MUSIC 372 (S ’05)
Study Guide for Final Exam
Review listening examples (see over). You will need to be able to identify musical
selections by composer and title. Also be able to manipulate a tone row (see p. 746
in NAWM and notes from our class discussion). Make sure you study especially
hard for this exam (including listening examples).
**EXAM: Thursday, June 8th at 1:30 p.m.**
TERMS: Be able to define and associate with a composer.
-scales: whole tone, pentatonic, octatonic, quarter-tone
-techniques: polytonality, ostinato, atonality, serial composition, tone row (principal,
retrograde, inversion, transposition), sprechstimme, tone cluster; siren (instrument)
Describe each of the following artistic movements and associate each with an artist,
composer, and musical work:
Impressionism
Expressionism
Primitivism
Define each term and associate each with a composer and musical work:
Neoclassicism
Indeterminacy
Serialism
Minimalism
Nationalism
Quotation Music
Totalitarianism
Electronic Music
Pitch continuum/harmonic crystalization
Neo-Romanticism
What musical elements define the works of each of the following composers?
-Debussy
-Copland
-Stravinsky
-Barber
-Schoenberg
-Beach
-Berg
-Penderecki
-Webern
-William Grant Still
-Bartok
-George Crumb
-Shostakovich
-John Cage
-Ligeti
-Milton Babbitt
-Ives
-Steve Reich
-Cowell
-John Adams
-Varèse
ESSAYS: Prepare one in which you feel you can best demonstrate your accumulated
knowledge. Make sure that you clearly address your topic and back up your claims with
specific examples from musical works. And please make it interesting! :-)
1) Discuss “modernism” in the arts in the twentieth century. What were the important historical
and political, scientific and cultural events which shaped the century and how did they affect the
arts in general? How did music express the particular time and culture in which it was created?
Use specific examples from at least six works that we have studied to support your arguments.
2) In what ways does music from the twentieth century represent an extension of Romanticism?
In what ways does it represent a reaction against Romanticism? Support your arguments with
specific examples from at least six works we have studied.
3) Discuss new musical techniques introduced by twentieth-century composers (include
discussion of melody, harmony, dissonance, form, rhythm, notation, texture, composers’ control
and the development of new instruments and/or new instrumental techniques), supporting your
discussion with at least six examples from musical works we have studied.
4) Do you think there is a true “American” style of music of the twentieth century? What
composers/works would you put in this category and why? (Please refer to their influences,
philosophies, musical techniques, reuse of material, etc.). Which American composers do not
sound “American” and why? Make sure that you support your discussion with at least six
examples from musical works we have studied.
5) You may make up your own twentieth-century music question. Use specific examples from at
least six works that we have studied to support your arguments. [Make sure it is an interesting
question and shows off your understanding of twentieth-century music.]
LISTENING EXAMPLES:
Impressionism
•*Musorgsky, Bez solntsa (Sunless), No. 3 [song] [NAWM II] (influence on Debussy?)
•*Debussy, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894) [CD on reserve]
•Debussy, Trois Nocturnes:, "Nuages" (1899)
Primivitism, Neoclassicism
•Stravinsky, Le Sacre de Printemps (The Rite of Spring): Dance of the Adolescents
(1913)
Neoclassicism:
•*Stravinsky, Pulcinella (opening movement) (1919-1920) [CD on reserve]
Expressionism
•*Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire (1912), "Night,” “Decapitation” [NAWM]
•Schoenberg, Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31: Theme and Variations (serialism)
•Berg, Wozzeck, Act III, sc.3 (1921)
Nationalism:
•Bartok, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, mvmt. III (1936)
Totalitarianism:
•Shostakovich, Quartet No. 8 (1960) [CD on reserve]
•*Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1932) [NAWM]
Americanism
•Ives, They Are There (1917), The Unanswered Question (1906)
•*Cowell, The Aeolian Harp [CD on reserve]
•Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring
•*William Grant Still, Afro-American Symphony (1931), mvmt III [NAWM]
Neo-Romanticism:
•*Barber, Adagio for Strings (1936) [CD on reserve]
•*Amy Cheny Beach, Piano Quintet in F-sharp, Op. 67: Third Movement
Modernism
•*Ligeti, Lux aeterna (1966) [CD on reserve]
•*Penderecki: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima [CD on reserve]
•Berio, Sinfonia for Eight Voices and Orchestra, mvmt II "O King" (1968) [on reserve]
New Sounds, Electronic Music
•*Crumb, Ancient Voices of Children, mvmt. I (1970) [CD on reserve]
•*Varèse, Poème électronique [CD on reserve]
•Babbit, Philomel, section I (1964) [He’s American too!]
Indeterminacy (aleatoric or chance music)
•Cage: 4"33" [do it yourself] [also American]
Minimalism
•*Reich, Violin Phase (1967) [also American, as is Adams]
•*Adams, Nixon in China , Act I, Scene 3 Finale (Banquet scene toasts) [CD on res.]
**FINAL EXAM IS THURSDAY, JUNE 8th, 1:30 p.m.**