Composers/Works - Romantic, 20th cent. Flashcards
(38 cards)
Weber
Der Freischutz - ca. 1820
- Spoken text between musical scenes. German Opera
- Horns in multiple keys, larger instrumentation
- Clear harmonic cadences
- Repetitive motives in orchestra
- Multiple singers, chorus
- Changing of key signatures (distantly related keys)
Liszt
Liszt - Transcendental Etudes - 1820s-30s
• Virtuosic technique
• Chromatic decoration
• Key/character changes define form (usually less repetition of motives)
Berlioz
Harold in Italy - 1834
• Fairly clear tonal center, but less clear form
• Specific timpani mallets and tuning changes
• Multiple types of flutes, horns in multiple keys, ob/eng. horn, solo viola
• More programmatic and sectional - tempo/key changes throughout
• Still centered in one key, more brief movement between keys
Chopin
Preludes - 1835-39
• Lots of chromatic passing tones to shift tonal centers.
• Looks like the home key, but has lots of chromatic notes to shift harmonies.
• Lots of mode shifting (Duo Chopinesque)
• Some virtuosity, lots of emotion
Schumann -Dichterliebe
Dichterliebe - 1840
•Short songs w/piano accompaniment.
• Repetition of text, motives, and some formal repetition as well.
• Modal mixture pre-dominant chords
• Some pieces do not end in the same key of key signature (signature stays the same)
• Chords w/extensions
Schumann - Piano quintet
Piano quintet in Eb - 1842
• String quartet + piano
• Lots of changing keys
• Accidentals create lots of shifting harmonies and colorful pre-pre-dominant chords
Schumann - Piano Concerto
Piano concerto - 1845
• More traditional harmonies, but shifting key centers
• Chromatic mediants, chromatic pre-dominant harmonies.
Verdi
La Traviata - 1853
• Interaction btw vocalists, also interaction with orchestra.
• Careful orchestration
• Very clear V-Is, but some movement between key centers that’s much different from Classical (short departures to vi, key changes, etc)
-Italian opera
-Slower harmonic rhythms, however some decorated chromaticism for effects
-Clear cadences
Wagner
Tristan und Isolde - 1857-59
• Leitmotifs (chromatic thing)
• Tons of chromaticism, still functional harmony
• Compare/contrast to Debussy
Brahms - German Requiem
German Requiem - 1865-68
• Key of F, but immediate accidentals and non-F functions.
•Harp in different key?
• Choir singing German text with Orchestra (larger orch.)
•
Brahms 4
Brahms Symphony No. 4 - 1885
•Still a lot of tonality (V-I’s) but a handful of tonal shifts/changes. Cadences are less rhythmically clear than classical composers
• Larger instrumentation (4 hns in different keys
• New cadences to new keys all over the place.
• Main theme returns but in different keys
• Some moments of clear, four bar phrasing
Mahler
Symphony 1 - 1888
• Slow and emotional
• Divisi strings parts (sometimes 3 bass/cello notes @ same time)
• Lots of small tempo/mood changes
• Repeats and some use of more traditional forms (possibly 2nd mvt. in sonata? Check this)
Debussy - 3 nocturne
Nocturnes - 1892 • More chromaticism • Intricate instrumentation and scoring • Planing and parallel intervals • Less focus on "tonic" • Polyrhythms (2:3) • Enharmonic key changes
Debussy - prelude faun
Prelude to the afternoon of a faun - 1894
•Orchestral work - Intricate instrumentation (piston trumpets, 2 harps)
• Timbral color techniques - tremolos, gliss, mutes
•Chromaticism, lots of tonal changes and key sig. changes.
Debussy - Estampes
Estampes - 1903
• Color tones (ˆ6)
• Lots of pedal tones with shifting dominants above
• Obscured melodies and frequent changes in character
Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker
Nutcracker - 1892
- Ballet. Simple meters (dance)
- Easily recognizable melodies, clear harmonies.
- Chromatic decoration.
Tchaik - Piano Concerto
Piano Concerto in Bb- 1874
• Active and robust piano part (rolled chords, 2 hand unison rhythms, cadenzas). Lots of interaction btw. piano and orchestra
• Sonata form with modifications.
• Standard Romantic orch. instrumentation
• Lots of chromatic decoration in piano
• massive chords in both hands together
Rimsky Korsakov
Scheherezade - 1888
- Symphonic suite based on 1001 nights.
- Large brass and percussion sections
- Soloist moments, colorful orchestration
- Russian composer writing programmatic work about “Arabian Nights.”
Puccini
La Boheme - 1893-95
- Late romantic Italian opera
- Expanded brass, timp+percussion
- Lots of meter changes, key changes, fermatas, section changes
- Evolving harmonic language
- Lots of back and forth between singers
Ives - 3 places in New England
3 Places in New England - 1911-14
- polymetric, polytonal
- Intricate scoring. Each part playing in different time feel
Ives - Unanswered Question
The Unanswered Question - 1930-35 (revised) • Polyrhythmic, polytonal. • Extreme levels of dynamic. • Chamber group/orchestra • Multiple tempos at once
Holst
First Suite for Military Band - 1909
• 1st movement chaconne (repeated bass pattern in all parts with decorative melodies above)
• Standard wind band orchestration
• Clear harmonic language, homophonic textures. Brass fanfares, march-qualities.
Joplin
The Easy Winners - 1901
• piano rag. Clear form with repeats and larger formal repetition
• Tonal, moves to relative keys in different sections
Ellington tunes
Sophisticated Lady - 1933
Dont Get Around Much - 1940
• Jazz standards. 32 bar song forms.
• Clear ii-V-I’s