Music History 3: Test 2, terms

Les Six

A group of six young French composers influenced by neoclassicism and Erik Satie, rejecting the German romantic tradition.

Polytonality

The musical use of more than one key simultaneously; first used by Charles Ives.

Entartete Kunst

'Degenerate art'; an art show featuring works the Nazis deemed 'un-German' or too modern.

Gebrauchsmusik

'Music for use'; aimed at young amateur performers, evaluated by its usefulness to society.

New Objectivity

A musical movement opposing complexity and promoting familiarity, borrowing from popular styles, emerged as an objection to expressionism.

Socialist Realism

The official cultural doctrine of the Soviet Union that mandated idealized representations of life under socialism.

Tone clusters

Chords made with the fist or forearm, especially used by composer Henry Cowell.

Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music

An ongoing course that began in the late 1940s, influencing composers under the guidance of Anton Webern.

Union of Soviet Composers

An organization replacing earlier composers' groups to advance the socialist agenda.

Serialism

A mathematical system of composition that extends beyond the 12-tone method, prevalent after WWII.

Total serialism

A technique where only some non-pitch elements are treated serially.

Indeterminacy

A compositional approach where certain aspects of music are left up to the performer.

Chance music

Also known as 'aleatoric' music; blurs the meaning of composition, leaving decisions to chance.

Fluxus

A movement in performance art from the 1960s emphasizing public action and experimental approaches.

Modes of limited transposition

A concept by Messiaen; a collection of notes that remain unchanged when transposed by certain intervals.

Metric modulation

A shift in time signature/tempo that equivalently relates durational values between different tempos.

Prepared piano

A technique developed by John Cage, involving objects placed between piano strings to create unique percussive sounds.

Graphic notation

A form of musical notation where nothing is specified, using lines and shapes to convey performance.

Theremin

An early electronic instrument invented by Lev Theremin, controlled by hand gestures near antennas.

Ondes Martenot

One of the earliest electronic instruments, invented by Maurice Martenot.

Moog Synthesizer

A modular analog synthesizer developed by Robert Moog, commercially available in the 1960s.

Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

The oldest center for electronic and computer music research in America.

Text scores

A prose description of a composer’s instructions for performance.

Quotation/Collage

The practice of quoting another work in a new composition, following earlier precedents set by Ives and Stravinsky.

Musique concrète

An experimental technique of composition developed by Pierre Schaeffer using recorded sounds as raw materials.