Notes, abstracts, papers, exams and problems of Music

Stop dissonance independent re-structured brushstrokes imagination time dodecaphonism - all the established order and organization of sounds disappeared - Arnold Schoenberg

Electronic music - sounds are created, processed, and recorded electronically - Karlheinz Stockhausen

Musique concrete - recording of different sounds and later processing these in the studio - Pierre Schaeffer

Neoclassicism - a return to formal clarity and went back to Classicism and the Baroque - Sergei Prokofiev

Impressionism - sound becomes a vehicle of the inner sensations produced by the real world - Claude Debussy

Aleatoric music - indefinite music that depends on chance and the freedom of the performer - John Cage

Minimalism - employs limited or minimal musical materials... Continue reading "Evolution of Music in Film: From Silent Films to Diegetic Soundtracks" »

African Music

Djembe

The djembe is a solid wooden drum with a goat skin stretched over the top. Played with the hands, it produces three distinct sounds. Originally, the djembe served as an effective communication device across the Malian Empire.

Calabash

The calabash is half of a hollowed pumpkin gourd played with the hands. Sometimes rings are placed around one or more fingers, or two small sticks are used.

Kora

The kora is a 21-string bridge harp attached to a calabash gourd with cowhide stretched over the front. This gives the instrument a slightly different sound than a European harp.

Bira Ceremony

The Bira ceremony involves singing, dancing, clapping, and the shaking of the hosho (rattle) made from smaller gourds. Master musicians playing the... Continue reading "World Music Exploration: Instruments and Genres" »

Understanding Classical Music (18th-19th C.)

What Does "Classical" Mean?

The word Classical is often used to describe music that isn't pop, rock, or jazz, but it specifically refers to music from the late 18th to the early 19th century.

Key Characteristics

Classical music features characteristics such as:

• A sound that is richer and more structured.
• A freer, more expressive style compared to earlier periods.

Opera Styles

Opera Seria

Opera seria is the Italian term for serious opera. These were 18th-century operas in Italian, typically about ancient Greek gods and heroes.

Opera Buffa

Composers soon began to write operas in a lighter, comic style. In Italy, this new type of opera was known as opera buffa.

Major Classical Music Forms

Key characteristics of... Continue reading "Classical, Romantic & 20th Century Music: Forms & Features" »

HAUT MUSIC:

Composed by instruments with great sound power. These were groups intended for outdoor performances or public events.

BAS MUSIC:

Composed by instruments of soft sound intensity. These were groups intended for indoor performances.

INSTRUMENTS:

String (lute and vihuela) and keyboard (organ and harpsichord).

FAMOUS COMPOSERS:

Clement Janequin, Martin Luther, Juan del Enzina, Claudio Monteverdi, John Dowland, Antonio de Cabezón, Luis de Narváez.

Dance:

2 types of dances: Popular dance and country dance.

SOCIAL DANCES:

Pavane: is a processional dance with a slow and ceremonious binary rhythm. Galliard: is a dance in ternary and animated rhythm, with a more demanding choreography. Jardin de las Delicias: In the picture 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'... Continue reading "Music in the Renaissance Era" »

Gregorian Chants: We call them Gregorian chants, in honor of Pope Gregory I (540-604), who was their first compiler. Western music comes from the medieval chants of the Catholic Church.

Characteristics of Gregorian Chants:

• The song is a capella, only voice with no instruments.
• The subject is religious. It is a prayer.
• All the voices sing the same melody, so the texture is monophonic or monodic.
• The language is Latin.
• Its rhythm is free (without a time signature) and it flows with the text.
• The authors are anonymous.

Troubadours: Troubadours are in the countryside playing instruments of the period (the harp, bagpipe, and shawm). Songs were not religious. It developed mainly in France in the 12^th and 13^th centuries.

Characteristics of Troubadour Music:

1. Mark with an X the chronological period of the Middle Ages. From the late 5th c to the 15th

2. Describe the historical and sociocultural aspects of this period of history by answering the following questions. a) Why do you think the cultural life of this period was mainly concentrated in monasteries and abbeys? Because the monks cultivated the arts and science using manuscripts from ancient Greece and Rome. b) On the social scene in this period, what was Europe like? Europe was fragmented into many small territories dominated by powerful feudal lords who fought amongst themselves. c) What were the Crusades? Military expeditions led by Christian kings attempting to recover holy places in and around Jerusalem. d) This period has two stages:

Along with the development of symphony and concertos for soloists, program music appeared based on the description of a program or plot. It embraced small "pieces with character" composed upon simple or free structures, allowing for the expression of feelings and fantasy. Ballet continued to evolve towards technical virtuosity, introducing new stage tricks and adopting more stylish postures and figures. Zarzuela Grande, structured in three acts, featured a larger musical development. On the other hand, Género Chico consisted of a single act with fewer characters and a predominance of spoken text over sung text. Lastly, Lied refers to a song for soloist voice with piano accompaniment, written upon a poetic text and characterized by simple structures.

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and His *Rimas*

We are confronted by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's *Rimas*, written during the second half of the nineteenth century. It was the era of Realism, but his rhymes belong to the Romanticism movement. They are a model of romance, and he is considered a late Romantic. The mid-century poetry is marked by the intimate melancholy of Bécquer and Rosalía de Castro. Lengthy narrative poems of the Romantics were abandoned for shorter compositions, following the style of German ballads. The legend versified prose replaces. In the *Legends* of Bécquer (*Maese Pérez, the Organist*, *The Miserere*, *El Monte de las Ánimas*, etc.), the narrator acts as a correspondent or columnist for prodigious and mysterious events,... Continue reading "Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer: Romanticism and the Rimas" »