Week 7 - Drama and Modernism etc: Class 1

Question 1

Where did many failed revolutions occur

Answer 1

Europe

Question 2

When did the failed revolutions mostly take place

Answer 2

1848

Question 3

What is the industrial revolution

Answer 3

Amazing for technology and changes (trains, instruments were changing too - think about the piano)

Question 4

Why was there a loss of home

Answer 4

because many of them were now moving into cities

Question 5

What were the politcal failures based around

Answer 5

Class struggle and freedom

resulted in realism in europe

Question 6

The Third Class Carriage

Answer 6

Not what was promised by the revolutions and the industrial revolution.

This image is realism: what is actually happening rather than a Romantic image

Question 7

Coubert, “Bonjour” image

Answer 7

More realistic

Question 8

When did the quest for freedom continue

Answer 8

The end of the 19th century but was more known and familar

Question 9

Why is nationalism central

Answer 9

More people moving around and remembering “home” (chopin)

Nationalism is also a result of the loss of memories

Question 10

Why was there new interest from Japan in the middle of the 19th century?

Answer 10

In 1854 Japan was less isolated from the West and there was much more interest in this new land and culture

Western societies were looking to gain resources to fuel their new industrial economies etc

Question 11

Why did Japan lower their bounderies to the US

Answer 11

so both countries could take advantage of China.

Also, they permitted American men to marry Japanese women with fewer restrictions to lure Americans to Japan.

Question 12

What was the arrangement that Westerners men could cancel

Answer 12

A law that allowed Westerners to marry Japanese women

The men could cancel the arrangement at any time, but Japanese women were bound to their for 999 years.

Question 13

Where/when did composers hear East Asian music for the first time

Answer 13

The World’s Fairs in Europe showcased world music and in Paris 1867 and 1889 at the World Fairs, composers hear East Asian music for the first time and were captivated by these sounds

Question 14

What is a pentatonic scale

Answer 14

scale with 5 pitches, or a 5-note scale

Question 15

What were the 3 types of Japanese scales

Answer 15

1. Japanese mode
2. Hirajoshi pentatonic scale
3. Sakura pentatonic scale

Question 16

What was “The Mikado” doing to Japenese culture

Answer 16

Not taking Japan seriously, using representations and stereotypes

Question 17

What is “japonaiserie” aka the “Japan Craze”

Answer 17

using Japanese culture and items like swords or other objects rather than coming to know Japan through human relations

Question 18

What is “commodity racism”

Answer 18

Using a culture’s objects in a cheap and racist way

Question 19

What was “The Mikado”

Answer 19

A hugely popular london play that played 672 performances

It was saterical, not meant to be taken seriously

Question 20

What was the new opera trend in Italy

Answer 20

“Verismo” or “truthism”

With opera this meant meaningful and passionate emotional simplicty

Question 21

Who is Giacamo Puccini (1858)

Answer 21

His popular operas were La Boheme (1896) and Madame Butterfly (1904)

Question 22

What is La Boheme about

Answer 22

Poor students and artists living in Paris (realism)

Question 23

What is the plot of Madame Butterfly

Answer 23

sympathetic to her (she is young, poor and in love with Pinkerton) which unsympathetic to Pinkerton (he doesn’t care, he doesn’t come for her for 3 years)

Question 24

Musically, what did Puccini do?

Answer 24

1) Puccini uses at least 11 Japanese folk songs and generated “Japanese-sounding” themes. This was a genuine attempt.
2) He incorporated sounds he heard from Japanese musicians and enlarged his percussion section to include gongs, Japanese bells and other instruments. He wanted to be musically authentic!

Question 25

What did the Aria “Throughout the World” in Madame butterfly encorperate

Answer 25

Puccini uses “The Star Spangled Banner” as he reveals himself as a male chauvinist who talks about Americans travelling the world conquering women. Pinkerton is arrogant and he closes the aria with the line “America Forever.”