Russian Folk Song
Mikhail Glinka
Russian Style
Modest Mussorgsky
Russian Orientalism
100
Music that was part of the illiterate peasant culture passed on from generation to generation without lyrics or the melodies being preserved in notation.
What are Folk Songs?
100
Mikhail Glinka proclaimed that this interval was the "soul of Russian music."
What is the perfect fifth?
100
This group often called "The Five" by English speaking music historians includes:Mily Balakirev (1837–1910), Modest Mussorgsky (1839–81), Nikolai Rimsky– Korsakov (1844–1908), Alexander Borodin (1833–87), and Cesar Cui (1835–1918). The Russians however include one more member Vladimir Stasov who did not compose but greatly influenced the group by promoting their music. The Russians in turn refer to the group by this name:
What is "The Mighty Handful"
100
T/F Mussorgsky was often considered to be the most important composer to emerge from the "Mighty Handful"
What is T?
100
Drawing from the folk music of the Georgian, Armenian, and Turkic peoples, Balakirev developed his new style of "Orientalism" in this virtuosic piano piece.
What is Islamey?
200
The process of recording Folk Songs through musical notation.
What is transcription?
200
The first opera of Mikhail Glinka was considered the first Russian National Opera.
What is "A Life for the Tsar"
200
This composer was the teacher of the other four and taught theory in his own idiosyncratic way often making up his own terms.
Who is Balakirev?
200
Although considered a visionary by music historians, his friends and those in the "Mighty Handful" coined this term to describe him.
What is "Half Competent"
200
In Glinka's opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" the male role of Ratimir a Khan of Khazeria of the Caucus mountains was written for this voice giving it an exotic sound.
What is contralto female voice?
300
The German philosopher that considered Folk Song as an adjunct to language, a part of National Heritage and not just a local phenomenon. He felt that folk song acted as a vessel for each national character.
Who is Johann Gottfried von Herder?
300
"A Life for the Tsar," in which the protagonist, a peasant named Ivan Susanin tricks the Poles in order to secure the identity of the the future Romanov Tsar is set in this year.
What is 1613?
300
Balakirev despised Mendelsohn and Chopin but greatly admired Shumann and this famous German composer.
Who is Beethoven?
300
Mussorgsky's "The Marriage" was inspired by this outside composer's unfinished opera entitled "The Stone Guest"
Who is Dargomyhsky?
300
In Borodin's "Prince Igor" these two opposing forces are treated with equal respect within the opera. (300 pts each)
Who are the Russians and the Polovstians? (Polovstians are Asiatic nomads)
400
Five of the reasons that a Folk Song Transcriber should be considered a co-author as opposed to an objective recorder. (400 pts each correct answer)
What is: (1) Simplification of complex lyrics that sometimes are very long. (2) Changing of rhythms to fit with traditional western notation. (3) Changing of forms to match typical music forms. (4) Changing of the settings to appeal to music consumers. (5) Composers individual tastes.
400
Glinka invented this scale in order to write his second Opera entitled "Ruslan and Lyudmila"
What is the whole tone scale?
400
Balakirev valued this above all other qualities in his students.
What is originality?
400
Mussorgsky wrote two versions of this opera. One in 1869 and the other in 1872. The main differences between the two are the loyalty of the original text by Alexsander Pushkin.
What is Boris Godunov?
400
This Rimsky-Korsakov piece was based on the "Persian Tales of One Thousand and One Nights."
What is Sheherezade?
500
This song on the listening list is a protyazhnaya which is defined as a song which has a long melody with many twists and turns. The melody is melosmatic.
What is "The Day is Breaking?"
500
Even though he uses 5/4 time inventively twice in his music, Glinka did not get the idea from Russian Folk Music but instead from this other famously Russian art form.
What is Poetry?
500
Balakirev insisted that his students avoid all European musical cliche's including this "bread and butter" harmonic cadence.
What is the IV-V-I cadence? (also known as the authentic or closed cadence)
500
After Mussorgsky's death, this composer from the "Mighty Handful" heavily edited "Boris Godunov" removing innovative harmonies assuming that they were due to Mussorgsky's "half competence"
Who is Rimsky-Korsakov?
500
Glinka uses this double reed instrument to imitate the sound of a zurna (another double reed instrument found in the Caucus mountains)
What is the English Horn?
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