Isn't It Romantic?
A name for a late Romantic trend in which composers wrote music and/or operas that dealt with real life people and experiences
What is verismo?
This important composer and music critic's dream of a performance career ended when a gadget he created to strengthen his fingers caused injury instead. He later suffered psychosis and spent the last years of his life in an asylum.
Who is Robert Schumann?
Bird songs and a thunderstorm are some of the musical effects heard in this violin concerto by Antonio Vivaldi
What is "Spring" from The Four Seasons?
"The Elf King" by Schubert is an example of this intimate genre in which a poem is set to music for a single singer and pianist.
What is an art song?
An ending section in a musical work; also, the Italian word for "tail"
What is coda?
An expressive piano piece, like those frequently composed by Fryderyk Chopin, that is meant to evoke the night
What is a nocturne?
This composer was so obsessed with an Irish actress he wrote a program symphony about an artist who's love is unrequieted who overdosed on opium, killed the object of his love, and then was executed.
Who is Hector Berlioz?
What is Symphonie Fantastique?
This is a multi-movement work for orchestra, usually following the format, I. fast, II. slow, III. dance-related, IV. fast.
This word is used to describe a song that has the same music for every verse.
What is strophic?
Wagner coined this term for a "leading motive" that represents a person, thing, or idea. John Williams later adapted the idea in his Star Wars soundtracks.
What is leitmotif?
This pianist and composer was so virtuosic and such a showman that frenzied audience members competed for his used cigarette butts and torn scarves. He later took minor religious orders in the Catholic Church.
Who is Franz Liszt?
Impressionistic works often depicted ephemeral images, such as light or water. Such is the case in "Lever du Jour" (aka "Daybreak") by this French composer.
This is a multi-movement instrumental work that was a forerunner to the symphony. Its movements were dance-related but were not actually intended for dancing.
What is a Baroque Suite?
What schematic is used to describe Rondo form? (Hint: it's not Abracadabra?)
What is ABACABA?
This term is used for music with a national identity, popular in the Romantic era especially in regions seeking unification and more political stability.
What is nationalist/nationalism?
This German composer might have seemed a bit peculiar when he claimed "I have made a discovery which will ensure the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years."
Who was Arnold Schoenberg?
The name of this programmatic, nationalistic work by Bedrich Smetana is the same as the name of a river that flows through Prague.
What is The Moldau?
This is a large-scale dramatic work for chorus, orchestra, and soloists. It features elaborate staging, acting, arias, recitatives, and choruses.
What is opera?
What form is represented by this schematic: A, A', A", A'", A"", etc?
What is Theme and Variations?
A Gregorian chant from the Catholic funeral mass that translates literally to "Day of Wrath;" It's quoted in a lot of music to represent Death.
What is Dies Irae?
This anti-Semitic German composer had an ego so big that he formed a completely new type of opera in which the music, text, and drama were intertwined. He even commissioned the creation of a new instrument and an opera house specifically dedicated his works.
Who is Richard Wagner?
A work by this composer featured polytonality while depicting the chaos of a Fourth of July picnic.
Who is Charles Ives?
This is a work for multiple soloists and orchestra, popular during the Baroque era.
What is a concerto grosso?
What are Exposition, Development, and Recapitulation?