Music History IV:Music of the Modern Era
Stolba Reading Questions
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Music History IV:Music of the Modern Era Stolba Reading Questions |
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Chapter 25 - Late Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth-Century Music
1. Tchaikovsky never met Nadezhda von Meck–why was this surprising?
2. Who was the first to call for a celesta in an orchestral score? What was the work?
3. Who was the great Russian "triple threat," and how did he divide up his activities?
4. What's a "Scriabin Sixth?" Should we cover this in Musicianship?
5. What's a "mystic chord?" Should we cover this in Musicianship?
6. Poor Wolf!–best known for an 'inferior' form of art music. What was this?
7. What are some of the unusual characteristics of the Mahler symphonies?
8. What were the titles of Strauss's tone poems?
9. What technique–usually credited to Schönberg–did Strauss use in Don Quixote? What is it?
10. Why are Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder well-named?
11. If you attended a Märschenoper, what would you expect to see? What would be different if you went to a Märschenspiel instead?
12. I Pagliacci represents what style of operatic writing? How would you describe this style?
13. What does violinata mean? Who used it most? What works of his do you recognize?
14. Franck, Saint-Saëns, and Debussy each represent a line of development in French music. How would you describe each?
15. To which line of development did Fauré belong? Whom did he influence in turn?
16. Louis Leroy's derogatory term for the art works of Monet, Manet, Degas, and Renoir soon became the common way of referring to their style–what was this term? What label was the analogous term used for poetry by Verlaine and Mallarmé?
17. Which term was 'borrowed' for as a label for music? Was it initially a compliment? What term did Debussy prefer? Regardless of the label, how would you describe the music itself?
18. How many arias will you find in the typical Debussy opera? How does a Debussy opera compare to a Wagnerian music drama?
19. How does Ravel's style differ from that of Debussy?
20. Who was the first woman to win the Prix de Rome? How long did she live?
21. Which French composer specialized in humorous titles and bizarre directives to the performers? Give an example.
22. Okay: who are Les Six, and what did they advocate?
23. What English composers were most active during the transition from the 19th to the 20th century?
24. What is Holst's best-known work? What work by Elgar gets played the most?
25. Who held the first chair of music at Columbia, and how does his name live on today?
26. Who was the first American woman to compose a symphony? Who were some of her female peers?
27. What New England composers would you find clinging to Classic-Romantic traditions? Which one taught (or tried to teach) Ives?
28. What did Ives and Cowell have in common?
29. The discussion of Cowell incorporates three bold-faced terms–what are they, and what does each mean?
30. Singing "the blues" means doing what?
31. If you "take the cake," what has happened?
32. Although not all historians agree, what does Stolba give as the derivation of the term "Ragtime"? What's the usual structure of a rag?
33. If you wanted to set your time machine to travel back to the birth of jazz, when & where would you point it? What musicians might you see?
Chapter 26 - Developments Between the World Wars
1. Did World War I bring lasting peace?
2. Who were early pioneers in the study of folk music, and in what communities?
3. Bartók at times made use of the Fibonacci series and the "golden section" in his music. What is each? (You may need to consult the index, if you've forgotten where Stolba introduced these ideas.)
4. How do Bartók's string quartets rank, historically?
5. What works by Kodály are you most likely to hear?
6. What do Kodály and Orff have in common?
7. Did Orff compose any works besides Carmina burana? Does Hollywood know this?
8. What does Vaughan Williams have in common with Bartók and Kodály?
9. Britten's War Requiem is not a "pure" Catholic funeral mass; what other texts does it employ? What are some of Britten's other major works?
10. If your compositions are socialistic, easily understood by the masses, use folk material, and express national feelings, for whom are you probably writing? Who would be your leading peers?
11. What (and whose) Soviet work anticipated Neo-Classicism?
12. What was Shostakovich's "best" genre, and what was his musical monogram?
13. Who "taught" at the "Second Viennese School"? Who was "enrolled"? Why am I "using" all these quotes?
14. When the school's neighbors complained about dodecaphony, what were they hearing? Why didn't they like it?
15. In Figure 26.2, what is the Grundgestalt? (Write it out)
16. What's the difference between "atonal" and "pantonal"? Is all 12-tone music one or the other?
17. (It's good exercise:) What are Schoenberg's 5 career periods, how is each distinct, and what piece is an example of each?
18. Erwartung is a "monodrama," meaning . . . ?
19. Would you want your melodic dictations given in Sprechstimme? Why or why not?
20. Despite the changes in approach, certain features of Schoenberg's style stay the same. What are they?
21. Berg's quartet shows some musical characteristics. What were these?
22. How was Berg's treatment of 12-tone technique different from Schönberg's and Webern's?
23. Which of Schönberg's pupils used "pointillism," and what is it?
24. Who were the chief exponents of Neo-Classicism?
25. What kinds of different directions did Les Six go during these years?
26. If you have room in your brain for only one work by Hindemith, what would be the best one to remember?
27. If your compositional career isn't firmly established by age 22, should you panic? When did Stravinsky's career begin to take off? How do you suppose he managed to write so much significant music when he was so old?
28. Are you subject to the "tyranny of the barline"? What did Stravinsky do to help you out?
29. (Trivia question, not in the textbook:) What work by Stravinsky (composed during his years in Switzerland) was performed by the Cuesta Master Chorale last spring ?
30. Although Nadia Boulanger was a fine composer, she's best known for what other legacy?
31. What do Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Schönberg, Bartók, Stravinsky, Milhaud, & Hindemith have in common?
32. Copland wanted his music to be "clearly American"–how do we label this musical impulse? What works resulted?
33. What unexpected honor did Of Thee I Sing receive?
34. What award was Ruth Crawford Seeger the first woman to receive?
35. What other American composers were active between the wars?
36. What art music composers could be found south of the border around this time?
Chapter 27 - Music Since 1945
1. Why does Stolba include a heading labeled "Technology" What would this include?
2. What kinds of things have qualified as "Electronic Instruments"?
3. What more recent composers have tinkered with Schönberg's serial concept?
4. What is the historical background of Quatuor pour le fin du temps? What is its programmatic imagery?
5. Why would Messiaen's works be challenging clapping & counting exercises?
6. In what way could Messiaen's works be considered Medieval?
7. What does "total serialism" do that Schönberg's method did not? Who tried this?
8. (Trivia question, not in the textbook:) Where are you likely to have heard a theremin?
9. What does "musique concrète" mean, and who coined the term?
10. Do you get the feeling that Boulez took good notes in his music history classes? Why?
11. What would IRCAM be, and how did it come to be?
12. Why aren't you likely to perform the score depicted in Example 27.8? What's especially significant about this selection?
13. Could we perform Sternnklang during our final exam? Why or why not?
14. What familiar family of instruments did Varèse elevate to new prominence? What compositions resulted?
15. It took a mathematician to discover "combinatoriality"–who was it, and what is it?
16. "Chance" music is known by what other names? Who is most (in-)famous for composing in this style?
17. In what musical medium have both Oliveros and Ivey composed?
18. Why might Berio's Sinfonia be a good piece to study before taking music exams for grad school?
19. What instrument surprises you the most in Ancient Voices of Children?
20. In what genre has Musgrave composed the most?
21. Ligeti dropped out of the Second Viennese School, on what basis?
22. What is the scoring for the Poème symphonique? What motivated its composition?
23. Penderecki is very aware of historical events; how is this reflected in his music?
24. Who founded "minimalism," and what is it? How does it differ from pointillism?
25. What does the title of Terry Riley's minimalist composition mean?
26. Who are other significant proponents of minimalism?
27. What's an eclectic composer? Who's an eclectic composer?
28. In what two styles has Del Tredici done the most work?
29. How is John Tavener eclectic?
30. We know The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro; what was added to this chain in the 20th century, and who added it?
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