Music Appreciation 20th Century

In music, the early twentieth century was a time of ________.

revolt

The years following 1900 saw more fundamental changes in the ________ than any time since the beginning of the ________ era.

language of music; baroque

After 1900 each musical composition is more likely to have a unique system of ________ rather than be organized around a central ________.

pitch relationships; tone

Composers in the 20th c. drew inspiration from ________ and ________ music from all cultures, the music of Asia, ________, and Latin America, European art music from the ________ through the 19th c.

folk; popular; Africa; Middle Ages

American Jazz, with its ________ rhythms and ________ quality, had an influence on the French composer ________, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, and the American composers Aaron ________ and George ________.

syncopated; improvisational; Darius Milhaud; Copland; Gershwin

The ________ a technique widely used in the 20th C. is a rapid slide up or down a scale.

glissando

In 20th C. music string players are sometimes called on to use the ________ instead of the ________ on their bows.

stick of the bow; strings

________ instruments have become very prominent and numerous in 20th century music.

Percussion

Dissonance has been ________.

used freely

A ________ chord is a chord in which the tones are a fourth apart, instead of a third.

fourth

To create fresh sounds, 20th C. composers used scales borrowed from ________ cultures, scales they themselves ________ and ancient church ________.

non-Western; invented; modes

The use of two or more keys at one time is known as ________.

polytonality

The complete rejection of a tonal center, or treating each of the 12 tones equally, is called ________.

atonality

The first significant atonal pieces were composed around 1908 by ________.

Arnold Schoenberg

________ refers to a motive or phrase that is repeated persistently at the same ________ throughout a section.

Ostinato; pitch

________ is as rich and varied as 20th c. music itself; neither can be classified easily.

Melody

Recordings of much lesser-known music multiplied in ________ through the appearance of ________.

1948; long-playing disks

The first opera created for television was Gian-Carlo Menotti’s ________.

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Impressionism as a movement originated in ________.

France

The term impressionist derived from a critic’s derogatory reaction to Impression: Sunrise, a painting by ________.

Claude Monet

When viewed closely, impressionist paintings are made up of tiny ________.

colored patches

Impressionist painters were primarily concerned with the effect of ________, ________, and ________.

light; color; atmosphere

As impressionist painters broke from traditional depictions of ________, writers called symbolists rebelled against the conventions of French poetry.

reality

These poets emphasized fluidity, suggestion, and the purely musical, or ________, effects of words.

sonorous

In 1884, Claude Debussy won the Prix de Rome, which subsidized three years of study in Rome. But he left Italy after only two years because he lacked the musical ________ away from his beloved Paris.

inspiration

Having the opportunity of working away from France as a ________ while still in his teens, Debussy developed a lifelong interest in the music of ________.

pianist; Russia

Debussy was both attracted to and repelled by the music of ________.

Wagner

________ and ________ ideas often inspired Debussy, and most of his compositions have ________.

Literary; pictorial; tone color

Debussy’s music tends to sound ________ and spontaneous and almost ________.

free; improvised

Debussy’s treatment of ________ was revolutionary in that he tends to use a chord more for its special ________ and sensuous quality than for its function in a standard ________ progression.

harmony; color; harmonic

In order to ________ the sense of ________ Debussy turned to the medieval church modes, borrowed ________ scales from Javanese music, and developed the ________ scale.

drown; tonality; five-tone; pentatonic

A five-tone scale, such as that produced by the five black keys of the piano in succession, is called a ________.

pentatonic scale

Charles Ives wrote startlingly ________ music that was far ahead of its time.

original

During most of his lifetime, Charles Ives’s musical compositions accumulated in the ________ of his Connecticut farm.

barn

Charles Ives’s music contains elements of ________ and ragtime, ________ songs and barn dances, and ________ and church choirs.

village bands; patriotic; revival hymns

George Gershwin grew up on the lower east side of ________

Manhattan

George Gershwin left high school at the age of fifteen to become a ________ demonstrating new songs in a publisher’s salesroom.

pianist

In 1920, Gershwin’s song ________ was a tremendous hit.

Swanee

Gershwin usually collaborated with the lyricist ________.

Ira Gershwin

Gershwin’s career as a composer of music for the ________ was launched by the triumphant premiere of his ________ in 1924.

concert hall; Rhapsody in Blue

Rhapsody in Blue is not true ________, but it employs jazz-like rhythms and melodies, and the orchestration suggests many distinctive sounds of jazz.

jazz

________ was the name sometimes given to a flowering of African American culture during the years 1917 - ________.

Harlem Renaissance; 1935

His Afro-American Symphony (1931) was the first composition by a black composer to be performed by a major ________.

American symphony orchestra

Still wrote compositions with a uniquely African-American style that were performed to critical acclaim in ________.

New York

William Grant Still wrote ________, concert works, ________, and band arrangements.

film scores; operas

Aaron Copland was born in ________, New York.

Brooklyn

In 1925, after Copland returned from France, American music meant ________.

jazz

Copland’s name has become synonymous with American music because of his use of ________, ________ songs, and other folk tunes, ________, blues, and ________ elements, and subjects from ________ folklore.

revival hymns; cowboy; jazz; ragtime; American

In addition to his compositions, Copland made valuable contributions to music in America by directing ________ groups, writing books and ________, and organizing concerts of ________ music.

composer; magazine articles; contemporary

Appalachian Spring originated as a ballet score for the great modern dancer and choreographer ________.

Martha Graham

Jazz was created by predominantly ________ musicians preforming in the streets, bars, brothels, and dance halls of ________ and other southern cities.

African American; New Orleans

Jazz can be described generally as music rooted in ________ and characterized by ________ rhythm, a steady ________ and distinctive tone colors and techniques of performance.

improvisation; syncopated; beat

Both Lincoln Center and ________ in New York City have regular jazz series, and a Jazz ________ Orchestra has been founded at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Carnegie Hall; Masterworks

Early Jazz blended elements from many musical cultures, including west ________, American, and ________.

African; European

In Jazz, ________ and ________ occurs when a voice is answered by an instrument.

call; response

Along with ________ music, the immediate sources of jazz were ________ and ________.

band; ragtime; blues

Ragtime flourished in the United States from the ________ to about 1915.

1890

Ragtime is a style of composed piano music, performed at a ________ tempo, and generally in ________ meter.

moderate; duple

Blues grew out of African American folk music, such as ________ songs, spirituals, and the field ________ of slaves.

work; hollers

Blues usually follow a ________ pattern as a basis for ________.

12-bar; improvisation

Blues can be happy or sad, ________ or ________.

anger; hurt

Blues may be vocal or ________.

instrumental

Vocal blues often contain sexual references, are intensely ________, and deal with the pain of betrayal, ________, and unrequited love.

personal; desertion

The “Empress of the Blues” was ________.

Bessie Smith

Jazz is generally played by a small group of ________ to ________ players, or by a ________ of ten to fifteen players.

three; eight; Big Band

The backbone of a jazz ensemble is its ________ (piano, bass, percussion).

rhythm section

Jazz sound results from its variety of ________ inflections, the type of ________ employed, and the particular way tones are ________ and ________.

pitch; vibrato; attacked; released

________ and rhythmic ________ are two of the most distinctive features of jazz.

Syncopation; swing

The major center of jazz from about 1900 to 1917 was ________.

New Orleans

The melodic instruments, or cornet, clarinet, and trombone, of a Dixieland band were known as the ________.

front line

New Orleans jazz was usually based on a ________ or a ________ melody, a ragtime piece, or a popular song, or a twelve-bar ________.

march; church; blues

A new jazz style called ________ developed in the 1920s and flourished from 1935-1945.

swing

The typical swing band had about ________ musicians, grouped into three sections: ________, ________, and ________.

15; saxophones; brasses; rhythm

The King of Swing is generally acknowledged to have been ________.

Benny Goodman

One of the most important solo instruments of the swing era was the ________.

saxophone

Bebop developed in the early ________.

40s and went into the 50s

Bebop was meant for attentive ________ NOT ________.

listening; dancing

Bebop is usually played by small groups of ________ to ________ players.

four; six

Bebop was a rebellion against the commercialism and ________ of the swing bands.

written arrangements

Musical comedy is a type of theater that fuses ________ script, ________, and ________ with music, ________ and ________.

dramatic; acting; spoken dialogue; singing; dancing

Generally, music comedy is in ________ acts.

two

In contrast to opera, musicals tend to use simpler harmonies, melodies, and forms; it contains more ________ and its songs have a narrower pitch range.

spoken dialogue

A variety show with songs, comedy, juggling, acrobats, and animal acts, but no plot is called ________.

vaudeville

The golden era of American musical theater was created from about 1920 - ________.

1960

Some of the composers who contributed to the creation of the golden era of American musical theater were George ________, Cole ________, Richard ________, and Frank ________.

Gershwin; Porter; Rodgers; Loesser

OKLAHOMA! by Rodgers and Hammerstein was a landmark in the integration of dance, songs, and plot. Like jazz, the Broadway musical WAS affected by the ________ of the 1960s.

“rock revolution”

Bernstein was a 20th Century culture hero — ________, pianist, ________, lecturer, and ________ of orchestral and vocal works.

conductor; author; composer

Leonard Bernstein began his spectacular career as a substitute conductor of the ________ on only a few hours’ notice.

New York Philharmonic

Bernstein’s music is enlivened by syncopations and ________ meters.

irregular

Bernstein’s music is infused with ________ and ________ rhythms.

jazz; dance

Bernstein’s music bridged the worlds of “serious” and ________ music.

popular

Bernstein was a well-known composer of orchestral and ________ works, an author-lecturer, and a ________.

piano; conductor

In addition to his famous musicals, Bernstein also wrote successful ________, ________, and ________ works.

orchestral; chamber; choral

Berstein’s musicals include West Side Story, Wonderful Town, and On the Town. West Side Story is loosely based on Shakespeare’s ________ is set in the slums of New York, and deals with the conflict between gang rivalry and youthful love.

Romeo and Juliet

In the first “talking movie,” The Jazz Singer (1927), starring ________ the sound was recorded on ________ discs.

Al Jolson; vinyl

By 1929, new technology enabled sound to be recorded directly on the ________.

celluloid filmstrip

Synchronized with images on a screen, ________ provides momentum and continuity, and suggest mood, atmosphere, character, and dramatic action.

film music

Important composers of American film music include: Franz Waxman (The Bride of Frankenstein, 1935), Aaron Copland (The Heiress, 1948), Dimitri Tiomkin (The Old Man and the Sea, 1958), Bernard Hermann (Vertigo, 1958), and ________ (Star Wars, 1977; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2003)

John Williams

Up to the 1950’s, a major Hollywood film studio, like MGM or Paramount, would have a ________ and staff composers, conductors, and arrangers.

resident orchestra

Since the 1960’s, most film music is composed, arranged, and performed by ________.

freelance musicians