Music History II final
C.P.E. Bach: played a key role in transitioning music from the baroque to the classical era, with innovative keyboard compositions that influenced later composers
Giovanni Battista Sammartini- wrote the first concert symphony, famous opera is La Serva Padrona (the maid as mistress)
Johann Stamitz- composer for mannheim orchestra
J.C. Bach: embraced the galant style and spent much of his career in London, where he composed operas, symphonies, and keyboard works
Joseph Haydn: worked for Prince Esterhazy, the “Father of the symphony”
Johann Peter Salomon: impresario/violinist who commissioned the London Symphonies by Haydn
Baron Gottfried van Swieten: wrote the text for Haydn’s oratorios, The Creation, and The Seasons, taken from Genesis, Psalms, and Milton’s Paradise Lost
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: a child prodigy who began composing at age 5, and was a freelance musician
Ludwig van Beethoven: a transitional composer from classical to romantic, and whose works are divided into 3 periods
Franz Schubert: the first great master of Romantic Lied, and prolific in all genres, studied piano, singing, violin, organ, counterpoint, and composition with Salieri
Robert Schumann: composer and music critic, wrote over 300 songs and over 300 piano works
Clara Schumann: child prodigy at the piano, began touring at age 11, by adulthood-continued to perform, compose, and teach, had several collections of leider and music for piano
Felix Mendelssohn: a leading German romantic composer, pianist, organist, and conductor, music combined romantic expression with classical forms and techniques
Fanny Mendelssohn: studied piano and composition, her musical career was inappropriate for her wealth and class, had over 400 works
Frederic Chopin: romantic composer most closely identified with the piano, composed for concert appearances with idiomatic writing/new possibilities for the instrument, and appealed to both amateurs and connoisseurs
Franz Liszt: most electrifying piano virtuosos of his era, and devised new playing techniques and textures for piano music. As a composer, he made innovations in form and harmony, and invented the symphonic poem. Invented the masterclass and was the first to play entirely from memory
Hector Berlioz: programmatic romanticism, taught himself harmony from textbooks, and began composing in his teens. Won the Prix de Rome in 1830 and was primarily a music critic, and acted as his own impresario
Richard Wagner: a believer in total artwork, and saw himself as Beethoven's true successor. Had many leitmotiv (leading motive) in his operas, and thought that total artwork could help reform society
Giuseppe Verdi: one of the most influential Italian opera composers, his works include Aida, Otello, and he is celebrated for his dramatic intensity, memorable melodies, and deep emotional resonance. Played a significant role in shaping the romantic opera tradition
Johannes Brahms: worked slowly and was severely self-critical, and well-versed in the music of the past, fused classical and folk idioms. Also had a highly individual piano style, and wrote many strophic form lieder and choral works
Anton Bruckner: absorbed Wagner's style and ethos into traditional symphony, was reverent and had a liturgical approach to sacred texts.
Hugo Wolf: best known for adapting Wagner’s methods to German Lied, and wrote for piano, string quartets, symphonic works, choirs, and opera
Terms/Concepts
Enlightenment: a philosophical movement that started in France, emphasizing human knowledge and psychology
Enlightenment ideals: reason, nature, progress, and learning
Enlightenment assumptions about music: pleasure, universal language, appeal to a wide audience, understood on first hearing
Galant style: French term for courtly manners (modern, sophisticated), freer, more songlike, homophonic
Empfindsamer Stil: German for “sensitive style,” surprising tunes of harmony, chromaticism, active rhythms, rhapsodically free, speech-like melody. Associated with fantasias, the slow movements of C.P.E. Bach
Opera Buffa: comic opera with plots that were interesting and entertaining, with ordinary people, caricatures of aristocrats, and arias typically in the galant style. Distinct style in the 18th century, coined by Carlo Goldoni with lifelike dialogue, observations of everyday life
Intermezzo (opera): two or three segments performed between acts of a serious opera
Ballad Opera: an opera in the local language with dialogue interspersed with songs, new words to borrowed tunes, but over time, more original music
Singspiel: German for singing play, opera with spoken dialogue, musical numbers, and a comic plot, an important precursor of German-language musical theatre
Reform Opera: an 18th-century movement in opera, largely led by Christoph Willibald Gluck, that sought to restore opera's role as a serious dramatic art form, emphasizing balance between music and text, and rejecting the excessive vocal ornamentation of the time
Sonata form (main sections): Exposition, development, recapitulation, optional slow intro or coda
Rondo Form: small binary form theme, alternated with episodes (ABACA or ABACABA)
Esterházy: a powerful Hungarian noble family
4-movement symphony structure: fast/slow/minuet+trio/fast
3-movement sonata structure: fast/slow/fast
London Symphonies: Haydn, commissioned by Johann Peter Salomon,12 in total
String Quartet – instrumentation and format: 2 violins, viola, and cello, primarily music for amateurs
Mozart influences (Schubert, J.C. Bach)
Mozart influences: travel as a child, J.C. Bach, etc.
Concerto – blend of sonata and ritornello forms
Beethoven’s 1st period: mastered the musical language, found a personal voice
Beethoven’s 2nd period: developed style that that achieved a new level of drama/expression that brought him popularity; crisis over gradual hearing loss
Beethoven’s 3rd period: music became more introspective and more difficult for performers/listeners to comprehend; isolation because of deafness, family troubles, political/economic conditions
Beethoven’s Lifetime annuity: the composer was given a lifetime annuity to stay in Vienna and was able to be free to follow his inspiration (stipend by Archduke Rudolf, Prince Kinsky, and Prince Lobkowitz)
Romantic/Romanticism: Focus on the individual, expression of self, and a search for original, expressive, ideas, had looser and more extended forms, greater experimentation with harmony and texture, richly expressive and memorable melodies, improved musical instruments, an interest in musical nationalism, and a view of music as a moral force, in which there was a link between the artists’ inner lives and the world around them.
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music): founded by Robert Schumann for his music critics, Opposed empty virtuosity, promoted the study of old music, and was among the first and strongest advocates of Chopin, Brahms, and instrumental music Schubert.
Masterclass (Liszt): where students watch while Liszt works with individual students.
Mazurka/Polonaise: stylized dances in triple meter Chopin made piano pieces based on these dances
Programmatic: recounts a narrative or sequence of events
absolute: refers to nothing outside of itself
idée fixe: melody representing a hero’s beloved (Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique)
Lied (Lieder): built on 18th-century tradition, nature was a common theme (in German, voice and piano)
Song Without Words: 48 short pieces grouped in 8 books of 6 by Felix Mendelssohn, and his best-known piano works
“Ring” Cycle: Wagner’s four dramas all about the Ring of the Nibelung (the Rhine Gold, the Valkyrie, Siegfried, and the twilight of the Gods) Wagner wrote the music and the libretto for each of these - stories were woven from German folk tales and Nordic legends
Leitmotif: a musical association with a particular character, thing, event, or emotion
‘Music Drama’: a part of the total artwork, the vision of a new union, music, and dramatic text
Bayreuth: The theater that Wagner designed, specifically to put on his ring cycle, with a specific design for the orchestra, the stage, and the audience seating. Lots of stage effects, etc.
“Tristan” Chord: A chord that Wagner gave to represent Tristan in his drama Tristan and Isolde. The opening motive of Tristan, etc.
Developing variation: Term coined by Schoenberg for the process of deriving new themes, accompaniments, and other ideas throughout a piece through variations of a germinal idea.
Symphonic Poem: one-movement programmatic work, sections of contrasting character and tempo