When did the Great Depression end in America?
1939.
What musical element decisively separated twentieth-century music from that of the past?
Tonality/harmony.
What was the dominant form of American popular music in the 1930’s and 1940’s?
Big-band swing.
What is the “emancipation of dissonance”?
Idea that dissonance no longer has to resolve consonance.
What are the characteristics of the musical language of Expressionism (music of the early 20th century)?
Hyper-expressive harmonies, wide melodic leaps, instruments in their extreme ranges, dissonance, and atonality.
Music that rejects the framework of key.
Atonal.
Which Viennese composer invented the twelve-tone method after writing in both post-Romantic and atonal styles?
Arnold Schoenberg.
The style created by Schoenberg in which vocal melodies were spoken rather than sung with exact pitches and rhythms.
Sprechstimme.
Which Russian impresario played a crucial role in the development of twentieth-century ballet?
Serge Diaghilev.
The Rite of Spring opened in Paris in 1913 to what kind of reception?
Riots; people were shocked.
What musical features characterize The Rite of Spring?
Metric irregularity, highly dissonant, disjunct melodies, unpredictable rhythms and meters.
The introduction to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring begins with a melody played on the __________.
Bassoon.
True/False: The home of the Ballets Russes was Russia.
False; Paris.
True/False: Nijinsky’s choreography for The Rite of Spring was considered groundbreaking.
True.
True/False: Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring had a revolutionary impact of music of the twentieth century.
True.
Another name for the twelve-tone method.
Serialism.
In the twelve-tone method, what is the arrangement of the twelve tones called?
Tone Row.
Which composer was a disciple of Schoenberg and is best known for his opera Wozzeck?
Alban Berg.
What popular American musical styles have roots in African American music (3 styles)?
Which music genres developed around the turn of the twentieth century and incorporates elements of African, Western popular, and art music?
True/False: Major/minor tonality is a musical trait of African origin.
False.
How many lines are in a blues verse?
Three.
What is a bent, or “blue”, note?
A note played at a slightly different pitch than normal (lowered 3rd, 5th, and 7th).
Which American city is considered the birthplace of jazz?
New Orleans.
What are the characteristics of New Orleans jazz?
First type of jazz; no written arrangements (improvised); clarinet, cornet, trombone, bass/banjo, drums.
What instrument did Louis Armstrong play?
Trumpet.
Louis Armstrong’s instrument-like approach to singing.
Scat-singing.
Billie Holiday was one of the first African American singers to do what?
Sing in public with a white orchestra.
Billie Holiday’s song Billie’s Blues is in ______ form.
12 Bar Blues.
What kind of jazz is Duke Ellington known for?
Big band/swing band.
During the 1940’s, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk developed what style of jazz?
Bebop.
What trumpeter was the principal musician of cool jazz?
Miles Davis.
True/False: Jazz is an art form created mainly by African Americans in the early twentieth century that blended elements from African music with traditions of the West.
True.
True/False: New Orleans jazz depended on simultaneous improvisations by the players, resulting in a monophonic texture.
False; polyphonic.
True/False: Louis Armstrong was an important force in the development of early jazz styles.
True.
True/False: Bebop was a complex new style that developed after World War II and was performed by small groups in which each player had an equal voice in the improvisation.
True.
In his early years, William Grant Still was associated with which artistic movement?
Harlem Renaissance.
True/False: The Harlem Renaissance highlighted African American slave life in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
False; intellectual life.
True/False: William Grant Still composed the first symphony by an African American to be performed by a major American orchestra.
True.
True/False: George Gershwin is recognized as one of the first American composers to incorporate African American blues and jazz styles into his compositions.
True.
George Gershwin’s folk opera ________ was far ahead of its time.
Porgy and Bess.
True/False: Rhapsody in Blue is scared for orchestra and solo violin.
False; piano and orchestra.
What was the title of the concert in which Rhapsody in Blue premiered?
An Experiment in Modern Music.
True/False: Ives’ compositional style was not innovative for it’s time.
False; it was innovative.
While composing in his spare time, how did Charles Ives make a living?
Insurance salesman.
What are the characteristics of Ives’ music?
Polytonality, polyharmony, and polyrhythm.
With whom did Aaron Copland study composition with?
Nadia Boulanger.
Copland’s Appalachian Spring is a(n) ___________.
Ballet.
Copland composed Appalachian Spring for which choreographer?
Martha Graham.
Which early American tune does Copland’s Appalachian Spring quote?
Simple Gifts.
True/False: The music of Charles Ives was very popular and performed frequently during his lifetime.
True; he gradually became known by the general public and died famous.
True/False: Charles Ives’ music reflects his roots in New England through his use of popular songs and American historical themes.
True.
Ives’ Country Band March quoted one march by which famous American composer?
Sousa.
Which American composers were greatly influenced by the philosophy of the Far East?
Henry Cowell, John Cage, and Harry Partch.
Which innovative composer first explored tone clusters at the piano?
Henry Cowell.
Which of the following works by John Cage has no musical content and can be performed by anyone on any instrument?
A. 4’33
B. Sonatas and Interludes
C. Roaratorio
D. Six melodies
A. 4’33
B. Sonatas and Interludes
C. Roaratorio
D. Six melodies
A.
Which of the following composers invented the prepared piano?
A. Harry Partch
B. John Cage
C. Henry Cowell
D. Debussy
A. Harry Partch
B. John Cage
C. Henry Cowell
D. Debussy
B.
John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes evoke the sounds of what?
Gamelan.
Where does the ensemble known as the gamelan come from?
Indonesia.
The gamelan is comprised of what types of instruments?
Drums, plucked strings, bowed strings, woorden bar percussion, and wooden flutes.
Which composers were influenced by gamelan music?
Debussy, Saint Saens, Henry Cowell, and John Cage.
True/False: The composers Henry Cowell and Harry Partch were highly influenced by a variety of non-Western music.
True.
Which work by John Cage successfully questions the distinction between music and noise?
4’33”.
What is process music?
The composer chooses one/two chords, or a few notes, and repeats it, gradually changing or elaborating it.
Who are the composers who developed process music in the 1960’s?
Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and LaMonte Young.
Steve Reich was influenced by polyrhythms of __________.
West Africa.
What is the goal of process music?
To make change imperceptible.
Phase music uses electronic _________.
Looping.
__________ is an important element of minimalism.
Repetition.
Which American composer is associated with neo-Romanticism?
Jennifer Higdon (Samuel Barber?)
The orchestral repertoire has been recently revitalized by the approach of neo-Romanticism. What does this mean about the music?
Embracing sounds like program music.
Piano prodigy that studied with George Crumb, won the Pulitzer prize, and was influenced by the Beatles.
Jennifer Higdon.
Higdon chose the title Blue Cathedral as a tribute to her __________.
Brother.
Higdon’s Blue Cathedral is what type of composition?
Tone poem.
True/False: Samuel Barber’s most celebrated composition is Adagio for Strings.
True.
____________ emphasized the new and rejected the past.
Postmodernism.
What is the goal of historical opera?
To evoke the intensity and complexity of the time.
In his post-minimalist style, John Adams combined minimalism with what?
Neo-Romantic sumptuousness.
Who wrote the opera Nixon in China?
John Adams.
