AOS4

Question 1

How had classical music changed, since the time of Mozart, by 1910?

Answer 1

1) The orchestra had grown significantly; variety of instruments.
2) More complex chords (extra notes, dissonant)
3) Non-functional harmony (chord progressions ambiguous, unpredictable)
4) Unusual instrument groupings.

Question 2

Give 4 general features of post-1910 western classical music style.

Answer 2

• Use of traditional east European folk melodies and modal harmonies
• Neoclassicism: use of musical styles of classical and baroque periods
• Serialism: atonal (no key - very dissonant)
• Minimalism (repetitive, tonal, no sudden changes, loops and ostinati)
• Expressionism: dissonance, atonality

Question 3

Give 4 melodic features of post-1910 western classical music style.

Answer 3

• Use of traditional folk melodies and modal harmonies (e.g. flattened 7ths).
• Minimalism: repetitive (vamping)
• Melismatic melodies
• Motifs/ostinati/loops

Question 4

Give 4 harmony and tonality features of post-1910 western classical music style.

Answer 4

• chromatic scales
• whole-tone scales
• modal scales
• pentatonic scales
• tonal ambiguity: atonality, serialism
• extended chords
• pedal notes
• dissonance

Question 5

Give 4 timbre features of post-1910 western classical music style.

Answer 5

• unusual instrument groupings
• use of technology, synthesisers, computer-generated sounds
• instrumental techniques such as vamping (a vamp is a short sequence of chords that gets repeated for an extended period)

Question 6

Give 4 textural features of post-1910 western classical music style.

Answer 6

• drones, pedal notes
• imitation
• layering, looping

Question 7

Give 4 rhythm and metre features of post-1910 western classical music style.

Answer 7

• irregular, free rhythms
• augmentation, diminution
• rubato
• anacrusis
• hemiola
• bi-rhythms, cross-rhythms, polyrhythms
• syncopation

Question 8

Give at least 5 intrumentation features of post-1910 western classical music style.

Answer 8

• still a reliance on traditional orchestral instruments
• new unusual instrument groupings
• celesta (sounds like a glockenspeil)
• tubular bells
• cimbaloms
• electric harpsichords + organs
• doumbeks

Question 9

Give 6 features of minimalism.

Answer 9

• complex rhythms
• polyrhythms, bi-rhythms, cross-rhythms
• layering of sections (“cells”)
• harmonies develop slowly
• looping
• pieces long, hypnotic