music appreciation 2

Define and explain the concept "emancipation of dissonance" (20th century)

Composers treated dissonances with increasing freedom
• Distinction between consonance and dissonance blurred
• Tones that before would have been used to generate instability and expectation might now be treated as a stable chord, or even a point of arrival

Identify a composer who represented emancipation of dissonance how they incorporated this attitude in their compositions using two specific examples from their music

Stravinsky — polytonality and polyrhythms
• Motives were created and repeated to create
form

In the first half of the twentieth century, what are 3 musical characteristics that define the American sound?

Instrumentation emphasized band music (more brass), clear and transparent textures, and influence of blues and jazz

Name a composer who uses American sound in their compositions and define two specific examples from their music that show these characteristics.

William Grant Still — heavy use of blues and syncopated rhythms (and banjo)

George Crumb

Black Angels written in response to the Vietnam War

William Grant Still

the experience of Black Americans in Afro-American Symphony including blues and spirituals (Civil Rights)

Maurice Ravel

the need to sound French by using unique tone colors in response to predominantly German and Russian influences with Bolero

what does Edgard Varèse mean by "organized sound" or “the liberation of sound?”

freeing music from the previous constraints of melody, harmony, and rhythm and believed all sounds could be organized artistically to create new musical experiences.

How does this “liberated sound” reflect 20th century music?

composers began using different tone colors and texture as primary elements, rather than just pitch and rhythm.

Give at least one specific musical example and why this is “liberation of sound.”

Cage’s famous piece 4’33” instructs performers not to play their instruments for four minutes and thirty-three seconds, revealing that the surrounding ambient sounds are themselves music (audience makes music/are performers)

Pick an Impressionist composer: Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, or Lili Boulanger. Explain four specific examples from their music that show the opposite of Impressionism.

Maurice Ravel; too formal (song form), clear rhythmic patterns and clear beat, no motive, stays close to regular tonal system