Exploring Music Test 5

Claude Debussy

(1862-1918), French composer, associated with impressionism in music, attempts to emulate the same effect in music, when using a large orchestra-> sound is transparent, small patches of color, parallel movement, influenced by new scales & world music

Arnold Schoenberg

1874- 1951) Austrian composer, "Second school of vienesse composers", Mozart and Haydn are the 1st school (balance, symmetry etc.) Shoenberg & followers wanted to take music to the next logical state -> Atonality

Igor Stravinsky

(1882-1971) Russian composer, career in Paris& US, a musical chameleon- able to write convincingly in variety of styles, compositional career spans tonal & atonal music

B�la Bart�k

(1881-1945) Hungarian composer, his harmony can be bitingly dissonant and polytonality abounds in his work

Charles Ives

(1874-1954) American composer, nationalist & patriotic, father was a brass band leader, highly musically educated, encouraged to experiment with music, he became a insurance businessman, his music is mostly programmatic, makes extensive use of musical quo

William Grant Still

(1895-1978) an American nationalist composer, African American composer associated with the Harlem Renaissance- 1920s & 1930s: a flowering of AA arts & culture originating in Harlem NY, Still's music infuses elements of spirituals, blues, & Jazz

Aaron Copland

(1900-1990) American composer, 1st American composer to pursue compositional studies in France, studied with Nadia Boulanger- encouraged Copland to find influence in the indigenous& folk music of the US, 1940s compositional style reflects simplicity in mu

Nadia Boulanger

Was the teacher of Aaron Copland, encouraged Copland to find influence in the indigenous & folk music of the US

Scott Joplin

(1868-1917) Ragtime King, Standardized ragtime form: AABBACCDD, "Maple Leaf Rag

Louis Armstrong

Key figure of New Orleans Jazz= small combo (trumpet, clarinet, trombone, rhythm section) collective improvisation- 12 bar blues harmony; Armstrong- "Heebie Jeebies

Duke Ellington

Key figure or Swing/ Big Band Era

Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker

Key figures of Bebop, Gillespie: "Salt Peanuts" (1943) use instruments to sing "sing peanuts

Miles Davis

Key figure of cool jazz, established cool jazz, leading figure in other styles, ex. "Jeru" from Birth of the Cool (1957, album released)

John Coltrane

(1926-1967) Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and was later at the forefront of free jazz

John Williams

Revives the orchestral score in the 1980s, utilizes the leitmotif technique, applies thematic development (music changes as character changes or grows), ex. Williams: "Raider's March

John Cage

1912-1992) American composer, Philosophy of music: Music is everywhere & anything can be used to make music

John Adams

1947) American composer, leading post-minimalist composer

Modernism

breaking away from the influences of the past, highly experimental, explored innovative forms and musical styles, new scales beyond major & minor

Atonality

music w/ out a tonic (home pitch), all pitches created equally, consonances & dissonances no longer exist (emancipation of dissonance), works well for vocal works, less successful in instrumental works

Emancipation of dissonance

coined by Arnold Schoenberg, dissonances free to resolve (or not resolve) where ever they want, consonance & dissonance no longer exists

Pentatonic scale

not a "new" scale, 5 pitches, found in folk music throughout the world

Whole-tone scale

6 note scale, dreamy character

Octatonic scale

7 note scale

Impressionism

a movement in visual arts, began in France in 1860s, impressionist (visual arts) denied realism & expresses only the suggestion; very subjective, capture a single moment in time, play on light shadows & reflection, subject is not clear but ambiguous

Expressionism

the exploration of extreme emotions, artist intrigued by subconscious mind, dark & disturbed/ unsetting & distorted

Serialism: Twelve-tone method

uses 12 pitches to form the melodi & harmonic foundation

Sprechstimme ("speech-song")

vocal technique used in Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire

Primitivism

interest/ influence of non-western cultures, musically depicted through harsh dissonancs, pounding rhythms, ostinato patterns, folk music quotations

Nationalism in music

Having pride in your country through music

Ethnomusicology

comparative study of world music

Modernism

breaking away from influences in the past

Tin Pan Alley

(1950s) popular music industry in NY from 19th century

Ragtime

(1890s-1910s) piano players art, steady left hand, synced right hand, Afro American European traits

Blues

rural blues- man with guitar; city blues- female with jazz musicians

New Orleans-style Jazz

(1920s) small combo, collective improv., 12 bar blues

Blue note

pitches that drop slightly

Scat singing

do do do beep bop bop bop, good ex. = Louis Armstrong

Swing/ Big Band

(1935-1945) mass exodus to Chicago & points east, more instruments added: 8-20 musicians, Elevates Jazz -collective improvisation not possible, highly arranged music, very little (if any) improvisation, key figures: Duke Ellington, Count Basic, Benny Good

Bebop

(1940s) after hours jazz clubs in NYC, small combos, high level of virtuosity & improvisation, fast, jugged melodies, intended for jazz connoisseurs, chromaticism, turns jazz into an art form, Key figures: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie

Cool Jazz

(1950s) Small combos, Improvisation, but focused on group as opposed to virtuosity, unhurried style, cool, laid back -> opposite of Behop, Key figure: Miles Davis (established cool jazz, leading figure in other styles

Third Stream

combination of jazz & classical idioms; burrows classical forms -term coined in 1957 by Gunther Schuller, Wynton Marsalis: "Blood of the fields" (1996) jazz oratorio, about couple moving to freedom

Avant-garde Jazz

a free style jazz, was of height of Civil Rights movement -consciously breaks rules of music, key figures: ornette colemon (Free Jazz 1961) John Coltrane - Coltrane: "Acknowledgement" from A Love Supreme (1965)

Source music

Musical is coming from a logical source: rock band, radio, etc. -characters can her the music, -ex: Jack Rabbit Slim dance scene in "Pulp Fiction

Underscoring

the music is for the audiences benefit, establishes mood and atmosphere, the characters cannot hear the music, Ex. I'm flying scene from "Titanic

Rock and Roll

1950s, A blend of country & western and rhythm & blues, 12 bar blues harmonic formula, strong rhythm and emphasis on the backbeat, ex. Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley

Rhythms and Blues

1940s-1960s: solo singer with small instrumental accompaniment

Hip hop

Art (graffiti), Technology (DJing), Music (rap), Dance (break-dancing)

Rap

Rap: 1970s New York, MC rhymes rhythmically over DJ's beats, rhymes about boasting, ex. Run DMC; Gangsta Rap: 1990s Compton, California, grap

Grunge rock

early 1990s, Seattle, Washington, a hybrid of 1970s punk and heavy metal, Nirvana, Pearl Jam

Postmodernism

Post WWII, embraces tradition, present& future, new sound materials: Acoustic (used in non-traditional ways), Electronic (manipulation of recorded sounds)

Aleatoric/ chance music

aspects of the work are left up to choice or chance

Prepared piano

invented by Cage, modified by inserting various materials into the piano

MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface (1983), a communication protocol allowing synthesizers to communicate with each other, but also with computers, drum machines, mixing boards, software allows composer to record MIDI data (pitch, duration, dynamics, etc

Musique concrete

natural sounds manipulated on tape

Neoromanticism

- eclectric, musical vocabulary is Post- Romantic (tonal, emotional, lyrical, lush, etc)

Minimalism

emerged in 1970s, also called "trance music", a fragment of music is repeated numerous times with very little variation, a popular listener-friendly style of art music

Post-Minimalism

an offshoot of minimalism, a fragment of music is repeated numerous times, but it will eventually go out of synch

Debussy: Prelude to "The Afterrnoon of the faun

Lyrical, sinuous melody; chromatic at opening and closing; free-flowing rhythms, sense of floating, lacks pulse, middle section more animated; use of "blue" chords, with lowered thirds; homophonic, light and airy; ABA structure, evocative mood, sensual; r

Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, no. 18

Disjunct line, quasi-speechlike (sprechstimme); very fast, sounds free-flowing; harshly dissonant; complex counterpoint with canonic (strict imitative) treatment; rondeau text with poetic/ musical refrain; pointillistic, flickering instrumental effects; v

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring: part I, excerpts

Ball commissioned by Diahilev for Ballet Russes, very controversial -> about human sacrifice, cave man/ tribal costumes, primitivism music (harsh dissonance)

Ives, Country Band March

Forceful march theme, over which many well-known tunes occur, main march returns throughout; mostly duple, but with syncopation and triplets that disguise meter; harshly dissonant, polytonal; sectional (A-B-A-B'-A'); humorous, realism of amateur bands, no

Copland: Appalachian Spring, excerpts

Rising motive quietly unfolds, outlines a triad; very slow, tranquil, changing meter is imperceptible; overlapping of chords produces gentle dissonance; individual instruments featured; introduces the characters, evokes broad landscape at daybreak; theme

Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag

catchy syncopated melodies, disjunct; marchlike duple meter, syncopated in right hand, steady beat in bass; major key, shifts to new key in C section, decorative rolled chords; homophonic, chordal accompaniment to melody; sectional dance form, 4 sections

Strayhorn/ Ellington: Take the A Train

Disjunct, syncopated themes with call-and-response exchanges between instruments; broad quadruple meter, at moderate tempo, syncopate rhythms, short riffs; complex, advanced harmonies, chromatic, modulates to another key, 32-bar pop song form AABA for eac

Cage: Sonata V

Irregular phrases, small-range, undulating chromatic line, 2nd section more disjunct; opening with regular movement, then changing rhythmic flow, seemingly without a clear meter; minimal sense of harmony, dissonant ending; focus on linear movement; binary

Higdon: blue cathedral, excerpt

Neo-romantic, symphonic poem, lyrical lines, tonal, homophonic expressive & transcendent, large orchestra, emphasis on single lines & duets (flute: Higdon, Clarinet: her brother)

Adams: Dr. Atomic, excerpt

Short, choppy phrases with declaimed text, much repetition of ideas, syncopated with many offbeat accents; sharply dissonant; verse/refrain structure with repeated sections and text; fiery mood, mysterious electronic sounds; prominent timpani and brass; c