Genres/Styles
Neo-Classicism
Recalls the Classic era. Use or imitate music by past composers- recalls old forms, old conventions, old sounds.
Define Sprechstimme.
Sing-speak. Neither speech nor song. Music specifies pitches and rhythms. Singer doesn't sustain pitches.
What is the full name of Chavez's piece?
Sinfonía índia
Second Viennese School – what 3 composers were in it?
Schoenberg, Webern, Berg
What are the four ways to manipulate tone rows?
Prime (original), retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion
Expressionism
German artistic movement that sought to give voice (expression) to the unconscious, to deep/dark emotions. Beauty is irrelevant.
(Schoenberg: "Nacht" from Pierrot Lunaire)
Define Klangfarbenmelodie.
Tone-color melody.
(IMPORTANT: Schoenberg coined it, Webern used it.)
Who composed Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, mvt. III?
Bartók
“the emancipation of the dissonance” – who coined the phrase? What does it mean?
Schoenberg coined it. It means dissonance does not have to resolve to consonance.
Who was Langston Hughes? What piece on this test does he relate to?
He was a black poet during the Harlem Renaissance. Price: "My Dream".
Modernism
New overarching genre for newer music; included such things as polytonality, polyrhythms, etc.
Les Six- when and where were they active? Which composer on our list was a part of this?
Active in 1920s France. Milhaud.
What piece did Weill compose?
"Pirate Jenny" from The Threepenny Opera
What is the difference between 12-tone technique and free atonality?
12-tone technique creates rows or series out of the 12 pitches and allows for manipulations of these rows. Free atonality is just freely atonal.
What is neotonality? Which two composers on our list used it?
Establishing a single pitch as tonal center but not following rules of traditional tonality. Bartok and Stravinksy.
Ultramodernism
Interwar trend that focused on developing new musical resources (tone clusters, extended techniques, non-Western influences, dissonant counterpoint).
Define passacaglia. Which piece uses it?
Variations over a repeated bass. Schoenberg: "Nacht" from Pierrot Lunaire.
Who composed String Quartet 1931, Mvt. IV?
Crawford
What is a pitch-class set? Which pitch-class set was important for the Schoenberg piece?
A pitch class set is a collection of pitches, notated by the number of steps away from the central pitch (0) that they are. (014)
Which three pieces used palindromes?
Webern: Symphonie, Op. 21, Mvt. I
Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, Mvt. III
Crawford: String Quartet 1931, Mvt. IV
Socialist Realism
Realistic style of art that portrayed socialism in a positive light and celebrated revolutionary ideology and heroes.
Define Alienation effect. What piece does this term relate to?
Prevent viewers from empathizing with characters. Part of New Objectivity. Weill: "Pirate Jenny" from The Threepenny Opera.
Which piece did Webern compose?
Symphonie, op. 21, Mvt. I
Define New Objectivity.
Movement in art and music during the German Weimar Republic era. Rejected expressionism; embraced the factual and the real. Music should be… practical and business-like (not sentimental or emotional). Widely accessible and familiar-sounding (not abstract). Clear (not complex).
Which piece did Milhaud compose?
La création du monde, First tableau