2. Listen again to The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky. Describe elements of this piece that helped shape a new musical language for the twentieth- century.
Elements of this piece that helped shape a new musical language for thee twentieth – century would consist of Stravinsky experimenting with rhythm and new combinations of instruments. The way he uses dissonance in his pieces as well polyphonic and polytonal textures. His ballets were strongly nationalistic but contained rites of Russia in ancient times. On the opening night of The Rite of Spring, he caused a riot to ensue because it wasn’t like a regular ballet, it was totally different. It consisted of no ballet dancing at all, but more of a chant dance, the different melodies and the change in dissonance caused the ballet to be viewed as a frightening experience to some. Spring is something that is viewed as beautiful, light, loving and this ballet showed none of this, from the point of view of those who attended that night.
The size of the orchestra expanded and consisted of more use of the brass and percussion. He liked creating a barbaric, primeval sound that created a pizzicato. He wanted to create a harsh loud sound; his use of melody and harmony creates static quality. The use of limited ranges and extensive repetition, he also liked using folk like repetition within his pieces. His harmonies include whole notes and eight note scales. The interaction he creates between rhythm and the meter is the most influential part of The Right of Spring. He opened a new lane for western music to be able to explore outside of the regular traditional and metric regular use within western music.
3. Describe Schoenberg’s music and how Pierrot Lunaire reflects Exp...
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...rend in music, citing composers and musical examples.
The minimalist trend in music began in the New York downtown scene in 1960. It was viewed as experimental music. Minimalistic music includes consonant harmony, steady pulse and smaller musical phrases. It relies heavily on process techniques and it follows strict rules. It is work that is limited, pieces that work with minimal notes and only a few words or text. They simplify the rhythms, harmony, and melody as well.
Some musical composers of minimalism would be Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Steve Reich who created clapping music, and LaMonte Young. Such musical pieces by these composer include Part’s Cantate Domino, In C, Doctor Atomic, The Illusionist, The Hours, and also a Prophecy of Nostradamus. There are different styles on minimalism such as post- minimalism and spiritual minimalism as well.
Romantic Ballet is the embodiment of ballet. In an era of war and suffering, the romantics found dance to immerse themselves in. It not only proved to be a reality escape for many individuals, but it changed their views of perception and thinking in a way never thought possible. According to Gayle Kassing writer of History of Dance, “Romantic Ballet provided the middle class with…escape from the drudgery of everyday life that came with the rise of industrialism.” As the social and political structure in society began to turn over, acceptance for new ideas became more easily attainable. Romanticism emphasized individuality, the irrational, and it protested against any mechanism that might ...
In terms of the technical differences between the art music of early times and that of the modern period (i.e., after 1600) we can identify five specific features that make post-1600 styles in music sound more or less "familiar."
As the late Baroque period morphed into the new period known as the classical period, technological advances and new compositional techniques and ideas created new opportunities for the musicians of the period. The changes allowed for new performance techniques, forms, performance venues, and newly available compositional orchestrations to be improved and evolved into something new and improved for the new period.
...nd rhythmic tone in his music. He also added eight-note melody in the violin resulted in the more up and down in the pulse of the music. The orchestra is much more repetitive than the violin, John Adam used to play it with the eighth and the sixteenth note with alternate repetition. (Heisinger)
The imagery of this poem is vivid. The shadowy figures of the occupants at the harlot's house are portrayed as "mechanical" (3.1). The narrator and his companion watch at all that is happening at this house of ill repute. The reader gets the sense that both stand below the window for quite some time. Whether through fascination, or wondering how people live "on the other side of the tracks", clearly there is some allure to standing on this street watching the "ghostly dancers spin to sound of horn and violin" (4.1-2). There are two more dances described, a quadrille in the fifth stanza, a saraband in the sixth.
This is the second volume of Richard Taruskin's historical work, and it highlights composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He examines the progression of different styles and eras of music.
Even though I do not have preference on Classical or Baroque music, while studying in this class I learned that there are other songs from these periods also have a great melody that I actually like. Moreover, what I liked the most from "Rite of Spring" was that it has polyphonic texture where the woodwinds, percussion, and strings, play simultaneously. In addition, the brass instruments add emphasis to the music, which I found very dramatic. The only thing that I did not like was that the choreography in this song was very primitive which shocked many of the audience when Stravinsky first published. In fact, by reading the book, I found out that people reacted in a way that people started to fight with each other. Nevertheless, this flaw does not make me to hate this piece of music at all. On the other hand, I liked Vivaldi's "The Spring" concerto due to the beautiful melody the string instruments played. In addition, I like it because it really expresses the feelings of spring. For this reason, I did not found any flaws from this magnificent piece of
The march to the scafold begins to become disoriented when rather than a death march, it starts to develop a pompous overtone, and become more or a grand prominade, but this is part of the composer?s genius. He composed the music to what would be the disjunct qualities of a dream-like state. This music relates an abstractness that is symbolic of the mind in a semi-conscious state.
Minimal music was characterized by the music of the La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. It brought back a strong sense of tonality and pulse, which was a massive contrast to serialism a-tonality and complex meter. The key element of minimalist music was in its repetitive nature.
Each individual player in this orchestra is a soloist of sorts, playing a completely different piece than the musician seated directly next to them or across the stage. Rather than being written as a concerto, this piece, written in three movements, allows for each of the accomplished musicians to display their skill individually though each solo is not brought to the forefront of the piece, creating a what sounds like a disgruntled compilation of individual pieces that come together. This piece both begins ends with the Funeral March of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony directly tied into the basses, at first it is quiet and difficult to recognize but as the third movement is introduced it becomes more pronounced and evident. Those who were present for this pieces introduction to society were able to see its emotional effect on its composer who had obvious emotional ties to the music. Strauss never showed up to see his work debut instead he attended the dress rehearsal, asked Sacher if he could conduct this work. Strauss was said to have given a beautiful reading of the score that many view as his most...
Primitivism is another ism, which concentrated on primal sounds. They come from African heritage. The sound of the music is very unpredictable and wild sounding. The rhythms usual go up and down. It is tough to understand the purpose of the composer.
Vaslov Nijinsky was the choreographer for this ballet. He was considered the greatest male dancer of the 20th century and his works were known for their controversy. In this ballet Nijinsky’s choreography far exceeded the limits of traditional ballet. And for the first time the audience was experiencing th...
All throughout “The Best Slow Dancer”, the key ingredient to the image within the reader’s mind is the mood set by the poem. The mood is mystical, quixotic, intimate, and continual. This state is accomplished by three techniques—poetic devices, turns of phrase, and contortion of syntax. The main pair of poetic devices that set up all these moods and humors simultaneously are enjambment and synecdoche. Enjambment is bizarre in this poetic work, especially in descriptions of physical setting or position, such as the setting of the dance, “in the school gym across the key through the glitter/ of mirrored light”, or the position of the main character with his “cheek against her temple, her ear just under/ that”.
John Warrack, author of 6 Great Composers, stated, “Any study of a composer, however brief, must have as its only purpose encouragement of the reader to greater enjoyment of the music” (Warrack, p.2). The composers and musicians of the Renaissance period need to be discussed and studied so that listeners, performers, and readers can appreciate and understand the beginnings of music theory and form. The reader can also understand the driving force of the composer, whether sacred or secular, popularity or religious growth. To begin understanding music composition one must begin at the birth, or rebirth of music and the composers who created the great change.
'It seems to me, my dear friend, that the music of this ballet will be one of my best creations. The subject is so poetic, so grateful for music, that 1 have worked on it with enthusiasm and written it with the warmth and enthusiasm upon which the worth of a composition always depends." - Tchaikovsky, to Nadia von Meck.