Musicology 240 - Exam I

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The Enlightenment

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An 18th century movement based on the new approach to knowledge, which is that everything can be learned and education should be for everyone. Many things became public, and it saw the rise of the middle class and of reasoning.

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The Philosophes

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French philosophers and social reformers who led the Enlightenment: Voltaire, Montesquieu, Denis Diderto, Jean le Rond d’Alembert, and Jean Jacques Rousseau.

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The Encyclopédie

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The Encyclopédie demonstrated the Compiled between 1751 and 1772. Enlightenment belief that all aspects of knowledge could be organized and classified. It included a large section on music that was contributed by Rousseau.

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Public concerts

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A new phenomenon of the latter 18th century. True to the Enlightenment it meant that music was available to everyone, not just upper class. Only middle class could afford tickets, though. They were noisy and social.

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The Canon

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A body of works deemed to have “universal” value. These works form the core of the modern concert repertory. (Naturally, many important works are excluded from the canon).

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The Classical Period

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1730-1815

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Galant style

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One type of classical-period music. It features song-like, tuneful melodies, homophonic texture, short and balanced phrases, and frequent, regular cadences. The style originated in Italian comic opera.

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Empfindsam style

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Translates from German to the “sentimental” style. It is characterized by more chromaticism, free melodic structure, irregular rhythms, and surprising turns of harmony. This style is most closely associated with C.P.E. Bach

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Alberti bass

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A typical galant style accompaniment figure, used in keyboard music. The figuration breaks each chord into a repeating pattern of short notes—root, fifth, third, fifth. The Alberti bass provided an unobtrusive chordal background that clearly set off the melody.

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Opera buffa

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Italian comic opera, sung throughout. Light or farcifal subjects, scenes from pop culture and every day life.

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Opera comique

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French comic opera, used spoken dialogue instead of recitative.

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Singspiel

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German genre of comic opera that featured spoken dialogue interspersed with songs, choruses, and instrumental music. (example: Die Zauberflotte)

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Intermezzo

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An 18th century genre of Italian comic opera, performed between acts of a serious opera or play.

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Opera seria

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An 18th century genre of Italian opera, on a serious subject but normally with a happy ending, usually without comic scenes or characters. The leading poet/librettist of opera seria was Pietro Metastasio, whose 27 libretti were set to music more than 1000 times.

Involves a pair of lovers and the climax is a deed of heroism by a principal character that brings about the resolution.

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Italian overture (sinfonia)

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The favored style of opening music for opera in the Classical period. Its sections were in the order fast, slow, fast. It featured a homophonic texture and simple accompaniment. A direct precursor of the Classical symphony.

French overtures were slow-fast-slow, had counterpoint, rich texture, and non-periodic melodic & harmonic structure.

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Simple/dry/Secco recitative

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A style of recitative scored for solo voice and basso continuo alone. Used to get across a lot of dialogue at one time, to move the story forward. Very rubato and speech-like.

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Accompanied recitative

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Recitative that used orchestral accompaniment. Reserved for the most dramatic points in the opera.

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Aria

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Lyrical monologue in an opera. The aria takes place in “stopped time,” during which the character reflects upon the dramatic action and expresses his or her emotions.

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Da Capo Aria

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the most common form of aria, with two sections. The first section is
repeated after the second section’s close, which carries the instruction “da capo” (“from the head”).

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Ritornello

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In an aria, an instrumental passage that recurs several times, like a refrain. Typically, it is played at the beginning, as interludes (often in modified form), and again at the end, and it states the main theme.

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Opera reform

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Associated with Niccolò Jommelli, Tommaso Traetta, and Christoph Willibald Gluck. Major changes in serious opera had to do with less ornamentation of the vocal line, more flexible alternation of recitative and aria, increased use of accompanied recitative and ensembles, the use of choruses, and the increased importance of the orchestra. Libretti were simplified, and were influenced by classical Greek ideals.

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Binary form

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A two-part form.

I - V : V - I

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Sonata/form

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At first an extension of binary form, then known as a three part form. A 3 or 4 movement work with contrasting tempi and moods.

Sonata form is used for the first movement of a sonata.

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Pianoforte

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A keyboard instrument invented in 1700 by Cristofori that uses a mechanism in which the strings are struck, rather than plucked as the harpsichord was, and which allowed for crescendos, diminuendos, and other effects. Called fortepiano to distinguish it from the modern piano. Fortepiano had a wooden frame with less tension on the strings, modern piano has an iron frame.

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Symphony

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The first symphonies were composed in the 1730s in Italy by Sammartini. They are descendants of the Italian sinfonia (opera overture).

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Kapellmeister

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Director of music. Originally meant “chapel master” or “choirmaster.” Haydn was one!

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Topics

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Different styles in the Classic era that can be used in musical discourse

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Concerto First Movement Form

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Combines ritornello and sonata form so that the solo episodes of the concerto together make up a sonata form. A key feature of the form is the double exposition, in which first the orchestra and then the soloist play the first, second, and closing themes of the sonata form exposition. The big difference between the orchestral exposition and the solo exposition is that the orchestral exposition remains in the tonic key while the solo exposition modulates to the dominant.

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Cadenza

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A highly embellished passage, often improvised, at an important cadence, usually occurring just before the end of the piece. In a concerto, the cadenza begins on a I 6/4 chord and ends with a trill on the dominant.

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Digli chi'io son fedele
"Tell Him That I Am Faithful"
from Cleofide

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John Hasse (1699-1783)
Opera seria
1730
Da Capo Aria
Fiotura

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Orfeo ed Euridice

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Christoph Gluck (1714-1787)
Opera
1760
When Orpheus is going down into the underground
Post-reform

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La Serva Padrona

Recitative & Aria

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Giovanni Pergolesi (1710-1736)
Intermezzo
1730
Gallant style
Simple then accompanied recit
Da Capo aria

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Sonata in D Major

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Domenico Scarlatti (1685 - 1757)
Keyboard sonata
1740
Rounded binary form

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Symphony in F Major

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Giovanni Sammartini (1700-1775)
Symphony
1740
Binary, precursor to Sonata

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String Quartet in E flat Major (The Joke)

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Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
String Quartet
1780
Rondo form
Reminiscent of opera buffa
Galant style: short phrases, homophonic, harmonically simple

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Oxford Symphony No. 92

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Haydn (1732-1809)
Symphony
1780
Sonata form
Brought rise of instrumental music

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Piano Concert in A Major

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W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano concerto
1780
Sonata form with two expositions (orchestral in tonic, solo in dominant)
combines sonata and ritornello

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Don Giovanni

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Mozart (1756-1791)
Opera (seria?)
1787