What's that Score
Identify the score
Bessie Smith, Back Water Blues
This describes primitivism
Invoke the spirit of primitive life as an escape for the audience from their lives + responsibilities, free from sexual restraints
Identify the listening
Sibelius, Symphony no. 4 mvt 3
Describe the plot of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, and specifically during the assigned excerpt(s)
Tells the story of US Navy Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton stationed in Nagasaki, Japan, where he is about to marry 15 y/o geisha Cio-Cio-San aka “Butterfly.”
-Excerpt begins and Pinkerton and Butterfly get a moment of privacy while guests are settling in for the marriage. Butterfly shows him some of her things that she’ll be bringing into their new home.
-She tells him that she converted to Christianity for him so that they can pray to the same God together in church. Then the Imperial Commissioner performs the marriage ceremony.
Define Modernism
Name one composer who we can describe as "modernist"
Modernism is a period of change + development within music. Composers felt the necessity of making a break from past conventions in music, and sought to create a new musical language that expresses the mood of the modern age. The developing music was by necessity; experimental, and it proved to be emotionally provocative.
Composers: Strauss, Schoenberg, Berg, Bartók, Stravinsky, etc.
Identify the score
AND
The performer
Performed by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five
This defines expressionism
Presenting a subjective world view/perspective through distorting artistic features to evoke an emotion reaction from the viewer
Identify the listening
AND
Describe the use of folk music in this piece
Bartók, Music for SPC mvt 3
Rhythm for the string melodies in A section drawn from Hungarian folk tunes; fast, snaking ornate figuration drawn from Serbo-Croation folk songs
Parts of B and C Sections draw from Bulgarian dance orchestras and dance rhythms
Describe the story behind Smith's Back Water Blues
Flood of Christmas Day in TN, then the Great Flood
Describe Schoenberg's compositional approach -- what was old vs new?
Schoenberg's three phases...
Identify the score
Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire no. 13 Enthauptung
This describes exoticism
Bonus points for describing the two tropes of exotic female characters
"The evocation of a place, people, or social milieu that is profoundly different from accepted local norms in its attitudes, customs, and morals."
Hypersexualized, alluring, dangerous; often left alone or dead by the end
vs
Weak, (over)emotional; often converts to the dominant religion/culture
Identify the listening
AND
What is going on in the text? How is it reflected in the music?
Mahler, Kindertotenlieder no. 1
Parent the day after child passed away
Misalignment of music and text...
Describe the plot of Strauss' Salome, and specifically during the assigned excerpt
Based on Oscar Wilde's play, about King Herod, John the Baptist, Herodias, and Salome...
In Scene 4 Conclusion: Salome just kissed Jochanaan's (John's) severed head on a platter, shift from bliss to bitterness...Herod is revulsed and orders Salome killed
How did Brahms view his relationship between the past and present?
Historicist approach...
Identify the score
AND
Describe the parody employed in this piece
Satie, Embryon desséchés no. 3
Parodies Romantic notion that music comes from a divine source, parodies serious tone of Romantic music, the absurd topic mocks character pieces. Also the joke score markings, parody of leitmotives, and the bombastic play on Beethoven at the end
This defines the "imaginary museum of musical works"
Think of the canon...
Brahms, C. Schumann (her choosing which pieces to teach/perform), Mendelssohn all had a hand in creating this
Identify the listening
AND
What is going on in the plot? How is it reflected in the music?
Berg, Wozzeck, Act III sc 2
Wozzeck about to kill Marie in the woods
Invention on B that represents the idea of the murder
Marie only really sings B at the end when she realizes what's happening and cries for help (B on two octaves)
Describe the setting of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and specifically for both excerpts (Danse des adolescentes and Danse sacrale)
AND
Describe what was so shocking/new about this piece of work
Primitive people, preparing for a ritual sacrifice...
Style of dance, costumes, different/jarring musical style...
Describe the various elements and forms that culminate to create the Blues
AAB poetic form, 12-bar blues harmonic framework, sad/negative topic -- often a commentary on society
Identify the score
AND
Describe how it is neoclassical
Stravinsky, Octet for Wind Instruments mvt 1
Follows forms and styles from Classical Era while deviating within the details. Mvt 1 follows sonata form (as done by Haydn) but there is no repeition of exposition and the two themes are recapitulated in reverse order.
Toys with tonality, does not establish a tonal center not through traditional harmonic progressions. We see a lot of meter changes and unpredictable rhythms
This describes the difference between folklorism, nationalism, and exoticism
Folklorism: drawing upon folk music/narratives from within one's own culture or a closely related one
Exoticism: drawing upon music/narratives from a culture distinct from one's own, to emphasize the difference
Nationalism: (can draw upon the folk) cultivating a national style, often for political purposes
Identify the listening
AND
Describe this composer's approach to symphonic development as it contrasts with that of Brahms
Mussorgsky, Boris Godunov: Coronation Scene
Not big on motivic development like Brahms, M's style resembles more of a theme + variations. Prioritizes color + timbre with composing.
In Boris Godunov: big static chords with no trajectory (just to evoke the bells)
Describe how Beach and Mussorgsky each sought to create a specific nationalist music
Beach: evoke American national music, use of Irish/Scottish folk tune
Mussorgsky: evoke Russian sound through the mimicking of bells (Orthodox church), followed the syntax/arc of the Russian language
Describe the innovations of Wagner, especially with consideration of Das Rheingold (prelude and scene 1)
Continuous flow of music, leitmotifs, avoidance of PACs (only at end or at points of deception), bending tonality, "Gesamtkunstwerk," starts a scene from one element and builds