Home Syllabus Schedule Intensive Listening Concert Responses SSU Concert Schedule Exams
	MUSIC 250 Exam III Review   EXAM TIME: Tuesday, May 27 2:00 - 4:00   The format of the third exam will be the same as the second exam::short answers and listening. Note that a greater percentage of this exam is based on listening, and that listening will include material from the entire semester. I. SHORT ANSWER: SPECIFIC ITEMS TO KNOW FROM EACH CHAPTER (36%) This portion of the exam deals only with Chapters19-22, and will be based entirely on the questions below. Chapter 19 Music and Modernism What is modernism? When did it appear? Why is it important to the development of European music? List three aspects of the traditional language of music that modernist composers challenged; for each one, cite a composer and a piece we studied which exemplified that challenge. Chapter 20: Early 20th Century Modernist Composers Claude Debussy Clouds Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Arnold Schoenberg Pierrot Luinaire impressionaism expressionism neoclassicism "emancipation of the dissonance" atonality serialism What dimension of music did Debussy emphasize more than any previous composer? What aspect of The Rite of Spring is similar to works by nationalist composers of the 19th century? On what dimension of music does Stravinsky focus most in The Rite of Spring ? What new vocal technique does Schoenberg employ in Pierrot Luinair ? What determines the form of movements in this piece? What is the serial 12 tone music technique of writing music? Why did composers find the technique attractive? Chapter 21: Alternatives to Modernism     Bela Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste , movements 1 & 2 Dimitri Shostakovich Symphony #5 , movement 1 In what ways does Bartok's music draw upon his Hungarian roots? What aspects of his music are in fact modernist? In what ways was the social and cultural setting for Soviet music fundamentally different from that of England or France? How did this affect the music of Shostakovitch? Chapter 22: The Late 20th Century Pierre Boulez Karlheinz Stockhausen John Cage Milton Babbitt Edgar Varese Georg Ligeti total organization indeterminacy chance music What were the two principal trends of mid-century modernism? Name a composer important to the development of each. Why are we suddenly involving U. S. composers in this survey of European. music? List three ways technology contributed to the development of new music after WW II. Write a definition of music that would satisfy Milton Babbitt; write a definition of music that would satisfy John Cage. What is minimalism? Where did it originate? What aspects of modernism did minimalism reject? What was the biggest change in the musical character of minimalist music, as compared with the music of mid century modernism? 2. LISTENING: 8 examples, 8 points each - 64 points total Three excerpts will be chosen from this list of pieces on the class CD's for Chapters 19-22. Stravinsky Rite of Spring Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, movement 2 Ligeti Lux Aeterna Three excerpts will be chosen from the six pieces on class CD's which appeared on the first two exams. Machaut "Quant en moy" Josquin "Qui Tollis" from Pange Linqua Mass Purcell "When I am Laid" from Dido and Aeneas Haydn Symphony # 88 4th movement Beethoven Symphony # 5, 3rd movement leading to 4th movement Schubert The Erlking Two excerpts will be unkowns, which may be from any period. For known pieces you will name the piece and the composer (2 points); for unknown pieces you will suggest a likely composer and a likely genre (2 points). For each example, you will be expected to list three true and significant facts about the excerpt you hear (2 points each). There will NOT be specific questions to answer about each piece. You may bring your own list of theten known pieces and their composers to the exam, with notes, to help you identify them. All these pieces and their composers will be listed (separately!) on the exam. The two unknowns will be the last two examples played.   HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE LISTENING PORTION OF THE EXAM First and foremost, listen a lot! But listen smarter, not harder! When you are listening, ask yourself what do you know about the piece as soon as you hear the piece begin after about 30 seconds of the piece as the piece unfolds after the piece is over As you prepare for the exam, "take notes" on each piece about what is significant. Use your ear (first--listen) then your eye (also useful--the Listen book and what we have done in class). When you hear a "known" example, it should "cue" what you need to point out about the piece that is significant