Decathlon 26-27 Music Section 4

Perilous Journeys

How many pirate incidents occured in 2024?

116

How many pirate incidents occured per week in 2024?

More than two

What is the destination of the journey in the fourth movement of Symphonie Fantastique (Fantastic Symphony)?

A battlefield

In eras when there were no loudspeakers or radios, what were used to communicate information to troops?

Musical instruments

What poet referred to the army's use of musical instruments in ancient rome?

Virgil

How did European nations in the 16th century communicate information with their soldiers?

Distinctive drum rhythms and patterns

How would the Pilgrim militia assemble in the American colonies?

By beat of drum, each with firelock or musket, in front of the captains door

Why was the genre of marches created?

To dignify ceremonies, lift morale, and keep soldiers marching in step

What did Machiavelli note about music in his Art of War?

The longstanding use of music to reguate armies

Who did the Prussian princess Anna Amalia compose for Frederick the Great?

Regiments of her brother Frederick the Great's army

What did Anna Amalia compose for her brother?

Marches

What genre is the cousin of the functional march?

The funeral march

How is the tempo of the funeral march different from the functional march?

Its slower

How is the percussion instrumentation of the funeral march different from the functional march?

They are muffled so their beats are subdued

How are the rhythms of the funeral march different from the functional march?

Dotted rhythms are frequent

How is the mode of the funeral march different from the functional march?

Its typically in a minor mode and modulations often move to a key that is a third away, such as the mediant or submediant

How many melodies do funeral marches typically have?

Two or more

What direction do funeral marches typically move?

Downward

What did a fife-and-drum unit in New York assist with in 1766?

The Feast of Saint Patrick

What ensemble gave a concert in 1767 in New York?

An expanded instrumental ensemble attached to the Royal American Regiment (The 60th foot)

What did the 64th regiment do in 1771 in Boston?

They gave a three-act performance featuring the latest English concert works

What type of march is The Padstow Lifeboat considered?

A stylized march

Who was the most famous march composer?

John Philip Sousa

How did Sousa start his career?

writing for the U.S. Marine band

How many marches did Sousa write?

136

What are the best known marches of Sousa?

Semper Fidelis, The Washington Post, and The Stars and Stripes Forever

What is an oratorio?

A sacred opera, but without costumes, sets, or staging

How composed the oratorio Saul?

George Frideric Handel

What is the most famous part of Handel's Saul?

The Dead March

What does Handel's Dead March honor?

The Israelites who had fallen in battle

What was Handel's Dead March re-used for in 1965?

Winston Churchill's 1965 funeral service

For what U.S. presidents was the Dead March played for at their funerals?

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln

What did Fryderyk Chopin compose in 1837?

Marche Funebre (Funeral March)

What did Chopin compose Funeral March for?

A piano

What was Funeral March re-orchestrated for in 1849?

To be a functional march and accompany Chopin's own burial

What president was Chopin's Funeral March used for at their funeral?

John F. Kennedy

What queen of England was Chopin's Funeral March used for at her funeral?

Queen Elizabeth II of England

What is the fourth movement of Symphonie Fantastique?

March to the Scaffold

Who wrote Symphonie Fantastique?

Hector Berlioz

Why did Berlioz earn a medical degree?

To satisfy his parents

What did Berlioz do after earning a medical degree?

He abandoned medicine and became an aspiring musician

When did Berlioz enroll in the Paris Conservatoire?

The fall of 1826

What play did Berlioz see in 1827?

Hamlet

Who in the 1827 production of Hamlet that Berlioz saw swept him off his feet?

The female star Miss Harriet Smithson

What gave Berlioz the idea of taking programmatic music and applying it to a multi-movement symphony?

Hearing performances of symphonies by Beethoven in 1828

How did Berlioz add to the impact of Symphonie Fantastique?

By making the symphony cyclic

What does it mean if a composition is cyclic?

There is a repeating melody

How is Symphonie Fantastique cyclic?

It has a melody that repeats throughout the song that represents his unattainable Beloved

What is the premise of Symphonie Fantastique?

An Artist takes the drug opium and imagiens that he sees his beloved everywhere he turns

What does Berlioz designate the melody that represents the Beloved in Symphonie Fantastique as?

Idee fixe

What is movement 1 of Symphonie Fantastique?

Dreams--Passions

How does the idee fixe appear in Movement 1 of Symphonie Fantastique?

An expansive, broadly sweeping theme

What is Movement 2 of Symphonie Fantastique?

A Ball

How does the idee fixe appear in Movement 2 of Symphonie Fantastique?

In triple meter as a waltz

What is Movement 3 of Symphonie Fantastique?

Scene in the Country

What instrumentation is in Movement 3 of Symphonie Fantastique?

Two woodwinds mimicking a traditional melody piped by Swiss cowherds

What does the Artist hear in Movement 3 of Symphonie Fantastique?

The Idee fixe, despite being in a remote location

What does the artist dream of in Movement 4 of Symphonie Fantastique?

He has killed his Beloved and is being paraded to the guillotine where he will be punished for his crime

What happens in the climactic moments of Movement 4 of Symphonie Fantastique?

The Idee Fixe appears briefly

What does the Artist envision in Movement 5 of Symphonie Fantastique?

Himself at a witches' Sabbath

What is a Sabbath?

A midnight meeting of assorted spooky characters

How is the idee fixe played in Movement 5 of Symphonie Fantastique?

Its distorted

What does the distorted way the idee fixe is played in Movement 5 of Symphonie Fantastique suggest?

The Beloved is now part of that frightening crowd

When did Symphonie Fantastique make its premiere?

December 5, 1830

By 1830, what was preoccupying Berlioz in his love life?

He had fallen in love and gotten engaged with another woman

What award did Berlioz win?

The Prix de Rome

What did the Prix de Rome require Berlioz to do?

Go to Italy and study composition

Why did Berlioz start travelling back to France from Rome after only three weeks of studying composition in the Prix de Rome?

His fiance sent him no letters and we wanted to know why

What did Berlioz not know about his fiance until he was returning home from the Prix de Rome?

His fiance already married someone else

What did Berlioz vow to do after learning his fiance was married to someone else?

Murder his fiance, her husband, and her mother

What did Berlioz actually do after learning his fiance was married to someone else?

Spare his intended victims and return to Rome

Who did Berlioz manage to give a ticket to go to the 1832 revised version of Symphonie Fantastique?

Smithson

When did Smithsom and Berlioz get married?

1833

Why was Smithson's and Berlioz's marriage not happy?

A language barrier and their two artistic temperaments

How long did it take for Berlioz and Smithson to drift apart?

6 years

What is March to the Scaffold in French?

Marche au Supplice

How did Movement 4 of Symphonie Fantastique (March to the Scaffold) originate?

As a March to the Guards in 1826 for an opera that was never performed

What are the only timbres heard in the first measure of March to the Scaffold?

Three timpani and the lowest strings, cellos and basses

What are the cellos and basses playing in March to the Scaffold?

Pizzicato notes on each beat of the steady pulse

What mallest do the percussionists use in March to the Scaffold?

Sponge-headed mallets

What are sextuplets?

Whenever a beat is divided into six equal parts

What rhythm are the timpanists performing in March to the Scaffold?

Sextuplets

What is the rhythm the horns use to respond to the percussion in March to the Scaffold?

quarter/half/quarter/half or short-long-short-long

What effect is created whenever Berlioz places the half-note off of the beat?

A mild syncopated effect

What key is the first theme of March to the Scaffold in?

G minor

How are the string instruments playing in the first theme of March to the Scaffold?

Arco

What does it mean if instruments are playing Arco?

They return to using the bow rather than plucking strings

What do the string instruments play in the first theme of March to the Scaffold?

A descending melody that diminuendos

What do the bassoons play when Theme one of March to the Scaffold repeats?

A countermelody that opens with dotted notes

What does the percussion enter with during the 3rd statement of theme one of March to the Scaffold?

Steady sextuplets

What happens at the end of the third statement of theme one of March to the Scaffold?

Nearly the whole orchestra bursts in with a short, raucous, fortissimo interruption

What do the strings return to doing when the fifth statement of theme 1 of March to the Scaffold begins?

Playing pizzicato

When the fifth statement of theme one of March to the Scaffold begins, what do the higher members of the string family begin playing?

An inversion of the theme

What does it mean if a melody in inverted?

The direction of a melody has been reversed

While the inversion of the melody occurs in the fifth statement of theme one of March to the Scaffold, what do the bassooons play?

A humorous and steady line of eigth notes

What about the second theme of March to the Scaffold convey a different mood than a funeral march?

Ascending direction of melody, forte volume, and scoring for lively winds and brass

In theme 2 of March to the Scaffold, what is Berlioz conveying?

The enthusiasm of the crowd who are watching the Artist's procession toward the scaffold

What does theme 2 share with theme 1 of March to the Scaffold?

The same short-long-short-long motif

What does the third theme of March to the Scaffold have nothing in common with?

A funeral march

What does theme 3 of March to the Scaffold consist of?

Short fortissimo calls and forte responses between the brass and woodwind players