MLIT 1013: Exam 1 Study Guide

Students must provide their own blue book for the exam!

Middle Ages
 General Characteristics
 Genres - Gregorian Chant, Organum, Secular Songs
 Melodic & Rhythmic Notation
Renaissance
 General Characteristics
 Humanism and its impact
 The Mass
 Reformation Music
 Secular Music (the madrigal)
Baroque
 Music
 General Characteristics - Basso Continuo, embellished lines, terraced dynamics, etc.
 Fugue
 Concerto (Grosso)
Classical Era
 General Characteristics
 The Enlightenment
 Genres: Symphony & String Quartet
Beethoven Bridging the Classical & Romantic
Romantic
 General Characteristics
 Lied
 Program Music
20th Century
 New Approaches to music – Impressionism, Expressionism (and related terms), Henry
Cowell, John Cage
 Atonality, Sprechstimme

Opera
Components – Recitative, Aria, Libretto, etc.
Singers (Divas, Castratos)
Development of Opera
 Baroque
o Origins & Characteristics
 Classical & Opera Buffa
 Romantic Era & Richard Wagner
o Leitmotifs
o Unique aspects
 Wozzeck
Jazz
Ragtime & Blues Influences
General Jazz Characteristics
Early (Dixieland) Jazz
Louis Armstrong
Swing
Bebop

Instrumental Forms
 Binary vs Ternary
 Sonata Form
 Rondo
 Minuet & Trio
 Ritornello Form (Baroque concertos)
 Fugue
 Double Exposition
 Theme and Variations

Song Forms
 12 Bar Blues
 Strophic Form
 Through-Composed Form
 AABA/32-Bar Form
 Verse/Chorus

Listening Examples:
Elements you should be listening for/be able to expand upon for each example are in
parentheses.

*You will have at least one song form listening example which may or may not be included in
the below list.

Mozart – Symphony No. 40, first movement (composer, era, genre, form)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l45DAuXYSIs
Mozart – Don Giovanni: Act 1, Scene 1 (composer, era, genre, song type, characteristics)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGo_faB5bOQ (9:15 to 13:10)
Vivaldi – The Four Seasons, “La Primavera,” first movement (composer, form, era, genre)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKthRw4KjEg
Schubert – “Erlkönig” (era, genre, composer, role of the piano, representation of characters)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3nxyS8wf8E
John Cage – Sonatas and Interlude for Prepared Piano: Sonata V (composer, compositional
approach)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRHoKZRYBlY
Claude Debussy – “Voiles” (movement, composer, characteristic of movement, use of scales)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVV0jkZC4jI
Wagner – “Wotan’s Farwell” from The Valkyrie (composer, era, genre, characteristics of
composer)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tDP-K1dQ-M (starting at 13:54)
Purcell – Dido & Aeneas, “Dido’s Lament” (composer, era, genre, type of song, bass pattern,
connection with the text/somber situation)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fraubogbQkc
Thomas Weelkes – “As Vesta Was Descending” (genre, texture, how it characterizing its era, text
setting/word painting)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGTB1q2yEhQ
Alban Berg – Wozzeck, Act 3: Scene 3 (expressionism, atonal, Sprechstimme, composer, genre)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJPD2WTietY
Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique: 4th Movement (composer, genre, era)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roX70PAu3oA
Duke Ellington – “Cotton Tail” (composer, genre, jazz/swing characteristics)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbOseBw-fnU
Dizzy Gillespie – “Salt Peanuts” (composer, genre, jazz/swing characteristics)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg1Wl-NmzWg