Music History III Exam IV - Listenings

Pampeana No. 2 for Cello and Piano

Alberto Ginastera

1949-1950

Argentina

In Ginastera’s “Subjective Nationalism” style (blending native and modern styles)

Exploring Argentine folk musical traditions through modernist styles

Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima

Krzysztof Penderecki

1960

Poland

Brought him to international fame, initially an abstract work called “8’37” that explores texture, timbre, process

Very few specific pitches/durations given and time is measured by seconds

For 52 string instruments, each with their own part!!

Extended techniques and use of tone clusters and microtones

Dedicated it to Hiroshima victims AFTER first hearing it performed bc of its emotional power

Atmospheres

Gyorgy Ligeti

1961

Vienna

Excerpt used in 2001: A Space Odyssey, along with three other pieces

Micropolyphonic!! Very dense texture - all the parts move independently at small intervals, creating a “sound mass,” individual lines indistinguishible

November Steps

Toru Takemitsu

1967

Japan

Double concerto contrasting the shakuhachi and the biwa (Japanese instruments) with the Western orchestra

A shakuhachi is a type of flute, and a biwa is a kind of lute

Black Angels: Thirteen Images from the Dark Land, No. 5 “Danse macabre” and No. 6 “Pavana Lachrymae”

George Crumb

1970

USA

Crumb’s reaction to commentary on the Vietnam War and social unrest surrounding it

For amplified string quartet using many extended techniques, also electric string instruments, crystal glasses, and 2 suspended tam-tam gongs

DIES IRAE CHANT, especially in “Danse macabre!!”

“Pavana Lachrymae” - specifies Renaissance-style consort ensemble, then quotes Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” String Quartet

O Superman

Laurie Anderson

1982

New York City

Insanely popular because of its music video on MTV!

The song is about how technology has failed us as humans, and ties that in with the American peoples’ disappointment in their government, specifically with their military operations

This song was written in response to Operation Eagle Claw, a rescue mission that was aborted because of failed military technology

Piano Phase

Steve Reich

1967

New York City

Minimalist piece!! The same melodic motif for the entire piece on two pianos, but the pianos are “out of phase” with one another for the whole piece

Phrygian Gates

John Adams

1978

USA

John Adams’ style is more melody-driven and Neo-Romantic

Phrygian Gates was inspired by rhythmic, driving rain on Adams’ roof

Partiels

Gerard Grisey

1975

France

Defining piece of spectral music!

The first note is a low E on trombone, followed by a chord where different instruments play pitches derived from a spectral analysis of the first pitch (basically playing overtones)

Uses sum tones and difference tones (“ghost” notes created by your ear - sum tones are higher, difference tones are lower)

Offertorium

Sofia Gubaidulina

1980, later revised

Russia

Violin concerto

Inspired by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and compares it to the self-sacrifice of a composer for the sake of her music

Met a famous violinist in a taxi cab and wrote it for him (though he defected from the Soviet Union, so it was premiered in Europe)

The whole piece is built on THE KING’S THEME (the one that Frederick the Great wrote for Bach’s A Musical Offering)

Seven Magnificat Antiphons, No. 6 “O Konig Aller Volker”

Arvo Part

1988, rev. 1991

Berlin

Choral work in Part’s tintinnabuli composition style!!

(Melody - m-voice, D major tonic triad - t-voice)

Gregorian Chant echoes

L’amour de Loin

Kaija Saariaho

2000

France

Opera!! About a 12th-century Lebanese troubadour who falls in love with a Tripoli princess

Unrequited love!!

Spectralist elements

Modernist pitch language - music based on arrays of semitones and tritones within perfect fifths

Phrasing influenced by medieval troubadour music!

Baroque influence, too - cross-time AND cross-cultural references!!

Partita for 8 Voices, No. 1 “Allemande”

Caroline Shaw

2012

USA

Written for the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth

Title references the Baroque danse suite genre

Incorporates non-Western singing styles from Korea, Tuva/Siberia, Georgia, Inuit

Also features styles/textures echoing Gregorian chant, imitative polyphony, early American Puritan music

Very experimental work

Won Pulitzer Prize!

Controversy in 2019 - cultural appropriation of Inuit throat-singing techniques?