Contemporary composers represent a wide range of stylistic approaches that include traditionalists as well as modernists.
Although some modern works are contemporary versions of well-established and long-appreciated music styles, the date of a composition is still the most reliable indication of a composer's stylistic ideals.
__________ composers share the conviction that Western music should evolve in an orderly and logical manner.
No single composer leads a specific movement identified as the dominant style of contemporary music.
Modal writing and references to Gregorian chant are just two examples of a renewed interest in __________ music among some twentieth-century composers.
Two works that illustrate the use of Medieval concepts are Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and Carl Orff's
|B)||Mathis der Maler.|
|C)||Symphony of Psalms.|
A group of French composers who embraced popular music, jazz, and theater music as an alternative to the "serious" artistic movements of the modern period were called
The members of "Les Six" included all of the following except
The light, satirical style of __________, who wrote attractive and witty compositions with absurd, surrealistic titles such as Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear, pointed the way for other French composers.
Like Webern, Milhaud lessened the effect of harsh dissonances by combining voices of unlike timbres and thereby encouraged linear rather than "chordal" listening.
In his search for new musical material upon which to base his compositions, Milhaud traveled widely, exploring the "exotic" sounds of jazz in America and of folk music in
Milhaud was first introduced to jazz in a Paris cafe, where he heard a traveling French jazz band perform.
Milhaud wrote a number of pieces based upon jazz; one of the most attractive is his ballet
|C)||Songs of Separation.|
|D)||La Creation du Monde.|
Although nationalism was an important source of inspiration for Romantic composers in the late nineteenth century, in the modern era it has not been a significant factor in musical style.
The field of __________ is the scientific study of music.
The study of music of specific cultures is the science of
For Bela Bartók, the folk music of __________ provided the most refreshing and provocative stimulus for the composition of art music.
In addition to his talents as a composer and scholar, Bartók was also an accomplished
Bartók's serious and scientific study of __________ music led him to become one of the first and finest ethnomusicologists.
One of Bartók's early piano pieces, Allegro barbaro, has the narrow melodies, repetitive motives, and sharp, pounding rhythms associated with
Bartók agreed with the Romantic composers who believed that the simple folk-song melodies were accompanied by the simplest chords.
Bartók's harmonic style included all of the following except
|C)||chords built on fourths.|
|D)||complexity and dissonance.|
It has been suggested that Bartók was a composer of such stature as to rank with the three great "B's" of Western musicBach, Beethoven, and Brahms.
Bartók wrote the Mikrokosmos, a set of six __________ of graded difficulty.
Bartók's __________ are considered the finest since Beethoven's and are often compared with those of the late Viennese master for their strength and complexity.
Like many musicians of his day, Bela Bartók was fascinated with the new popular style called jazz, which he incorporated into many of his works.
In the early 1920s, __________ led the first generation of American composers determined to devote their professional lives to writing music.
An enormous influence on several generations of American composers, __________ was a gifted composition teacher who encouraged students to find their own, individual styles.
In the mid-1930s, Aaron Copland went through a change of style that included all of the following except
|A)||using American folk culture as a basis for his works. |
|B)||trying to appeal to a wider audience.|
|C)||incorporating jazz elements into his music.|
|D)||basing some works on Mexican and Latin American themes.|
In 1945, Copland won a Pulitzer Prize for his ballet, Fanfare for the Common Man, which was commissioned by the Martha Graham dance company, and eventually titled "Ballet for Martha."
Although many of George Gershwin's popular songs have become jazz standards, Gershwin himself is not considered a jazz musician or composer.
Gershwin bridged the gap between popular and art music by writing Rhapsody in Blue, which reflected the character of jazz and yet was acceptable to a "cultured" audience.
Gershwin composed the best known opera by an American composer,
|A)||An American in Paris.|
|C)||Porgy and Bess.|
|D)||none of the above.|
Although Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone music seems far removed from Gershwin's jazz-inspired works, the two composers were good friends and respected each other's work.
The father of twentieth-century Neoclassicism is
Stravinsky's ballet __________ is often cited as the first work in the Neoclassical style.
|C)||The Rite of Spring|
During the 1950s and 1960s, Stravinsky wrote several pieces based on Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.
Political, social, and economic problems during the second decade of the twentieth century led many composers to increase their tendency to use elaborate staging and grandiose conceptions of late Romantic works.
During the two decades between World Wars I and II, a renewed interest in the music of Bach and Haydn developed, resulting in __________ overshadowing all other styles.
Audiences were attracted to all of the following features of Neoclassical music except
|A)||the simplicity of melodic lines.|
|B)||the massive sound of the expanded orchestra.|
|C)||the familiarity of tonal harmony.|
|D)||the clarity and logic of the form.|
Russian composers in the communist era were encouraged to write music
|A)||full of experimental techniques and ideas that challenged all tradition.|
|B)||that expressed the religious longings of the Russian Orthodox church. |
|C)||that criticized the government's social and economic policies.|
|D)||none of the above.|
Prokofiev's Symphony no. 1, the Classical, was intended to sound as if ________ had written it in the twentieth century.
__________ approached the composition of music more as a craft than as an art; he played many orchestral instruments well and therefore knew how to write effectively for them.
The German word for Hindemith's concept of functional or useful music is
J. S. Bach's music is often compared with Paul Hindemith's in regard to form, since Hindemith made skillful application of the fugue, the toccata, and the concerto grosso.
Hindemith's ideas about music included all of the following except
|A)||atonality was the inevitable goal of Western music. |
|B)||music had clear moral and ethical powers.|
|C)||music should serve a useful function rather than exist for its own sake.|
|D)||none of these.|
Certain dissonances, a free adaptation of tonal principles, and nontraditional combinations of voices and instruments combined with an emotionally expressive style are all features of contemporary
__________, who was a singer before he became a composer, wrote songlike melody lines for his instrumental and vocal compositions, sensitive text settings, and expressive orchestration, making him one of the most appreciated contemporary composers.
__________, born in Germany, inherited a natural lyricism, a rich harmonic vocabulary, and the expansive "boundaryless" approach to composition associated with the German Romantic tradition.
Philip Glass has evolved a style of music which is sometimes referred to as
Minimalism is a systematic repetition of short melodic and rhythmic phrases which gradually change over a period of time, evolving into slightly varied patterns.
Like Philip Glass, __________ is often referred to as a minimalist, but he provides exact notation and firm directions in his scores.
The first African American composer of Western art music to achieve significant success was
|D)||William Grant Still.|
All of the following facts are TRUE regarding William Grant Still except
|A)||he was accepted as a serious composer right from the beginning.|
|B)||he became the first black American to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra.|
|C)||he was the first black American to have an opera produced by a major American company.|
|D)||his intention was to express the black American experience in music.|
Several of William Grant Still's works have specific Afro-American effects such as the use of the banjo in his Afro-American Symphony.
__________ has become one of the best-known and best-loved concert and opera singers in the world.
|D)||William Grant Still|
__________ was a violinist who was became the first black musician to conduct the New York Philharmonic.
|D)||William Grant Still|
An opera by the black composer __________ was premiered in 1986 at the New York City Opera Company to an audience that responded with a standing ovation.
|D)||William Grant Still|
__________, for years a leading opera singer, is now the director of the New York City Opera Company.
The founder and conductor of the Boston Opera Company is __________, who was also the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera House.
__________, Elisabeth Lutyens, and Thea Musgrave are among the many women recognized today as important composers.
|D)||Ruth Crawford Seeger|