Listening Quiz 2 Flashcards
Prélude à l’après midi d’une faune
Composer: Debussy
Date: 1894
Genre: Impressionist
Significance:
-Opening flute melody “arabesque” sound and construction related to quasi Middle Eastern variation procedure
-Arabesque (geometric/curved lines): Non goal directed “continuously evolving”, static blocks of sound/colour, undulating pulse; tonal ambiguity
-Based on Mallarmés poem
-Suggests affinities between musical modernism and perceptions of non-western music
Estampes “Pagodas”
Composer: Debussy
Date: 1903
Genre: Impressionist
Significance:
-Features pentatonic structure B C# D# F# G# in melody and accompaniment
-Stratified texture (heterphony): Layering of melodic phrases and figurations in different rhythmic values
–>same core melody played in slightly varied ways, often simultaneously
-Higher register “elaborating melodic material”, lower gong notes tones held *akin to the Javanese gamelan practice” which he learned from the World Fair–TRANSCULTURAL
El Salon Mexico
Composer: Copland
Date: 1934
Significance:
-Dance hall in Mexico City
-Copland’s first piece to use folk song
-Symphonic poem
-Conceived as a heroic overcoming of the fragmentation f modern life
-Expresses US urban constructions of Mexico as an alternative to contemporary industrial society–>critiquing liberal capitalism
-Tutti opening based on initial ascent of Mexican tune “El Palo Verde”
-Trumpet solo based on “La Jesuita” love song supporters of Mexican revolution
Afro-American Symphony
Composer: William Grant Still
Date: 1930
Significance:
-Influenced by ideas of Harlem Renaissance
-Based of poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar
-Still’s first large scale work in “racial idiom”
-A “racial uplift” program
-Balance of symphony structure vs. blues
-Use of call/response, instrumental sections as “chorus”
-1st theme: solo oboe “spiritual theme” evokes the concert spiritual tradition
-2nd theme returns in parallel minor (strings)
*improvisatory feel suggests cyclic process derived from blues/black musical practice rather than classical return
Ghost Opera
Composer: Tan Dun
Date: 1994
Genre: Experimentalism
Significance:
-Aura of ethnic authenticity
-For string quartet and pipa, with water, stones, paper, and metal
-Interweaves a Chinese folk song and Bach prelude as well as text and live-sound effect
-Fragments of imperialist/colonialist ideologies, and Asian neo-orientalism, subtly subverting them both
He’s A Rebel
Artist: The Crystals
Year: 1962
Genre: Girl Group
Significance:
-Phil Spector owned the name “The Crystals” and released the song as by the Crystals, but employed Darlene Love to record it
-The Crystals had a hit they never recorded, and Darlene Love got no credit or royalties
-Brill Building production model allowed for creative flexibility, but more susceptible to exploitation
-Female subjectivity
-Escapist nature
Be My Baby
Artist: The Ronettes
Date: 1963
Genre: Girl Group
Significance:
-Phil Spector produced, “Wall of Sound” (dense instrumentation)
-Lead singer w/ backup vocals
-Two sisters, one other girl
-Choreographed unified performance/appearance
-Brill Building: For young teenage audience
-White arrangements for black voices
All My Trials
Artist: Joan Baez
Genre: Folk Revival
Date: 1960
Significance:
-Performed for college towns, educated young people
-pure sound/image “effortless”
-Some reactions focused on her “sexless” appearance
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
Artist: Peter, Paul and Mary Genre: Folk Revival Date: 1963 Significance: -Cover, written by Bob Dylan -Trio: two men, one woman -More commercial, polished than Dylan's
“Blowin In the Wind”
Artist: Bob Dylan
Date: 1963
Genre: Folk Revival
Significance:
-Lyrics making indirect political references: Civil rights, anti-war awareness
-“How many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned”
-Image: Just him and a guitar, in worker clothes–universal worker
Like a Rolling Stone
Artist: Bob Dylan
Date: 1965
Genre: Folk/Rock
Significance:
-Dylan’s use of rock band clashed with the anti commercial idea behind the folk revival
-No longer singing about civil rights antiwar–related to his new image ?
-class related themes
-Newport festival 1965: Bob goes electric, fans felt betrayed
-Authenticity: Staying true to fans or staying true to creative ambitions?
-“Selling out”–going mainstream
She Loves You
Artist: Beatles Date: 1963 Genre: Pop-Rock Significance: -BAAB form, hook comes first -Album: Twist and Shout
It Won’t Be Long
Artist: Beatles Date: 1963 Genre: Pop-rock Significance: -Flatted submediant VI -Opening track of "With the Beatles" -John Lennon Composition -McCartney assisted with lyrics -Features Call/response
This Boy
Artist: Beatles Date: 1963 Genre: Pop-Rock Signifance: -"Chains of pandiatonic clusters" -Expressively different from others because of its sad sound, harmonically very intriguing -From Meet the Beatles
Yesterday
Artist: Beatles
Date: 1965
Genre: Pop-rock
Significance: First Beatle’s song to include orchestral instruments
-Expansion of instruments, string quartet creates novel/transparent sound
-Album: Help! compared to Rubber Soul which comes after
