Music Lit Quiz 3

Romanticism

The Romantic music era is roughly 1820 - 1910. Highly expressive, emotional, Western classical music that emerged from the Romantic movement.

Opera buffa

A genre of Italian comic opera that originated in Naples in the early 18th century. Performed between acts of serious opera seria.

Bel canto opera

A style of Italian opera that was popular in the early 19th century. Fluid singing, legato, graceful, and melodic.

Cantabile

An Italian musical term that means “singable” or “songlike”. Instructs performers to perform legato, melodic, and lyrical.

Cabaletta

A fast-paced concluding section of an opera aria or a duet. Energetic! Comes after a cantabile.

Coda

A concluding section in music that brings the piece to its end. A “tag” or “outro”.

Heiligenstadt Testament

A letter written by Beethoven in 1802 to his brothers, Carl and Johann. He writes about his worsening deafness, thoughts of suicide, and his will to live to continue composing.

Lydian mode

A major scale with a raised 4th degree. Example: C lydian’s relative major is G major.

Attacca

Directions at the end of a movement/section/piece to begin the next section immediately. No pauses or breaks.

Lied

(Plural = Lieder) A solo voice paired with a piano accompaniment. Elevates poetry through music. 19th-century German art song that was prominent in the Romantic era. Emotional and expressive.

Strophic

Multiple stanzas of text set to the same music. AAA or verse-repeating form. Consistent music for different lyrics.

Song cycle

A group (or cycle) of songs/Lied made to be performed together. A set of related songs, often on a romantic theme/love story. Usually linked by subject matter or poet, and sometimes tells a story.

Refrain

Same music and text each time it recurs.

Modified strophic

A song structure where the pattern in some stanzas varies. Keeps unity and repetition, but keeps it interesting by adding variation.

Schubertaid

Friends who would get together and perform Schubert’s music. Schubert parties.

Text-painting

A compositional technique where the music mirrors the meaning of the lyrics.

Hemiola

Accents contrary to the meter. Example: triple meter, accents every two beats.

Musical topics

Recognizable musical styles, genres, or tropes to evoke specific associations. Example: marches, dances, fanfares, etc.

Mass

Act of worship in the Roman Catholic church. Celebrating the Eucharist.

Kyrie

A short liturgical (ritual use, used in church service) prayer.

Jose Maurico Nunes Garcia

Composer from Brazil. Trained in music and theology, and was a priest. Wrote masses, hymns, requiems, operas, overtures, string quartets, etc.

Gioachino Rossini

An early 19th-century composer from Northern Italy. Wrote around 40 operas (comedic and opera seria), and retired from composition at 37.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Composer that was based in Vienna. Studied with Haydn. Wrote lots of piano music. Went deaf.

Franz Schubert

Composer from Vienna. Studied with Salieri. Known for Lied, especially during his lifetime. Wrote operas, symphonies, overtures, string quartets, sonatas, lied, song cycles, etc.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A famous German writer, poet, and polymath. Contributed to the Sturm und Drang literary movement. Known for his drama Faust and the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Napoleon Bonaparte

He was a French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Had major influence on the Napoleonic Wars (Napoleonic Code), and rose to power during the French Revolution.

Heinrich Heine

A Jewish-born German poet, writer, and literary critic. Known for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder. Composers such as Schumann, Schubert, and Mendelssohn used his poetry.

Robert Schumann

A German composer, pianist, and music critic from the early Romantic era. Wrote for solo piano, voice and piano, orchestra, opera, etc.