Styles

Question 0

Minimalism

Answer 0

Materials are reduced to a minimum and procedures are simplified so that what is occurring in the music is immediately apparent. La Monte Young (b. 1935) demonstrates in Composition 1960 No. 7 which uses two sustained notes. Allowing listeners to notice subtle differences.

Question 1

Expressionism

Answer 1

Music that values and tries to portray the human experience. Challenged audience to gain a deeper understanding if the art itself. Schoenberg (1874-1951) captured the essence in Ewartung (1909) creates a hysterical feel as the music describes anxiety.

Question 2

Impressionism

Answer 2

A term to describe music that evokes moods and visual imagery. Debussy’s Nuages uses timbre, harmony, and motive to describe slow moving clouds.

Question 3

Total Serialism

Answer 3

The compositional technique of organizing elements into a specific order (row). Three Compositions for Piano by Milton Babbitt (1916-2011) was the first composer to use a row to guide duration.

Question 4

Socialist Realism

Answer 4

1934 doctrine by the Soviet government providing guidelines for the arts. Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) spent his career working unde this doctrine.

Question 5

Absolute music

Answer 5

Music that is independent of words, drama, visual images, or any kind of representational aspects. Brahms

Question 6

Romantic

Answer 6

Mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth-century style period which demonstrated a focus on melody, emotion and individuality.

Question 7

Neoclassicism

Answer 7

1910s-1950s movement in which composers revived or imitated styles, genres and forms of pre-Romantic music. Maurice Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin is a suite of six movements and one of the earliest neoclassical pieces.

Question 8

Avant-Garde

Answer 8

A stylistic movement that challenges established conventions. Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies represents a movement away from Romatic expressivity.

Question 9

Ars Nova

Answer 9

Style of polyphony from 14th century France, distinguished from earlier music by a system of rhythmic notation that allowed duple or triple divisions, syncopation, and more rhythmic flexibility. Also the name of a treatise by Philippe de Vitry

Question 10

Ars Subtilior

Answer 10

Polyphony from the late 14th and early 15th centuries in Southern France and Northern Italy characterized by rhythmic and notation complexity. post-Machaut

Question 11

Byzantine Chant

Answer 11

Ecclesiastical chant used in the Byzantine rite and in the modern Greek Orthodox Church.

Question 12

Empfindsam

Answer 12

C.P.E. Bach’s fantasias - unexpected, abrupt changes in harmony, chromaticism, nervous rhythms, and free speech-like melodies.

Question 13

Postminimalism

Answer 13

Music that reflects the influence of minimalist procedures while including traditional methods, more varied material and expressivity. Reich - Tehillim - settings of Hebrew text in changing meters over a pulsating percussion.

Question 14

Spectral Music / Spectralism

Answer 14

A focus on perception, acoustics, and tone color using the basis that all sounds can be represented mathematically through a spectrum. Acoustic instruments are used to recreate the harmonic relationships created through analysis. Grisey - Partiels - one of the first spectralists.

Question 15

Modernism

Answer 15

General term for music from the late 19th century through the 20th century for composers who were seeking to create something new and distinct while remaining connected to tradition. Sibelius, Ravel, Rachmaninoff

Question 16

Classical Period

Answer 16

c 1730-1815 emphasis on melody with light accompaniment, simple harmonic plans, clearly defined form