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Reason: Best guide for
human conduct
Balance: Clarity of structures
Good taste: emotional restraint
Style rococo: light and graceful music
Style gallant: graceful and light
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Symphony: a large-scale composition for orchestra ordinarily composed of four
movements although some composers have used other approaches.
Sonata: a solo instrumental
composition in three or four movements, the first of which may be in sonata
form.
Sonata form: is the typical pattern of the first movement of a sonata,
consisting of an exposition, development, and recapitulation.
Rondo: A musical form resulting from the alternating from the main theme with
contrasting themes. (ABACA)
Ludwig van Beethoven:
Concerto: contrasts a solo instrument or a group of solo instruments with the
full orchestra.
String Quartet: an ensemble consisting of 2 violins, a viola, and a cello.
Characteristics:
Melodies: more expressive, lyrical, song-title
Harmonies: colorful (chromatic) unstable chords, dissonant.
Tempo: fluctuations, use of rubato
Orchestra: the new tone colors, devotion of new instruments bigger orchestra
Textures: homophonic
Dynamics: big range (from softest to loudest- PP to FF)
Stanza-paragraph
Prelude-Introduction
Interlude- music in between stanzas played by the accompaniment
Strophic form- when the music for each stanza is repeated
Through composed-when the music for each stanza is new
Postlude- epilogue, end of song
Concerto: a soloist and an orchestra play together (Concerto in Em)
Cadenza: A part of a movement of a concert where the soloist plays alone. It
used to be improvisational but now it is written down. A display of virtuosity.
Absolute Music:
instrumental music (not vocal), not intended to tell a story, and has no
descriptive titles. (A.k.a. non-program music)
Incidental Music: Instrumental, which is written as accompaniment for a play or
movie. The music sets the mood, enhances the drama, and helps to tell the story.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Mendelssohn: He was German, and was a conductor and composer. Mendelssohn
composed music for Shakespeare's plays. (Midsummer Night's Dream) He was the
first to stand on the left as the main violinist becoming a leader. It evolved
into a conductor, which has the notes without an instrument to make sure the
orchestra plays together. He opened a conservatory, discovered Bach and brought
his music back to life. Critics did not consider him a serious composer because
he did not live a tragic life. If not a good composer then he was a good
conductor, had the conservatory and if that was still not enough, he is known
for discovering Bach and bringing the music back to life. (Read biography for
more details)
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Rubato: (robbed) you make a measure longer by stealing a second from the next
and speed up for the second measure to show change in mood, intensity and
expression.
Nocturne: A slow lyrical intimate composition for piano. (Nocturne in Eb)
Waltz: A dance in triple meter. It was very popular at that time. People did not
dance to Chopin�s waltz because the speed constantly changes from slow to fast.
(waltz in C#m)
Mazurka: faster and jumpier than a waltz.
Etude: an exercise, study piece. A piece to help performers master a specific
technical difficulties. (Etude #10)
Polonaise: A dance in triple meter but with the qualities of a march. Originated
as a stately processional but later became a dance. (Polonaise in Ab)
Chopin: exclusively wrote for piano, studied in Warsaw and then moved to France.
At the age of 6 he heard his mother play and at 7 started his lessons. After two
months he began to perform. Died at the age of 39 from tuberculosis. He was very
popular and made a living by giving lessons but only gave lessons to very
serious students. He had original methods for teaching. He used the tones and
pedals.
Absolute music: Friends would give a descriptive title but then he would change
it. He loved Bach and Mozart. Mozart�s requiem was played at his funeral. He
loved to play in intimate atmospheres because large audiences made him nervous.
His music is special because he used the piano as percussion. He would hit the
keys to get a good sound but sometimes he did not hit rhythmically. His music
was like a story being told. The pedals would continue the sound and used that
method to have his pieces sound like songs because the piano was continuous. His
music requires a lot of artistry.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Lied (Lieder): Romantic art song with German text for a voice and piano
accompaniment. Most were composed for poems.
Schubert: composed music in all forms except concertos, over 600 songs (Lieder),
innovator in piano accompaniment, very poor, parents were against him going into
music but he wanted it as a profession, they thought he would not be successful
because Mozart�s music was still alive and they thought it would be hard for him
to stand out, 10 symphonies, 140 songs in one year, his operas were bad, his
songs survived, unfinished symphony (really is finished but unlike other
symphonies that usually have 4 movements this one only has 2). When he went to
meet Beethoven who was deaf, his friend insisted that Schubert meet him.
Schubert was shy and did not say anything. He had no business sense, one concert
in his life, he was called a �mushroom�- sweet nickname by his friends. He was
born in Vienna.
The Erlking: it was the most famous poem that he composed a song to. The poem
was by Goethe. The poem is about a father taking his son to the doctor. His son
sees a vision of the angel of death who is the king of the elves. The king tries
to persuade the boy to come with him and his daughters will wait on him. The boy
tells the father what he sees and when the father reaches the place the boy is
already dead.
Strophic Form: A song where the music for each stanza is the same.
Through Composed Form: A song where each stanza has new music. (The Erlking)
Program Music:
Program Music: Is instrumental music, not vocal, which has an intended
association that tells a story, which can be based on a book, dream, etc. It has
a descriptive title and the composer tells us the story
Program symphony: A symphony with a program (has a story). It usually has 4 or 5
movements and each of them has a story. Each movement has a descriptive
title/subtitle but the music does not have words. (Symphonie Fantastique: Ball
Waltz & Dream of Witches� Dinner)
Concert overture: One movement orchestral composition usually in sonata allegro
form, which is based on a story.
Symphonic poem: is one of the most important types of program music, having a
literary or pictorial connection.
Hector Berlioz: (1803-1869)
Idee fixe: a recurring theme. It represents his beloved throughout the five
movements. (Symphonie Fantastique: Ball Waltz & Dream of Witches� Dinner)
Nationalism: when a composer deliberately uses melodies from his folk/mother
country that inspires him. Every village has there own tunes.
Exoticism: When a composer hears a tune from a foreign country that has its own
story in that ethnic group and brings it to his own country and introduces it to
the people of his own mother country. They would introduce those new tunes into
their music and give the music a different feel.
Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Concert overture: see program music
Symphonic poem: see program music
Romeo and Juliet and Symphony #4, IV movement
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
La donna e mobile and La Cortigiani
His last three operas were: Aida, Otello, and Falstaff. He wrote music based on
Rigoletto by Victor Hugo (who also wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame).
Rigoletto was the hunchbacked jester of the Duke of Mantua (for those who care
Mantua was also known as the place to which Romeo was exiled). Rigoletto helps
the abduct women and take them to the Duke. Once his own daughter Gilda is
abducted he decides to stop. He tells his daughter to disguise herself, and meet
him in Verona. Rigoletto and Gilda go to an inn so they can speak to Sparafucile,
a professional assassin. Rigoletto pays Sparafucile to kill the Duke, but
Sparafucile's sister Maddalena begs him to kill Rigoletto instead. He says no,
but he'll kill the next person who will come to the inn. Gilda hears this and
walks in to save the Duke. She is killed and her body is put in a bag. Rigoletto
comes back to the inn to get the body and on his way to dump it in the river he
hears the supposedly dead Duke's voice. He opens the bag to find his daughter.
Rigoletto cries that Monterone's curse has been fulfilled.
Impressionism: a musical style, made popular during the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. Structure was not the point of focus so much as harmony. Rules of
tonality and the underlying chords of classical music changed dramatically.
Claude Debussey (1862-1918)
Whole-tone scale: a scale consisting of six consecutive whole tones. (Sirenes)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Ostinato: indicates a part, which repeats the same rhythmic or melodic element
over and over, usually below the main melody of the composition. (Bolero)
Expressionism: An early 20th-century musical style, employing an abstract
approach to music, unlike impressionism.
Igor Stravinsky: (1882-1971)
Neoclassicism: an artistic movement in 1920's to 1950's characterized be
emotional restrain balance clarity. (The Rite of Spring) Polyphonic textures
with 20th century rhythm and harmonies.
Polychord: two chords sounding together. Is also referred to as polytonal.
Polyrhythm: occurs when one or more rhythmic patterns are played simultaneously
against the established time signature or meter.
Polytonality: the simultaneous use of two or more keys within one composition.
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Expressionism: see 20th century
12-tone system: A system of composition, which uses the twelve tones of the
chromatic scale in an arbitrary arrangement, called a tone row or series. The
row may be used in its original form, its inversion, in retrograde, and in the
inversion of the retrograde. Arnold Schoenberg devised the system in the early
20th century.
Tone row: special ordering of the twelve tones.
Atonality: absence of the main key.
Sprechstimme: style of vocal performance half way between singing and speaking.
(A Survivor from Warsaw 1947)
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue & Summertime from Porgy and Bess
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Simple Gifts from the Appalachian Spring
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
America from West Side Story
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)
Hotter than That
