Msc 3044 Listening Exam 3

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En sourdine from Fetes galantes

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by Claude Debussy. Paul Verlaine wrote the poetic collection Fetes galantes. A fete galante was a popular social occasion among the aristocracy of the 18th Century. One of Debussy's principal innovations was a harmonic language that leaves the sense of key in an ambiguous state.

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Reflets dans l'eau

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by Claude Debussy. This piece is meant to be a portrait of rippling water. It uses the whole tone scale which is a scale made up of whole steps. The piece also uses embellishments of triads and seventh chords with a tone a major sixth above the bass or root of the chord.

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Nuages from Nocturnes

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By Claude Debussy. The form is ternary: A B A'. The piece has an emphasis on ostinato and repitition which dispels any sense of forward motion. It uses the octatonic scale which is an alternation of whole and half steps and the pentatonic scale which is a scale of 5 notes from traditional Asian music.

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Dans la foret de septembre

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by Gabriel Faure. Set to a poem by Catulle Mendes. The poem and music are full of emotion and sentimentality. Faure was a romantic traditionalist who used long, tuneful melodies and never abandoned functional harmonic progressions.

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Elle est gravement gaie

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By Lili Boulanger. This is a song from the song cycle Clairieres dans le ciel. A song cycle is a group of songs meant to be performed together that share musical and textual connections. The form is ternary and the piece is melodious like a piece by her teacher Gabriel Faure. However the use of seventh chords, ninth chords, pentatonic and octatonic scales is similar to Debussy.

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Salome

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By Strauss. This is based on a contraversial play by Oscar Wilde. This piece is an opera which is telling a story through music and drama with lavish sets and costumes. The large orchestra features xylophone which is a percussion instrument played by striking wooden bars with a mallet and heckelphone which is a double-reed woodwind instrument.

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Procession of the Sage

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From The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky. This is the third ballet that Stravinsky wrote for Sergei Diaghilev who was an impresario who founded and ran the ballet company, Le Ballet Russes. A ballet is a theatrical presentation in which a story or idea is communicated by music, mime and dancing. Vaslav Nijinsky was the choreographer.

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The Sage

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From The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky. This is the third ballet that Stravinsky wrote for Sergei Diaghilev who was an impresario who founded and ran the ballet company, Le Ballet Russes. A ballet is a theatrical presentation in which a story or idea is communicated by music, mime and dancing. Vaslav Nijinsky was the choreographer.

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Dance of the Earth

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From The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky. This is the third ballet that Stravinsky wrote for Sergei Diaghilev who was an impresario who founded and ran the ballet company, Le Ballet Russes. A ballet is a theatrical presentation in which a story or idea is communicated by music, mime and dancing. Vaslav Nijinsky was the choreographer.

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Drei Klavierstucke

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By Arnold Schoenberg. This piece is atonal meaning there is no tonal center, no use of functional harmonic progressions, all notes are equal, and there is an emphasis on dissonant chords. It also uses piano harmonics which is silently depressing keys to release the damper on those notes, and playing said notes in a lower octave so that the partials of the open strings sound. Many people did not like Schoenberg's music and he knew they would have to listen to it many times before they could understand and appreciate it.

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Nacht

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from Pierrot Lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg. The words come from a poetry collection of the same name by Albert Giraud. The piece uses Sprechgesang which is speech song, a type of recitation marked by an X on the stem of a note. And this movement is titled Passacaglia for the recurring three note motive throughout the piece in all the lines.

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Fier, belliqueux

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by Alexander Scriabin. This piece is atonal meaning there is no tonal center, no use of functional harmonic progressions and all notes are equal. The form is ABAB. This piece uses the octatonic scale which is an alternation of whole and half steps.

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Rigaudon

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from Le tombeau de Couperin by Maurice Ravel. Tombeau is French for tomb and is used to designate a musical tribute to a great predecessor, especially a deceased teacher. A rigaudon was a lively social dance in 2/4 time. This piece is in neoclassical style which includes references to earlier music, motoric rhythms, modern harmony and an international tone.

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Sarabande No. 2 for Piano

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By Erik Satie.

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Sarabande No. 2 for Piano

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By Erik Satie. This piece was completely different from the highly elaborate music of its day. It has a repetitive form, little melody and rhythm and no counterpoint or development of ideas. The harmonies have unprepared dissonances that do not resolve and chords that do not fulfill tonal harmonic functions.

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Octet

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By Igor Stravinsky. An octet is a piece for 8 players which was common in the Classical period. This piece is in neoclassical style which includes references to earlier music, motoric rhythms, changing meters, modern harmony and an international tone. It is also light, melodious and witty, devoid of angst or hyper-emotionality.

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Botafogo

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from Saudades do Brazil by Darius Milhaud. Saudades is a collection of piano character pieces. A character piece is a short instrumental work that establishes a particular mood. The piece imitates Brazilian samba through syncopation and a simple repetative form.

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String Quartet No. 4

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By Arnold Schoenberg. This piece uses the twelve-tone method of composition which is using an aggregate and varying melodic phrases. An aggregate is a collection of notes using all 12 notes of the chromatic scale without repeating notes. Schoenberg varied melody by using retrograde which is playing the aggregate backwards, using inversion which is taking the intervals of the aggregate and duplicating them in the opposite direction, and retrograde inversion which is both.

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Symphony Op. 21

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By Anton Webern. A symphony is a multimovement work for full orchestra. After the first presentation of the theme, Webern does not use conventional themes and his music becomes a collection of short motives. His works have been compared to pointillism which is a painting technique where dots of pure and contrasting color merge into recognizable images.

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Wozzeck

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By Alban Berg. This is an opera which is a dramatic work set to music using lavish sets and costumes. It is based on a play by Georg Buchner. The story is based on the real life soldier Johann Christian Woyzeck who murdered his wife.

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Ballad of Mack the Knife

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from The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill. The form is strophic. This was in collaboration with Berlin poet and writer, Bertolt Brecht. It is a German version of the famous English ballad opera, The Beggar's Opera by John Gay.

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Fekete fod

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by Bela Bartok. It has a strophic from. Uses parlando-rubato meaning the rhythm of the melody is flexible and free from regular beat. Bartok evokes the sound of the cimbalom, which is a Hungarian dulcimer.

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Concerto for Orchestra

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By Bela Bartok. The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitsky. This is a five movement work that is more like a symphony than a concerto. Bartok used the word concerto to refer to the virtuosic treatment of the instruments in the orchestra. The influence of Hungarian music can be seen through the use of pentatonic collections of notes which is a scale of five notes.

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Mathis der Maler

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By Paul Hindemith. This is an opera which is a dramatic work set to music using lavish sets and costumes. This is a fictional account of the life of the Renaissance German painter Matthias Grunewald. This is scene 6, entrance 3 where Mathis dreams he is St. Anthony and seeks advice from Albrecht whom he imagines to be St. Paul of the Desert.

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Piano Sonata No. 7

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By Sergei Prokofiev. This is a sonata which is a multimovement work for a solo instrument or ensemble. It was interpreted by the virtuoso pianist Sviatoslav Richter. This is the third movement, Precipitato. It features motoric rhythms and modernistic harmonies which are elements of neoclassicism.

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Piano Concerto No 1

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By Dmitri Shostakovich. A concerto is an instrumental piece where one or more soloists are accompanied by an orchestra. Typical of the Classical style, the work is brief and the orchestra is small with only strings and trumpet with piano soloist. The piece is high-spirited and full of parody.