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Music exam 2 4-7

Terms in this set (68)

First Sounds
Organs for hearing fully form around 25 weeks after conception
Rhythms of life—mother's
beating heart, whooshing
sounds of blood in arteries
Newborns respond to music
and to mother's voice
Lullabies
Every culture has lullabies, all show certain traits;
narrow range, phrases fit natural breath lengths
Kimísou yié
Greek lullaby
• Maqam is the tonal system of the Middle East
• Uses melismas: many notes on one syllable
• Texture: monophonic
• Meter: unmetered
Music and childhood
• Every musical experience is
educational, especially if
participatory
• Musical participation builds
social and emotional
intelligence
• Learning to play an instrument
has many positive affects
Peter and the Wolf (1936)
• Written by Sergei Prokofiev
• Musical form follows the narrative of the story
• Instruments represent characters of the story
• Peter—string section
• Bird—flute solo
• Duck—oboe
• Wolf—horns
Coming of Age
• Teen songs of angst, desire, rebellion
• Some Christian denominations mark full membership into church through rite of Confirmation
• Jewish girls and boys mark transition to adulthood with
bat/bar mitzvahs
• For some Hispanic girls, quinceañera parties mark
entrance into adulthood
• Debutante balls
Marriage
Rama's Wedding
• Hindu epic poem, The
Ramayana (Rama's Journey)
• Rama is an avatar of Hindu deity, Vishnu
• Rama proves himself worthy of Sita by lifting Shiva's bow
South Indian Karnatic Music
• India has ancient and esteemed
performance traditions
• Natya Shastra, written
between 200 BCE and 200 CE
• Driving force behind Karnatic song is bhakti, expression of
religious devotion
• Tyagaraja: one of Karnatic
music's greatest composers
• wrote over 600 songs devoted to Rama
• Melodies based on ragas (system of melodic modes)
• collection of tones called svaras
• rules governing way pitches are used
• Rhythms based on talas (system of drum patterns)
• specific timbres, clapping associated with talas
• Three part musical texture: melody, rhythm, drone
• drone sounded by tambura—four-stringed, long-necked
instrument
Karnatic Instruments
Melody
• venu: bamboo flute
• violin
• vena: lute-family instrument; four feet long; 4 melodic
strings and 3 drone strings
Rhythm
• mridangam: double-headed drum; one low, one high
Sita's Wedding
"Seeta Kalyana Vaibhogame" ("Sita's Wedding") by
Tyagaraja
• kriti: sacred song, generally consists of three sections
• Pallavi
• Anupallavi
• Charanam
• Form is followed even when singer not present
End of Life: "Ceurik Rahwana"
"Ceurik Rahwana" ("Tears of
Ravana")
• Hindu epic: Rama vs. Ravana
• dying Ravana seeks forgiveness
for betraying his wife
• Love song of Sundanese ethnic
group (Indonesia)
• vocal music genre: tembang
Sunda
• emphasizes emotions of
melancholy and loneliness
Contrition: "Ceurik Rahwana"
"Ceurik Rahwana"
• vocal soloist + two or three instruments
• kacapi indung (large plucked zither)
• suling (bamboo flute)
• kacapi rincik (small plucked zither)
• Emotional text, impassioned delivery
• Heterophonic texture: vocal lines + suling
Funeral Laments
Songs specifically associated with death called laments
• typically passed on by oral tradition
• many parts of world, performed by female relatives of deceased
• Lamenting practices vary throughout the world
• Performance characteristics
• wailing
• sobbing
• speech-like song
"Mă Guariţă,"Romanian Lament for a Dead Brother
• Bocet—Transylvanian lament
• Performed by close female
friends or relatives in first 3 days
after death
• Partially improvised
• Descending 4-note, modal
melody
• Short phrases, ending on same
pitch
• Descending melodic contour, like
a sigh
Ethnicity
• Central to sense of self, home, and community
• Definition: ethnic groups are bound by shared identity
and common ancestry
• Ethnic borders are often porous and difficult to delineate
• Distinctions between ethnicity and race not always clear
• Music is just one expression of ethnic identity
The Jalolu: Musicians/Historians of West Africa
• Mandinka people
• Ethnic group of 11 million
across West Africa
• Common ancestry, language,
and tradition shared through
oral history performed by jalolu
• Jali: singer, poet, instrumentalist,
storyteller
• Jalolu music is characterized by
call and response: solo/chorus
song style
Jalolu Instruments
• Kora: plucked 21-stringed
instrument
• most commonly used
• gender roles dictate who
plays
• Balafon: xylophone
• Ngoni: 5-stringed lute
• Bolon: arched harp
Jalolu Music
• Features balanced oppositions: solo/chorus, song/narrative,
male/female voices, voice/instrument
• Two categories of kora playing:
• kumbengo: accompanimental, to support singing
• birimintingo: improvisatory and virtuosic, no singing
• Two styles of singing:
• donkilo: basic tune, repeated to underscore story concept
• sataro: speech-like verse to advance the story
African Diaspora: The Blues
• Roots in African-American
work songs, field hollers, and
spirituals
• African influences:
• Social values: storytelling,
improvisation
• Musical style: call-andresponse, rhythmic patterns,
sliding pitches
• Jalolu/kora: blues singer/
guitar
Standard Blues form: 12-bar blues
• 3 sections of 4 bars each
• First two lines of lyrics repeated+second line of lyrics: AAB
• Harmonic progression: chords change every measure
A: I-IV-I-I (do fa do do)
A: IV-IV-I-I (fa fa do do)
B: V-IV-I-V (sol fa do sol)
• Common themes: hard times, social isolation, sex, love, money,
endurance in face of hardship
Ethnicity in American Popular Song
Edward Kennedy "Duke"
Ellington
• Wrote more than 3,000 works
• Compositions reflected African
American heritage
• Led prestigious jazz orchestra
for 50 years
• Helped revolutionize
American music
"Caravan" by Ellington
• Orchestration, harmonies, rhythms, evoke exotic
atmosphere
• tom-toms, trumpet growls
• chromatic, undulating melody
• 32-bar song form (just like "Over the Rainbow")
Ethnicity in Art Music
William Grant Still
• First African American to conduct
white American orchestra
• First African American symphony
performed by major American
orchestra
• Wrote 8 operas, 5 symphonies,
and numerous other classical
works
• Goal: compose ethnic music
"without Caucasian influence"
Still, "Afro-American" Symphony
• Most celebrated of Still's works
• wanted to show that blues "could be elevated to the highest
musical level"
• opening in 12-bar blues form
• second theme has quality of a spiritual
• Incorporated Western art music traditions:
• sonata form
• standard orchestra
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
• Basque, Swiss, French, and
Spanish ethnic heritage
• Influenced by the "exotic" at
1889 Exposition Universelle
in Paris
• Cairo bazaar, Javanese
gamelan ensemble, Annie
Oakley
• Influenced by Impressionism
movement in visual arts
Ravel, "Habanera" from Rapsodie espagnole
• Each movement a study in tone color
• Habanera has a complex social history
• Cuba to South America to Spain
• Non-European imagery provided in:
• Orchestration/timbre
• Afro-Cuban rhythms
Bela Bartok (1881-1945)
• Hungarian pianist, composer,
scholar of folk music
• Working on periphery of
Europe
• Championed Hungarian folk
music in the context of Western
art music
• Collected 1000s of folk songs
Bartok, "Allegro Barbaro"
• Written for solo piano in 1911
• Aggressive dissonances
• Follows the harmonies, scales, rhythmic patterns of folk
music
Klezmer
• Brought to U.S. by Eastern
European Jewish immigrants
in the early 20th century
• Klezmer is Yiddish term, refers
to Jewish musicians and the
music itself
• Today, Klezmer is a popular
"World Music" genre
The Klezmatics, "Perets-Tants"
Trumpet, violin, accordion,
saxophone, and drums
• Harmonic and melodic
elements of Jewish traditions
• Rhythmic elements of Western
popular music
• Form: Intro/AA/BB/CC/DD/
E/AA/BB/CC/DD/CC/DD
West to East: Return to West Africa
• African American blues and jazz
have roots in West African music
and culture
• Western music also influences
traditional and modern values in
Africa
• Salif Keita (b. 1949)
• Popular musician
• Mandinka jalolu traditions
• Promotes message of social
truth
Understanding Gender
All of our Western fairytale heroes
and heroines live in a gendered
world
• Gender roles learned
• Differ from one culture to next
or one generation to next
• Gender is performed—clothing,
body stance, speech
• Gender stamped into our earliest
experiences
• Gender norms constantly evolving
Perceptions of Gender in Music
• Reflections of cultural ideals
• Strings and woodwinds as "gentle feminine"
• Brass and percussion as "brawny masculine"
• Gender proscriptions in traditional cultures
• women excluded from instruments/ensembles
Female Composers of Western Art Music
• Until last half of 20th century,
few women composers of
Western art music
• limited training
• playing some instruments
considered unfeminine
• misogynistic ideas of women's
abilities
• ignored by history
• Reclamation history: restoring
women to historical narrative
Women in Western Art Music
• Hildegard of Bingen—12th-century abbess, poet, mystic,
and composer
• Isabella Leonarada—17th-century nun and composer
• Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel—19th-century composer
and sister of Felix Mendelssohn
• Clara Schumann—19th-century piano virtuoso,
composer, and wife of Robert Schumann
Gender in popular music
• Popular music has become nearly as
visual as sonic
• Elvis Presley—1956 Milton Berle
Show: hyper masculine or effeminate?
• Early rock-n-roll dominated by white
males
• Early 1960s, introduction of
"girl groups"
• Bobbettes, Ronettes
• lyrics perpetuated restrictive
gender roles
Changing roles
1963, The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan helped spark SecondWave Feminism of 1960s and 70s
• women made lasting inroads in male-dominated professions and
institutions
• women began to insist on economic equality
• 1966, founding of National Organization for Women
• Controversy—some saw movement as threat to traditional values, as
well as American way of life
• Feminists criticized for ignoring experiences of African American
women
Aretha Franklin (b. 1942)
• Grew up singing in New Bethel
Baptist Church
• mid-1960s signed with Atlantic
Records
• hits that blended gospel with pop
music's sexuality
• "Respect," "Chain of Fools,"
"Think"
• "Respect"—recorded 1967
• written by Otis Redding (1965)
• Franklin's version transformed
gender assumptions
Androgyny in 1970s Glam Rock
• Male performers in makeup,
jewelry, and platform shoes
• Gender ambiguity for shock
value
• Redefining "sexy
Gender in the World
• Balinese gamelan—percussion
orchestra
• Considered men's work
• Intrinsic to Hindu temple festivals
• Emphasizes gaya—performance
with energy, showmanship
• Women's gamelan
• Informal performances, outside
temple
• Modest, reserved performance style
• Less polished
Gender on Stage: Opera
• Gender issues worked out on stage
• nonconformity usually leads to disaster
• Ex: Lucia Ashton in Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) by Donizetti
• forced into unwanted marriage
• driven mad by guilt and shame
• kills husband and then dies herself
• Librettos often reflect stereotyped gender roles
• Elements of music may enhance aspects of character's role
Gender on Stage: Carmen
Carmen—composed by Georges Bizet (1875)
• perhaps opera's most sensuous leading lady
• story of sultry gypsy who
works in tobacco factory in Seville, Spain
• ultimate free spirit, overt sexuality
• Two lovers: Don Jose and Escamillo
"Habanera" from Carmen
• Orchestra communicates character traits
• Afro-Cuban rhythms of habanera signify Carmen's sensuality
• Chromatic harmonies convey exoticism and seduction
• Lyrics: "Love is a rebellious bird that nobody can tame"
Masculinity in Opera: Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
• leading German opera
composer of 19th century
• also a librettist, conductor,
producer, and philosopher
• controversial figure
• political radical, philanderer
• Gesamtkunstwerk: unity of all
the arts (music, visual arts,
poetry, drama) in opera
A leading man: Siegfried
• Wagner's epic four-opera cycle, The Ring of the
Nibelungen
• complex plot drawn from Norse and German
mythology
• humans and gods, dragons and dwarves
• Expanded expressive range of orchestra
• Leitmotivs: short musical phrases that represent people,
places, things, and ideas
• Siegfried is the 3rd of the 4 opera cycle
• Story of half-human grandson of Wotan
• Fearless, arrogant, naïve
• Act II, scene 2
• Horn call: tonally stable, represents youth and bravery
• Low brass (Fafner): chromatic and tonally unstable,
represents brutality and danger
Gender Confusion: Castrati
What is the ideal masculine voice?
• for centuries, a golden soprano was considered heroic timbre
How is a man to get one?
• castrati: male singers who were castrated before puberty to
preserve their high range
• Heroic roles of 17th and 18th century opera
• Successful castrati achieved fame and fortune
• Today, castrati roles sung by women or countertenors
Pants Roles
male roles designed to be sung by women
• typically handsome boy at cusp of manhood
• comedic character
• usually character of low social status hopelessly in
love with leading lady
Pants Roles and Mozart
• Cherubino from Mozart's The
Marriage of Figaro (1786)
• adolescent male sung by
female soprano
• Syncopated rhythms, fast
tempo represent:
• Adolescent hormones
• Racing heartbeat
• Volatile emotions
Lesbian and Gay Issues
Important gay or bisexual American
composers of 20th century: John Cage,
Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein
• Famous "out" lesbian or bisexual
performers in pop music world: Melissa
Etheridge, k.d. lang, Indigo Girls, Ani
diFranco
• "Camp" humor: difficult to define but
may include elements such as:
• self-mockery
• theatricality
• exaggerated gendered mannerisms
• vulgarity
Music and Spirituality
• Music used to enhance spiritual experience
• Different religious traditions:
• Music used to quiet mind and body
• Music used to excite mind and body
• Focus may be on words or melody or rhythm
Tibetan Buddhist Chant
• Gelug order founded in 15th
century
• lived in India since 1959
• Chanting as meditation, vehicle
to spirituality
• Vocal technique: harmonic
singing
• Highly repetitive chants focus on
single idea
• Sample text: "Om mani
padme hum"
How is Buddhist Chant a Spiritual Activity?
• Texts deal with scared topics—the chanting becomes a
type of meditation.
• Chanting technique requires considerable focus—stills
the mind
• Technique slows breathing—may have a calming effect.
• Chanting is highly repetitive—allows the mind to
entrain to a single idea"
"Amazing Grace"
• Musical testament to Christian
doctrine of salvation
• Diatonic melody
• Text written by John Newton
(1725-1807) in 1772
• Melody from pre-existing tune,
"New Britain"
• Music and words first
matched around 1835
"Amazing Grace," Bernice Reagon
• Daughter of Baptist minister
• Age 20, became founding member
of SNCC Freedom Singers
• 1973, founded Sweet Honey in the
Rock
• "Amazing Grace"
• Lining out: leader introduces
words and tune that choir will
sing
• First half of verse lined out, then
embellished when repeated
"Amazing Grace," Robert Shaw
• Shaw earned 14 Grammys and
National Medal of Arts
• Music Director of Atlanta
Symphony, 1967-1988
• "Amazing Grace"
• Triple meter
• homophonic texture
• A cappella
• strophic
"Amazing Grace," Old Harp Singers of Eastern Tennessee
• Shape-note singing: songbooks use shapes to represent
different scale tones
• Folk tradition that dates back to late 18th century
• Historically flourished in the South
• "Sacred harp" (natural voice) vocal timbre is often
strident, shrill
• Leader begins, choir follows slightly later
Music in the Early Church
• From early Middle Ages up
until early 1960s, most of
liturgy in Catholic Mass
chanted
• Plainchant (Gregorian Chant)
• sung in Latin
• composed anonymously,
oral tradition
• monophonic texture
• rhythmically free
Kyrie Eleison, Plainchant
• Free-flowing rhythms: no meter
• Conjunct melodic contour
• Words sung in melismatic style
• many pitches per syllable
• Melismas allow for assimilation of spiritual message
• Three sections: Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie
eleison
The Renaissance Mass
The Mass
• Daily service established in Medieval Period
• Fixed sequence of prayers, readings, rituals
• Used to present day
• Ordinary: Mass texts that stay same every day (Kyrie,
Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei)
• Proper: Mass texts that change day to day, according to
Church calendar
Kyrie from Pope Marcellus Mass, Palestrina
• Six independent voice parts (SATTBB)
• polyphonic texture
• Sung a cappella
• Metrical rhythms give sense of forward motion
• Each section begins with thin texture that increases as
more voices enter
• Example of Counter-Reformation musical style
Music of the Protestant Reformation
• Martin Luther (1483-1546)
• began Protestant Reformation
with 95 Theses
• wrote chorales to replace
plainchant in Lutheran worship
• Chorales
• strophic songs with singable tunes
• sung by congregation
• sung in vernacular
• Tunes from Catholic or secular
tradition
St. Matthew Passion, J.S. Bach
• Oratorio: unstaged, uncostumed musical play
• Biblical story of Jesus's last days, as told by Evangelist
• Vocal soloists as characters:
• Evangelist (narrator), Jesus, Pilate, Judas
• Choruses as soldiers, disciples, crowd
• Prominent use of chorale tune, "O Sacred Head, Now
Wounded"
• Four phrases: AABC form
One can see this work as:
• Bach's individual testament of religious faith
• An example of 18th-century Lutheran spirituality
• A vehicle for personal religious reflection
• One of the greatest examples of late-18th century
Baroque artistic achievement
The Yoruba of Nigeria
• Large, influential ethnic group in
Nigeria
• Yoruba religion brought to Americas by
slavery
• Cuban Santería
• Worship òrìsà
• generally associated with forces of
nature
• Drummed music central to Yoruba
worship
• Drums "speak" rhythmic and melodic
inflections of Yoruba language
• dùndún or bàtá drums
Eleggua
• Oríkì (praise poem): Èsù látopa, Èsù gongo
• Eleggua (or Èsu) is first òrísà honored at any religious
ceremony
• guards crossroads
• Bàtá drums of various sizes, pitches
• rich in symbolism
Mevlevi Sufi Order—Whirling Dervishes
• Honors Persian poet,
philosopher, and mystic Mevlana
Celaleddin Rumi (1207-1273)
• Rituals emphasize music to
achieve spiritual union with God
• Samā ceremony symbolic of
soul's passage to God
• Music is monophonic and
heterophonic
• Melodies are lengthy,
rhythmically complex
Naat-I Sherif (excerpt) Taksim and Pesrev
• Instruments
• Ney (end-blown flute)
• Ud and tanbur (bowed and plucked lutes)
• Kanun (zither)
• Kudüm (kettledrums)
• Cymbals
• Taqsim: non-metrical instrumental improvisation
• Pesrev: instrumental composition accompanying ritual walk
Yom Kippur, Jewish Day of Atonement: "Kol Nidre"
• 24-hour Holy Day focusing on
repentance
• "Kol Nidre" ("All Vows")
prayer begins service
• Request for forgiveness of sins
and for renewal
• Service ends with shofar (ram's
horn)
Jewish Tradition- "Song of Solomon"
Salamone Rossi (1570-1630)
• "Songs of Solomon" collection
of psalms and synagogue
songs
• lived in Mantua, Italy
• music reflects Italian
polyphonic style of his day
• texts in Hebrew
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