Transcript

What French composer best represents the impressionistic style of music?

Claude Debussy

What painting and artist is reported to have given the style of impressionism its name?
Impression, Sunrise by Monet

. What percussion instrument(s) did Debussy use in his work Prelude to the Afternoon of a
Faun?
Debussy only use a percussion instrument in his work: antique cymbals
4. What was so shocking about Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring?
People was shocked about The Rite of Spring because the choreography was violent and
overtly sexual nature as well as by the pounding rhythms and clashing dissonances from the orchestra.

5. According to Yale professor Craig Wright, what 40-year time period is considered the
impressionistic period in music history?
1880 TO 1920
6. According to Yale professor Craig Wright, what poem was Debussy's inspiration
for Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun?

a poem by Stephane Mallarmé Called The Afternoon of a faun
7. 7. According to Yale professor Craig Wright, what is a "faun?"
He said that f-a-u-n is a sort of randy satyr, half man, half beast, who spends his afternoon in
pursuit of sexual gratification in the heat of the midday sun

8. According to Yale professor Craig Wright, what five musical techniques did Stravinsky
use in his The Rite of Spring that caused such a strong reaction from his audiences?

heavy dissonance, much greater reliance on percussion, the use of
stringed instruments as percussion instruments, an increased use of
woodwinds, irregular rhythms and polymeters and irregular meters all
creating this kind of disjunctive effect.

Definitions - Please define each term below.

1. Impressionism: impressionism
can be considered the first distinctly
modern movement in painting, literature and music. This movement was
developed in Paris in the 1860s, its influence spread throughout Europe
and eventually the United States. I

2. Symbolism: is a term a movement usually uses in poetry which was the translation for
impressionism. The Symbolists wished to free-verse techniques to achieve fluidity, these poets
chose to express their immediate reactions to a subject by means of symbolic words
3. Exoticism: is a term used when composers of music include in their compositions a "foreign" flair.
exoticism was communicated by any sounds drawn from outside the traditional Western, European tradition. It
could be a non-Western scale, a folk rhythm, or a new instrument like the gong

4. Atonality: music without a key or home center

5. Polyrhythm different meters sounding at the same time

6. Bitonality: two different keys sounding at the same time

7. Ostinato constantly repeated phrases

8. Sprechstimme speech-voice that refers to a halfway between speaking and singing

9. Serialism: music that use this manipulation of elements in a series

10. Expressionism: was primarily an Austrian/German development whose aim was to
paint an object or person's most innermost feelings, anxieties, and fears.

1. The first performance of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was a big success.

2. In the particular performance of Debussy's Clair de lune used in the course lesson on
Debussy, there is a loud "bang" from somewhere in the audience during the performance.

3. The particular performance of Debussy's Clair de lune used in the course lesson on
Debussy is played before a live audience.

4. The particular performance of Debussy's work Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faunused
in the course lesson on Debussy includes a snare drum and timpani from timing 4:12 to
6:13 to help keep a strong beat.

5. Impressionistic music frequently uses vague, subtle rhythms.

6. Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun requires two harps as part of the
orchestra.

7. French artists and musicians were influenced by the nonwestern styles of art and music
that they observed at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1889.

8. Part of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring music was used by the Walt Disney studios in its
animated film Fantasia.

9. The famous painting The Scream by Edvard Munch is an example of impressionistic art.

10. Schoenberg's song Moondrunk includes a flute as one of the five instruments required
for the work.

Short Essay Questions
1. How did Charles Ives earn a living?

he relegated art to the sidelines and devoted himself to the world of business.

2. Why did Charles Ives's music not get professionally published during his lifetime?

Because he refused to compromise his principles to compose trendy, attractive
music that would earn a living

3. Who wrote the well-known Peter and the Wolf?

Sergey Prokofiev

4. How is Prokofiev's work Romeo and Juliet different from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and
Juliet?

Because Prokoviev’s work Romeo and Juliet had too many "modernistic" techniques
such as sharp dissonances

5. Russian composers Shostakovich and Prokofiev were challenged by what political
difficulties?

They were challenged by his country’s Communist regime. For example Prokofiev
had to change the traditional ending of Romeo and Juliet to a happy ending
because of the Soviet dictate of the time forbidding tragic endings.

6. Why did Bela Bartok leave Hungary and move to the United States?

Bartok left Hungary and move to New York because he was becoming
disillusioned with the growing rise of National Socialism in central Europe.

7. Which composer was one of the first "ethnomusicologist" (musician who studies
ethnic music such as folksongs)?

Bela Bartok

8. In your own words, describe the "rude" interruptions played by the trumpets and
trombones in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, 4th movement?

The interruptions by trumpets and tombones provoke a noise that interrupts with the sweet melody. It
makes you think it's a stormy moment in the middle of the melody. but at the same time they make
the work more interesting.
9. What is "American" about the music of Aaron Copland?

Aaron Copland incorporated popular forms of American music such as jazz and
folk into his compositions So we could say that he created pieces both exceptional
and innovative. Thus, he liberated music from European influence

10. Which composer studied in our class lessons was born in South Florida?

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

True/False Questions. Please label each statement as true or false.

1. The 4th movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 stays at the same, very fast
tempo throughout the entire movement.

2. The piano is an important instrument in "The Dance of the Knights" from
Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

3. The piano is an important instrument in the 4th movement of Bartok's Concerto for
Orchestra.

4. In Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, 4th movement, the tempo starting at section 2:44
(timing from performance in the class lesson) starts to speed up.

5. Aaron Copland wrote the melody to the song "Simple Gifts."

6. The triangle (percussion instrument) plays in Section 7 of Copland's Appalachian
Spring.

7. In Concerto Grosso 1985 by Zwilich, the harpsichord plays in the "Handel-like" sections
beginning at timing 0:36, 1:17, 1:54, and also in the dissonant, modern-sounding section
concluding the work. (Note that the timings are from the particular performance included in
the lesson Modern Art Music-Part 2.)