Twentieth Century Flashcards for Terms

In music, the early twentieth century was a time of

Ostinato refers to a - rapid slide through different pitches - chord made of tones only a half step or whole step apart - combination of two traditional chords sounding together - motive or phrase repeated persistently at same pitch throughout a section.

Impressionism is music is characterized by - the recurrence of strong accents on the downbeat - a stress on tone color, atmosphere, and fluidity - an adherence to traditional harmonic chord progressions - all the above

Which of the following characteristics is not usually associated with impressionism? - fleeting mood - clearly delineated forms - misty atmosphere - symbolism

Impressionist painting and symbolist poetry as artistic movements originated in

When viewed closely, impressionist paintings are made up of - fine lines - large bands of color - tiny black dots - tiny colored patches

Impressionist painters were primarily concerned with the effect of light, color, and - Rhythm - Atmosphere - detail - clarity

Which of the following is not a characteristic of neoclassicism? - Emotional restraint - Clarity - Misty atmosphere - Balance

Neoclassical composers favored - unusual exotic scales - clear polyphonic textures - programmatic music - homophonic textures

Neoclassical compositions are characterized by - forms and stylistic features of earlier periods - whole-tone scales - harsh dissonances - the use of the twelve-tone system

Neoclassical composers modeled many of their words after the compositions of - Richard Wagner - Guillaume de Machaut - Johann Sebastian Bach - Franz Liszt

Neoclassicism was a reaction against - romanticism and impressionism - humanism - classicism - traditional forms

The twentieth-century artistic movement that stressed intense, subjective emotion was called - impressionism - primitivism - expressionism - neoclassicism

Distortion is a technique used primarily in the __ period.

Expressionism as an artistic movement was largely centered in? - The United States - Germany and Austria - Spain - Norway

Expressionism is an art concerned with - depicting the beauties of nature - emotional restraint, clarity and balance - social protest - all are correct

All of the following painters may be considered part of the expressionist movement except

Distortion is a technique used primarily in the ___ period - impressionist - classical - expressionist - romantic

The expressionists rejected - conventional prettiness - reality - imagination - morality

Expressionist composers - contributed many patriotic songs to the war effort - avoided atonality and tradition chord progressions - tried to capture atmosphere with rich, sensuous harmonies and pleasant subjects - all are correct

Using all twelve tones without regard to their traditional relationship to major or minor scales, avoiding traditional chord progressions, is known as - polytonality - bitonality - freetonality - atonality

The absence of key or tonality in a musical composition is known as - polytonality - ostinato - a tone cluster - atonality

In the 1950s Stravinsky dramatically changed his style to favor?

The ordering of the twelve chromatic tones in a twelve-tone composition is called a - series - tone row - set - all answers are correct

Composers began to shift from tonality to the twelve-tone system because - they were bored with tonal music - they discovered it was a compositional technique rather than a special musical style - it was easier to write twelve-tone music - they could make more money selling atonal compositions to a wider public

An eerily expressive kind of declamation midway between song and speech, introduced during the expressionist period is - stile rappresentativo - bel canto - pierrot lunaire - sprechstimme

The vocal lines in Wozzeck include - distorted folk songs - speaking - sprechstimme - all answers are correct

Serialism is a compositional technique in which - a numeric series was the unifying idea of a composition - a series of five pitches could be constantly repeated - a series of rhythms, dynamics, or tone colors could serve as a unifying idea - a series of musical ideas would follow each other in quick succession

Twelve-tone compositional techniques used to organize rhythm, dynamics, tone color, and other dimensions of music to produce totally controlled and organized music are called - chance music - minimalism - Klangfarbenmelodie - serialism

A major composer associated with the serialist movement is - Philip Glass - Milton Babbitt - George Crumb - Ellen Taaffee Zwilich

An example of Copland's use of serialist technique is - Music for the Theatre - Connotations for Orchestra - Fanfare for the Common Man - Appalachian Spring

All of the following are proponents of serialism except - Karlheinz Stockhausen - Pierre Boulez - Milton Babbitt - John Cage

In chance, or aleatory music the composer - takes a chance on which performers will perform the work - chooses pitches, tone colors, and rhythms by random methods - writes a rhythmic pattern but leaves it to the performer to determine the actual pitches - write the music in a traditional manner, but allows the recording engineer to make electronic changes

An example of aleatoric music is - Arnold Schoenberg's Gurrelieder for orchestra - Igor Stravinsky's Soldieries' Tale for chamber ensemble - John Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 4 for twelve radios - Charles Ive's Fourth Symphony for orchestra

Minimalism as an artistic movement was a - way to create popular works quickly and with little effort - reaction against the complexity of serialism and the randomness of chance music

Which of the following characteristics is not true of minimalist music? - a fast rate of change - a clear tonality - a constant repetition of melodic and rhythmic patterns - a steady, driving pulse

Minimalist music is characterized by - the development of musical materials through random methods - rapidly changing dynamics and textures - a steady pulse, clear tonality, and insistent repetition of short melodic patterns - the use of twelve-tone techniques to organize the dimensions of music

Which of the following is not primarily known as a minimalist composer? - Terry Riley - George Crumb - Steve Reich - Philip Glass

Minimalist music grew out of the same intellectual climate as minimalist art, which features - simple forms, clarity and understatement - deliberate distortion and violent colors to communication the tension and anguish of the human psyche - the effects of light, color, and atmosphere through collections of tiny colored patches - three-dimensional objects and human figures distorted into planes

Many composers since the mid-1960's have made extensive use of quotations from earlier music as an attempt to - simplify writing original compositions - improve communication between composer and the listener - capitalize on the popularity of earlier works - continue and develop serialist techniques

Around 1940, John Cage invented the prepared pain, a