Music Appreciation

Question 0

What is absolute music?

Answer 0

No story. Just like a symphony, for example.

Question 1

What is the texture mostly used during the Classical composition period?

Answer 1

Homophonic

Question 2

The classical symphony follow this four movement scheme/plan

Answer 2

First movement of a symphony is composed in (sonata single music) form and the tempo is (fast).
Second movement of a symphony is (slow) in tempo.
Third movement of a symphony is in (minuet or scherzo) form and (medium/fast) in tempo.
Fourth movement in (Rondo) form or sometimes (Sonata Rondo) form, and the tempo is (fast).

Question 3

What is chamber music?

Answer 3

Music for small ensemble 2-12 players, one per part. Classical composers established style. Favored combinations=string quartet, duo sonata, piano trio, quintet, and string quartet with solo piano or clarinet.

Question 4

What are the instruments used in a piano trio by Ludwig van Beethoven?

Answer 4

First and second violin, viola, cello.

Question 5

What are the instruments used in a piano rio by Ludwig van Beethoven?

Answer 5

Violin, cello, and piano.

Question 6

Two new genres of the Classicism are:

Answer 6

Symphony and string quartet

Question 7

Beethoven wrote ___ Symphonies and _____ Opera(s).

Answer 7

9 Symphonies

1 Opera

Question 8

What is a cadenza and in what genre of classical composition do we see/hear a cadenza?

Answer 8

A fanciful solo passage in a manner of improvisation. The orchestra falls silent and the soloist improvises and displays his virtuosity.

Question 9

What is a Opera seria and what is Opera buffa?

Answer 9

An Opera seria is a serious Italian opera. Recitatives and arias, display virtuosity.
Oper buffo is a comic character in comic opera, bass voice, aside to audience.

Question 10

Who are the composers of the First Viennese School? (These would be classical period composers)

Answer 10

Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Question 11

What is Singspiel?

Answer 11

German style of opera buffa featuring dialogue and songs (arias). Some of his operas wee in the Italian comic opera style and included his masterpiece Don Giovanni. Mozart collaborated with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte in creating this story about the famed Spanish lover, Don Juan. Da Ponte also wrote the libretti for Mozarts’s operas Cosi Fan Tutti and The Marriage of Figaro. Example: Mozart Don Giovanni.

Question 12

Write 3 characteristics of the classical period compositional style.

Answer 12

1. Melodies are “tuneful” and ususally made of symmetrical phrases
2. Texture is mostly homophonic.
3. Rhythm and mood are flexible.
4. Basso continuo is no longer used, accompaniments are “written out”
5. Orchestra becomes more standardized, including pairs of words.
6. Piano replaces the harpsichord as the main keyboard instrument.
7. Vienna, Austria becomes an important musical center
8. Important composers: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven.

Question 13

Describe the sonata form/single movement used in the first movement of every symphony during the classical compositional period?

Answer 13

Allegro in its tempo.
Three sections:
1. Exposition - establishes themes, sets up conflict of first key (tonic) and second key.
2. Development - reworks themes by breaking them into fragments, avoids the tonic, frequent modulations. Sometimes ends with a dominant preparations that sets up a return of the tonic key by emphasizing the dominant chord (V).
3. Recapitulation - restates material of the expostion, but all in the tonic key.
Example: Mozart Symphony No. 40 In G-Minor, Mvt. I

Question 14

What is the form of the first movement of a Piano Concerto by Mozart?

Answer 14

Sonata-allegro but the material is presented in a double exposition in the tonic key. Toward the end of the movement there is the cadenza.