1. art and entertainment
2. shows and events
3. classical concert

Teacher’s Manual
for
DISCOVERING MUSIC
300 YEARS OF INTERACTION IN WESTERN
MUSIC, ART, HISTORY, AND CULTURE
by Dr. Carol Reynolds
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
Syllabus................................................................................................................................................ 2
II.
Course Plan (Unit by Unit) ................................................................................................................. 11
III. Examinations & Answer Keys............................................................................................................. 26
Exam 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 27
Exam 2 ................................................................................................................................................. 33
Exam 3 ................................................................................................................................................. 39
Exam 4 ................................................................................................................................................. 45
IV. Listening Plan ...................................................................................................................................... 51
Appendices
Listening Selection Chart
Listening Progress Form
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
2/27/2012
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 2
SYLLABUS
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course examines Western music as it developed across a 300-year period known as the Common Practice Era
(from the late Renaissance to the edge of World War I). It places music at the center of a cross-disciplinary study
emphasizing visual art, literature, cultural and social fashions, and world events, including military and dynastic
milestones. It introduces the student to a wealth of musical and artistic figures, musical terminology, and
significant artistic movements. It presents a solid and diverse body of musical repertoire representing the major
trends during the Common Practice Era. This study corresponds with and complements the stages of Classical
Education presented in the Trivium as the student masters terminology and personages, learns to sort out and
discern historical periods of style, and discovers the interweaving of forces (artistic, cultural, political,
technological, geographical) that shape Western music.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
This course will enable the student to:
•
•
•
•
•
Understand and use musical terminology and concepts that define Western music.
Gain familiarity with artistic, literary, and stylistic terminology and concepts.
Explore the connection between musicians and authors, painters, philosophers—in short, principal figures
who shaped Western cultural life from c. 1600 to the dawn of World War I (1914).
Identify and examine the inter-relationship between Western music and its sister arts.
Place the arts within an overall historical context that includes dynastic, religious, social, and
technological aspects of Western Culture.
SKILLS TO BE DEVELOPED:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ability to hear and analyze music within a cultural context
Building a vocabulary of musical and artistic terminology
Awareness of the direct links between an era’s writers, painters, philosophers, and monarchs with the
music of the period
Familiarity with major Western composers and styles
Ability to hear and recognize historical style
Expansion of a student’s repertoire and musical tastes
DESCRIPTION OF COURSE WORK:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
DVD lectures (class sessions taught by Dr. Reynolds)
Required musical listening selections (repertoire listed in bold) which are keyed into each unit
Viewing Guides (Units 2-8 and 10-17)
Quizzes (Units 1-17)
Projects: “Putting it all Together”—These projects can be completed in written form or as oral
presentations.
6. Exploration of the chronology (timelines) and annotated websites, all designed to extend the student’s
understanding of the topics and era.
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Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 3
7. Four Exams covering Units 1-6, 7-10, 11-14, 15-17 in order to assess the student’s understanding and
retention of material and concepts.
TIME REQUIRED
There is no single estimate as to how much time each unit takes. Much depends on the level of the student and
whether or not the course is being used for a high-school credit. We recommend that each DVD lecture be
viewed two times, once to become acquainted with the material (with all attention focused as if in a class) and a
second time to underscore the major ideas and help the student sort out the vocabulary and personages plus fill in
the viewing guide. The lectures themselves run from twenty-five minutes to one hour. (See p. xvi of the
textbook.) Individual lectures may be broken down in any way the teacher and/or student finds useful.
Some students may complete the viewing guides quickly, while others will need to ponder and even return to the
DVD lectures for help. Time required for projects will also vary: younger students may be undertaking projects at
a lighter level or within a group setting. Older students desiring credit will approach projects with the same
seriousness accorded projects at the high-school, or even college-prep, level. The self-corrected quizzes are by
design rather short. Students should be allowed as much time as necessary to complete each multi-unit exam.
SCOPE AND SEQUENCE:
I.
Introduction to course (Unit 1), World Events and Terminology (Units 2-3), Louis XIV (Unit 4), Late
Renaissance and Early Baroque (Units 5-6).
Unit 1: Using Music History to Unlock Western Culture
Central Idea: Critical listening, place of music in culture and society.
Historical Figures: Plato, Dickens, Edison, Schumann, The Beatles
Unit 2: Music Entwined with the Great Events in Western History
Central Idea: Response of musical style to technology, science, religion, and economics.
Historical Figures: Pythagoras, Pope Gregory the Great, Gutenberg, Luther, Wycliffe, Kepler,
Galileo
Unit 3: Technology, Terminology, and Cultural Perspective
Central Idea: Mastering musical terminology, understanding types of music.
Historical Figures: Haydn, Beethoven
Unit 4: Fanfare and Power: The Court of Louis XIV
Central Idea: Structure and power at Louis XIV’s palace of Versailles; its influence on the arts,
science, politics, fashion, etiquette and music.
Historical Figures: Louis XIV, Kepler, Harvey, Galileo, Lully, le Brun, Harvey, Molière,
Charpentier
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DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 4
Unit 5: Sweeping Away the Renaissance in to the Baroque
Central Idea: Shift in thinking from Renaissance to Baroque as reflected in music.
Historical Figures: Dante, Boccaccio, Brunelleschi, da Vinci, Leibniz, Newton, Monteverdi,
Gabrieli, J. S. Bach, Rameau
Unit 6: Liturgical Calendar, Street Parties, and the New Church Music
Central Idea: The church calendar; how and to what degree it dictated artistic life.
Historical Figures: George I, Handel
II.
The Eighteenth Century and the Dawn of Romanticism (Units 7-10)
Unit 7: A Lively Journey Through the Life of Johann Sebastian Bach
Central Idea: Discussion of Bach’s life and positions; technology of the organ, acoustics;
economics, religion, and court politics in the late Baroque.
Historical Figures: Frederick the Great, Diderot, Newton, Quantz, Herder, D’Alembert, Mersenne,
Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi, Handel, Buxtehude, Walther
Unit 8: Enlightenment, Classicism, and the Astonishing Mozart
Central Idea: The Enlightenment and its reflection in the arts.
Historical Figures: Joseph II, Louis XVI, Jefferson, Watteau, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, da
Ponte, Beaumarchais, Mozart, Köchel, Stadler, Haydn,
Unit 9: Into the Abyss: the Struggle with Unfettered Imagination
Central Idea: Clash of nineteenth-century individualism with Enlightenment ideals, comparison of
Enlightenment and Romanticism
Historical Figures: Napoleon, David, Friedrich, Spitzweg, Wackenroder, Tieck, Boethius,
Coleridge, Hoffmann, Scott, Byron, Grimm Brothers, Shelley, Poe, de Goya, Goethe, Schiller
Unit 10: Beethoven as Hero and Revolutionary
Central Idea: The French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, and instability in Europe all lead to a
new musical language.
Historical Figures: Beethoven, Napoleon, Friedrich, Herschel, Zelter, Goethe
Discovering Music
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DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
III.
Page 5
Virtuosity, Opera, and the New Meaning of Romantic Music
Unit 11: Salons, Poetry, and the Power of Song
Central Idea: Poetry, rise of song as a musical form, the venue of the drawing room and private
patronage.
Historical Figures: Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Pushkin, Byron, Keats, Shelley, Mendelssohn, Hensel,
Schubert, Loewe, Schumann
Unit 12: A Tale of Four Virtuosi and the Birth of the Tone Poem
Central Idea: The rise of extraordinary playing skills and the modern system of concert
performances.
Historical Figures: Paganini, Liszt, Chopin, Sand, Delacroix, Ingres, Lind, Mendelssohn, Berlioz,
Bellini, Field
Unit 13: Nationalism and the Explosion of Romantic Opera
Central Idea: Powerful role of opera and musical theater in nineteenth-century European culture.
Historical Figures: Bismarck, Meyerbeer, Weber, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini Verdi, Puccini, Bizet,
Scott
Unit 14: The Absolutely New World of Wagner
Central Idea: Contemporary reception of Wagner’s musical and dramatic ideas, his legacy today.
Historical Figures: Ludwig II, Wagner, Liszt, Nietzsche, Hoffmann, Strauss, Hitler
IV.
Different Paths and the End of the Common Practice Era
Unit 15: Imperial Russia – a Cultural Odyssey
Central Idea: Imitation of the West versus unique development in Russian culture; Orthodox
Christianity.
Historical Figures: Tsar Alexei I, Peter the Great, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, Tchaikovsky,
Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Bortniansky, Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Cui, Borodin,
Scriabin, Stravinsky, Stanislavsky, Pushkin, Turgenev, Leskov, Tolstoy, Chekov, Dostoevsky, Repin,
Surikov, Kramskoy, Diaghilev
Unit 16: Load up the Wagons: the Story of American Music
Central Idea: Diverse origins and achievements of American music and culture.
Historical Figures: Law, Billings, Mason, Sousa, Ives, Foster, Berlin, Joplin, Ziegfeld
Unit 17: Turning the Page on Western Tradition with the Explosion of War
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Page 6
Central Idea: Response of artists to the cultural conditions that led to WWI.
Historical Figures: Emperor Franz Joseph, Brahms, Mahler, Strauss, Schoenberg, Munch, Klimt,
Freud, Debussy, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Manet, Renoir, Wilde, Bartok,
Kodály, Gilbert & Sullivan
COURSE MATERIALS:
•
Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture Textbook
(Silver Age Music, 2009).
•
Discovering Music. 8-DVD Lecture Set (Silver Age Music, 2009)
•
Discovering Music. 3-CD Listening Set (Silver Age Music/Naxos, 2009). (For the online version of the
course, the listening can be obtained by subscription with www.naxos.com or another classical music
service.
•
Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture. Teacher’s
Manual (Silver Age Music, 2012)
OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS:
•
Carol Reynolds, Exploring America’s Musical Heritage.
A 2-DVD program consisting of eight 30-minute units covering American music from the
Puritans to 1950. Shot on location and featuring 38 specialists (historians, curators, performers,
craftsmen). Strong on American history, art, and literature, especially poetry, Exploring
America’s Musical Heritage stresses themes of Regionalism, Legacy, and Preservation.
•
Leonard Bernstein, Young People’s Concerts.
Available both on DVD and in book-form. While “low-key” by today’s standard, these are
brilliant and original discourses on music, delivered by one of the 20th-century’s most
magnificent interpreters of music. These are useful both for the information imparted and the
style in which Bernstein taught.
•
Lincoln Kirstein, Four Centuries of Ballet. Fifty Masterworks (New York: Dover Publications, 1984)
A richly illustrated compendium of dance history from the excellent introductory essay to a
dance-by-dance progression through Western masterpieces from 1581 to Broadway. Text is
broken into accessible sections. Excellent for historical background.
•
Piero Weiss & Richard Taruskin, Music in the Western World (New York: Schirmer Books, 1984)
A “source readings” volume that presents excerpts from a wide variety of historical documents,
musical and non-musical, and arranges them chronologically with a concise introduction to each
passage. A serious resource but accessible to high-school students.
•
Rob Frank and Kenneth Metz, Fundamentals for the Aspiring Musician: a Preparatory Course for Music
Theory (New York: Routledge, 2011)
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 7
Consists of a carefully structured, comprehensive textbook and CD-rom. An excellent resource
allowing serious young musicians to learn music theory at a high level. Recommended especially
for those who want to continue music study in college.
•
Women Making Music. The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950, edited by Jane Bowers and Judith Tick
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987)
A seminal publication on women composers and performers in Western music. It presaged an
avalanche of scholarship that continues to this day. A bit dry, but enlivened by many quotations
from documents on women artists. Plenty of emphasis is given to women musicians in the
Medieval and Renaissance periods.
HOW TO USE THIS COURSE:
•
Use each DVD unit lecture as the starting point. Think of watching each unit as “attending class.”
Longer lectures may be broken into sections as needed.
•
Students may wish to look over the figures, places, and terms as an orientation before or while watching
the lecture, but the unit lecture on DVD is the equivalent of being in class, and listening/watching should
occupy the student’s full attention.
•
We recommend the “Viewing Guide” be filled in either after watching the lecture, or during a second
viewing of each lecture. Students can self-correct the Viewing Guide using the Suggested Answers in the
back of the Text.
•
Multiple listening of the musical selections (repertoire) on the 3-CD set is highly recommended and
necessary if the course is to be used for high-school credit. (To this end, please consult the Listening
Plan.) The musical selections contained on the 3-CD set are keyed into each unit and listed in bold type.
Students will be using the Listening Form to record their impressions and responses. Peer and family
discussions of the materials, especially the Listening Selections, are highly encouraged.
•
The Suggested Listening selections are intended to broaden the student’s musical understanding and can
be accessed through outside resources such as public and university libraries and internet sites (e.g. Naxos
or Classical Archives, iTunes, or YouTube). As time and interest permit, students are encouraged to seek
out and listen closely to alternative performances and draw comparisons and contrasts between these
performances. Such critical listening is an excellent way to build a student’s understanding of historical
style.
•
High-school students are advised to keep a supplementary notebook for recording a variety of
information: comments about the historical figures and terminology encountered; chronological
connections and geographical connections; annotations about the websites or other websites discovered
by the student; outlines and planning strategies for unit projects.
•
Be sure to spend time on the introductory portions and glossaries of your textbooks. They are full of
valuable information and helpful for understanding the materials.
•
Increasingly, YouTube has become an excellent source of materials for the arts. While parents and
teachers will want to approach YouTube with discretion, the student frequently can find a dazzling
selection of performances by some of the world’s best artists and ensembles. Being able to see, as well as
hear, music performed is key. Seeing a Baroque ensemble actually play a movement from a Brandenberg
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 8
Concerto, especially if the performance is staged in an historic space such as a palace hall, allows the
student to imagine much more of how music and the arts fit within cultural history.
•
Of course, experiencing live performances of music and drama is highly encouraged. Professional
performances can be marvelous, but don’t discount the value of community, school, and church events.
We particularly encourage you to attend college-level performances, which often are cost-free and where
your student can frequently have a better view. Your student is more likely to identify with younger
performers and see their accomplishments as attainable and as an inspiration for success in any discipline.
DVD TIMINGS:
Disc 1
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Using Music History to Unlock Western Culture
Music Entwined with Great Events in Western History
Technology, Terminology, and Cultural Perspective
44:56
41:56
25.35
Disc 2
Unit 4
Unit 5
Unit 6
Fanfare and Power: the Court of Louis XIV
Sweeping Away the Renaissance into the Baroque
Liturgical Calendar, Street Parties, and the New Church Music
34:01
48.18
27:31
Disc 3
Unit 7
Unit 8
A Lively Journey through the Life of Johann Sebastian Bach
Enlightenment, Classicism, and the Astonishing Mozart
50:56
58:26
Disc 4
Unit 9
Unit 10
Into the Abyss: the Century Struggles with Unfettered Imagination
Beethoven as Hero and Revolutionary
58:06
37:48
Disc 5
Unit 11
Unit 12
Salons, Poetry, and the Power of Song
A Tale of Four Virtuosi and the Birth of the Tone Poem
49:07
53:09
Disc 6
Unit 13
Unit 14
Nationalism and the Explosion of Romantic Opera
The Absolutely New World of Wagner
56:05
35:48
Disc 7
Unit 15
Unit 16
Imperial Russia – A Cultural Odyssey
Load Up the Wagons: the Story of American Music
58:35
61:36
Disc 8
Unit 17
Turning the Page on Western Tradition with the Explosion of War
60:43
Total time:
13:22:36
DATES:
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DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 9
A skeletal chronology is given in most units. The dates and items selected are in no way comprehensive, but are
intended to provide reference points for the unit’s materials. These events can, and should, be supplemented by
reference to more specific or more familiar timelines.
WEBSITES:
Units contain a listing of selected websites. These websites are chosen and annotated to guide students, teachers,
and parents, and to encourage cross-discipline research. Websites are but one form of resource, and the
consultation of traditional resources is strongly recommended: biographies, atlases, dictionaries and
encyclopedias, memoirs, letters, scholarly journal articles, and any relevant collections of source readings.
The sections of annotated websites can also be purchased in .pdf format with live links (via download at a
nominal charge) to enable the user to click through directly to the websites.
TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS:
Students are strongly encouraged to consult the texts/translations whenever listening to vocal works (Textbook,
pp. 194-203). Without the meaning of the words, any song or chorus loses its power. Even songs with texts in
English should be consulted, as not every word sounds clearly, even if sung in a native tongue.
PROJECTS:
The projects can be approached and completed at different levels of depth. They may also be completed either as
oral presentations or in written form. If the course is being used for high-school Fine Arts or Humanities credit,
we recommend that projects in written form consist of 1-3 pages typewritten, 12-point font, double-spaced or the
equivalent neatly handwritten in cursive. If completed in oral form, the student should accumulate approximately
15 minutes of oral content enhanced by charts, maps, sound or visual art, or other illustrations.
Projects generally fall into three categories:
Academic Research. These projects require traditional research methods involving library or internet
reference materials, formal writing techniques, footnotes or endnotes, and the compilation of a
bibliography.
Comparative Analysis. Students will seek out and familiarize themselves with a variety of new materials
and resources, and then draw comparisons and contrasts.
Field Research. Student will go “out into the field” and see how music and the Arts apply within the
institutions that make up their communities.
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 10
Categories for Projects Found in Each Unit
Unit
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Discovering Music
Academic Research
1, 2, 3, 5, 6
1, 4, 6, 7
1, 2, 6
2
2, 5
2, 3, 4, 5, 6
3, 5, 6,
4
1, 2, 3, 4
2
5
2, 3, 5, 7
1, 2, 5
4
Comparative Analysis
4
2, 3, 4
5
3, 4, 5
1, 3
1, 3, 4, 6
1
1, 2, 4
1
5
1, 4
1, 2, 3, 4
1, 4, 6
Field Research
1
2, 3
4
2, 3
6, 7
3
3, 4
1, 2, 3
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 11
COURSE PLAN
UNIT 1 VIDEO
DVD 1
LISTENING
See Text, p. 11
FIGURES &
VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 9-11
LISTENING
EXERCISES (in lieu
of Viewing Guide)
Text, pp. 11-23
UNIT QUIZ
Text, p. 177
UNIT 1
Using Music History to Unlock Western Culture (44:56)
A short list of Suggested Listening (non-bold) is given, but keep
focus on the four student-determined Listening Exercises.
Initial terminology covering a variety of musical topics
Designed to help students a) begin listening to music around them
with greater discrimination and awareness (exercises 1 & 2), b) start
analyzing and associating musical terms with music they hear and
like (exercise 3), and c) gain practice creating an “historical
context” for a given piece of music—in this case, a song that holds
meaning for someone older (exercise 4).
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
The initial unit of the course stresses both the impact music has in our lives and the concept of learning to listen
critically. In today’s noisy world, students are bombarded with sounds continuously. Using mp3 players and
iPods, they hear music often in lengthy stretches that would have been impossible in an earlier era.
•
•
•
Most of us learn to analyze what we see much more effectively than what we hear. Developing the skills
to listen to music analytically takes time and practice.
Because we are bombarded daily with so much music that is intended for our subconscious, we develop
the habit of listening passively.
We learn to listen critically when we have a reason (or goal) for doing so. Help your student find positive
goals for, and enjoyment in, active listening.
UNIT 2 VIDEO
DVD 1
LISTENING
See Text p. 28
FIGURES, PLACES,
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 24-27
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 31-32
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
UNIT QUIZ
Text, pp. 30
Text, p. 178
UNIT 2
Music Entwined with Great Events in Western History (41:56)
Gabrieli: Canzon septimi toni, a 8 (No. 2) In Ecclesiis (CD1/tr3)
Mouret: Rondeau (CD1/tr4)
Focus on major innovators, technological advances, and events that
changed Western Culture
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
1, 2, 3, 5, 6
Comparative Analysis
4
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
Music is impacted by historical events and technological developments. Conversely, music can also make its
mark on historical events and technological developments. The tight weave of the arts with major developments
in Western Culture makes an endless (and endlessly rewarding) study.
The two main technological hooks for this course are the development of the Printing Press (c. 1450) and the
Discovering Music
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DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 12
advent of the Gramophone (c. 1877). While Gutenberg and Edison get the popular and well-deserved credit for
these inventions, many people were working on similar inventions. History in both of these eras was affected by
these technologies, and music was changed forever.
But long before the printing press, the music manuscript must be credited for its own revolution, as the
technology and economics of manuscript-making shaped the Medieval era.
•
•
Music is connected to everything, including technology and the sciences.
Major philosophical and religious developments find expression in the arts, and the arts may be used to
promote and solidify change.
UNIT 3 VIDEO
DVD 1
LISTENING
See Text, pp. 3435
VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 33-34
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 36-37
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
Text, pp. 35-36
UNIT QUIZ
Text, p. 179
UNIT 3
Technology, Terminology, and Cultural Perspective (25:35)
Haydn: Allegro from Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major, JOB VIIe:1
(CD1/tr19)
Beethoven: Allegro scherzando from Concerto No. 1 in C major,
Op. 15 (CD2/tr5)
These are some of the basic terms that will reappear throughout the
course
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Comparative Analysis
2, 3, 4
Field Research
1
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
A good amount of terminology is covered in this unit. For those new to music study, realize that these terms and
phrases will come back many times throughout the course. The basic vocabulary of Western music was created
by Italians and has stayed remarkably consistent over the centuries.
•
•
Music has a specialized terminology, and musicians may have used these terms differently depending on
stylistic assumptions that prevailed in a particular time and place.
Note the many ways music can be categorized: according to instrumentation, purpose, mood, and formal
structure.
UNIT 4
Fanfare and Power: The Court of Louis XIV (34:01)
Mouret: Rondeau for trumpet and organ (CD1/tr4)
Charpentier: Sanctus and Benedictus from Messe di Minuet pour
Nöel, H. 9 (CD1/tr7)
Lully: Overture: Ballet d’Alcidiane et Polexandere (CD1/tr5);
Bourrée pour les Basques, from Ballet de Xerxes (CD1/tr6)
UNIT 4 VIDEO
DVD 2
LISTENING
See Text, p. 41
FIGURES, PLACES,
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 38-40
Figures and terms of importance during the reign of Louis XIV
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 45-46
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
Text, pp. 43-44
UNIT QUIZ
Text, p. 180
UNIT 4
Academic Research
Comparative Analysis
Field Research
Self-corrected by the student.
Page 13
1, 4, 6, 7
5
2, 3
COMMENTS
This discrete unit provides a model or framework for a time when the arts were an unquestioned symbol of
dynastic power. The court of Versailles and the reign of Louis XIV offer us a place and cast of characters daily
affected by the arts of dance, music, theater, painting, sculpture, and fashion. Equally dramatic were the scientific
achievements of the day. The king’s insistence on new technology inspired artists, craftsmen, and thinkers in all
avenues of human endeavor.
Not only is the story of Versailles a grand one, but students are encouraged to imagine what modern life would be
like if any of the Fine Arts held the ear of the current governmental authority the way they did in Louis XIV’s
time. The nearest analogy, our Sports culture, may help some students to imagine a political realm devoted to the
arts.
•
•
Music is connected to everything, including political power.
The Arts were not a mere frill or diversion in the time of Louis XIV, nor at most other times in history.
Our entertainment culture is a recent development.
UNIT 5 VIDEO
LISTENING
FIGURES, PLACES,
& VOCABULARY
VIEWING GUIDE
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
UNIT QUIZ
DVD 2
See Text, p. 5051
Text, pp. 47-49
Text, 54-55
Text, pp. 53
Text, p. 181
UNIT 5
Sweeping Away the Renaissance into the Baroque (48:18)
Dowland: Flow my Tears (CD1/tr1)
Monteverdi: Toccata from Orfeo (CD1/tr2)
Includes significant figures from Renaissance & Baroque, plus
terms relevant to the development of Baroque musical style.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
1, 2, 6
Comparative Analysis
3, 4, 5
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
The late Renaissance was one of the richest periods for music and the Arts. The styles of Renaissance music were
“highly developed” which means they had reached a level of complexity that couldn’t endlessly continue without
what can be called the “collapse of a style.”
•
•
Our “Common Practice Era” begins with the new Baroque style, exemplified by the compositions of
Monteverdi. The prevalence of a single melody over accompaniment and the predominance of major and
minor tonalities would continue in art music through the 19th century and in popular music through today.
The first operas appear and establish techniques for combining music and drama that remain in common
usage today.
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 14
UNIT 6 VIDEO
DVD 3
LISTENING
See Text, p. 58
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 56-57
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 60-61
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
Text 59-60
UNIT 6
Liturgical Calendar, Street Parties, and the New Church Music
(27:31)
Handel: Chorus: “And He Shall Purify” from The Messiah, HWV
56 (CD1/tr16)
Focus on Handel, Carnival, and new genres of unstaged dramatic
music.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
2
Comparative Analysis
1, 3
UNIT QUIZ
Text, p. 182
Field Research
Self-corrected by the student.
4
COMMENTS
In today’s 24/7 culture, it’s difficult to imagine a time when social and artistic life revolved around the calendar of
Liturgical Feasts. Particularly the Lenten and Advent cycles, but other times of fasting, dictated what today we
would call the “Arts Calendar.” But in the face of officially closed opera houses (the most popular entertainment
of the day) and theaters, composers created new forms of musical drama that met the criteria of these stringent
liturgical seasons. Oratorio began first in Italy and responded to a variety of influences. As it spread, it became
the “go-to” form of public musical entertainment during seasons of fasting, for it had neither staged action nor
costumes. In a somewhat subdued form, oratorios reflected exactly the trends that blazed across the European
opera stage, plus oratorio allowed for the depiction (in word and musical image) of huge dramatic stories
impossible to stage in an opera theater (e.g., the Parting of the Red Sea).
•
•
Music is connected to everything, including the seasons and the church calendar.
The Christian world’s observation of the liturgical seasons had a significant effect on public life. The rise
of opera and the popularity of theatrical performances responded to these well-established cycles, and
periods of fasting gave rise to new musical forms.
EXAM 1
The first exam covers Units 1-6.
UNIT 7 VIDEO
DVD 3
LISTENING
See Text, pp. 6465
Discovering Music
UNIT 7
A Lively Journey through the Life of Johann Sebastian Bach
(50:56)
Bach: French Suite No. 5 in G Major, Gavotte BWV 816
(CD1/tr12)
Bach: “Jesu, bleibet meine Freude,” Cantata 147 (CD1/tr13)
Bach: Coffee Cantata Recitative: “Du böses Kind”; Aria: “E! Wie
schmeckt der Kaffee süsse” (CD1/tr14-15)
Bach: Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (CD1/tr8)
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047.
Allegro, Andante, Allegro assai (CD1/tr9-11)
Handel: Concerto Grosso No. 6 in D Major, HWV 317 (CD1/tr17)
Explore works in the Suggested Listening (non-bold)
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 62-64
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 69-70
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
UNIT QUIZ
Text, pp. 67-69
Text, p. 183
Page 15
UNIT 7
Emphasis on the cities where J.S. Bach worked (Stations) and on
figures prominent in the mid-late Baroque era.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
2, 5
Comparative Analysis
1, 3, 4, 6
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
In this unit we take a “biographical” approach to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, tracking his life through his
places of employment, known as “the Stations of Bach.” Bach’s music was shaped by his stations of
employment, so a biographical approach is useful here.
As famous as Bach is today, remember that Bach was a provincial figure compared to his exact contemporary
George Friedrich Handel. At Handel’s death in 1759, he was celebrated by Germans, Italians, and the English!
Handel’s fame spread to the young America long before J.S. Bach’s.
It was Bach’s sons, especially J.C. Bach and C.P.E. Bach, who forged international careers and both were
considered more stylish in their day.
Our ears must work hard to distinguish styles that would have been obvious to a mid 18th-century ear. People
back then could hear French, English, and Italian influences in Baroque music. They admired the polyphonic
intertwining of musical lines in Bach’s late music. But it struck their ears as already old-fashioned. Their ears
were far more responsive to the twists and turns of C.P.E. Bach’s music than are ours.
•
•
•
•
The places where J.S. Bach lived and worked provide a handy guide for understanding his musical works
and the styles of his compositions.
J.S. Bach represents the height of achievement in the Baroque style, but the style was already fading when
Bach wrote his masterworks.
Some of Bach’s sons were also accomplished composers. Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel
were in their day more celebrated than their father.
As the Baroque style became more complex, people turned to simpler melodies and harmonies. The
intricate High Baroque style collapsed upon itself.
UNIT 8 LECTURE
DVD 3
LISTENING
See Text, pp. 7475
Discovering Music
UNIT 8
Enlightenment, Classicism, and the Astonishing Mozart (58:26)
C.P.E. Bach: L’Philippine, Wq. 117/34, H. 96 (CD 1, tr. 18)
Haydn: Allegro, Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major, HOB VIIe:1
(CD1/tr19)
Mozart: Allegro Molto, Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
(CD1/tr20)
Mozart: Rondo alla turca, Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331
(CD1/tr21)
Mozart: Don Giovanni, Overture (CD2/tr1); Recitative: “Alfin siam
liberati” (CD2/tr2); Duet: “La ci darem la mano” (CD2/tr3)
Explore Suggested Listening (non-bold) and branch out into
additional works of choice by Mozart, Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Jean-
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
FIGURES, PLACES,
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 71-74
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 79-81
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
UNIT QUIZ
Text, 77-78
Text, p. 184
Page 16
UNIT 8
Phillipe Rameau, and their contemporaries
Emphasis on the new styles: rococo, stil gallant, Empfindsamkeit,
Sturm und Drang
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Comparative Analysis
1
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
The Enlightenment was characterized by optimism, energy, and a search for new ideas. People were excited
about technological, medical, and scientific advances. But critical aspects of religion and tradition came under
serious and long-lasting attack. And while Absolute Monarchy seemed to ensure stability, the Enlightenment
ideals were, in fact, paving the way to political upheaval, revolution, and chaos by the 18th century’s end.
When we listen to the music of Mozart and his lesser well-known contemporaries, we hear initially the balance,
symmetry, and clarity of structure. Repeated listenings help us to hear the drama that churns beneath the surface.
The Enlightenment was a great era for opera. The formal style of court opera (opera seria) based on Classical
mythology and Ancient history stayed popular, but two new styles emerged: a lighter comic opera (opera buffa)
that focused on the foibles of both noblemen and commoners, and a spoken-sung format called Singspiel in
German. The spoken-sung format appealed to the masses across Europe, especially because it was cast in the
local languages and often incorporated magic and fantastic elements.
Comparing the opera in the 18th century with the role movies hold today helps us understand just how important
opera was. It was essential for a composer to be successful in writing operas.
•
•
•
•
The Age of Enlightenment was a time in which leading thinkers believed the world’s problems could be
resolved through reason and a universal humanistic approach.
Music of the Enlightenment was generally symmetrical and orderly.
The system of Absolute Monarchy was seeing its authority eroded. Mozart’s opera Marriage of Figaro
portrayed royalty in an unfavorable light.
America revolted against the English Monarchy and Colonialism. The bloody French Revolution of 1789
swept away the French Monarchy and ushered in political and social chaos.
UNIT 9 VIDEO
LISTENING
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
VIEWING GUIDE
COMPARISON OF
ENLIGHTENMENT
TO ROMANTICISM
UNIT QUIZ
Discovering Music
DVD 4
See Text, p. 85
Text, pp. 82-84
Text, pp. 88-90
Text, pp. 91
Text, p. 185
UNIT 9
Into the Abyss: the Struggle with Unfettered Imagination (58:06)
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Op. 49 (CD3/tr6)
A compendium of writers and artists whose imaginative works
changed the nature of 19th-century art
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
In lieu of projects for this unit, spend time exploring the ideas on
this chart, and delving into the works of the writers, painters, and
thinkers presented in the unit lecture.
Self-corrected by the student.
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 17
COMMENTS
The topic of 19th-century Romanticism is a huge one. The writers, works, and ideas presented in the Unit Lecture
and text are intended to open the major topics to the student for further, and long-term. exploration. The author
Johann von Goethe is heavily emphasized since he is considered key in the development of literary Romanticism,
but students can explore other national literature, e.g. English, Italian, French Romantic writers. The “moon”
paintings of Caspar David Friedrich are featured in this unit, but again, students may wish to study early
Romantic art across Europe. Encourage the student to remember this unit when watching the lectures for Units 15
and 16 (American and Russian music). At that time, the student can compare and contrast 19th-century
developments in the arts with the ideas presented in this unit.
•
•
The Enlightenment was followed by an “anti-Enlightenment” in which people turned to the supernatural.
The Romantic era was characterized by a rise of individualism and self-expression
Suggested Supplementary Reading.
•
Johann von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Goethe’s early classic novel that set Romanticism afire across Europe. It is an epistolary novel
(exchange of letters) characterized by an unusual and highly “modern” structure of one-way
letters through which the life of young Werther is revealed.
•
Selected Poetry of Johann von Goethe, edited and translated by David Luke.
Collection of Goethe masterpieces, many of which were set to music. Also includes extensive
selections from Faust.
UNIT 10 VIDEO
DVD 4
LISTENING
See Text, pp. 9495
FIGURES, PLACES,
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 92-93
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 97-99
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
UNIT QUIZ
Text, 96-97
Text, p. 186
UNIT 10
Beethoven as Hero and Revolutionary (37:48)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, Allegro con brio
(CD2/tr4)
Beethoven: Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15, Rondo (CD2/tr5)
A focus on Beethoven’s life and those who influenced it.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
3, 5, 6
Comparative Analysis
1, 2, 4
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
While interesting, Beethoven’s life doesn’t begin to match the interest of his music. The most important goal is
exposing the student to Beethoven’s compositions, including his predilection for sketching musical ideas as he
extended and expanded the accepted musical language of his day.
We know a lot about Beethoven. First, he lived not so very long ago, if you really think about it. Second, he
became so famous right after his death that many people who had known him recorded details of his life and
music (some true, some not!). Third, he left thousands of pages of music paper covered in notes that laid out the
early stages of his musical ideas (sketches). These sketches contain an extraordinary record of his creative
process—the way he heard music in his head. Fourth, he wrote, and received, a lot of personal letters, and many
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 18
of those have survived. Fifth, he was a modern man in terms of arranging publication and performances of his
compositions, so a lot of that information survives too. Sixth, by the time he was fully deaf, he kept
“conversation books” scattered around where people could write down their exact questions and comments to
him. So we have a complete record of one side of actual conversations. Taken together, these things give us a
great understanding of Beethoven as a man and as a creative artist.
•
•
•
With the rise of individualism, Beethoven’s music came to be more closely identified with the man
himself.
Beethoven’s music became more monumental.
Soon after his death, Beethoven was heralded as an Olympic diety.
EXAM 2
The second exam covers Units 7-10.
UNIT 11 VIDEO
DVD 5
LISTENING
See Text, pp.
103-104
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 100-102
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 106-108
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
Text, pp. 105-106
UNIT QUIZ
Text, p. 187
UNIT 11
Salons, Poetry, and the Power of Song (49:07)
Schubert: Erlkönig, Op. 1 D. 328 (CD2/tr6)
Loewe: Erlkönig (CD2/tr7)
Schumann: Dichterliebe, Op. 48: Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
(CD2/tr8); Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (CD2/tr9); Ich grolle nicht
(CD2/tr10); Die alten, bösen Lieder (CD2/tr11) (try to hear the
whole cycle!)
Brahms: Wiegenlied (Cradle Song) Op. 49, No. 4 (CD3/tr2)
A blending of composers and poets who, together, were greatly
responsible for the explosion of song (Lieder).
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
4
Comparative Analysis
1
Field Research
Self-corrected by the student.
2, 3
COMMENTS
German-language poetry and composers hold sway in this unit, for they sparked the great body of Romantic song
known as Lieder. But the interest in song as an intriguing form of creativity took root across Europe. Composers
from virtually all regions (and languages) engaged in the challenge of setting the most recent pan-European
poetry to music, sometimes in the original language and sometimes in translation.
•
•
•
Songs have almost always been an important form of musical expression. The Lieder of the Romantic era
are highly inventive and sometimes (unfortunately) overlooked in favor of “bigger” instrumental works
and staged dramas; yet Lieder exemplify some of the most notable artistic developments of the time.
Some of the traditional sources of patronage had been swept away, and the arts found a new place in the
homes (salons) of wealthy individuals.
Salons gained importance as a result of the rise of individualism, the need to find new avenues of
economic support, and a strong literary movement.
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
UNIT 12 VIDEO
DVD 5
LISTENING
See Text, pp.
112-113
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 109-111
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 118-120
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
Text, pp. 116-118
UNIT QUIZ
Text, p. 188
Page 19
UNIT 12
A Tale of Four Virtuosi and the Birth of the Tone Poem (53:09)
Chopin: Berceuse in D-flat major, Op. 57 (CD2/tr14)
Chopin: Etude (“Revolutionary”), Op. 10, No. 12 (CD2/tr13)
Paganini: Caprice in E major, Op. 1, No. 1 (CD2/tr16)
Liszt: Transcendental Etudes No. 10 in F minor “Appassionata”
(CD2/tr17)
Mendelssohn: Spinnerlied (Spinning Song from Songs Without
Words), Book 6, Op. 67, No. 34 (CD2/tr15)
Virtuosity has much to do with individual prowess and so we
emphasize the achievements of certain individuals.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
1, 2, 3, 4
Comparative Analysis
5
Field Research
Self-corrected by the student.
6, 7
COMMENTS
We enter into one of the richest periods in Western music history. Not only were fantastic compositions written
everywhere across Europe, but our modern system of giving concerts, organizing and rehearsing orchestras, and
promoting artists as “super stars” was developed during this period. Two virtuosi in specific—the violinist Nicolò
Paganini and Franz Liszt—were adored everywhere they went.
The composers in Unit 12 are giants in music, and their works are beloved by concert audiences. Students should
take time to absorb not only the required listening (bold), but the Suggested Listening (non-bold) as well.
Orchestral music becomes so important. A genius of a composer named Felix Mendelssohn not only wrote
fantastic music, but also broke ground by demanding much more from his orchestra players. Mendelssohn (and
others) continued writing symphonies (in the “shadow of Beethoven”), but a new type of composition caught the
public’s imagination: the “tone poem” or “symphonic poem.”
Tone poems attempted to portray specific events, characters, and ideas in sound. We find it difficult to imagine
anyone objecting to these new compositions. But they were free in form and difficult to categorize, plus critics
thought they relied too much on special effects and sensationalism.
A French composer named Hector Berlioz wrote the most famous early tone poem, Symphonie fantastique. But it
was the great Franz Liszt who surprised everyone, stopped touring as a virtuoso pianist, and devoted his energy to
composing and promoting tone poems.
Opera singers were in the spotlight, too. Audiences wanted to be thrilled at every performance.
•
•
•
•
Audiences thrilled to dazzling performances by individuals who seemed to defy the laws of nature.
Virtuosity is not just about speed. Other types of virtuosity can be seen in Mendelssohn’s conducting and
Chopin’s refined and expressive melodies.
The Tone Poem represented a turning point in 19th-century music and drew new battle lines in the Arts for
reviewers and audiences.
The Tone Poem expressed extra-musical ideas and laid the groundwork for film music of the 20th century.
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
UNIT 13 VIDEO
LISTENING
See Text, p. 125
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 121-123
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 129-132
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER
Text, pp. 128-129
UNIT QUIZ
Text, p. 189
Page 20
UNIT 13
Nationalism and the Explosion of Romantic Opera (56:05)
Puccini: “Nessun dorma,” Turandot (CD3/tr12)
Bizet: “Habañera, “Carmen (CD2/tr12)
See Suggested DVDs of Operas and Ballets
In addition to personalities, place takes on more importance with
the famous opera houses and the nationalist themes of many operas.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
2
Comparative Analysis
1, 4
Field Research
Self-corrected by the student.
3
COMMENTS
Opera was meant to be experienced live, in a theater, with all of the accompanying excitement of preparing for a
special, elegant evening, including donning formal attire, getting the carriages ready, seeing friends, and enjoying
good food and drink during the intermissions. It was a complete and utterly engaging experience, not something
we casually observe on computer screen or TV.
Remember too: opera singers were super-stars. People followed their careers and gossiped about opera singers
the way we do celebrities today. Opera was a glamorous world, a bit naughty to be sure. And the stories told on
the opera stage were filled with adventure, danger, forbidden love, and fantasy.
Many people think they don’t like opera even though they have never seen one. Maybe they encounter
caricatures of opera more than the real thing. Opera has it all: grand music, virtuosity, amazing sets and
costumes, drama with sweeping themes based on literature, history, and legends, and the glitter associated with
“stars” in popular culture.
•
•
•
Opera is drama set to music. In order to understand opera and fully to appreciate the music, you need to
experience the drama.
Opera was, and still is, topical. Themes of importance in society are reflected on the opera stage.
The “bel canto” (beautiful singing) style carries through much of 19th-century Italian opera. Consider this
style in light of what you learned in the last unit on virtuosity.
UNIT 14 VIDEO
LISTENING
DVD 6
See Text, pp.
135-136
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 133-135
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 138-139
PUTTING IT ALL
Text, pp. 137-138
Discovering Music
UNIT 14
The Absolutely New World of Wagner (35:48)
Wagner: Vorspiel (Prelude) from Das Rheingold (CD2/tr18)
Principal figures in the saga of Wagner’s accomplishments, plus the
interesting geographical spots that constitute the story. Also, terms
made famous in Wagner’s writings and operas.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
5
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
TOGETHER
UNIT QUIZ
Text, p. 190
UNIT 14
Comparative Analysis
Self-corrected by the student.
Page 21
1, 2, 3, 4
COMMENTS
As important as Wagner operas are in music, we have included only a short listening selection from the
instrumental prelude to the first opera in his tetralogy known as The Ring. Wagner’s operas are meant to be seen,
experienced, in a theater. And yes, they are massive, overpowering, intense, demanding. Yet some DVD
performances come close to conveying the atmosphere. A student witnessing a live or recorded Wagner opera
will be best served by intensive research into the story, the characters, even the main musical content before
experiencing the performance. This would be the wish we have for each student undertaking Wagner’s music.
•
•
•
•
Wagner’s operas stand in sharp contrast to the Italian bel canto operas and French Grand Opera.
Wagner sought a totally integrated and all consuming artistic experience: Gesamtkunstwerk
Wagner controlled every facet of his operas, writing music and libretto, inventing new instruments, and
even designing a hall and stage (Bayreuth’s Festspielhaus) unlike anything that preceded it.
Opera before Wagner was generally in an Italian or French style. Wagner created a distinctive Germanic
form that led after his death to an unfortunate association with the Third Reich.
EXAM 3
The third exam covers Units 11-14.
UNIT 15 VIDEO
DVD 7
LISTENING
See Text, pp.
143-144
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 140-142
VIEWING GUIDE
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGTHER
UNIT QUIZ
Text, pp. 149-152
Text, pp. 148-149
Text, p. 191
UNIT 15
Imperial Russia—a Cultural Odyssey (58:35)
Kedrov: Otche nash (Our Father) (CD3/tr3)
Mussorgsky: “Promenade”(CD3/tr4) and “Ballet of the Chicks,”
Pictures at an Exhibition (CD3/tr5)
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, Op. 49 (CD3/tr6)
Stravinsky: “Danse infernale,” The Firebird (1910) (CD3/tr15)
There are many names in this unit: composers, writers, and painters.
But place is more important than personality: the distinct Russian
mindset, Russian geography, and Russian Orthodox Christianity.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
2, 3, 5, 7
Comparative Analysis
1, 4, 6
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
Russian music (and art and literature and dance!) is fantastically colorful. We strongly recommend viewing some
of the Russian masterpieces on video if at all possible. (Of course, attendance at live performances is always
recommended!) Below are some suggestions of specific performances that will be generally available through
outlets like Netflix and Amazon. Others can be substituted, of course. We encourage traditional performances,
which will have the colorful, historically appropriate costumes and sets. On the other hand, Russian works do
offer excellent fodder for modern performances, which tend to forego the color and historical atmosphere; instead,
they feature contemporary, sometimes stark modern sets, costumes, and production values. Do your homework
Discovering Music
Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 22
and find out what you’re getting into. One ideal would be to couple a traditional, colorful, historic performance
with a contemporary production. Such a viewing plan offers the entire family grounds for good discussion.
•
•
Russian music is characterized by the strong influence of Orthodox Christianity with its emphasis on
choral music and bells.
Russia imported much of its artistic style from Western Europe (note the influence of Louis XIV, French
spoken at court, Italian architects), and yet everything took on a distinct Russian character.
Recommended DVD Performances of Staged Works by Tchaikovsky
•
Eugene Onegin. Metropolitan Opera (2007) Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Renée Fleming, conducted by Valery
Gergiev
•
Swan Lake. Kirov Ballet (1999) Yulia Makhalina; Igor Zelinsky, conducted by Viktor Fedtov
•
Sleeping Beauty. The Royal Ballet (1995) Michael Somes, Beryl Grey, Margot Fonteyn, conducted by
Robert Irving
•
Nutcracker. George Balanchine, New York City Ballet (1993). Narrated by Kevin Kline
Suggested Supplementary Reading:
•
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin. Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry. Translated by Walter Arndt.
•
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. My Musical Life. A solid, informative account of a humble genius who spent
part of his adult life as a merchant marine. One of the all-time great teachers and orchestrators, beloved
for his operas and his tone poem Sheherezade.
UNIT 16 VIDEO
DVD 7
LISTENING
See Text, pp.
156-157
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 153-155
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 161-163
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGTHER
Text, pp. 159-160
UNIT QUIZ
Text, p. 192
UNIT 16
Load Up the Wagons: The Story of American Music (1:01:36)
Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag (CD3/tr17)
Ives: In Flanders Field (CD3/tr18)
Sousa: Liberty Bell March (CD3/tr16)
Emphasis on major, popular American composers, places reflecting
the regional differences in the development of American musical
culture, and specific developments in American music history.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
1, 2, 5
Field Research
3, 4
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
The diversity found in American Music is staggering. A rich tradition of Native American music existed long
before settlers came. Settlers brought widely varying traditions of music, art, and poetry with them, which
explains much of the patchwork that characterizes the American Arts.
Through the internet, it is possible to access endless resources for the study of American music. The Library of
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Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
Page 23
Congress, for one, has preserved recording cylinders and early recordings across the spectrum of human
experience. So has the Smithsonian Institute. But a lot of what we know about American music comes from
scattered accounts left in the record of history.
Some of our American culture is built on European models (symphony orchestra, opera houses, conservatories).
Some of our most significant musical influences came from Africa. And some of it developed due to different
geographical influences or in response to specific events. The great variety makes American music a rich topic of
study.
We teach George Washington as a magnificent general on a fiery steed. But do we hail him as one of his era’s
best social dancers? We study Thomas Jefferson as a brilliant thinker, but do we acknowledge how he cherished
the arts, especially music?
Our students will have a stronger grasp of American studies if they learn how music reflects, and even influences,
historical events. Music, art, poetry, dance, theater, entertainment, they all weave together to tell the story of
America.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Much of America’s musical history has been determined by geography, and what we might call
regionalism: who settled where and brought what musical traditions with them.
Because of the different religious traditions brougth to America, church music developed in ways quite
different than in Europe or Russia.
Without the long tradition of Kings and Courts, Royal Theaters, and Cathedrals, American music was
inevitably more spontaneous and individual in its development.
American music tended to be portable because its people were immigrants, settlers, and pioneers.
Instruments prevalent were those you could put in your pocket or in a saddle bag.
Thus practicality plays a big role. A tradition like Shape-Note Singing took into account the need to
transport songbooks by horse or wagon, and the tastes of a community that likely wasn’t trained formally
in music.
The song tradition in American music is rich and deep. It has commonality with European song, but
reflects our own patchwork of geography, ethnic diversity, and historical events.
Theatrical entertainment has played a major role in the history of American music.
In areas that were well settled, such as East Coast cities, institutions very similar to those in Europe
sprang up. Many were patronized by wealthy American families, particularly the wives of the industrial
giants who wanted to encourage what they considered to be a higher level of musical culture.
The traditions most identifiably American today—prime among them jazz—came in large part from
African slaves who brought rich musical traditions with them and managed to preserve or transform them
into new musical styles.
Entertainment developed in 19th-century America led to a major form of entertainment called Broadway.
The Broadway musical is our most popular form of American opera.
World events always shape music, whether we realize it or not. For example, two short pieces like the
simple song In Flanders Field by Charles Ives, or the rousing Over There by George M. Cohan tell us an
enormous amount about the American public’s conflicted perception of and response to WWI.
Let Unit 16 be a starting point for a deeper study of American music. Use the concepts, persons, and
pieces presented here to devlop a more questioning approach to all forms of American music.
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Copyright Silver Age Music, Inc. 2012 All Rights Reserved
DISCOVERING MUSIC TEACHER’S MANUAL
UNIT 17 VIDEO
DVD 8
LISTENING
See Text, pp.
168-169
FIGURES, PLACES
& VOCABULARY
Text, pp. 164-167
VIEWING GUIDE
Text, pp. 173-176
PUTTING IT ALL
TOGTHER
UNIT QUIZ
Text, pp. 172-173
Text, p. 193
Page 24
UNIT 17
Turning the Page on Western Tradition: The Explosion of War
(1:00:43)
Brahms: Rhapsody in G minor, Op. 79, No. 2 (CD3/tr1)
Brahms: Wiegenlied (Cradle Song), Op. 49 No. 4 (CD3/tr2)
Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35 (1897) (CD3/tr9-10)
Mahler: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (CD3/tr13)
Debussy: Claire de lune (CD3/tr11)
Puccini: “Nessun dorma,” Turandot (CD3/tr12)
Ives: In Flanders Field (CD3/tr18)
Stravinsky: “Danse infernale,” The Firebird (1910) (CD3/tr15)
Vaughan Williams: “The Call” (CD3/tr14)
There are many figures representing different trends as the
Common Practice Era fractures.
To be completed after viewing Unit Lecture or while viewing
lecture for a 2nd time.
Academic Research
4
Comparative Analysis
1, 2, 3
Self-corrected by the student.
COMMENTS
The end of the 19th century saw an explosion in music, art, literature, and dance. In fact, it’s difficult to describe
the artistic richness of this period. Some composers kept traditional forms and make them even more meaningful
and beautiful (Brahms). Others adopted the spectacular ideas of Liszt and Wagner, and the tone poem became all
the rage. Important themes of nationalism showed up in music, especially opera and song, but also in
instrumental music.
By the end of the 19th century, people were living in a modern world: photography, telephones, telegraph, the
gramophone, and modern ideas of how to organize society. As things became more urban and more demanding,
some artists responded by stepping outside of the system. Painters placed softened, vague impressions of daily
life and nature on their canvases. These “Impressionist” painters focused on nature, in part because of the
introduction of paint in tubes (which allowed them to take their supplies outside), but also because of a new
interest in the changing aspects of light fostered by photography. Composers like Debussy painted pictures in
sound. They blurred the traditional elements of Common Practice, especially rhythm, melody, and harmony.
Expressionist artists seemed to foretell the horrors of World War I using stark color and lines and shocking
subjects.
And a composer like Mahler designed the biggest, most monumental and powerful symphonies ever written. But
they still were delicate and transparent in sound, plus they employed words sung by soloists and choirs.
It’s important to take time and try to absorb all of the music, and the art, in this final unit. We need to try and
integrate the contradictory styles and messages. Impressionist and Expressionist paintings were equally
revolutionary, but with quite different messages for society. Operas by Puccini thrilled audiences because they
were ever more vivid, provocative, and emotional. A composer like Ives, off by himself in the United States,
wrote music that still confounds performers and conductors today, but he was reflecting the musical mosaic he
heard inside his own mind. And, meanwhile, Stravinsky took early 20th-century Paris by storm and overturned
the dance world with his magical, shocking ballets.
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Page 25
It’s hard to find anything calm and predictable in the arts of this period, but many artists were influenced by
Japanese and Chinese art and poetry, while others looked back to the past and revived musical, literary, and
artistic traditions from Medieval legends and Classical Antiquity. In retrospect, we see how all of the arts were
foretelling the upturning of society and the path to World War I.
•
•
The “common practice” era came to end with the demise of many things that Western culture had long
depended on. World War I rocked the assumptions of Western culture.
Music and the arts frequently explored the chaos and expressed the hardships and horrors about to come,
contrasting with the splendor of Vienna and the seeming permanance of the prevailing order.
EXAM 4
The fourth exam covers Units 15-17.
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Page 26
EXAMINATIONS & ANSWER KEYS
The four multi-unit exams are significantly more challenging than the unit quizzes. They provide a good testing
of the material at the high-school/college-prep level.
The answer keys are thorough but teachers should not take an overly rigid approach to them. The very nature of
this course’s cross-discipline pedagogy means that students will retain and develop different aspects of the
material.
We recommend allowing the student as much time as necessary to complete these exams.
Teachers of younger students or students in co-op/group settings should freely adapt the exams in whatever ways
are most useful.
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Page 27
EXAM 1 (UNITS 1-6)
Part I. Fill in the blank(s) for each of the 20 questions below. Answer on a separate sheet of paper. Omit
two questions. (1 pt each) _____/20 pts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
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The Latin name for a creative “work” is __________.
Manuscripts were written not on paper, but on ________________ made from skins of animals.
While a great improvement over earlier methods of reproducing music, _____________ was expensive &
required great skill to cut the images backwards into metal plates.
A lot of people think that the Italian tempo marking ____________ means fast, but it really means “happy.”
We call a person who is able to play a musical instrument extraordinarily well a _______________.
It’s still called a château, but _______________ is actually a massive, world-famous palace outside of Paris
whose name means “place where weeds were pulled.”
Without question, the most famous room in this palace is the _______ __ ___________.
When people hear the term ______ ______, they think of a social error, rather than its historical meaning of
a mistake in dance steps during formal events at a powerful French king’s court.
The painter most favored by Louis XIV at his Court was named _________________.
And the most famous playwright in Louis XIV’s court (who sometimes got himself into trouble for his bold
humor) went by the name ________________.
Perhaps the most perfect example of an Italian city that embraced and reflected the Renaissance is
________________.
The Italian Renaissance architect ___________________ created marvelous buildings in that city, including
a gorgeous cathedral (Duomo) whose massive red dome is recognized as the city’s symbol.
In the Baroque period, the ________________ was the most popular keyboard instrument (especially with
aristocrats) because of its brilliant sound and beautiful decorations.
The text of an opera or oratorio is called a ________________ because it was usually printed in the form of
a little book.
It takes two players to perform a __________ __________: one plays a chord-producing instrument
(keyboard, lute), and the other plays a low melodic instrument like a bassoon or cello.
Monteverdi started his opera Orfeo with a snappy ________________, an instrumental piece that takes its
name from the Italian verb “to touch.”
It’s called the “__________________ Bible” after the man who is credited with inventing the printing press
and for the first time mechanically reproducing the Bible.
It was time-consuming, difficult work to print music using little pieces of ___________ __________, but
still faster and cheaper than copying manuscripts.
An instrumental piece that opens (or begins) an opera, ballet, or oratorio is usually called an
______________, after the French verb “to open.”
Related in many ways to an oratorio, a musical piece called a________________ is not acted or costumed;
the name itself is based on the Italian verb “to sing.”
A solo song in opera or oratorio is usually called a/an ____________.
An extremely quiet instrument, the __________________ was still very sensitive and expressive, plus it
was the cheapest keyboard instrument and was often found in homes.
Part II. Answer on a separate sheet of paper. OMIT five (5) (2 pts each) _____/60 pts
Complete answers will consist usually of phrases or one or more sentences.
1.
2.
What is meant by “establishing an historical context” of a musical composition?
Why is it perhaps easier for European students than for American students to learn their history and
historical/cultural figures?
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3.
4.
5.
6.
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Sgt. Alvy Powell’s career path as a military musician is interesting because . . . (complete).
The three traditional “patrons” of the arts in Western culture were . . .
What is meant by the Common Practice Era?
What is meant by “register” in music?
What is meant by “surface rhythm”?
What is the difference between monophony and polyphony?
What is the literal meaning of the word “Renaissance”?
Why is the Liturgical Calendar an important topic in music?
How can manuscripts in the Medieval period be considered the “cutting edge” of technology and culture?
In simple terms, what is mean by “Gregorian chant”?
What is a lieto fine?
How did the term opera come to mean a staged, sung, dramatic work?
What is recitativo (recitative)?
Why does the mythological story of Orpheus (Orfeo) appeal to composers, musicians?
What is one connection between the mathematician Pythagoras and music?
How did the institution of Absolute Monarchy intersect with music?
In what ways was dance important in Louis XIV’s court?
Why was engraving an improvement over manuscripts for printing music?
Name two ways the invention of the gramophone changed Western music history.
To what does the phrase “Tin Pan Alley” refer?
Why did the Council of Trent concern itself with music?
Why was the “oratorio” appropriate music for the Lenten season?
What is a “Passion” in music?
Name one of the many famous scientists of the Renaissance and state his area of research/expertise.
Who were Lully and Molière, and what was the connection between them?
What is an overture?
What is a movement within a work of music?
How did the oratorio get its name? (How is it connected with a certain part of church architecture?)
What is meant by “passive listening”?
What is the literal meaning of Carneval (Carnival)?
Why is the Old Testament more popular than the New Testament as a source for plots of oratorios?
Although Handel’s Messiah is very popular, its text is not typical of a Baroque oratorio. Why?
What is the connection between San Marco (St. Mark’s) and the composer Gabrieli?
Part III. Essay. Choose one of the essays below. _____/20 POINTS
Essay 1. Discuss specific ways in which technological developments have affected Western music.
Essay 2. Versailles was one of the most important places in Western Culture. Discuss or describe the
palace/court and explain some of the reasons it had such influence.
Essay 3. Briefly state what it means to hear a piece of music in context. Then discuss a specific piece of
music and demonstrate what is meant by listening in context.
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Page 29
EXAM 1 ANSWERS
PART I. Fill in the blanks. 20 points (1 point each)
1. opus
2. parchment/vellum
3. engraving
4. allegro
5. virtuoso
6. Versailles
7. Hall of Mirrors
8. faux pas
9. le Brun
10. Molière
11. Florence (Firenze)
12.
13.
14.
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17.
18.
19.
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22.
Brunelleschi
harpsichord
libretto
basso continuo
toccata
Gutenberg
moveable type / metal type
overture
cantata
aria
clavichord
PART II. Short Answer Questions. 60 points (3 points each)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Learning about the time, place, people, technologies, and ideas of the people who first created and heard
the music. (Can be answered in a variety of ways)
In Europe, people walk past old monuments (statues, busts, carvings) every day. There is much public
art and many historical plaques. Plus, the sayings of important writers are quoted widely, and even written
on walls and in public spaces. A young person can’t help but absorb it.
[One possibility of several] He grew up in a small town and never imagined that music would bring him
the experiences he has had as an Army musician, including singing for a Presidential Inauguration.
Church, Court, and Theater
A 300+ year period of time where traditional elements of music were predictable and recognizable. [This
is sufficient, but student may decide to write more, such as:
a. melody was “melodious;”
b. harmonies were mostly standard and followed recognized principles or progressions;
c. rhythm fell into regular patterns, easily identified;
d. instruments were used in traditional manners; and
e. music was written in traditional, recognized forms using commonly understood notation.]
The “highness” and “lowness” of the sound. Some instruments (and voices) sound in the high, treble, or
soprano, region, while others are in the “middle” of the musical register. Others still sound in the “bass” or
very low part.
The rhythmic activity or motion we hear as the music goes by. Musical passages with many fast or quick
notes have a “fast surface rhythm,” for example, as opposed to passages with long, sustained notes.
Monophony means a single-line of melody, and polyphony means multiple lines of music sounding
simultaneously. (Student may go further.) Monophony means one person/instrument sings or produces a
single melody. Also, a group of singers/instruments can sound “in unison” and produce a single melody
line. Polyphony means two or more independent melodic lines sounding simultaneously. This happens
when multiple singers/players produce contrasting, interwoven musical lines. The ten fingers of a
keyboard player or guitar or lute player can also produce multiple musical lines simultaneously. (Students
may choose to describe monophony/polyphony in many other ways, including with graphic illustrations.)
Renaissance means “rebirth”—in this case, the rebirth of the ideas and forms of Classical Antiquity.
The Liturgical Calendar shows the dates when the Christian Festivals (Holy Days, days of
Commemoration, Liturgical Celebration) take place. Not only will those High and Holy Days affect or
determine the music performed in the church, but periods of fasting dictated that the popular forms of
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11.
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entertainment—opera and theater—were shut down. New types of appropriate music and entertainment
emerged during those times, including the oratorio.
Everything from the chemistry and technology of drying the animal skins (parchment) to the making of the
ink and minerals for the beautifully illuminated letters and gold leaf, to the skill of literacy required, to the
business side of the scriptoria (places where manuscripts were copied) was an innovation in the Medieval
period.
Gregorian chant is a loose description of centuries of early church singing, particularly during what we call
the Medieval.
Lieto fine means “happy ending.” A happy ending was an expected part of Baroque drama (dramatic
convention), no matter how tragic or disastrous the story.
Opera is the Italian word for the Latin term opus (work, or creative work). It appeared in the phrases used
to describe early opera, like opera per musica ([dramatic] work with music). The “musica” part was
dropped, leaving the word “opera.”
Recitativo or recitative is speech set to music. A loose flexible melodic line follows the rhythm and
contours of the words (text). Recitative is the way singers conveyed information about the off-stage action
or background of the story in an opera or oratorio.
Orfeo is a mythological “hero” for musicians because, in most versions of the story, he used music (lyrical
recitation of poetry or the playing of the lyre) to soften the heart of the gatekeeper of Hades, so that he
could enter and retrieve his beloved Erudice.
Pythagoras discovered and described many of the mathematical principles of music, including the
relationship between pitches that we call intervals, such as doubling the vibrations per second of a string.
This results in a pitch that sounds the same, but is what we call an “octave” higher.
The artistic tastes of an “Absolute Monarch” would be put into practice throughout the court. If the
monarch happened to be a music lover, then music-making would enjoy a big budget, but always for music
that fit the monarch’s taste. And, if the monarch did not like a particular art form (music, art, dance,
theater), that form would not flourish at his or her court.
Louis XIV loved what we call court dance. The etiquette surrounding the dance, the intricate movements,
the physical stamina: these mattered greatly in his court. The ability of those in Louis XIV’s court to
dance well was considered a sign of competence in other fields. Composers who wrote music for the
dance were also valued.
Music requires many symbols, and most overlap each other.
a. Placing all these tiny pieces of metal type in a frame is quite difficult—in some cases, impossible.
b. So multiple impressions were needed in the printing process.
c. It was difficult to keep things lined up properly.
d. Some parts (text, staff lines, etc.) had to be added in by hand!
There are many answers here, including these: music (and sound in general) could be preserved for the
first time; people didn’t need to learn to play or sing in order to hear and enjoy music; people also didn’t
have to go to a specific place where music was being created but, rather, could bring their “music” home to
their living rooms. Also, a new type of popular music market gets its start. Before the invention of the
gramophone, music became popular through sales of sheet music, which someone had to play or sing.
It is a neighborhood in New York City where, around the turn of the 20th century, music publishing houses
were clustered. Song-pluggers came to present the newest songs, usually by playing them on pianos. The
sound coming out of windows from all those pianos sounded like the rattling of tin pans. Tin Pan Alley
designates a Golden Era in American Popular Song.
The Council of Trent was interested in many things, including “countering” the appeal of the new music
coming out of the breakaway Protestant movements. Long before the Reformation, Church officials
understood the need to encourage the composition of new church music that was clear, effective, and
appealing. It shouldn’t be so complex that people couldn’t understand the words, for example.
Oratorio was designed for listening, and was not acted on a stage by singers in costume. The stories told in
oratorios came from the Bible, from Saints’ lives, and early church history. So not only were oratorios
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appropriate for fasting seasons, but they did not violate the ban on theatrical performances during seasons
of fasting.
A Passion is like an oratorio, but it tells the story of Christ’s crucifixion as taken from the Gospels.
Sir William Harvey (medicine, circulatory system) and Galileo (astronomy) are in the course unit. Any
other Renaissance scientist the student has studied can also be presented.
Lully was a favored composer at the court of Louis XIV. Molière was a highly popular playwright who,
sometimes, got himself into trouble for his humor, irony, and honesty. These two combined their efforts to
create magnificent and historically important dramas (plays with music).
An overture is an instrumental piece (section / movement) that introduces a dramatic work in music. It
could open an opera, an oratorio, a ballet, or even a play. The term overture comes from the French verb
“to open.”
A movement is a distinctive and separate section in a composition: a separate “little piece” within a bigger
piece. The length of a movement can vary from extremely short to long.
The oratorio grew out of music that was written for extra-liturgical worship services that were held in the
“Prayer Hall” or oratorio. [Student may decide to add that the music was originally in two parts grouped
around a sermon, but the music became so popular that it took on its own life, moving outside of the
oratorio and into the concert hall especially during Lent.]
Passive listening is what we do most of the time in today’s culture. Music is usually made by pushing
some kind of button. We are surrounded by “music” so much of the time, to the point that we don’t hear it
very well, and we don’t have to give it much thought.
Carneval (Carnival) comes from the word carne (meat) and vale (farewell) and refers to the period of
social festivities that grew up as people prepared for the long period of fasting during Lent (when there
would be no meat eaten).
The Old Testament has the kind of action-oriented, large-scale stories that are hard to show in a drama
placed on a stage (play, opera). They can be better described in words a chorus or soloist can sing. So
stories like the “Parting of the Red Sea “can be portrayed effectively in an oratorio.
Messiah doesn’t actually have characters. The events are loosely evoked in poetic or reflective texts. The
outlines of the story are implied, or commented on, but no one sings an actual character, as would
ordinarily happen in many Baroque oratorio.
San Marco is particularly famous for its opposing balconies, where composers like Gabrieli would place
singers and musicians, and create a great back-and-forth (antiphonal) sound.
PART III. Essay Question. 20 points
Essay 1. Discuss specific ways in which technological developments have affected Western music.
Students may choose any combination of developments, including those beyond the scope of the unit
material. Students may wish to discuss the making of manuscripts, from the industry that provided the
skins (parchments) to the making of inks and decorative materials (illuminations), to the economics
involved, to the issue of literacy itself. Or they may consider mechanical reproduction of music beginning
in the Renaissance with printing (wood block, moveable type, later engraving). They may choose to
consider the development and influence of the gramophone, followed by radio, electronic amplification
(microphones), the LP, tape, or the digital revolution. They may also wish to discuss instruments and
changes in their construction. Students should employ a sprinkling of terms from the units and establish a
chronological framework. Also, student can speculate on the impact of their chosen developments as they
affect arts and culture, insofar as possible.
Essay 2. Versailles was one of the most important places in Western Culture. Discuss or describe the
palace/court and explain some of the reasons it had such influence.
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Page 32
Any aspect of Versailles can be a starting point for this discussion: architecture and fashion, music and art,
military history and politics, or the personality and tastes of Louis XIV as monarch and style-setter. His
talents and passion for court dance, court etiquette, and the modern sciences can be discussed. The student
should employ several specific examples and, if possible, touch on the issue of Absolute Monarchy as an
institution that set the tone for an entire kingdom, including the Arts.
Essay 3. Briefly state what it means to hear a piece of music in context. Then discuss a specific piece of
music and demonstrate what is meant by listening in context.
Any piece within the listening set is appropriate for use in this essay (bold or non-bold). The framework
of historical context works best if a student is answering the questions: “Who, What, When, Where, Why”
and, to a certain, extent “So What?” Chronological and descriptive information does not need to be exact.
The grader can decide how much leeway to offer, but the goal is for the student to weave a framework
around a piece of music, thus demonstrating an enriched understanding of the composition, composer,
time, place, and style.
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EXAM 2 (UNITS 7-10)
Part I. Fill in the blank(s) for each of the 20 questions below. Answer on a separate sheet of paper. Omit
two questions. (1 pt each) _____/20 pts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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The locations where Bach worked are called the ___________ of Bach.
We consider Bach’s first name to be Johann, but he would have been called __________________ in his
own time.
The ___________________ was the most common domestic keyboard instrument in Bach’s day because
it was simple (might sit on a table), affordable, and extremely quiet, yet still expressive.
A more brilliant sound came from the _________________, a keyboard instrument, often highly
decorated, whose strings were plucked by a quill.
________ ________ were the young fellows charged with running up and down and depressing the
mechanical apparatuses that supplied wind to the organ pipes.
The Prussian King ___________ ____ ________ was a great music lover and employed a wonderful
group of composers at his court.
This same king played the ________________ (instrument) extremely well.
The term ____________________ refers to the power and total control monarchs had, especially in
Europe during the 18th-century, to determine every aspect of life within their kingdoms.
Based on a French verb meaning “to make merry,” the term stil _________ refers to a lighter, more
natural, gently elegant style of painting, music, and fashion that arose in the 18th century.
The term __________ _____ ___________ is translated “storm and stress” and refers to an emotional
and turbulent 18th-century style that sprang from literature.
Mozart’s father Leopold was a good musician who played and taught the _____________(instrument).
The ______________ was a new woodwind instrument that impressed Mozart. He wrote some
wonderful pieces for it.
Opera ___________, the major form of Italian opera through the Baroque, was based on Classical
mythology and Ancient history. It had a very formal and predictable structure.
In the mid-18th century, a new keyboard instrument, the ______________, became popular; it was plain in
its cabinetry and featured a hammered action that produced soft and loud sounds based on the finger’s
force.
A(n) ______________ novel is one where the story is told via an exchange of letters.
The intimate and charming paintings of the popular Baroque French artist ______________ set a new
fashion for an entire era.
Goethe’s provocative and complex two-part play __________ may be the most influential work in the
German language.
The German Romantic painter ______________ is sometimes called the “moon painter” because of his
fascination with moon- and sky-scapes.
Rather than speak so often about “melody” in Beethoven’s music, we tend to talk about the shorter
melodic fragments known as _____________.
The big German word Empfindsamkeit is usually translated to mean ________________ style.
Several of J.S. Bach’s sons had big careers, including __________ who worked at the court of Frederick
II of Prussia.
The new style of comic opera in the 18th-century employing spoken dialogue was called _________
________ in French.
The early Romantic American poet ____________ specialized in “spooky” tales and poems, one of which
involved a menacing bird.
Beethoven’s only completed opera, ______________, is about a woman named Leonora who takes heroic
measures to reach her unjustly imprisoned husband.
Beethoven struggled with this opera and ended up composing four different ______________ (opening
numbers) for it.
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The term ____________ refers to an overall fashion in the 18th century that celebrated natural elements of
design like seashells, flowers, and vines.
Beethoven was raised in the small city of Bonn but then moved to the much more interesting, glittering
capital city, ___________.
The poor social and medical treatment of the mentally insane inspired Spanish artist _________________
to portray their plight in his paintings.
The writings and ideas of French thinker _______________ (your choice) had enormous influence across
Europe, and even influenced statesmen in the new United States.
Lorenzo Da Ponte ended up in New York teaching Italian at Columbia University, but his lasting fame
comes from his _____________, used in some of Mozart’s operas.
The aesthetic view concerning emotions that applied to the arts during the Baroque is known as The
Doctrine of the _______________.
Before there was a system of public concerts, groups of players known as the ____________
____________ would meet, perhaps in a tavern, coffee shop, or home, and play through the newest
music.
Beethoven wrote his musical ideas down in __________________, using what to us seems a messy
musical shorthand.
Because so many of these pages have survived (and been deciphered), we know a lot about Beethoven’s
____________ __________ —a phrase that means the way an artist works out his ideas.
The hottest trend in the arts in late 18th-century Vienna involved people’s fascination with exotic things of
_______________ origin (region of the world).
Part II. Answer on a separate sheet of paper. OMIT five (5) (3 pts each) _____/60 pts
Complete answers will consist usually of phrases or one or more sentences.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
The Enlightenment is sometimes called the era of the Encyclopedists. Why?
How is the Romantic Park on the Ilm in Weimar (Goethe Park) different from the Baroque gardens of
Versailles?
What was the Heiligenstadt Testament and why is it considered so important?
Instead of concentrating on composing opera, where many composers found success, Beethoven infused
new drama into a certain large-scale instrumental form. Name the form and explain Beethoven’s
contribution.
How would you know if you were listening to the German musical form known as Singspiel?
During Mozart’s era, there was a new style of comic opera. What made this new style so popular?
Haydn’s life was so different from Mozart’s, in part because he worked for so many years in a different
job situation. Identify the difference and comment on their respective situations.”
What factors/circumstances/problems caused Bach to have jobs in so many different places?
What would have made the organ so interesting during Bach’s lifetime?
A trendy place in the 18th-century was the Kaffeehaus. How were these places connected with music?
What does the word Enlightenment mean? Why is it used to describe the late 17th and 18th centuries?
Why did Mozart get into trouble when he composed The Marriage of Figaro?
What made the end of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther so shocking?
What was the central issue in Faust’s bargain with the Devil (at least as Goethe framed it)?
Mozart called Don Giovanni a dramma giocoso. Why?
Who was the “Immortal Beloved”?
What is the connection between Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 and Napoleon?
What were some of the defining features of painting in the early years of Romanticism?
What caused a rift in the friendship between Goethe and Beethoven?
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20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
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Somewhat late in life, Haydn moved from Austria to ___________, where his success as a composer
continued. Fill in the place and comment.
Identify one of the more notable features of Haydn’s oratorio “The Creation.”
Name some of the contrasts in music between the Era of the Enlightenment and Romanticism.
Who was E.T.A. Hoffmann?
How did people respond after the end of the Napoleonic Wars? What was the general mood?
In both the Baroque and Classical eras, composers were generally not independent (free) artists, but were
considered part of the serving class. Explain what this meant for a composer.
Part III. Essay. Choose one of the essays below. _____/20 points
Essay 1. Discuss ways in which Bach’s biography portrays not only events in his individual life, but
represents typical situations that composers encountered during that era.
Essay 2. Why is Beethoven such a famous figure? Include points about his music as well as his personal
life, the era in which he lived, and his influence after his death.
Essay 3. Choose any piece that impressed you within this quarter. Discuss it within its historical context
and in terms of its musical ideas and expression. You may integrate relevant facts about the composer,
but keep the focus on the music—its context, expression, and importance.
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Page 36
EXAM 2 ANSWERS
PART I. Fill in the blank. 20 pts (1 pt each)
1. Stations
2. Sebastian
3. clavichord
4. harpsichord
5. bellows boys
6. Frederick the Great
7. flute
8. Absolutism
9. galant
10. Sturm und Drang
11. violin
12. clarinet
13. seria
14. fortepiano / pianoforte
15. epistolary
16. Watteau
17. Faust
18. [Caspar David] Friedrich
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
motives / motifs
sensitive
C.P.E. (Carl Philipp Emanuel)
opéra comique
[Edgar Allen] Poe
Fidelio
overtures
rococo
Vienna
Goya
Voltaire / Rousseau / Diderot
librettos
Affections
collegia musica
sketchbooks
creative process
Turkish
PART II. Short Answer Questions. 60 pts (3 points each)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Dictionaries and encyclopedias were popular during the Enlightenment. It was a “scientific” era: the
collecting and categorizing of human knowledge became almost revered. [Students may also choose to
mention figures like Diderot, Rousseau, and Voltaire.]
The “romantic” park was landscaped to look natural (but still carefully planned). The Baroque garden
was organized into geometric patterns that were planted and pruned to stay very sharp.
It was an emotional letter written from a spa city known as Heiligenstadt. Beethoven wrote it as a
combination of personal letter and philosophical statement. Its specific wording was later viewed as
reflecting the trends of Romanticism.
Beethoven put his drama in his instrumental music, especially his symphonies. [Student can then make
his or her best description of Beethoven’s music, including use of short motives, instead of long melodies,
driving rhythmic patterns, unusual harmonies, contrasts in dynamics—loud and soft—plus unusual form.
Virtually anything the student hears and can describe makes a good answer here.]
The dialogue (informational part) is spoken in Singspiel, while the emotional sections are sung in songs
[called arias] or ensembles (duets, trios).
The old style (opera seria) was based on Classical mythology. It was formal, predictable in its forms, and
no longer new. The comic style (opera buffa) told stories from daily life, was humorous, had appealing
melodies, and drew from commedia dell’ arte traditions, modernizing them along the way.
He worked for years for a count [Count Esterhazy] who gave Haydn a lot of stability and opportunity.
The count did request certain types of compositions, like music for the unusual instrument known as the
baryton, but otherwise allowed him freedom to experiment. Haydn also wrote a lot of music, a big
number of symphonies, for example, so he could try out all of the trendy ideas. Mozart, on the other
hand, left his birth city and tried to make his way in Vienna. He did not have stable employment. He
struggled financially.
There were problems that caused him to change jobs. Some places found his music too radical or
difficult. In one instance his patron died, and the next aristocrat didn’t care as much about funding music.
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9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
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Other places he simply wished to move on to a better job, sometimes getting into trouble when he did. It
was hard to find a job that allowed him to do everything he was capable of doing.
The organ was the most fascinating technical instrument of its era. Everything from the materials and
construction of the pipes, the operation of the wind mechanism (bellows), the beautiful decoration of the
cabinetry, the actual complexity of playing with hands and feet, and the amazing organ music that was
being written, represented the cutting edge of music-making during the era.
Coffee-drinking was a new fashion, introduced from the Arab world. People gathered freely at the trendy
new coffee houses. New ideas, poetry, and music were presented. The music-making in these coffee
houses is one of the steps in developing public concerts.
Enlightenment means what it literally says: to turn the light (of knowledge, in this case) on the society.
People thought that the new sciences, and the increased ability to publish big books of knowledge, like
encyclopedias, would change society and solve its problems. With more knowledge, people would
behave better, eliminate wars and social problems, etc. This was a very anti-clerical era in what was
rapidly becoming a secular culture.
Mozart didn’t have royal permission to write the opera. The text (libretto) was taken [by librettist Da
Ponte] from a forbidden French play by Beaumarchais, and it was considered dangerous politically.
Librettos had to be approved before a composer could set them to music.
It was a scandalous story, strangely put together (an epistolary novel, but with letters coming only from
one side). Also, it ended with a meticulously prepared suicide that was merely presented, but not
condemned.
The bargain is over whether the Devil (Mephistopheles) can guarantee Faust one pure moment of absolute
contentment or complete satisfaction. The bargain was not about finding Faust love or money or fame, as
many people (who have not read the play) think.
Don Giovanni was funny in some places, but it was too serious to be called an opera buffa (comic opera).
The subject matter was too serious and the ending is even shocking as Don Giovanni is dragged off to
Hell. So Mozart called it a “jolly drama.”
This is a name Beethoven used in referring to a woman he loved deeply, but no one is absolutely sure
which woman. There has been a lot of detective work done on this, and scholars can narrow it down but
not say for sure. Beethoven didn’t have a happy love life. He sought women he could never have.
Beethoven dedicated the Third Symphony to Napoleon who originally was one of Beethoven’s heroes.
But after Napoleon crowned himself emperor, Beethoven changed his mind, and scratched through
Napoleon’s name on the title page [and dedicated it “to the memory of a great man”]. There is
controversy as to his exact motives in making the change.
Canvases in some cases got much bigger to accommodate heroic themes, especially from Antiquity.
(These were popular at Napoleon’s court!) Other painters focused on nature and what might be called
early psychology, inviting the viewer to enter into the painting emotionally. Themes that were disturbing
in society found their way into painting, such as Goya’s paintings of the mentally ill.
When walking with Beethoven, Goethe stepped aside in deference to passing nobles. This angered
Beethoven. Goethe found this reaction by Beethoven impetuous and inappropriate. This incident
highlighted the generational differences between the two geniuses.
London. Haydn was famous, and his symphonies were in demand. It was big news for him to be invited
to London and to write symphonies for that public.
It originally includes text in two languages (English and German); it was highly descriptive, musically, an
example being the quiet passage and then startlingly loud chord on “Let There Be Light.”
There are many differences the student could highlight, in particular those to be found in the chart “A
Comparison of Enlightenment to Romanticism” on p. 91 of the textbook.
People know him as the author of the story upon which Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet is based. But he
was an excellent and popular author of tangy tales that featured the supernatural and twists of plot.
After the Napoleonic Wars, people tried to revert to life before the war. Many of the pre-war monarchies
were reestablished. Many sought comfort in domestic life and in what we call Gemütlichkeit or a
Gemütlich (comfortable) life.
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25.
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Composers generally still worked for aristocrats, churches, or theaters. They were dependent on these
institutions for their income. They had to follow the rules and meet the expectations of their employers.
They couldn’t easily make independent decisions about where they would work or what they would
compose. For some composers, this resulted in a bumpy career (Bach). For others, it worked out well
(Haydn). For others, like Beethoven, it was hard. He fought against his status as a “servant.” [Student is
free to draw a variety of comparisons and contrasts.]
PART III. Essay Question. 20 points.
Essay 1. Discuss ways in which Bach’s biography portrays not only events in his individual life, but
represents typical situations that composers encountered during that era.
Bach’s jobs illustrate many things, including the way a musician was trained (to follow his father’s
career); the role each church or wealthy aristocrat played in setting the musical tastes; the relationship
between a composer and his aristocratic bosses; the duties someone like Bach would have in a court job,
especially as contrasted with a church job; the dominant role of keyboard instruments at the time
(harpsichord, clavichord, organ); the importance of organ technology as a mirror of the era; the
emergence of institutions like the Kaffeehaus where public music-making was playing a bigger role in
society.
Essay 2. Why is Beethoven such a famous figure? Include points about his music as well as his personal
life, the era in which he lived, and his influence after his death.
Students can choose from many aspects of Beethoven’s life: his adventurous, indeed daring, approach to
writing music; his difficulties accepting his place as a musical “servant” to the aristocracy; his obsessive
sketching and the record he left of his creative process; his pursuit of women he could not hope to marry,
including the “Immortal Beloved;” his emotional outpourings, such as the letter known as The
Heiligenstadt Testament; Beethoven’s deafness, the unusual nature of Beethoven resources available to
us, including the Conversation Books, or any other aspect(s) a student wishes.
Essay 3. Choose any piece that impressed you within this quarter. Discuss it within its historical context
and in terms of its musical ideas and expression. You may integrate relevant facts about the composer,
but keep the focus on the music—its context, expression, and importance.
The student will want to include some of the points from the comparison chart of the Enlightenment to
Romanticism found on p. 91 of the text. The influence of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic
Wars, of course, can shape the story. The subjects and styles popular in art of the day can be mentioned.
Some of the writers highlighted in the units may be considered, including Goethe, Mary Shelley, Sir
Walter Scott, Edgar Allen Poe, Lord Byron, and authors the student may have studied in other
coursework, including the English novelists (Dickens, the Bronte Sisters, Thomas Hardy, etc.). The shift
to individualism, emotionalism, and focus on virtuosity can be discussed.
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Page 39
EXAM 3 (Units 11-13)
Part I. Fill in the blank(s) for your choice of 20 questions. Omit five (5). Answer on a separate sheet of
paper. (1 pt each) _____/20 pts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
Much new music and poetry in the early 19th century was first performed not on big concert stages, but in
a more intimate setting called the ____________, like a parlor for the well-to-do.
The song ________________ was John Dowland’s biggest hit, and it’s a good song for characterizing
music in late Elizabethan (Shakespeare’s) England.
This kind of a song from the Shakespearean era was frequently accompanied by the era’s most popular
stringed instrument — a __________.
So much of modern-day violin playing goes back to a man named _____________, whose unbelievable
virtuosity flabbergasted people in the early 19t h century.
As aristocratic patronage waned, composers and performers needed to arrange _____________
____________ where tickets would be sold and almost anyone could attend.
These events (described in question 5) led to the rise of superstars, including one of the most beloved
singers, a Swedish woman named _________ __________.
Early 19th-century opera demanded that the high voices sing fast, athletic, decorative passages known as
____________________.
People may or may not have seen Adolphe Adam’s landmark ballet Giselle, but almost everybody has
heard a song Adam wrote which is popular at Christmastime, namely __________________.
Early Romantic theater-goers loved ________ scenes where the heroine loses touch with reality and
might even commit some kind of drastic act.
The phrase _______ __ _______, e dopo ___ ________ translates as “First the words, and then the
Music.”
Chopin wrote the greatest percentage of his music for the _______ (instrument).
While this type of piece is actually a “study” to develop a player’s technique, the ___________ that
Chopin wrote were exciting and effective concert pieces.
People were surprised when Franz Liszt gave up his “glittering” life and took a job in Weimar so that he
could focus on composing, including developing a genre of descriptive instrumental music we call the
______ ________.
Today the Gewandhaus refers to a famous, wonderful orchestra in Leipzig, but the word actually goes
back to an earlier time and means a ___________ house.
The term _____ ________ translates as “beautiful singing” and refers both to a style of singing and to a
long period of Italian opera.
People think of it as “old-fashioned” today, but, in fact, the _________ was a new, provocative dance that
required locking eyes and holding on for dear life!
Wagner called his revolutionary opera theater a ________________ to distinguish it from opera theaters
of the past.
Another Wagner term, ______________, means “leading motive” and helps describe his use of what
might be called signature themes.
Perhaps the longest Wagner term in common use is the German word ___________________, which
refers to his idea of a “Collected Art Work” that encompassed every aspect of the Arts.
In the second act of Giselle, Giselle has become one of the __________, “spirits” who, back in life, had
been jilted by the men they loved and who wanted to extract revenge.
A plot by the popular English-language novelist ________________ is the basis of Donizetti’s Lucia da
Lammermoor.
We call a work a song-_________ when it contains a series of songs intended to be performed together
and related by story or theme.
Schumann’s Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) is a setting of a text by the beloved Romantic German poet
__________.
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24.
25.
Page 40
In terms of genre, the song Erlkönig is the type of poem/song known as a ___________.
What name is missing in this phrase: Viva Emanuel, Re di __________.
Part II. Answer 20 of these questions. Omit four (4). (3 pts each) _____/60 pts
Complete answers will consist usually of one or more phrases or sentences
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
What are the qualities of a ballad, whether in poem or song form?
What makes Goethe’s Erlkoenig a good text to turn into a song?
Schumann’s Ich grolle nicht is a key song in the cycle Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love). Why?
What is a nocturne?
What is an etude?
What was the nickname for Paris, and what does it tell us about the city?
Why is the name Paganini so famous?
How did Liszt spend the first part of his career?
Describe the musical contributions Liszt made after retreating to Weimar?
How was Mendelssohn’s life and training vastly different from Liszt’s?
Why is Mendelssohn associated with Leipzig?
Why is Clara Wieck significant in music history?
Why is Jenny Lind remembered in history?
In terms of genre, what kind of piece is Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique? Why?
Explain the title of Weber’s opera Der Freischütz.
The best-loved musical numbers of Verdi’s operas were the ________. Why?
Explain why Verdi’s name (as an acronym) was used as a battle cry for Italian nationalism.
What made Bizet’s Carmen an innovative, even shocking, opera?
What is verismo?
Originally, what was the appeal of dancing en pointe?
What was unusual about Wagner’s design for his stage and orchestra pit?
For people back in Wagner’s day, what would have been unusual about seeing this wording on an
advertising poster: “The Ring, Libretto and Music by Richard Wagner”?
What is unusual about Wagner’s “overture” to the first opera of the Ring cycle?
What is the connection between Wagner and Hitler?
Part III. Essay Question. Choose one (1) of the three essay questions below. (20 points)
Always answer on a separate piece of paper.
Essay 1. Choose one (1) of the operas or ballet(s) presented during this quarter and discuss it as well as
you can, including its historical context and its musical significance.
Essay 2. Choose one (1) of these four composers: Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt. Describe him
in terms of his life, the kinds of music he wrote, his specific achievements, his artistic approach.
Essay 3. Composers in the 19th century faced a world vastly different from the artistic world of the 18th
century. Consider some advantages and disadvantages of this new world. Explain and illustrate with
examples of composers and/or pieces where you can.
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Page 41
EXAM 3 ANSWERS
PART I. Fill in the blank(s). 20 points (1 point each)
1. salon
2. Flow My Tears
3. lute
4. Paganini
5. public concerts
6. Jenny Lind
7. coloratura
8. O Holy Night
9. mad [scenes]
10. Prima le parole, [e dopo] la musica
11. piano
12. etude
13. tone poem/symphonic poem
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
cloth
bel canto
waltz
Festspielhaus
Leitmotiv
Gesamtkunstwerk
Willis
[Sir Walter] Scott
cycle
Heine
ballad
Italia
PART II. Short Answer Questions. 60 points (3 points each)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
A ballad tells a story and usually has a narrator and actual characters who “speak” lines. A ballad starts
and ends abruptly. There is no long explanation or moralizing or philosophizing at the end. There is
action and lots of drama. A ballad can be short or very long. Its language is clear and direct.
Goethe’s Erlkoenig tells a suspenseful story. The characters are very specific, from a frightened father
and feverish child to the supernatural Elf King, or devil. The narrator has a clear, strong role, and so a
singer has to be able to convey all of these characters. Also, it’s one of Goethe’s best-loved and most
effective poems.
On the one hand, Heine’s text for Ich grolle nicht says that our “hero” isn’t complaining but accepts the
situation (loss of his love, etc.). But the music is bold, angry, forceful, and sounds exactly the opposite: it
sounds mad, upset, pleading, and then angry again. And things go downhill from there (in the cycle).
A nocturne is usually translated as “night music.” That translation doesn’t say very much. Generally it’s
a piece of quiet music (or, at least, starts quietly), with a gentle, but beguiling melody, and rich, hypnotic
accompaniment. It is an example of a “character piece”—an individual, highly descriptive type of
instrumental music (often for piano) that became popular in the early 19th century. (Chopin wrote many of
these, but he wasn’t the first one to do so. Irish pianist John Field is considered the first.)
An etude is usually translated as a “study” and implies a piece that helps the player (or singer) develop
technical skills. Piano etudes, for example, feature fast scales, arpeggios, trills, fast octaves in both hands,
and all kinds of different patterns idiomatic to the instrument. (Etudes are usually meant for the practice
room, and not as concert pieces, but Chopin was the first composer to write etudes that were fantastic on
the concert stage. They are very difficult.)
On the one hand, the “city of lights” refers to the fact that Paris was one of the earliest cities to get gas
lighting, chasing away the danger on the streets at night and allowing a night life to emerge. (Even before
gas lighting was developed, there were an unusual number of lanterns carried by servants for the Parisian
aristocracy.) On the other hand, the phrase refers simply to the dazzling qualities of Paris, a city that was
enlightened by the presence of so many famous artists and renowned figures.
Paganini is the first European superstar musician. A violinist, he had hands that allowed him to play
spectacularly difficult and fast music that, for other violinists, was impossible. He created a whole new
style of playing the violin. Plus, personally, he was strange but also magnetic, so he had a strong effect
on audiences.
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8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Page 42
During the first part of his career, Liszt traveled as a virtuoso across huge distances. He had little formal
training or schooling, but pushed himself, particularly once inspired by Paganini, to be the best pianist
ever. He dazzled his audiences and played for the fanciest aristocrats. He traveled constantly for concerts
and was considered to be scandalous, especially since women adored him and fainted when he played.
In Weimar, Liszt focused on composing tone poems, a new form of instrumental music. He also
supported the music of composers of his time, especially Wagner. He was a demanding conductor and
introduced much-needed discipline into the orchestra. He developed what we can call the “vocabulary of
conducting.”
Mendelssohn was born into a wealthy and cultured family. He was a young virtuoso, but did not spend
his life on the road, concertizing and wowing the public. His music was made privately, and he was very
close to his talented sister Fanny. He could have had a very easy life, but he pushed himself to perform
and compose. He created many innovations in orchestral music. He was a “family man,” died fairly
young, and was beloved and appreciated. Liszt’s life was flamboyant and glamorous. He did not have
the advantages of a wealthy birth and had very little formal education. He forced himself to become a
virtuoso, inspired particularly by Paganini. His success depended on pleasing audiences and traveling
constantly. Later, when he left concertizing, he faced challenges with the new music he wrote (tone
poems). He tried to whip the Weimar court orchestra into shape (making many of the same demands as
Mendelssohn was making up in Leipzig). Ultimately, he left Weimar in semi-failure, but came back later
in his long life as a revered teacher.
Mendelssohn worked intensely/meticulously with the orchestra (Gewandhaus) in Leipzig, demanding that
they rehearse better, play better, and take on difficult and new compositions. His innovations became the
basis for what Liszt would later do in pushing orchestras to new levels of achievement. Mendelssohn
worked tirelessly to make musical life better in Leipzig. He was, after all, working in a city renowned for
Johann Sebastian Bach, and he was also very interested in Bach’s music.
Clara Wieck [Schumann] was a fine composer in her own right and a wonderful pianist. Her marriage to
the famous composer Robert Schumann is one of Western music’s great love stories. It took them years
to overcome her father’s opposition to Robert, and a judge even had to intervene. She outlived Robert by
many years and did a lot to make sure Robert’s music was promoted and would not be forgotten.
Jenny Lind was one of many virtuosic opera singers of her day, but she made a particular splash. She was
from Sweden, not Italy, as with so many singers, and her nickname was the “Swedish Nightingale.”
More importantly, she came to America and toured with the great Circus Entrepreneur P.T. Barnum. Her
concerts and “circus appearances” in America made her huge amounts of money and made her a
household name in many parts of the US.
Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique is usually considered the first “tone poem” or “symphonic poem,”
although it has multiple movements. It tells the story of Berlioz’s own romance with an English
Shakespearean actor in a rather grotesque way, and it is filled with musical special effects, including a
“march to the gallows.” Less than 20 years later, Franz Liszt would begin to write a series of descriptive
pieces (tone poems) that would really establish the genre.
The title means the “Free Shot” and refers to the last of seven magic bullets that are cast by devilish
power and given to the opera’s hero to use in a shooting contest. He is trying to win the hand of his
beloved, and he’s not a very good shot, so that’s why he seeks and accepts the magic bullet. He doesn’t
know that the “free shot” or last bullet is destined to hit her heart.
The choruses were the best-loved pieces in many of Verdi’s operas. They had wonderful melodies and
really touched people. They were sung in the streets by those who loved Verdi’s music and also used as a
code for expressing a desire for the formation of a free, united Italian nation.
Because of censorship, people couldn’t protest for Italian independence from Austria / the Hapsburgs.
That could land someone in jail. But no one could stop the people from shouting “Viva VERDI,” even
though everyone knew VERDI had a double meaning: it was the composer’s name but also meant “Victor
Emmanuel, Re d’Italia (Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy).
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19.
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The character of Carmen herself was pretty shocking. She is the heroine of the opera, but she is a lowclass girl of questionable character who works in a cigarette factory. She does (and sings about) things
unheard of in an opera libretto. Plus, she is murdered at the very end of the opera, on stage.
Verismo means “realism” and is a term to describe a change in late 19th -century operas that showed a
new level of realism in the story and stage action. This realism might include violence, murders, or other
socially shocking topics. These operas were meant to be psychologically provocative rather than simply
entertaining.
En pointe (toe) dancing allowed the dancers to glide across the stage. Their movements were new and
seemed supernatural and eerie. Toe dancing first was done by dancers who played supernatural roles
(nuns rising from the dead; spirits of dead young women called Willis). Later it became a complex
technique used by all female dancers in ballet.
Wagner designed his entire theater to intensify his operas. He chose not to call it an opera house, but a
Festspielhaus. He took out a lot of the decorations and fancy balconies—anything that distracted from
the stage. Seats were auditorium style and people, once in the seats, had to focus on the opera. He built
his orchestra pit slanting downward, and pushed it back underneath the stage, so that his larger than
normal orchestra would fit, and the sound of their many instruments (particularly the brass) would blend
and come up and match the singers’ sound.
Either people were composers who wrote the music, or they were text-writers (librettists) and wrote the
words. It was extremely rare for someone to do both at any point in the history of opera. And Wagner
didn’t just do both—he made a point to recreate the way both should be done.
First, he called it a “Prelude” (Vorspiel). It wasn’t meant to be a crash-bang, attention-rousing overture,
as many operas had. It was a mysterious-sounding piece that rises up in sound, building out of one
harmony. It evoked the sound of a magical world deep in the Rhine River.
There is no actual connection between the real 19th-century composer, Richard Wagner, and the 20thcentury dictator Adolph Hitler. Wagner was dead many years before Hitler came to power. But some of
Wagner’s ideas about German art and the stories told in his music appealed greatly to Hitler. Hitler
pointed repeatedly to Wagner, therefore, and praised him throughout the atrocities of National Socialism.
Thus, the Wagner-Hitler link was born.
PART III. Essay Question. 20 points
Essay 1. Choose one (1) of the operas or ballet(s) presented during this quarter and discuss it as well as
you can, including its historical context and its musical significance.
Answer should include
• Name of composer and, if recalled or significant, librettist or author of the book (story of a ballet).
• Category and description of the work
• Relevant historical, cultural, or geographical factors about work, if known
• Reason(s) why composer and/or work was successful
• Description of at least one aspect of the work
• Or, description of a prominent musical number or scene
Essay 2. Choose one (1) of these four composers: Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt. Describe him
in terms of his life, the kinds of music he wrote, his specific achievements, his artistic approach.
For whichever person is chosen, consider
• His training and background
• The special musical attributes that made him famous
• Any innovations or features that made him important at the time.
• Ways in which this person changed the music of his time.
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Page 44
Mention, where possible, people, places, or events connected to him.
Essay 3. Composers in the 19th century faced a world vastly different from the artistic world of the 18th
century. Consider some advantages and disadvantages of this new world. Explain and illustrate with
examples of composers and/or pieces where you can.
Students can present points from the chart comparing the Enlightenment to Romanticism (p. 91).
Composers (and performers) increasingly had to find their own audiences in the 19th century. They had to
write music that was pleasing or trendy. They had to support the financial side of music much more on
their own (booking concerts, hiring musicians). There were fewer and fewer aristocrats able to
underwrite these things. The stability composers enjoyed in the 18th century was fading.
On the other hand, composers had much more individual freedom. They were able to explore and express
ideas that would have displeased patrons in the 18th-century. They expanded musical forms and created
many new sounds. They became free artists and were not bound by the same kind of contracts or whims
of their employers. They began to shed the status of servant and be considered not only “equals” in
society but special.
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Page 45
EXAM 4 (Units 15-17)
Part I. Fill in the blank(s) for 20 questions below. Answer on a separate sheet of paper. Omit 4. (1 pt
each) _____/20 pts
1. Scott Joplin’s jaunty compositions for piano were called __________.
2. America’s greatest songwriter before and during the Civil War was named ________________________.
3. The virtuosic Russian pianist and composer ____________________ emigrated from Russia after the
Bolshevik Revolution and became a beloved figure here in America.
4. The dark, grotesque paintings that filled especially German and Austrian canvases in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries are examples of ___________________.
5. One of the most famous of these paintings, ___________________ by Edvard Munch, shows the horrorstruck face of a person standing on a bridge.
6. A robust form of 19th-century singing that spread across the American prairie and used odd forms for the
notes is called _______________________.
7. The term _________________ refers to a general fascination with things Asian or “from the East.”
8. What are the dates of World War I? ______ to _______
9. Arguably our greatest American hymnodist was ____________________.
10. The composer ________ ___________ ___________ (goes by three names) is known as America’s
“King of the March.”
11. Ziegfeld’s gorgeous New York Theater was called the ______________________.
12. It was restored by Disney’s Michael Eisner and reopened with a long-running production of
______________________.
13. Composer ______________________ lived more than a century and left an unparalleled legacy of
American popular song (including God Bless America).
14. Festivities known as Fasching and Carnival in Europe and Central/South America are mirrored in a wellknown American celebration called ___________________.
15. This Russian composer ___________ - ______________ is known best for his orchestration and his
operas, but in his young adulthood he was a merchant marine.
16. The German composer _________________ was viewed by many as the “successor” to Beethoven,
especially insofar as his composition of symphonies.
17. The name ___________________ describes a loose group of Russian artists who depicted realistic topics
in their paintings and worked outside of the academies.
18. The name _________________ describes a loose group of Russian composers who focused on nationalist
themes (fairy tales, Russian folklore and history) for their compositions.
19. Anton Chekov is known for his realistic dramas, including (name one example)____________________.
20. ______ ______ _______ was the name given to an area in New York City where music publishers were
located and the popular song industry flourished.
21. The musicians who would sit down at the piano and play the songs, hoping to convince the music
publishers to publish them, were called _______-________.
22. The ___________________ refers to a major 19th-century building project in Vienna that projected the
city’s power, stability, and modernity.
23. The term _____ ___ __________ can mean the end of any century, but it tends to refer to the atmosphere
in Europe at the end of the 19th century.
24. The term ___________________ doesn’t literally indicate any specific religion, but means “bearer of the
true / right / straight.”
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Part II. Answer on a separate sheet of paper. OMIT Five (20 x 3 pts each) _____/60 pts
Complete answers will consist usually of phrases or one or more sentences
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
What kinds of structures or objects would you seek out to find examples of Jugendstil or Art Deco?
Today, we consider Impressionist art “pretty,” but critics at the time . . . (complete).
Who was Nijinsky?
Why is Hungarian composer Bela Bartok considered a pioneer?
Even though it’s a complex and sensitive topic, Minstrelsy is the foundation of American musical
entertainment. Why?
Why were World’s Fairs once so important?
What role did bells play in Russian culture and music?
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture commemorates what event?
What prompted Mussorgsky to compose Pictures at an Exhibition?
What qualities of Debussy’s music cause people to call him an “Impressionist” composer?
Distinguish between Johann Strauss and Richard Strauss.
“In Flanders Field, where _____________________.” Finish the sentence, and summarize the content,
context, or importance of the poem.
What are the two famous forms of the story Eugene Onegin?
What is meant by “the Shadow of Beethoven”?
What were some of the qualities found in Expressionist paintings?
What features distinguish Charles Ives’ approach to writing music?
What is important and revolutionary about Mahler’s Symphonies?
What were the “Ziegfeld Follies”?
Who was William Billings?
Why was Moscow called “the Third Rome”?
What is Sprechstimme?
What was the purpose of a mission like San Gregorio de Abo?
What is special about the musical traditions brought to America by the Moravians?
What is meant by verismo and why is it important?
What role did wealthy industrialists play in American music and why?
PART III. ESSAY. CHOOSE ONE OF THE ESSAYS BELOW. _____/25 POINTS
Essay 1. Consider musical and artistic developments across Europe, America, and Russia during the fin-desiècle (end of the 19th-century) and early 20th century. What currents do you find to be the most significant
during these decades? What role do technological advances play? Are you struck more by similarities or
differences in these three artistic cultures?
Essay 2. Monumentalism is a name that helps describe a “bigger is better” trend in the arts throughout the
Romantic period (19th century). How did music reflect trends towards art that was bigger / more meaningful /
faster / more powerful? What advantages did this trend bring to music? Can you think of any disadvantages?
Essay 3. Take any piece of music covered in the units of this quarter (Units 15, 16, 17). Discuss it within its
historical context and in terms of its musical ideas and expression. You may integrate relevant facts about the
composer, but keep the focus on the music—its context, expression, and importance.
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EXAM 4 ANSWERS
PART I. Fill in the blanks. 20 points (1 point each)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
rags
Stephen Foster
Rachmaninov (Rachmaninoff)
Expressionism
The Scream
Shape-Note Singing
chinoiserie
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
8. 1914-1918 (Versailles Treaty signed 1919)
9. Lowell Mason
10. John Phillip Sousa
11. The New Amsterdam Theater
12. The Lion King
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
Irving Berlin
Mardi gras
Rimsky-Korsakov
[Johannes] Brahms
Wanderers, Itinerants, Peredvizhniki
Mighty Five; Mighty Handful; Moguchaia kuchka
The Seagull, Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, The Three
Sisters
Tin-Pan Alley
song-pluggers
Ringstrasse
fin-de-sièle
Orthodox
PART II. Short Answer Questions. 60 points (3 points each)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Façades of buildings, wrought-iron gates, ornate stained-glass windows in fancy homes and buildings,
paintings and mosaics, styles of furniture, jewelry, beautiful objects made by firms like Tiffany & Co.
[We view Impressionist art today as “pretty,” but critics at the time] thought the new artists lacked
technique and couldn’t paint well enough to make “normal” pictures. The images appeared more like
“impressions” instead of paintings of something. Lines were blurred and many standard practices of
painting were ignored. So the term wasn’t complimentary.
Nijinsky was a brilliant young Russian dancer who danced roles depicting “magical” creatures. He got
the job of creating choreography (dance steps) for a famous 1913 ballet called Rite of Spring (Le sacre du
printemps). His choreography shocked people: primitive, angular, un-beautiful, and disturbing. But it fit
the complex music by composer Stravinsky perfectly!
Bartok was a pioneer because he explored folk music from local regions and took modern gramophone
technology into villages to record authentic examples of folk music. Then he used that music as a basis
for his own compositions.
Even though it’s a complex and sensitive topic, minstrelsy is at the root of American musical
entertainment because many of the ingredients of American song and dance were developed there: tap
dance and cakewalk, comic songs, joke routines, silly tricks and animal acts. Also, many of the songs
written for minstrel shows (especially by Stephen Foster) are still important in American music.
Attending World’s Fairs were one of the few ways people could see and explore the arts and culture of
faraway places. A composer like Debussy could go to a World Exhibition in Paris, for example, and hear
Indonesian instruments and see Indonesian dancing. Plus, the most modern innovations and technologies
were unveiled at World’s Fairs.
The booming sound of huge untuned Russian bells accompanied every aspect of village life. The ringing
patterns of the bells signaled information to the villagers. Their sound was etched in composers’ minds
and reflected clearly in some of their compositions.
The 1812 Overture commemorates the Battle of Borodino—the defense of Moscow against Napoleon’s
invading army.
Mussorgsky’s friend, a young architect named Viktor Hartmann, was a watercolorist. He was interested
in old Russian traditions and decorations. His early death caused a grieving Mussorgsky to create a multisectioned piece of piano music that conveyed the experience of walking around a gallery to view an
exhibition of Hartmann’s pictures.
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11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
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20.
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Debussy’s music can be very quiet, without a strong pulse or definite sense of rhythm/beat, so it seems
gentle, blurry. Melodies float in and out. The sounds of the instruments can be ethereal. The music is
also descriptive and evocative, and often creates a picture of nature in sound.
Richard Strauss was an Austrian composer who excelled first in writing vivid orchestral tone pomes and
then, especially after 1900, equally vivid, sometimes disturbing new-style operas like Salome and Elektra.
Johann Strauss II (no relation to Richard) was a 19th-century Austrian composer known primarily for his
popular waltzes and light opera (operetta).
“In Flanders Field where the red poppies grow. . . .” This poem was written by a Canadian soldier who
was a doctor (John McCrae). He was killed shortly after writing it near the end of World War I. It is both
sentimental and defiant, and pleads for people not to forget the sacrifice of thousands of young men dying
in a war that many people found difficult to grasp.
Eugene Onegin is a novel-in-verse (long, multi-sectioned poem) by the beloved Russian genius Alexander
Pushkin. The equally beloved composer Peter Tchaikovsky turned it into a major opera.
The “Shadow of Beethoven” is a phrase that addresses the question “What’s next?” This question was
evoked by Beethoven’s amazing nine symphonies: they broke so much new ground that composers (and
audiences) wondered what the next step would be. Could any composer take up Beethoven’s challenge?
If so, who? And what would the next great symphony sound like? The composer who took up the
challenge was Johannes Brahms.
In Expressionist paintings, the colors were dark, bold, with lots of red and black. Faces were distorted
and figures were primitive. Sometimes religious themes were used in gruesome parody. The paintings
were disturbing, provocative, and irreverent. Expressionist paintings are considered “prophetic” because
they showed themes of death and destruction that paralleled the horrors of soon-to-come World War I.
Ives used every kind of music around him to create a tapestry of sound. He used folk tunes, dance tunes,
marches, hymns, patriotic songs, themes from classical symphonies, hit tunes from operas, and sometimes
he had them all sounding in one big concoction, like a musical stew. He used complex rhythms and
demanded a lot of the listener’s ear.
Mahler used a huge number of orchestral players in his symphonies. He also added singers: soloists,
choruses, and even children’s choruses. His symphonies, while “huge” in length, were often built from
simple themes, including folk tunes. He liked unusual sounds from nature and daily life like cowbells and
anvils. Personally he was preoccupied with death, but his symphonies are often filled with light.
Musicians revere Mahler’s symphonies.
The Ziegfeld Follies were named after their creator, an entrepreneur named Florenz (“Flo”) Ziegfeld. He
was a genius at finding talent and getting people to work cheaply for the glory of being in his productions.
The “Follies” had fantastic costumes and emphasized the glamorous “Ziegfeld Girls.” They included
music from minstrelsy, vaudeville, opera, and, of course, Tin Pan Alley. Many legendary stars got their
start in the Follies, including Will Rogers and Fanny Brice.
Billings (1746-1800) was an American choral composer who lived in Boston. His works, such as those
published in The New England Psalm-Singer (1770), are central to the development of a distinct
American style.
Moscow became known as “the Third Rome” once Constantinople (Byzantium) fell to the Muslims in
1453. People said, “The first Rome has fallen, the Second (Byzantium) is no more, and the Third
(Moscow) shall stand forever.” Moscow became the biggest center of Eastern Christianity and stayed that
way until the fall of Russia to the Bolsheviks in October 1917.
Sprechstimme means “speak” plus “voice” in German. It was a new way of singing text, half way
between a song and a recitation (spoken word). The innovative Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg is
credited with inventing the technique in a piece for speaker and chamber ensemble called Pierrot lunaire
(1912). People were baffled and upset by the new sound, and some people still are.
Spanish missions like San Gregorio de Abo were built as centers for Christianizing native peoples in the
southwest of America. The missions taught reading, writing, and singing—liturgical singing in Latin.
Life at missions was difficult. Many things could destroy the stability of a mission, including drought and
invasions.
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24.
25.
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The Moravians were great lovers of music including music that wasn’t church music. So they brought
their musical tastes with them to America, which included a love of European classical instruments like
harpsichords and violins. Their music traditions are in contrast to the original Puritan settlers who used
music primarily for worship in the form of unaccompanied, or a cappella, singing.
Verismo means “in a true manner” and refers to a time in the late 19th century when operas took on
serious, difficult, even gritty, topics and portrayed them on stage in a realistic manner. Puccini’s operas
were strong in verismo.
America didn’t have the traditional patrons of the arts. We didn’t have kings and aristocrats nor were
there royal theaters. Churches were sometimes small or new, or didn’t use the kind of music that
composers in Europe wrote. So the responsibility to build the arts fell to well-off people in society,
especially the wives of heads of industry like Andrew Carnegie (Carnegie Hall).
PART III. Essay Question. 20 points
Essay 1. Consider musical and artistic developments across Europe, America, and Russia during the fin
de siècle (end of the 19th-century) and early 20th century. What currents do you find to be the most
significant during these decades? What role do technological advances play? Are you struck more by
similarities or differences in these three artistic cultures?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
In America, forms of musical entertainment were blossoming, from Vaudeville to the Follies, and
then Broadway shows. In Russia, the most exotic productions were by the Ballet russes in Paris, but
most of the artists were Russian. Europeans, especially the Viennese, loved glitter, glamor, and
power, too.
Developments in visual art (painting) told important stories, especially important in Russia and
Europe.
The gramophone is important across the board.
The marketplace (audience) is ever more important.
There is more realism, and more serious themes are presented.
Musical forces (players, singers) are larger, with bigger orchestras and choruses required.
Stage productions are extravagant and luxurious, whether the Ziegfeld Follies, the Ballet russes, or
Puccini operas.
Underneath all of this glamour in Russia and across Europe are currents of ardent nationalism,
revolution, and disintegration of society.
In America, the massive immigration of people from around the globe is changing the culture, as new
immigrants bring widely different artistic traditions to these shores.
Essay 2. Monumentalism is a name that helps describe a “bigger is better” trend in the arts throughout
the Romantic period (19th century). What characteristics did this trend bring to music?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Orchestras and choruses grow larger.
The resulting sound is lush and engaging.
Works grow longer and more complex.
Productions are more extravagant.
Themes are more exotic, more psychologically probing, more shocking.
Audiences come to expect an ever-bigger production value.
Innovators and traditionalists clash sometimes over the direction of music.
Ever-better technology (including lights) changes what is possible.
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Page 50
Essay 3. Take any piece of music covered in the units of this quarter (Units 15, 16, 17). Discuss it within
its historical context and in terms of its musical ideas and expression. You may integrate relevant facts
about the composer, but keep the focus on the music—its context, expression, and importance.
Include points among the following:
• Name of composer of piece
• Type of piece (work for piano, chamber piece, song, theatrical work, orchestral or choral, etc.)
• A statement of where or how this piece “fits” into its time (or does not).
• Approximate length of the movement or section
• Description of the text (words), if any
• Description of the sound, using musical terminology where possible
• Reasons why this piece was significant
• A personal response to the piece
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LISTENING PLAN
Listening to music is essential to this course. To listen effectively, students need a plan. The Listening Plan that
follows is conceived for high-schoolers and can be adapted for younger students.
This Listening Plan is based on hearing each work six times. The total length of the three CDs is 3.5 hours, so
this plan will require a total of 21 hours spread over the time allotted. The plan is arranged into 62 days with
approximately 15-30 minutes of music in each day. You will find 46 musical works (compositions) in the plan.
Some of the very short works by the same composer have been lumped together for purposes of this plan (e.g., the
two works by Lully totaling less than three minutes). And where multiple movements of a work are included on
the CDs, they are treated as one work in the Listening Plan.
You should also note that this Listening Plan asks the student to find and listen to one more work of his or her
own choosing that is not on the CDs. This will effectively add a single listening of 46 works to the total 21 hours,
and you may want to budget your listening time accordingly.
Listening should be done without distractions. Students need to focus on the music in order to understand it.
They may be used to hearing music while they read, converse, or work at the computer, but they will have more
success and make more discoveries about the music if they put those other things away. We are pretty sure they
will enjoy the music more, too.
When you hear a piece of music multiple times, you learn it. You remember what you heard before and you are
able to anticipate what will happen next. At that point, you can really begin to make sense out of it, and that’s the
point we want the student to arrive at with the Listening Plan.
We will stay primarily within the bounds of the listening selections on the three CDs included in the Discovering
Music course. It is better to try to learn a limited number of works well than continually to dig up new works to
listen to. The key is repetition. As the student learns these representative works well, he or she will find it even
more rewarding to explore other musical works within the same style and genre.
A form is provided in the appendix to guide the student through a discovery of each work. Duplicate the form so
that the student can track the progress with each work.
The Listening Plan introduces each work with two successive hearings: we ask the student to listen once and
immediately hear it again. We suggest that the student simply listen the first time. There are a few simple
questions to answer on the form after the second hearing. The third and fourth hearings should also be done in
immediate succession. For these two hearings, more analytical questions will be asked on the listening form.
After listening to each work four times in a relatively short period of time, the student should start to get familiar
with it. The fifth and sixth hearings are designed to solidify the student’s knowledge of the work and to help tie it
to other works in the repertoire. We ask that the fifth hearing of the work be done by the student together with
someone else (a parent, sibling, or friend) to encourage discussion of the work.
On the sixth hearing we ask the student to put the work in context, relating it to other works using some objective
and subjective criteria. Having listened to the work six times, the student should be able to identify some facets
of the work that have particular appeal. We ask the student to search for another work in the repertoire with those
same qualities and compare the two works. The student may find the listings at www.naxos.com or
www.classicalarchives.com helpful in this regard.
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Our goals in creating this particular plan were to keep listening sessions to within a half hour and to follow
generally the sequence of the course, but the teacher may make minor adjustments in the schedule if desired. Try
not to go too long between listening sessions; we recommend 2-4 listening sessions per week. Attempt to stay on
schedule and be sure to stick with the requirement of listening the second time immediately after the first and
listening the fourth time immediately after the third.
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