Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Music

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.

Musical Piece Descriptions

1. Lied: Starts with aggressive piano playing. A man singing opera comes in later, then it goes back to only piano for a brief period.
2. Lied: Soft and slow piano to start. A man singing opera in German, with elongated singing. Super slow piano playing.
3. Lied: Starts with soft piano, a girl singing opera comes in soon.
4. Parlor Song: Piano starts slow. A girl singing "Beautiful Dreamer."
5. Character Piece: Soft, high piano playing to start. Slows down then speeds up again, repeated. The piano gets a little louder. No singing.
6. Nocturne: Loud piano playing, slow playing. Gets quick 45 seconds in. Still calm sounding, but fast. No singing.
7. Etude: Super fast piano playing. Super aggressive then pause, then super aggressive again. Slamming

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1. Sak Noel – Where? (I Lost My Underwear)
2. Nicki Minaj – Starships (Radio Edit)
3. DJ Antoine feat. The Beat Shakers – Ma Chérie (DJ Antoine vs. Mad Mark 2k12 Radio Edit)
4. Pitbull & Chris Brown – International Love (Album Edit)
5. Bob Sinclar feat. Gilbere Forte, Dragonfly & Fatman Scoop – Rock The Boat
6. Alexandra Stan feat. Carlprit & Jason Ray - 1.000.000
7. Havana Brown – We Run the Night
8. Deniz Koyu – Tung!
9. Victor Magan & Aritz feat. Lessus – Give (Radio Edit)
10. Ian Carey & Rosette feat. Timbaland & Brasco – Amnesia
11. Basto – Again And Again
12. Elena – Your Captain Tonight
13. Tom Hangs & Shermanology – Blessed (Avicii Radio Edit)
14. Mike T feat. Rawanne

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" »

Renaissance (15th and 16th Centuries)

Period characterized by the recovery of classical ideals (beauty, proportion, symmetry) in various art disciplines (architecture, sculpture). Works of art from ancient Greece and Rome were taken as models.

Renaissance Music

There were no ancient musical examples because we do not conserve any ancient Greek or Roman scores. The most characteristic feature is the improvement of polyphony. The music from this period adopts some of the ancient ideals:

1. Ideals of beauty, proportion, and symmetry.
2. Music must express and imitate the meaning of the lyrics.

Humanism

A new way of thinking that promotes the complete development of the human being through the studies of art and sciences. Leonardo Da Vinci is a key figure.

Printing