Music Appreciation Exam 4

Know the chronological order of the following eras of music

• Medieval

• Renaissance

• Baroque

• Classical

• Romantic

• 20th Century

Know what event is used as the beginning of the medieval period

Fall of Roman empire

Know what event is used as the beginning of the Classical period

Bach’s death

Know some reasons why there is a relative scarcity of medieval music compared to other eras

you know this

it’s NOT that the church had an issue with it

Know the basis for the rhythm in medieval sacred music

the text

Know how medieval music was notated

neumes

Who was the priest and reformer who also wrote chorale-style hymns?

Martin Luther

Know the musical textures used in the Renaissance and the settings in which they were used.

Dominant polyphony; homophony in hymns and chorales

Medieval instruments

• drums/cymbals/tambourines/bells

• strings – both plucked (harps/lyres) & bowed (vielle/rebec)

• pipes/horns/bagpipes/clarion/shawm/flutes

• small pipe organs (originally water organs)

Renaissance instruments

• drums/cymbals/tambourines/bells

• strings – both plucked (harps/lutes/vihuela) & bowed (viol/violin/viola/viola da gamba/viola da braccio/cello/contrabass)

• crumhorn/recorder/horns/bagpipes/shawm/sackbut/ serpent

• clavichord/harpsichord/organ/virginal

Baroque instruments

• harpsichord as a favored instrument

• small orchestras – especially strings & woodwinds, sometimes also harpsichord

• timpani

• strings – both plucked (harps/lutes) & bowed (viol/violin/viola/viola da gamba/cello/ contrabass)

• recorder/flute/oboe/bassoon

• trumpet (no valves)/trombone

• clavichord/harpsichord/organ/virginal

Classical instruments

• Piano (fortepiano) replaces the harpsichord and clavichord

• Lute and Baroque guitar mostly disappear and classical guitar (six-string, Spanish) becomes more popular

• Strings are lumped into violin, viola, violoncello, and contrabass

• Clarinet is added to woodwinds, recorder gets replaced by flute

• Natural horn is used, natural trumpet still used, but gets keys (no valves)

• Serpent is used for lower sounds

• Percussion section gets bigger (cymbals, bass drum)

• Banjo appears in Americas (with African origins)

• Fife and drum are used on battlefields, bagpipes in British Isles

Romantic instruments

• violins, violas, cellos, basses, harp

• oboe, bassoon, clarinet, flute, sometimes bass clarinet, english horn, & piccolo, saxophones used in bands

• valve trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba, sometimes euphonium (band) or bass trombone

• large percussion section

• sometimes piano

Composers of middle ages

• Machaut

• Hildegard von Bingen

• Leonin

• Perotin

• Francesco Landini

Composers of Renaissance

• Guillame du Fay

• Martin Luther

• Josquin des Prez

• Henry VIII

• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

• William Byrd

• Thomas Tallis

• John Dowland

Baroque composers

• Vincenzo Galilei

• Claudio Monteverdi

• Vivaldi

• Handel

• Bach

Classical Composers

• CPE Bach

• Boccherini

• Mozart

• Haydn

Romantic composers

SO MANY

Beethoven and Rossini

Modern composers

• Stravinsky

• Schoenberg

• Philip Glass

• Alberto Ginastera

• Carl Orff (Carmina)

• Rachmaninoff

• Leonard Bernstein

• Copland

• Gershwin

Vincenzo Galilei

• father of Galileo

• Baroque composer

• member of Florentine Camerata

SDG

to God alone be the glory

BWV

Bach’s works

Bach overview (extensive)

• born Eisenach, Germany, last child of Johann Ambrosius Bach (violinist, town musician)

• raised from age 10 by his brother (organist)

• father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all town musicians (stadtpfeiffer), uncles all musicians

• went to boarding school in 1700

• finished at age 17, started work – developed reputation as a keyboardist

• first organ position at age 18

• reputation for being argumentative young man

• made 280 mile trip on foot for organ lessons

• 1707 married Maria Barbara Bach (singer, 2nd cousin)

• had seven kids, but only four survived past age 1

• 1717 tried to take another job and insisted upon instant dismissal from current job, but was not released & ended up jailed for a month for his “stubbornness” – eventually freed and fired

• 1717 Kapellmeister for Prince Leopold

• 1720 left for a trip with wife in good health, but she had passed away by the time he returned 2 months later

• 1721 married Anna Magdalena Wilcke (also a singer)

• had 13 more children, 6 of whom survived to adulthood (all children became musicians – even the one who studied law and the “feeble-minded” one)

• 1723-1750 Thomaskantor, Leipzig

• taught in St. Thomas School – choir, Latin (with help), and religious studies

• composed new music for every Sunday worship service for both churches (and sometimes a 3rd)

• lived at the school

• complained about children of wealthy families

• returned to polyphonic style at the end of his life

• lost eyesight near end, had eye surgery and passed away in 1750

Mozart overview

• 1756: W. A. Mozart born in Salzburg, father, Leopold, was violinist

• Sister, Maria Anna (“Nannerl”) was 3 ½ years older, also musician

• 1762-1773: Father became performance manager for Wolfgang and Nannerl as they toured Europe as child prodigies

• 1773-1781: found work as a court musician in Salzburg, Paris, and Vienna

• 1782: married Constanze Weber, soprano & business woman

• had 6 children, only 2 of whom survived infancy

• passed through some years of financial difficulty, getting better by 1790

• became sick in Sept 1791, was bedridden by Nov with “swelling, pain, and vomiting” and passed away in Dec. at age 35, works catalogued by Köchel (K.)

Haydn overview

• 1732: born in Austrian village near Hungary, father was a folk musician

• went at age 6 to his uncle’s home where he learned harpsichord and violin

• 1740: passed an audition to work as a choirboy in Vienna (stayed 9 years, living in his choir director’s home, but still not well-fed)

• 1749: snipped off the pigtail of another boy and was fired (already too old for high parts in choir), then lived with friends and on the streets for 3 years

• 1760: married Maria Anna Theresia Keller – 40 years unhappy, no children

• 1761: went to work for Prince of Esterházy (Hungary, stay about 30 years)

• 1795: Kapellmeister in Vienna, summers in Hungary, retired 1803, died 1809

Beethoven overview

• 1770: born in Bonn (Germany), taught by his father (bad relationship)

• 1792-1802: years in Vienna, early writings

• 1802-1812: Heiligenstadt – wrote letter to his brothers about his progressive deafness and temptation to commit suicide (never sent), moody in romance, alcoholic, family issues – tragic life, but contributed great beauty to mankind

• Eroica Symphony 1803/04 (originally “Bonaparte”), to a “great man” in 1806

• 1810: Für Elise

• 1811-1812: Symphony No. 7, II. Allegretto

• completely deaf by around 1815 – became very lonely

• 1822-1824: wrote Symphony No. 9, suffered from fever/dropsy near end of life

• works are catalogued with opus numbers and WoO (works without opus)

Rossini

• 1792: born to trumpeter & singer

• 1802: studied scores from Mozart & Haydn with a priest

• 1810: first opera performed in Venice

• 1815-1829: wrote operas for Naples, Vienna, London, & Paris

• 1830-1855: ceased to write, had intermittent illness, lost family members, had marital issues, fought bouts of depression, had enough money from his first 39 operas to live on (went into a sort of early, unplanned retirement)

• 1855-1868: returned to Paris with his 2nd wife, had frequent Saturday visitors in their salon despite his ill health, wrote “sins of the old age”

• Guillaume Tell (1829) – overture (collection of melodies at beginning) often performed alone

Fanny Mendelssohn

• 1805: born in Hamburg (Germany), granddaughter of 2 notable Jewish families

• 1816: parents had her baptised as a Christian, along with her siblings (parents were baptised in 1822)

• at some point parents took on a second last name (Bartholdy)

• lived in Hamburg, Berlin, and Paris

• by age 14 could play all 24 Prelude and Fugues from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier from memory

• a letter about her father said "He has adorable children and his oldest daughter could give you something of Sebastian Bach. This child is really something special."

Felix Mendelssohn

• 1809: born in Hamburg, lived in the same places as Fanny, baptised with her, liked to paint

• extremely close to his sister, continuing into adulthood– called her his “wisdom”

• generally didn’t use the name Bartholdy

• studied C.P.E. and J.S. Bach – promoted Bach’s works

• 1837: married, had five children

• In Heavenly Love Abiding (words 1850, Anna Waring, tune Felix Mendelssohn Seasons 1843)

• 1842: wrote incidental music to be used with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

• 1847: heart-broken at death of sister, died a few months later of a stroke

Robert Schumann

• 1809: German –  born in Saxony

• 1826: went to Leipzig to study law, but played piano and read instead

• 1829: began studying piano with Friedrich Wieck, fell in love with his daughter, Clara, after some years (father did not approve)

• fought in courts for four years to marry Clara, succeeded in 1840, one day before she turned 21

• traveled extensively with his wife (concert pianist), had eight children

• taught at the Leipzig conservatory with Mendelssohn

• 1847: lost their first son and their friends Felix & Fanny

• developed mental illness, tremors, chills, auditory disturbances

• hospitalized after a suicide attempt in 1854, died in sanatorium in 1856

Clara Schumann

• 1819: German –  born in Leipzig

• 1825: parents divorced, lived with father (piano teacher)

• took hour-long piano lessons every day

• fought in courts for four years to marry Clara, succeeded in 1840, one day before she turned 21

• traveled extensively with Robert, had eight children – was the main bread-winner as a concert pianist

• 1853: met Brahms (then 20 years old), he continued to help her during the years her husband was in the sanatorium

• lived 40 years after the death of her husband, taught and performed

Brahms

• 1833: German –  born in Hamburg, learned violin from his father

• 1840: took piano, but preferred composing

• 1853: was introduced to the Schumanns, helped Clara during Robert’s illness

• became infatuated with Clara (14 years older), but never married her

• was an extreme perfectionist and destroyed many of his works

• 1868: Wiegenlied (cradle song)

• 1897: passed away in Vienna, buried in cemetery there

Richard Wagner

• German, from Leipzig, critical of Mendelssohn siblings

• used opera as his means of expression – believed in the “total work of art”

• was his own librettist

• designed his own opera house for his own works

• used and promoted leitmotif (still used by film composers today)

• pushed harmony (tension and resolution) to its limits – LONG build up

• known for very long operas – 4 and 5 hours

• The Ring Cycle, based on Nordic and German legends (15/16 hours) has 4 operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung

• idolized by Hitler

Mahler

• Bohemian/Austrian/Jewish, composed in late Romantic style, lush harmony

• symphonies all 60-100 minutes, believed in “curse of the 9th”

• 1901/1902: Symphony No. 5, 4th Mvt. Adagietto

Richard Strauss

• German conductor and composer, late Romantic style

• head of the Reichsmusikkammer and conductor for Bayreuth festival

  • 1933-35: “Do you believe I am ever, in any of my actions, guided by the thought that I am 'German'? Do you suppose Mozart was consciously 'Aryan' when he composed? I recognise only two types of people: those who have talent and those who have none.”

• Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, 1896 (based on novel by Nietzsche)

Claude DeBussy

• French Impressionist (hated the term)

• strongly against harmonies of Mahler and Wagner

• felt the symphony was obsolete

• rejected strict interpretation of major/minor tonalities (used whole-tone scale a lot)

• 1890/1905: Clair de Lune

Maurice Ravel

• French Impressionist, student of Fauré 

• orchestrated Pictures at an Exhibition for Mussorgsky

• joined French army as a truck driver in WWI, got dysentery & frostbite

• refused to ban German music during the war, so his own country banned his

• taxi accident with head wound in 1932

• 1928: Boléro

Igor Stravinsky

• Russia 1882-1920 – became famous for ballet

  • The Firebird 1910

  • Petrushka 1911

  • The Rite of Spring 1913 (example of primitivism)

• France 1920-1939 – neoclassical period

• United States 1939-1971 – turned toward serialism & atonality

• buried in Venice

• Rite of Spring, ballet, caused a riot

Philip Glass

• American, associated with minimalism

• has described himself as composing “music with repetitive structures”

• studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris

• has written several operas, symphonies, concertos, & string quartets

• libretto to Akhnaten is in Biblical Hebrew, ancient Egyptian, and Akkadian – written by Glass with input from linguists

• does not use violins in Akhnaten, but does use a counter-tenor as the lead

Alberto Ginastera

• Argentinian of Spanish (Catalan) and Italian descent

• studied with Aaron Copland, taught Astor Piazzolla

• has some nationalistic works, but also has an expressionistic side (often atonal/dissonant and expressing turmoil)

• uses some folk tunes and rhythms in expressionistic ways

Carl Orff

• German, grew up listening to Wagner, Mahler, & Richard Strauss, also studied Schoenberg & Debussy

• fought in the German army in WWI

• was a member of the Reichsmusikkammer during WWII

• Carmina Burana based on medieval documents found in a Benedictine monastery in Latin and in a form of medieval German

• Carmina Burana, “O Fortuna” 1937

• underwent “denazification” in 1946, judged to have been “compromised” but not a subscriber to the Nazi doctrine – tried to get along with everyone

• after the war became heavily involved in music education for children

Leonard Bernstein

• first American conductor to lead a major symphony orchestra

• well-known as a conductor (New York Philharmonic) – though he also composed and promoted music education

• 1956 Overture to Candide

• 1957 West Side Story

• conducted all over the world

• known for activism with left-leaning causes

• requested his own FBI file in 1980s through Freedom of Information Act – and found they had kept over 800 pages on him

Sergei Rachmaninoff

• Russian/American pianist, composer, conductor

• after Russian revolution moved to New York in 1918

• considered the last of the Romantic composers – out of step with his peers – atonality was all the rage – but not with him

• only wrote 6 works after leaving Russia

• had severe bouts with depression in his early years, but improved in the US

• 1892, Elegy Op. 3 No. 1

Gamelan

indonesian gongs

Which instruments were added during the Romantic period?

increased use of brass, valves added

Piano

more defined strings

What era is associated most with programmatic music?

Romantic

What are common Romantic era themes?

• use of dissonance and resolution

• tempestuous and expressive

• pushing the limits with classical era forms

• programmatic, nationalistic, & exotic music common

Who was the composer at the beginning of the Romantic period who composed opera buffa and stopped writing early in his career?

Rossini

Who was Clara Schumann and what was her primary instrument?

wife of Robert Schumann

concert pianist

Which composer was famous for writing a set of four very long operas?

Wagner

What ballet caused the beginning of a riot in 1913?

Rite of Spring

What is a griot?

troubadours of west Africa

What event introduced many Europeans to music from other continents in 1889?

Paris World’s Fair

Who was Nadia Boulanger? What impact did she have on American music?

French conductor and teacher:

• father died 1900, Nadia starting teaching in 1904

• friend of Stravinsky

• left France during WWII

• taught Aaron Copland, Quincy Jones, Philip Glass

• said she had nothing to teach George Gershwin

• "Your music can never be more or less than you are as a human being".

What is scat in music?

Vocal imitation of instrumentation

Bluegrass

fiddle banjo

Mariachi

Grito and whatnot

Zydeco

accordion! washboard!