Category: musicTheory4
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(musTh 212) Final Exam Review Session
Final Exam Review Session Sunday, 4/27, 1 – 3p Mu 309 All Sections. Bring a friend.
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(musTh 212) Assignment: Sound Mass Analysis
Due Friday, April 18th: Listen to Ligeti’s Atmospheres (<Atmospheres.mp3>, in iLocker) and write a sectional analysis of the work. Use Kostka’s analysis of Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima on p. 239 of the text as your model. List the section number, start time (based on the recording I provide), and a brief description of…
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(musTh 212) Off topic, Frank Zappa
Since very few of you know who Frank Zappa is, I’m including a few YouTube videos that highlight different facets of his very extended personality. Zappa performing Inca Roads, something of an experimental jazz-rock fusion. Zappa is playing the guitar solo, and periodically conducting. (Besides the standard long black hair and mustache, Zappa is the…
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(musTh 212) Assignment: Ionisation
Due Wednesday, April 16th. Using the YouTube video embedded below, listen to Varese’s Ionisation. Identify four (4) thematic elements (rhythmic cells) by the time on the video that they occur, and what instrument(s) is playing the element. Musically notate the rhythms for three (3) of the elements. Note, pay attention to the video editing. It…
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(musTh 212) Assignment: Postmodern analysis
Due Monday, April 14th: Listen to the following four pieces, all of which are in a folder titled “PostmodernListening” in my iLocker account. Desi, by Michael Daugherty Bug-Mudra, by Tod Machover Forbidden Fruit, by John Zorn Chamber Symphony – Roadrunner movement, by John Adams For each piece, identify any postmodern elements that you can hear.…
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(musTh 212) Lecture Notes: Modernism and Postmodernism
For our purposes, Modernism and Postmodernism are best thought of as broad movements, rather than historical time periods. Some people refer to them as projects, ongoing efforts at achieving certain philosophical aims. Although we could spend a couple of semesters talking about nothing else but “what is…”, I’d like to offer up a list of…
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(musTh 212) Assignment – Definitions: Modernism, etc.
Due Wednesday, April 9: Do some brief research on the following terms: Modernism Postmodernism Collage Parody Pastiche You should have an idea of how these terms apply both specifically to music, and to art in general. You should also know how the terms relate to each other. For example, what is the relationship between Modernism…
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(musTh 212) Lecture Notes: "Import and Allusion"
Chapter 9 of the Kostka text covers “external” influences on 20th-century music. He divides external influences into three main sources: The Past (Neoclassicism, Neoromanticism, Quotation) The Present (Folk/Jazz/Pop) The Unfamiliar (Music from other cultures) Setting aside the idea of “the unfamiliar,” which is fairly loaded from a cultural studies perspective, I would prefer to talk…
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(musTh 212) Lecture Notes: Serialism after 1945 (in brief)
Some worthwhile things to remember from the discussion on Webern’s Op. 21 Symphonie, and some clues to helping you figure out Babbitt’s Semi-Simple Variations (useful for doing the homework). Webern serves as a model for many post-WWII composers, because his use of 12-tone serial composition points the way to using serialism as an organizing feature…
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(musth 212) Assignment: Serialism after 1945, Babbitt
Due Wednesday, 4/2 (No late assignments accepted, as we’ll talk about this in class on Wednesday) Babbitt, Semi-Simple Variations, pp. 516- 519 (handout and recording in iLocker). You will need to read the explanation starting on p. 516, and continuing on p. 517 to answer some of the questions. It is especially necessary to understand…