Lecture 23. Review of Musical Style

YaleCourses

7 Dec 201247:10

EducationalLearning

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TLDRA university music professor leads students through identifying musical periods by listening to excerpts, analyzing elements like instrumentation, texture, meter, and harmony. After hearing pieces from medieval chant to modern dissonance, students practice justifying their conclusions, sharpening skills for an upcoming test. A teaching assistant also leads analysis of a Mozart bassoon concerto. The session closes with a fugue exemplifying Baroque features, a discussion contrasting Classical and Romantic styles, and a request for students to sign get well cards for an ill college master.

Takeaways

😀 The professor discusses identifying musical styles and periods through listening to pieces of music
🎹 Key things to listen for include instrumentation, volume, harmony, consonance vs dissonance
🎼 Examples of music from different periods are played including Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, Mozart, Romantic piano works
🎻 The professor compares features of Classical vs Romantic style including rhythm, melody, harmony
👂 Students are asked to identify periods pieces are from and give evidence from the music to support their decision
🥁 A piece by modern composer Ellen Zwilich provides examples of percussion, dissonance, ostinatos typical of 20th century music
� Pickett A teaching assistant plays part of Mozart's Bassoon Concerto as an example of the Classical style and concerto form
♩ Key components that identify the Baroque period are discussed including regular rhythm, pomp, the harpsichord and fugue form
📝 The activity helps prepare students for an upcoming test where they will need to identify periods of musical excerpts
🙏 The professor asks students to sign get well soon cards for an ill faculty member demonstrating care for the Yale community

Q & A

What are some of the key things students should listen for when trying to identify the musical style period of a piece?
-The most important things to listen for are: instrumentation, volume/size of the ensemble, harmony and consonance vs dissonance. Other helpful cues are rhythm, melody, and the use of certain textures like fugue or ostinato.
What are some defining features of Romantic period orchestral music compared to Classical period orchestral music?
-Romantic orchestral works feature larger ensembles with more varied low brass instruments. The themes are more expansive and flexible, with looser, more rubato rhythms compared to the symmetry and regularity of Classical themes.
How does a piano Alberti bass help identify a Classical period piece?
-The Alberti bass, with its broken chord pattern in the left hand, is a texture used almost exclusively during the Classical period around 1770-1810. Hearing this bass line is a clear signal that the music is from the Classical era.
What Baroque period features are evident in the excerpt with harpsichord?
-The harpsichord itself points to Baroque era. Other elements are a regular, almost marching rhythm maintained for over a minute, and a fugue texture with imitative entries of the theme.
What instrumentation clues suggest Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe ballet music is Impressionist?
-The large, colorful orchestra, use of parallel motion in the woodwinds, a wash of harp glissandi, and moments where human voices are incorporated all point to Impressionism.
How does dissonance help differentiate between musical style periods?
-Heavy dissonance doesn't emerge until the Impressionist period, and continues strongly through the Modernist period before lessening again in Postmodernism. Lack of biting dissonance can rule out later 19th/early 20th century styles.
What characteristics demonstrate Ellen Zwilich's Celebration is Modernist music?
-The sudden, piercing dissonances, predominance of percussion and brasses used in a pounding, aggressive way, many ostinato patterns, and a relentless intensity all mark Celebration as Modernist.
What vocal style characterizes the excerpt identified as late Medieval/early Renaissance?
-The a cappella texture with multiple interweaving voices in imitative counterpoint points specifically to the Renaissance era.
How might you determine if a piece with piano is Romantic versus another later period?
-If the piano textures expand beyond Classical-era norms with more ranging registers, surprising shifts in harmony and broader spanning melodies, it likely moves into the Romantic style.
What might be some next-level signals that positively identify a piece as by Mozart specifically?
-While the Alberti bass and elegant melody suggest Classical era generally, some specific Mozart fingerprints are use of chromaticism in the melody, playful leaps in the bass line, and sparkling trills.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introducing musical style periods and identification

The professor introduces the goal of discussing and comparing musical styles across different periods. He notes common practices like categorization and provides an overview of the musical style checklist available for identifying periods. Students will listen to musical excerpts and identify the period, composer and piece. Most importantly, they must provide 3-4 specific reasons from the music itself to justify their decision.

05:04

😊 Discussing effective listening strategies

When trying to quickly identify a musical style, the professor emphasizes that instrumentation provides the most useful information. He gives examples of instruments that originated in different periods. Other important factors include volume, harmony, consonance versus dissonance. Late Romantic music has huge, loud orchestras for example. Impressionist music features more dissonance.

10:05

😎 Identifying Impressionist characteristics in Ravel

After listening to an excerpt from Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe ballet music, the class analyzes its Impressionist qualities. These include a large, colorful orchestra, a consonant backdrop, parallel motion between instruments, unfamiliar scales, and a harp glissando. This matches their recent lecture on Debussy and Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

15:06

🤓 Contrasting late Medieval and Renaissance textures

The class listens to chant followed by a cappella Renaissance polyphony. The multiple unaccompanied vocal lines and imitative texture points to Thomas Tallis, whose style straddles both eras due to England's slower adoption of Renaissance ideals. The Latin text, gentle rhythms, and dark harmonies suit the lamenting Old Testament source material.

20:07

😡 Identifying Modernist intensity in Ellen Zwilich

After hearing a brass and percussion-heavy excerpt with ostinatos, dissonance and blaring intensity, the class categorizes it as Modernist music. Composer Ellen Zwilich's celebrating style often uses relentless rhythmic drive and clashing textures. It contrasts greatly with the expansiveness of Romantic music.

25:08

😄 Pinpointing Baroque features in fugue and dance rhythms

The presence of a harpsichord instantly signals Baroque era provenance. In addition, an excerpt shows highly regular dance rhythms continuing unchanged for over a minute. This rigidity of tempo and affect typifies Baroque music. A closing fugue subject entry further confirms the period assessment through a prime Baroque format.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Musical style

The video focuses on identifying and analyzing musical style from different historical periods. Musical style refers to the distinctive sounds, techniques, instrumentation, textures, forms, and compositional approaches used in music from a certain time period or by a particular composer. Understanding musical style is important for categorizing pieces of music and tracing music's evolution across history. The professor plays excerpts of music from different style periods and has students identify the period based on stylistic analysis.

💡Baroque music

The Baroque period lasted from approximately 1600-1750. Baroque music has very ordered, symmetrical rhythms and melodies. As heard in the fugue example, Baroque music often features the harpsichord. The excerpt demonstrates highly regular rhythm which continues unchanged, reflecting the stable musical ethos of the Baroque.

💡Classical music

The Classical period followed the Baroque, lasting from approximately 1750-1820. In contrast to the Baroque, Classical music features simpler textures and more restrained ornamentation. Melodies tend to be elegant but understated, as demonstrated by the Mozart concerto excerpt. The Alberti bass figure in the Mozart piano piece is also a hallmark of the Classical style.

💡Romantic music

Emerging in the early 19th century, Romantic music embraced greater emotional expressions. As discussed, Romantic melody lines became longer and more lyrical, while rhythm grew looser and more flexible compared to the Classical era. The Chopin piano piece illustrates the expanded range, richer harmonies, and beautiful sweeping melodies typical of Romanticism.

💡Modernist music

Modernist music, originating in the early 20th century, broke from Romantic conventions by using highly dissonant and often jarring harmonic language. The Ellen Zwilich excerpt highlights signatures of Modernism - large percussion section, pounding ostinatos, brassy orchestration and unexpected, intense dissonances.

💡Impressionist music

Impressionist music developed in late 19th century France, pioneered by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel who aimed to evoke moods and atmosphere like the Impressionist painters. The Ravel excerpt features parallel motion in the woodwinds, shimmering string textures, a wash of harp glissandi, and scales outside the traditional Western idiom.

💡Instrumentation

A key analytical criterion discussed is instrumentation - the types of instruments used in a musical composition. Certain instruments, like the harpsichord, only appeared during certain periods so can help quickly date a piece. Also, the scale of instrumentation expanded over time, with late Romantic orchestras reaching massive proportions.

💡Consonance and dissonance

The level of dissonance versus consonance is an important stylistic marker. Consonant, stable sonorities dominated in the Baroque and Classical eras. More unresolved dissonances entered during the Romantic and Modernist periods, with highly dissonant writing becoming a defining feature of musical Modernism in the 20th century.

💡Polyphonic texture

Polyphonic texture featuring multiple independent melodic lines is common in Renaissance and Baroque music, as shown by the Tallis motet excerpt. Imitative polyphony, where voices echo each other's melody, represents the most sophisticated contrapuntal writing.

💡Ostinato

An ostinato is a persistently repeated musical pattern. Use of ostinatos increased in Impressionist and Modernist music as a static, trance-like effect. Prominent ostinatos are evident in both the Ravel Impressionist excerpt as well as the Ellen Zwilich Modernist one.

Highlights

Instrumentation is the single most important factor in identifying musical style periods

The piano became the principal keyboard instrument around 1770, so its presence rules out earlier periods

In the Romantic period, themes and melodies become much more expansive

Rubato and flexible rhythms characterize Romantic music

Parallel motion in the woodwinds is a characteristic of Impressionist music

Glissandos in the harp are typical of Impressionist style

Ostinatos, dissonance and percussion instruments point to 20th century Modernist music

Imitative polyphonic textures signal late Medieval or early Renaissance music

The presence of multiple unaccompanied voices indicates a cappella style

Alberti bass patterns occur only in the Classical period

Chromatic embellishments are a fingerprint of Mozart's style

The harpsichord disappeared after the Baroque, so signals that period

Highly regular rhythms persist for long stretches in Baroque music

Fugues principally developed under J.S. Bach, so indicate Baroque style

Focus on instrumentation, texture, harmony and rhythm to identify periods

Transcripts

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