Musicology Midterm

simple binary form

Section A Section B

|: I - V :|| ||: V - I :||

Why is Classical Music Classical?

age of reason, favored artistic languages inspired by simple logic, moderation, and balance.

music became more tuneful, based on regular phrases and simple harmonies, pleasing, easy to listen to

musical ideas became more memorable, singable, contrasting

sonata and symphony

Balanced binary forms

Section A Section B

||: a b :|| ||: a b :|| I V V - I

what makes balanced binary different than simple binary

new material in the dominant is introduced enar the end of the first section and then restated in the tonic near the end of the second section. “b”

rounded binary form

A B A’

Section A Section B

||: a. b. :|| ||: x a b. :|| I - V mod I - I

empfindsam style

“sentimental” - seeks to move you by sounding or projecting emotions and states of mind - suits fortepiano

Classical Symphonies

adopted overall shape of Italian opera overture

3 movements - fast-slow-fast

Allegro, Andante, minuet/gigue

German centers of symphonic composition after 1740

Berlin and Mannheim

Standard Symphony

4 movements

fast-slow-dance-fast

minuet and trio as 3rd movement

lively finale, often marked Presto

sturm und drang

storm and stress

movement in German literature that relished tormented, gloomy, terrified, irrational feelings

moderated by composers, climax of empfindsamkeit

1760s and 1770s

3 sections of tripartite sonata form

exposition (A), development (B) , recapitulation (A’)

extroversive semiosis

imitates the sounds of nature (Vivaldi 4 seasons, hunting horns, birdsongs…)

introversive semiosis

network of relationships between the sounds themselves, irrespective of the outside references they may suggest

thematische Arbeit

the thematic work, what is being referenced to in introversive semiosis

Giovanni Sammartini

leading composer of early symphonies, 3 mvts, 1st mvt in sonata form

Haydn’s process of composition

began by improvising at keyboard, after devising theme he worked piece out more fully and write it down. then he wrote the completed score

Haydn’s Symphony 88 mvt. 1

Genre: Symphony

Author: Joseph Haydn

Title: Symphony no. 88 mvt. 1 - Adagio/Allegro

Period of Composition: 1787

Formal Structure: Sonata form - theme, exposition, development, recap

Other Features: folksy quality of themes, insertion of loud elements in contrast with lilting gestures

Haydn’s Symphony 88 mvt. 2

Genre: Symphony

Author: Joseph Haydn

Title: Symphony no. 88 mvt. 2 - Largo

Period of Composition: 1787

Formal Structure: Theme and Variation movement

Other Features: contrast between calm/pastoral theme and loud chords that arrive in the B section, emotional depth

Haydn’s Symphony 88 mvt. 3

Genre: Symphony

Author: Joseph Haydn

Title: Symphony no. 88 mvt 3 - Minuet/Trio

Period of Composition: 1787

Formal Structure: ABA - rounded binary

Other Features: country-dance feel rustic, trio has sustained drones and jerky accents

Haydn’s works and life

• among the first European composers to successfully move to free-lance composing

• worked under Esterházy patronage - enabled him to experiment with many possible forms and shapes that his music might take

Haydn in London

“free-lance” work, offered a ton of money to visit London and write symphonies and quartets for public concerts

Haydn’s symphonies

• regarded as serious work that demanded close listening

• made them longer, more complex

• constrasts

Paris Symphonies

commissioned for Concerts de la Loge Olympique

Haydn’s String Quartets

primarily music for amateurs, same 4 mvt. pattern of the symphony, first violin typically plays the main tunes

Haydn’s String Quartet in Eb, mvt. 1

Genre: String Quartet

Author: Joseph Haydn

Title: String Quartet in Eb, op. 33 mvt. 1 - Allegro moderato, cantabile

Period of Composition: 1781

Formal Structure: Sonata form

Other Features: balanced 4-measure phrases, call and response between violin and lower strings, strong group entrance, false recap in minor key

Haydn’s String Quartet in Eb, mvt. 2

Genre: String Quartet

Author: Joseph Haydn

Title: String Quartet in Eb, op. 33 mvt. 2 - Scherzo: Allegro

Period of Composition: 1781

Formal Structure: ABA

Other Features: Scherzo is Italian for Joke, injects lighter energy into dance form, pauses that keep off-balance, triple meter but duple melody

Haydn’s String Quartet in Eb, mvt. 3

Genre: String Quartet

Author: Joseph Haydn

Title: String Quartet in Eb, op. 33 mvt. 3 - Largo sostenuto

Period of Composition: 1781

Formal Structure: Theme and Variations but the theme is at the end

Other Features: pastoral, intimate feel, “jokey” feature that it is after the minuet, tense bridge. About sociability, integrating individual in collective endeavor,

Mozart’s musical education

taught by his father who was a well-regarded composer, author of violin treatise, exposed to every kind of music via travel,

mozart’s time in vienna

idolized as pianist and composwer, taught students, faced economic and political instability in vienna 1788-1790 (austro-turkish wars), career flounders

mozart’s vienna piano concertos

vehicles for his own concerts, showpieces to dazzle audiences, traditional 3 mvt pattern, balance between orchestral and solo portions

1st mvt - allegro, both orchestra and piano introduce thematic ideas with double exposition form

2nd mvt - resembles lyrical aria, form varies (sonata without development, variations, or rondo)

3rd mvt - finale, rondo or sonata rondo, themes with popular character, virtuoso style, one or more cadenzas

haydn’s vocal works

large-scale festive works for chorus/full orchestra/soloists

double exposition form in the classical concerto

Ritornello First Episode

Orchestra Solo with orchestra

1T tr 2T CT 1R tr 2T CT

A (no mod to V) A. mod. E

Mozart, Piano Sonata in F major, 1st mvt

Genre: Piano Sonata

Author: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Title: Piano Sonata in F major, I mvt. - Allegro

Period of Composition: 1786

Formal Structure: ABA - Sonata Form

Other Features: songlike theme, galant homophony, learned counterpoint, contrasts

Mozart, Symphony n. 41 in C Major - IV mvt.

Genre: Symphony

Author: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Title: Symphony n. 41 in C Major - IV mvt. - Finale

Period of Composition: 1788

Formal Structure: ABAcoda- Sonata Form

Other Features: climactic coda, five distinct themes, fugato writing

Taruskin on Mozart

sought to please both the connoisseurs and the crowd, but harmonies so intimate that even the skilled listener must listen to the piece multiple times. “inner portrait of himself”

Mozart, Piano Concerto n. 23 in A major, 1 mvt.

Genre: Piano Concerto

Author: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Title: Piano concerto n. 23 in A major, mvt 1 - Allegro

Period of Composition: 1786

Formal Structure: Sonata form with opening ritornello

Other Features: opening ritornello introduces first theme, punctuated with passages for the full orchestra, ends with ritornello in new key

Don Giovanni opera

first staged in prague, libretto by lorenzo da ponte, alternation of arias and recitatives, plus action numbers with multiple characters (ensembles), viennese mixture of comedy and tragedy

don giovanni

dissolute knight - libertine

leporello

don giovanni’s servant, comic character

donna anna

aristocratic woman

donna elvira

middle-class woman

zerlina

peasant woman

don ottavio

donna anna’s husband-to-be

masetto

zerlina’s husband, just married

the commendatore

donna anna’s father

synopsis of don giovanni

DG kills commendatore in duel after failed? rape of donna anna, continues to escape justie and pursue sexual pleasure, hides in cemetery and sees statue of commendatore, invites him to dinner jokingly, commendatore as “stone guest” shows up, kills DG

Mozart, Don Giovanni, Act 1, “Notte e giorno faticar”

Genre: Opera

Author: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Title: Don Giovanni, Act 1, Notte e giorno faticar

Period of Composition: 1787

Formal Structure: buffo-style aria

Other Features: brisk 4/4 meter reflects leprello’s working class perspective, simple repetitive and harmonic framework, melody stretches to reflect his dreaming about acting like a gentleman

Mozart, Don Giovanni, Act 1, La ci darem la mano

Genre: Opera

Author: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Title: Don Giovanni, Act 1, La ci darem la mano

Period of Composition: 1787

Formal Structure: duettino

Other Features: strong pull of dominant chords when DG sings “vieni”, music is unforgettable, gentle, meter shifts from 2/4 to 6/8 as they begin to find unity, folk-like simplicity

Taruskin’s assessment of Don Giovanni

DG is nothing but the “barely sublimated male sexual drive,” represents a historical stage in gender politics and sexual behavior that is badly in need of phasing out, women in opera are merely victims of DG’s sexuality - does not consider how music contributes to DG’s character, where sublimation of male sexual drive happens

Female characters in Don Giovanni

donna anna and donna elvira suffer greatly, yet elvira searches for DG throughout entire opera. Zerlina learns how to love Masetto after few minutes with DG,

E.T.A Hoffman on Don Giovanni

Thought DG’s character becomes noble through music, just desire to exceed common features of life

Peter Pesic on Don Giovanni

musical eros becomes heightened and transformed through the music, bringing erotic side of the soul to exemplary intensification. Mozart is the true Giovanni, seducing us through the music

Beethoven and the Enlightenment

realized that to achieve the dream of the Enlightenment, it would be a harsh battle, wrote music to suggest titanic battles against odds, first socially-involved intellectual-musician in Western culture

Beethoven’s first period

• wrote for prince karl von lichnowsky

• made living outside of church or court, independence that hadyn/mozart did not have until later

• wrote works for piano

  • sonate pathetique in c minor

Beethoven, Piano Sonata in C Minor, mvt. 1

Genre: Piano Sonata

Author: Ludwig von Beethoven

Title: Piano Sonata in C minor, “Pathetique” mvt. 1 - Grave, Allegro molto e con brio

Period of Composition: 1799

Formal Structure: Sonata form

Other Features: begins with grave introduction more seen in symphonies than sonatas, dense textures, allegro is excited

Beethoven’s second period

• acknowledged throughout Europe as foremost pianist and composer, symphonist on par with Haydn and Mozart

• drove publishers to bid with each other

• growing deafness

• composed in deliberate way with notebooks, allowed him to create music in which relation of each part to whole was sophisticated

Heiligenstadt Testament

Beethoven’s letter to his brothers that he intended for them to read after his death, describes his suffering when he realized his malady was incurable. In it, he considers suicide. After this, he seemed to emerge from his despair with a new resolve to continue composing

Beethoven, Symphony n. 3 - “Eroica” mvt 1

Genre: Symphony

Author: Ludwig von Beethoven

Title: Symphony n. 3, “Eroica” mvt 1 - Allegro con brio

Period of Composition: 1803

Formal Structure: very large Sonata form

Other Features: radical departure from Beethoven’s previous symphonic writing because it had a subject (hero) and expresses heroic greatness. Also longer and more complex than previous symphonies, story of challenge, struggle, and final victory - borders on no longer orchestral sound but noise. Theme transforms to portray different conflicts. May have been intended to be dedicated to Napoleon, but the dedication was thrown away after Napoleon declared himself emperor

Beethoven’s third period

• more abstract, inward-looking Beethoven

• wrote private genres - string quartets, piano sonatas, short piano pieces.

• large scale works were his 9th symphony and Missa Solemnis

• humurous, joyous beethoven, inner peace

characteristics of beethoven’s late style

• genres intended for private music making

• compositions for connoisseurs - late quartets published in score, meant to be studied, introspective character

• emphasis on continuity/discontinuity - intentionally blurring divisions between phrases, cadences on weak beats, between movements (played without pause)

• reconceiving multimovement form

• wants to speak to listeners without filter of conventions and formalities, critique of conventions

Beethoven and tempo

tempo had previously been assumed by italian lablel marking the style of dance. however, these traditional dances did not survive the disintegration of the aristocratic social order in europe post french revolution, needed new way to measure tempo. beethoven started using metronome indications in his music, often extremely rapid.

Beethoven, String quartet op. 132 in A minor, mvt 3

Genre: String Quartet

Author: Ludwig von Beethoven

Title: String Quartet op. 132 in a minor, mvt 3 - Molto adagio, Andante - Heiliger Dankgesang

Period of Composition: 1832

Formal Structure: Chorale, Dance

Other Features: In F Lydian, written for connoisseurs, made of two contrasting sections “molto adagio” sickness and “andante” health. extreme contrast of styles, temporal horizons. contrast is unresolved. vocal quality of the molto adagio

E.T.A. Hoffamn on Power of Instrumental Music

attending a music recital is like attending a religious service, composer is now a genius in string of geniuses, should be analyzed meticulously as organic masterworks. Reviewed Beethoven as only true romantic art form - no words or poetry to interfere, pure instrumental music is the only genuine romantic art form

19th century rebirth of song

interest in german history, cultural and language. “birdermeier” culture, emphasis on domesticity, amateurs could play lieder on piano at home, favorite for intense personal feeling

why the lied?

new awarness of national cultures after napoleon - bound language, customs, history, art as key to identity of a people

J.G. von Herder and Goethe collect folk-songs in German countryside

industrial revolution and political upheaval lead to sense of loss, nostalgia for past

cultural life retreated inside domestic walls after political resoration leads to increased police control

lied used native language, comprehended by all

Taruskin on the Romantic Lied

• romanticism originates from crisis of belief in reason as interpersonal guarantor of truth - may reach different conclusions, certain “truths” are limited to sphere of subject

• rise of concepts of the nation, glue that subsumes different individuals under particular ideas, values, and cultural practices

  • lied originates from encounter of empfindsamkeit and volkstumlichkeit - sensibility and folkliness

lied in the early days

from vom der musikalischen poesie by C.G. Krause

tunefulness, simplicity, strophic poems require strophic music, avoid reptition of words and extensive melismas, anyone should be able to sing it, trained or not

Robert Schumann

son of writer and book dealer, intense interest in literature, turned to composition and criticism (New Journal for Music), among first and strongest advocates of Chopin, Brahms, instrumental works of Schubert

Romantic era

transgressed rules and limits, expressed longing and richness of nature. focused on the individual and self-expression

Schumann’s songs

focused on love songs due to his marriage to Clara, got money from the lucrative genre, synthesized his two great interests: music and poetry

Schumann’s thoughts on music and poetry

music should capture poem’s essence, voice and piano should be equal hybrids, piano has long preludes and postludes, there should be a single motive throughout that is the central meotion or idea of poem

R. Schumann, “In the Wonderful Month of May”

Genre: Lieder

Author: Robert Schumann

Title: Dichterliebe - “In the Wonderful Month of May”

Period of Composition: 1840

Formal Structure: Strophic

Other Features: example of romantic fragment in music, refuses to settle in a key (anxiety), tonal ambiguity of opening and tension between voice and piano

Romantic paintings

visual sign of color, opposing academic and classical tendencies. often portrayed modern life at its darkest and most harrowing and exotic historical themes (fantastic)

Franz Schubert

first great romantic song writer, studied theory and performance, freelance composer, income from publication, last years clouded by illness. genius for melody, sense of harmonic color

Franz Schubert, “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel”

Genre: Lieder

Author: Franz Schubert

Title: “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel”

Period of Composition: 1814

Formal Structure: Strophic / loose rondo

Other Features: suggestive of both physical action (spinning the wheel) and emotions of the text (activated by Gretchen’s memory of her encounter with Faust). refrain is emotional anchor but emotion grows with memory. last refrain is incomplete. music stops to indicate she stopped spinning wheel briefly

schubertiads

schubert’s lieds, artless quality of folk song, declamatory, dramatic, intense, strong sense of harmonic color

Schubert’s song cycles

dwelled on single poet for some time. Had The Pretty Miller-Maid in 1823 and Winter’s Journey in 1827.

strophic form

same music each stanza, sustains single mood or image

modified strophic form

music repeats for some strophes, others vary or use new music - contrast or change

ternary or bar form

ABA or ABA1 or bar AAB

john wolfgang von goethe

philosopher, writer, poet playwright, made fortune of german lied in 19th century, embraced folkliness, rejected musical settings that overshadowed the text (schubert)

jacques louis david

leading painter in classicism, visited roman ruins, ancient monuments, adopted “classical” style

19th century decline of aristocratic patronage

war and inflation impoverished aristocracy, elimination of over 100 small states, reduced number of courts supporting the arts, musicians worked for public, success through specialization

middle class music-making in the 19th century

important outlet for middle and upper classes, money and leisure to purhcase and play instruments, more affordable, women particularly played piano,

romantic music market changes

amateurs created boom in publishing, composers appealed to amateur performers, tuneful melodies, attractive accompaniments, little technical difficulty, tonal ambiguity

program music

instrumental music with poetic, descriptive, or narrative subject

absolute music

no extramusical associations

organicism

reflected new concept of organic musical form, motivic links contribute to unity more than harmonic plan or conventional form

clara schumann

prominent pianist, discouraged from composing large-scale works, wrote several collections of lieder

Clara Schumann, Trio in g minor mvt. 3

Genre: Chamber Music

Author: Clara Schumann

Title: Trio in g minor, mvt. 3 - Andante

Period of Composition: 1846

Formal Structure: ABA

Other Features: melody appears three times, each on different instrument with more complex accompanying figuration. songlike themes,

Felix Mendelssohn

• more classical in style, but with romantic colorful orchestration and pictorial depiction.

• well traveled, musical landscapes written into overtures,

Fryderyk Chopin

• romantic composer, identified with the piano

• polish parents, toured germany and italy, settled in paris

• entered highest social circles, appealed his piano works to both amateurs and connoisseurs

  • dances - waltzes, polonaise

polonaise dances

triple meter, rhythmic figure of eight and two 16ths on first beat, asserts national identity

mazurka

polish folk dance, popular in high society ballrooms. standard triple meter, frequent accents on 2nd or 3rd beat, dotted rhythms, unusual ornaments, modal effects

Chopin, Mazurka in Bb major

Genre: Mazurka - polish dance on piano

Author: Fryderyk Chopin

Title: Mazurka in Bb Major

Period of Composition: 1830

Formal Structure: Rondo - ABACA

Other Features: deliberately jerky, evocative of real life mazurkas from polish countryside, beat expands and contracts

Chopin, Nocturne in Db Major

Genre: Nocturne

Author: Fryderyk Chopin

Title: Nocturne in Db Major

Period of Composition: 1835

Formal Structure: modified strophic with coda

Other Features: style draws on bel canto vocal style, Bellini opera arias, cadenza-like passage work in the right hand, sudden changes in emotional quality

Chopin preludes

composed with strong inspiration from Bach, covered all major and minor keys, sharply defined mood pictures, rich chromatic harmonies and modulations

rubato

“stolen time”, time extended, slowed down, or stretched beyond its literal duration.

R. Schumann “Eusebio”

Genre: Piano Sonata

Author: Robert Schumann

Title: Carnaval, no. 5, Eusebius

Period of Composition: 1835

Formal Structure: ABA

Other Features: visionary dreamer, dreamy fantasy, slow, undancelike, curving melody

R. Schumann “Florestan”

Genre: Piano Sonata

Author: Robert Schumann

Title: Carnaval, no. 6, Florestan

Period of Composition: 1835

Formal Structure: waltz, string of consciousness

Other Features: aggressive, volatile energy, offbeat sforzandos, never finding a satisfactory cadence