. composer can integrate row and any of its impossible permutations into established formal conventions: variations, sonata-form movements, rondo, etc, but forms not essential to structural integrity of work
5. provided composers seeking to break away from traditional tonality with means to construct large-scale forms that were structurally coherent
7. used in Suite for Piano (Schoenberg) and Variations for Orchestra
Diaghilev
ballet manager, his Ballet Russes part of golden age of ballet, featured music of Stravinsky , Ravel, art of Picasso
Man With a Violin
1911 Picasso, modernism
1. parallels in music/art: atonality to cubism,
2. violates conventions of representation, esp. perspective
3. cubism emerged 1907-1914 in Picasso, no one perspective has priority
4. like in atonal music no key is center
5. disturbing and refreshing
The Scream
1893, Munch, expressionism
1. brings to surface unconscious thoughts/visceral emotions
2. inspired by poem by Franquet
3. EXPRESSIONISM:
A. rejects conventional techniques of representation, favoring devices that exaggerate/distort
B. driven by attempt to confront innermost corners of human psyche, including unpleasant (inner emotion takes precedence over external reality)
C. psychological truth becomes object of art (not beauty)
D. art bypasses conscious self, aims straight for id, instincts/drives, confronts human condition (Scream: not product of civilization; reaction to something that caused fear)
E. music: Schoenberg Pierret lunarie, innermost sentiments of clown
polyrhythms
Riley’s In C, minimalism
Mallarmé
1. French symbolist poet whose work was used by Debussy
2. not constrained by syntax/logic, envied music’s ability to suggest without stating
3. construct forms without burden of representation, sought to recreate in poetry
4. instead of narrative, succession of images, connected loosely, instead of description, symbols, suggestions, allusions
whole-tone scale
1. based on 6 notes, each whole tone apart
2. subverts basic elements of diatonic harmony, cannot be used to construct major/minor triads
3. permits few seventh chords
4. used in Debussy VOILES outer sections-->freely floating tonality with no clear center
5. part of modernism's rejection of tradition
Second Viennese School
Schoenberg, Webern, Berg developed own personal ways of applying technique of serial comp
Schoenberg’s Suite for piano
1. Early serial work; one of earliest attempts at large-scale serial work
2. All 6 movements based on different manifestations of same row
3. Prime form of row presented in upper voice
4. The pitch class on which each form of the row begins is designed by a number (pitch class=any set of notes regardless of register)
Emancipation of the Dissonance
1. Schoenberg advanced, dissonances no longer considered spicy addition to dull sounds but the natural and logical outgrowth of a musical organism
2. hated term atonality (defined idiom of terms of what it was not)
3. "piece of music always tonal…relationship from one tone to next”
4. sees himself as part of history like Beethoven
Kandinsky
Russian abstract expressionist painter, considered form and color capable of expression
Bayreuth Festival Theater
1. opera theatre of Wagner design, between Munich and Berlin
2. design puts orchestra beneath stage, brings audience closer to stage
3. projects sound of orchestra toward audience; better blend of voices/orchestra
Wozzeck
1. Berg, 1925 premieres in Berlin, most successful atonal work of early 20th century
2. traces mental/physical deterioration of simple army soldier, treated abysmally by everyone, goes mad murders mother of son (social outcast)
3. used traditional isntrmental forms to structure
Gilda
daughter of Rigorletto, leads secluded life, represents youth, innocence, dreaminess
Frère Jacques
tune used in Mahler’s 1st symphony, movement 3, satirical funeral march, set in minor
Joffrey Ballet
major American dance company, founded in NYC 1954 by Robert Joffrey
atonality
lacking central pitch, part of Emancipation of Dissonance, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, well suited for expressionism, Pierrot lunaire, Orfeo II,
Gesamtkunstwerk
describes Wagner’s approach to his art, from “unified,” “art” and “work” synthesizes all arts, music, drama, poetry, gesture, architecture, painting, true one was where all elements both self-sufficient yet inextricable from one another, music should cohere as in symphony by Beethoven
Page 499: THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
1850 How Animals Bury the Hunter woodcut
1. inspired Mahler's 1st Symphony movement 3
2. world upside down, like children's tune in minor
3. mourning/weeping ironic, like piece at times since at times ironic
522 MODERNISM IN PAINTING, CUBISM
1911 Picasso's Man With Violin, modernism
1. parallels in music/art: atonality to cubism,
2. violates conventions of representation, esp. perspective
3. cubism emerged 1907-1914 in Picasso, no one perspective has priority
4. like in atonal music no key is center
5. disturbing and refreshing
543 IMPRESSIONISM
1872, Monet's IMPRESSION: SUNRISE
1. impressionist art rejected at 1st (1870s, Paris)
2. Art: concerned with color over line, short brush strokes to create impression not representation
3. Music: blurred harmonies, rhythms, forms, color (timbre) more important, also rejected at 1st
553 PRIMITIVISM IN PAINTING
1905: Rousseau's WOMAN WALKING IN EXOTIC FOREST
1. primitivism
2. simple lines, bold colors suggest power in forest (oversized plants) not woman (small)
3. LIKE RITE OF SPRING
A. juxtaposes humans/nature
B. sophisticated, raw, unrefined, elemental
570 BARTOK RECORDS IN THE FIELD
1908, BARTOK RECORDS IN THE FIELD
1. one of 1st researchers to make field recordings of folk musicians
2. musical traditions of remote villages he visited were relatively untouched by urbanization, recorded sound
3. villagers in Sunday finest, formality of occasion might affect nature of performance (not everyday setting)
579: EDVARD MUNCH’S THE SCREAM
1893, Munch's THE SCREAM, expressionism
1. brings to surface unconscious thoughts/visceral emotions
2. inspired by poem by Franquet
3. EXPRESSIONISM:
A. rejects conventional techniques of representation, favoring devices that exaggerate/distort
B. driven by attempt to confront innermost corners of human psyche, including unpleasant (inner emotion takes precedence over external reality)
C. psychological truth becomes object of art (not beauty)
D. art bypasses conscious self, aims straight for id, instincts/drives, confronts human condition (Scream: not product of civilization; reaction to something that caused fear)
E. music: Schoenberg Pierret lunarie, innermost sentiments of clown
590 MATRIX
1923 Matrix of Schoenberg's Piano Suite No. 25
1. serial composition, prime form in its original transposition reads from left to right across top row
638 COKE BOTTLES
1962, Warhol's GREEN COCA-COLA BOTTLES minimalism
1. combines daily objects of pop art with subtle variations of minimalism
2. series of similar but not identical objects; no two are alike
3. like minimalist music; focus on small change
Program Music:
Who is in it?
What politics are associated with each?
What are the defenses of each?
PROGRAM MUSIC:
1. Wagner, Liszt, Berlioz, claimed Beethoven
2. Progressive "Music of the Future" New German School
3. emphasized emotions/ideas over form
4. there is no spritual necessity that drives one to discover means of music
5. program indicates spiritual state of mind that drove composer to creation; artist/listener can connect with poetic process
6. takes listener to region and leaves to individual fantasy how to conceive/adorn
7. recurrence/modification/variation of motifs determined by relationship to poetic idea
8. music can achieve its highest potential only through synthesis with other arts, words
9. absolute music too abstract to carry true meaning
Absolute Music
Who is in it?
What politics are associated with each?
What are the defenses of each?
ABSOLUTE MUSIC:
1. Hanslick, Brahms
2. conservative
3. absolute in ability to transcend earthly life, mundane everyday existence
4. independence from earthly life makes it most moving
5. idealistic philosophy: idea of infinate
6. content of music does not/cannot extend beyond notes themselves but consists of "forms moving through sound"
7. beauty lies entirely in notes/artistic interweaving
**8. sole/exclusive content and object of music are forms animated through sound
What becomes of the absolute/program music argument?
By the end of the 1800s, both sides realize that they are debeting distinction without a difference
2. both agree that absolute music has meaning beyond itself; their arguments differ as to how that meaning could manifest itself
3. Liszt wrote sonata in b minor, Berlioz suppressed program, Brahms tried programmatic music
4. still debete in 1800s
What is the common cultural (or aesthetic) basis linking Musorgsky’s song and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring?
1. both are Russian ideals, anti-Western, non-traditional, realist/objective
2. 4 Walls: struggle with modernity, isolation, relationship with oneself, in room alone, intonation, speech, crude elements
3. Rite of Spring: sound of folk music based melodies, relationship between humans/nature
Attitudes towards the Romantic musical tradition in Debussy
DEBUSSY
A. extends romantic idea with chords resolving nontraditionally, parallel chords, irregular rhythms, changing meter, strange chords
B. music is neither major or minor, must use nontonal scales to enrich
C. impressionism direct challenge to Western music in timbre, form, harmony
D. hated term "impressionism"; insistsed he was "making something new" belief that our sensory perceptions (impressions of world) construct own kind of reality, alternate to consciousness/objective
Attitudes towards the Romantic musical tradition in Schoenberg
SCHOENBERG
1. unromantic in that all his music goes through process of "developing variation"; idea grows/evolves over course of movement. romanticism more about ideas/feelings that themes/variations
2. saw himself as heir to beethoven/brahms, created large scale works that through unfolding of simple ideas
3. felt that musical ideas should be analygous with prose; claimed Brahms already moving toward prose
4. 12 tone music: little/nothing should be repeated exactly or within pattern
5. claimed to be rooted in traditions of German music
Attitudes towards the Romantic musical tradition in Stravinsky
STRAVINSKY:
1. dedicated to eliminating Western European influences in Russian art/culture, strive toward folk art/primitivism
2. anti-expressive: does not express himself through music or put subjectivity in sounds like Romantic tradition; "I am the vessel through which Rite of Spring came into existence"
Attitudes towards the Romantic musical tradition in Ives
IVES
1. disturbed by tendency of most music to take easy path of sentimentality and convention
Name 9 composers that used new musical scales
1. Debussy
2. Williams
3. Britten
4. John Lennon
5. Paul McCartney
6. Stravinksy
7. Ravel
8. Bartok
9. Slonimsky
Name 3 different kinds of new scales, and define them
1. whole tone: 6 notes, each whole tone apart, can't be used to construct major/minor, few 7ths, outer section DEBUSSY SAILS--> freely floating, no tonal center
2. pentatonic: 5 notes, east asian, folk idioms of West, inner section DEBUSSY SAILS
3. octatonic: 8 tones, alternates between half/whole steps, contains within itself all possible intervals, subverts tonal center
why were composers using new musical scales?
1. attempt to break away from conventional major/minor scales
2. derived distinctive new sound from archaic modes
excerpts from Mikrokosmos
Bartok, 1926-1939, piano cycle
1. Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm: Built on metrical pattern of 4+2+3/8 (complex meter) origins folk music
2. Diminished Fifths: juxtaposes tetrachords (four note units) that together make up Octatonic scale
3. Nationalism
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Bartok, 1936, orchestral
1. avoids programmatic/generic associations, not traditional symphony (yet 4 movements), unusual combo
2. tightly integrated; all 4 movements derive theme from fugue subject of opening movement
3. theme built on 8 chromatic pitches
4. tonally centered, but not always within framework of triadic harmony; frequently uses themes that employ all chromatic pitches within range
5. 3rd movement: unusual sonorities, opens with extended solo on one note on xylophone, timpani glisses, structured around arch, music approaches midpoint, retraces its steps
Symphony n. 4 in e minor 4th movement
Brahms, 1885
1. variations (like last movement of Eroica)
2. 30 variations, each 8 measures long; simple and potentially restrictive
3. stunning variety of thematic ideas, textures, harmonies, based on ostinato of Bach Cantata 150 (simple)
4. principle of sonata form, but not because lacks modulation, yet sense of transition/mood change
5. increases challege of composing continuous movement from string of sequences
6. reminding musical world that old forms can be renewed, can search for new without abandoning old tradition
7. firmly rooted in tradition, harmony, orchestration, sense of flow, yet decidedly progressive
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Debussy, 1894, impressionism
1. based on impressionist tone poem by french symbolist: mythological half man/half goat, who remembers-or did he dream? erotically charged encounter with nymth, between dream/conscious
2. free variation
3. irregular rhythm, constantly changing meters, accents on changing intervals
4. strange chords that do not resolve traditionally
5. avoids direct repetition of theme/harmony
6. ABA structure clear, yet hazy, hard to tell where B starts (wants audience to feel tension betwen real/imagined)
7. Faun=flute
8. chromaticism rises/falls like fauns fantasy
9. successions of 7th chords/parallel 5th, hard for traditional listeners
10. new approach to music, opens doors to writing modern music
11. assault on traditional elements/attitudes
Sails
Debussy, 1910, in 1st book of preludes for piano
1. goes beyond tradition of advanced chromatic harmony
2. parallel octaves/fifths
3. harmonies have no direction
4. flexible rhythms and form (broad ABA, like title-means sails or veils-, fluid
5. melodic ideas from whole tone, pentatonic scales
Symphony No 1 movement 3
Mahler, 1888
1. modernism, nastalgia
2. looks back at music before Wagner, irony, tonal
3. Frere Jacques in minor, from Jewish streets of Bohemia (pessimistic/real world)
4. simple harmonic structure; unpretentious, pastoral theme
5. decidely 19th cent work: like Beethoven in that from struggle to triumph, II funeral march, yet ironic, mocks somberness
6. funeral (like Beethoven 2nd mvmt Eroica): beautiful to grotesque, sincere to ironic,
7. inspired by illustrations of animals carrying hunter to grave
9. anti-semitic critics: "jewish" "eastern" qualities, music of peasants not suited for symphony
10. symphony can/should encompass mundane and beautiful (contrasts)
11.
In Four Walls
Musorgsky, 1874, song cycle SUNLESS
1. illustrates ever-expanding presence of chromaticism from late 1800s
2. in room alone, playing to himself, isolation of modernity
3. nationalist
It's Gonna Rain
Reich, 1965, phase/process/minimalist
1. can hear process which transforms elements into something new
2. early example of minimalism, based on single phrase part of sermon on Noah's flood, delivered in San Francisco Union Square
3. recorded with portable tape
4. runs two copies of same tape on machines playing at slightly different speeds, creates process where music gradually shifts out of phase
5. extremely gradual rate of change, experience different sense of time/repetition that would be intolerable any other way
6. 17 minutes long
In C
Riley, 1964, Minimalist
1. 53 brief thematic fragments to be played in any combination of any kind of instruments (recommends 35)
2. each player performs ideas in same sequence but free to repeat as often as chooses
3. polyrhythmic combos
4. constant ostinato C in piano
5. resists classification: jazz (riffs) canon (unison)
6. all performers must play strictly in rhythm
7. harks to earlier time, baroque/ren, open ended instrumentation, latitute to performers
Symphony No 1 movement 3
Mahler, 1888
1. modernism, nastalgia
2. looks back at music before Wagner, irony, tonal
3. Frere Jacques in minor, from Jewish streets of Bohemia (pessimistic/real world)
4. simple harmonic structure; unpretentious, pastoral theme
5. decidely 19th cent work: like Beethoven in that from struggle to triumph, II funeral march, yet ironic, mocks somberness
6. funeral (like Beethoven 2nd mvmt Eroica): beautiful to grotesque, sincere to ironic,
7. inspired by illustrations of animals carrying hunter to grave
9. anti-semitic critics: "jewish" "eastern" qualities, music of peasants not suited for symphony
10. symphony can/should encompass mundane and beautiful (contrasts)
11.
In Four Walls
Musorgsky, 1874, song cycle SUNLESS
1. illustrates ever-expanding presence of chromaticism from late 1800s
2. in room alone, playing to himself, isolation of modernity
3. nationalist
It's Gonna Rain
Reich, 1965, phase/process/minimalist
1. can hear process which transforms elements into something new
2. early example of minimalism, based on single phrase part of sermon on Noah's flood, delivered in San Francisco Union Square
3. recorded with portable tape
4. runs two copies of same tape on machines playing at slightly different speeds, creates process where music gradually shifts out of phase
5. extremely gradual rate of change, experience different sense of time/repetition that would be intolerable any other way
6. 17 minutes long
In C
Riley, 1964, Minimalist
1. 53 brief thematic fragments to be played in any combination of any kind of instruments (recommends 35)
2. each player performs ideas in same sequence but free to repeat as often as chooses
3. polyrhythmic combos
4. constant ostinato C in piano
5. resists classification: jazz (riffs) canon (unison)
6. all performers must play strictly in rhythm
7. harks to earlier time, baroque/ren, open ended instrumentation, latitute to performers
The Sick Moon
Schoenberg, 1912, from Pierrot lunaire, song cycle
1. sharp, coloristic, sense of musical syntax
2. Atonal, makes moon seem far more ill
Die Krueuze
Schoenberg, 1912, from Pierrot lunaire, song cycle
1. projected violence; voice leaps up 9ths, diminished/augmented octaves, nontriadic intervals, no tonal center
O alter Duft
Schoenberg, 1912, from Pierrot lunaire, song cycle
1. speaks of intoxicating scent from fairy tales, finale, closer to tonal for longer stretches than at any other point in cycle; @ end, clown longs for tonality, childhood, fairy tales, realize it’s only a dream
Pierret lunaire
Schoenberg, 1912, song cycle
1. Ties between atonalism/expressionist (manifesto of expressionism)
2. Sprechstimme “speaking voice” as expressionist device; heightened sense of surrealism, distracted from text, irony: extreme emotionalism parody of extreme emotionalism
3. deeply sympathetic to expressionist art, drawn to surreal, violent, eerie imagery
4. For soprano/instrumental ensemble
5. one of most widely admired works of musical expressionism/early work of atonal music to be popular
6. Pierrot is masked character, draws on mask as metaphor for human manners that conceal deeper emotions; Pierrot melancholy, moonstruck clown lives in constant longing
7. Able to avoid challenges of writing within new atonal idiom: how to construct large scale forms without tonality
Piano Suite Op 25 "Prelude" and "Menuet
Schoenberg, 1923, piano pieces, serialism
1. Early serial work; one of earliest attempts at large-scale serial work
2. All 6 movements based on different manifestations of same row
3. Prime form of row presented in upper voice
4. The pitch class on which each form of the row begins is designed by a number (pitch class=any set of notes regardless of register)
The Rite of Spring Part 1
Stravinsky, 1913 Paris, ballet, primitivism, Adoration of Earth, uncivilized
1. 5 against 7 against 3, polychordal
2. creates impression of rawness; reflects raw elemental relationship between humans/nature
3. rejects traditional harmonic progressions, timbres, rhythms (stripped of all harmonic /melodic variety, same chord 32 times, irregular)
4. story: pre-christian ritual welcomes coming of Spring, offers human sacrifice in thanks (primitive)
5. elevates role of rhythm: meter shifts 8 times in 12 measures
6. orchestra enormous; used in unconventional ways to produce rawness, complex textures
7. most intricate work in history to date
8. audiences rioted @ premiere (paris) soon enthusiastic
Rigoletto
Verdi, 1851, tragic opera
1. famous trilogy, turning point in career
2. best opera composer in Italy
3. modeled after victor hugo
4. ironic drama; man kills only thing he loves
Tristan and Isolde
Wagner, 1865, opera
1. "20th century [musical modernism] begins with Tristan": extreme chromaticism, dissolution of classical/romantic harmony
2. rewrites conventions of orchestra, melody/harmony
3. Prelude: "tristan" chord, no tonal function, longing, leitmotifs, orchestra comments on what will happen onstate
4. role of orchestra greatly expanded
5. musical momentum: constantly moving toward climax, delaying resolution
6. leitmotifs symbolize characters/themes
7. impossibility of fulfillment in normal social life: T&I dying to die, happiness only through death, hypocrisy of life
8.
Five Pieces for String Quartet
Webern, 1909, string quartet
1. Webern’s application of serial technique most complex/concentrated; many listeners perceive his music as cryptic/aphoristic
2. has been said his comps are to music what haiku is to poetry
3. tended to work with subunits of 12-tone row, small motifs of 3 or 4 notes, often 1st few notes of row transformed to create remainder of row
Why such an interest in exoticism in the late 1800s? How did composers such as Debussy and Ravel represent non-Western cultures in their music?
1. primitivism part of modernism's rejection of tradition, aesthetic movement, considered positive purifying force of arts
2. rejection of self-imposed, arbitrary conventions of Western culture
3. primitive people uneducated/refined--> pure, genuine, unthreatened by decadence/self-conscious
4. Debussy: in Faun, no clearly defined themes, succession of 7th/parallel chords, absense of style, hazy form, strange chords that don't resolve traditionally
B. in Sails: parallel 5/octaves, harmonies have no direction, fluid form, nontraditional scales, whole tone/pentatonic (east asian)
5.
What was the effect of World War I on the compositional scene in Europe
1. Quest for order, turn to Neo-Classicism, Serialism
2. audiences become less confrontational as the rage of earlier listeners cooled
3. more people saw classical msuic as music by dead composers
Parallel between music and the figurative arts at the inception of the modern era
1. Impressionism: one of earliest attempts to explore new approaches to music;
A. first used in painting (Monet) short brush strokes instead of continuous line to create impression not representation, color precedes line
B. In music, blurring of harmonies, rhythms, forms, greater use of color (timbre)
2. expressionism:
A. rejects conventional techniques of representation, favoring devices that exaggerate/distort
B. driven by attempt to confront innermost corners of human psyche, including unpleasant (inner emotion takes precedence over external reality)
C. psychological truth becomes object of art (not beauty)
D. art bypasses conscious self, aims straight for id, instincts/drives, confronts human condition (Scream: not product of civilization; reaction to something that caused fear)
E. music: Schoenberg Pierret lunarie, innermost sentiments of clown
3. primitivism:
A. art: Fauves WILD BEAST crude draftsmanship, bold, unrealistic colors, simplisitc
B. music: Stravinsky Rite of Spring, positive, purifying force of arts, raw, crude, primitive people unrefined
4. CUBISM
A. violates conventions of representation, especially perspective, disturbing, refreshing
B. art: emerged 1907-1914, Picasso (1911 Man with Violin, no perspective has priority)
C. Music: atonalism, no key has center
Was nationalism still a factor for 20th-century composers? Which ones, and how?
1. took on new importance in 20th cent; composers were driven by desire to return to cultural roots through musical idioms connected to the people
2. growing political/cultural aspirations of ethnic groups through Europe/Americas
3. each region of Austro-Hungarian empire has own language/culture, music important in asserting ethnic id
4. bartok set out to record melodies sung/played by peasants, attempting to capture repertory of songs, id of ethnic group singing them
5. belief that folk songs represent untarnished purity of pre-industrial society
6. modernists: folk music offered important stylistic alternatives to traditions of conventional melody/harmony; different sets of melodic possibilities: irregular rhythms/meters, unconventional harmony, internvals 2nd/4th/7th, nondiatonic, odd scales
Describe the realist, or objectivist tendencies in European and American music from the late 19th century to the 1960s
1. musical realism is Musorgsky IN FOUR WALLS; isolation of modernity
2. Wagner's Tristan & Isolde: impossibility of fulfillment in normal social life, dying to die, happiness in death, hypocrisy of life
3. Mahler's Symphony: children's tune to minor, pessimistic
4. Shoenberg Pierre lunaire: inner emotions of clown
From an aesthetic standpoint (i.e., in its basic assumptions on what music is and does and in the mode of listening that it calls for), is minimalism closer to pop music or to “art” music from Bach to Schönberg? Is Steve Reich closer to Haydn or to muzak?
1. minimalism: reaction against opulence and complexity, relies on repetitions of small units that differ only slightly or are varied only gradually over long stretches of time• reaction against opulence and complexity, relies on repetitions of small units that differ only slightly or are varied only gradually over long stretches of time
From an aesthetic standpoint (i.e., in its basic assumptions on what music is and does and in the mode of listening that it calls for), is minimalism closer to pop music or to “art” music from Bach to Schönberg? Is Steve Reich closer to Haydn or to muzak?
1. minimalism: reaction against opulence and complexity, relies on repetitions of small units that differ only slightly or are varied only gradually over long stretches of time• reaction against opulence and complexity, relies on repetitions of small units that differ only slightly or are varied only gradually over long stretches of time