Vocal Literature Midterm Study Guide
Vocal Literature
Midterm Study Guide
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STYLE
What is an artsong? A composer blends music and poetry in such a way that it is impossible to think of them apart. It is experienced as a complete entity — an overall impression.
We understand a song through images. Composers create the images we see when we hear an art song with words, abilities, harmonies, and rhythms.
What is style? Style is a combination of all the songs parts – melody, harmony, rhythm, accompaniment, and poets/texts.
What is a sound print? Answer: the sonic result of the composer’s style, like a fingerprint. Why make a stylesheet or digest of a song? Answer: to define variety in programming.
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MELODY
QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION
Is melody linear (scalar & stepwise) or disjunct (large interval leaps)?
Are phrases long or short? A combination?
Is the vocal range narrow or wide?
Is the tessitura high, low, or mid-range in the voice?
Are there any surprises in the melody? A sudden upturn or downturn for expressive effect.
Is there a recurring melodic motive in the song (a rhythmic or melodic pattern)? Is it sequential? Is a motive used throughout the piece or only in part of the piece? Does the motive symbolize an emotion or dramatic situation? Does it provide atmosphere?
What is the style of vocal articulation in the melody? (recitative-like, syllabic melody, melismatic melody, or long lyric melody)
Has the composer embellished or ornamented the melodic line with grace notes, appoggiaturas, or turns?
What is the chromatic texture of this piece? Does the composer embellish the melody with notes foreign to the key? (“Chromaticisms”) What is the expressive effect of these chromatic changes?
Is the vocal line primarily text-driven, using “text painting” to illustrate text?
What is the emotional effect of the text painting? Deep emotion? Breathless excitement? Humor? Melancholy?
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HARMONY
What is the tonality of the piece? Diatonic Major? Diatonic minor? Chromatic? Modal? Twelve-Tone (serial) or atonal?
What is the key scheme? Does the key modulate? Does the composer modulate the key to delineate a section or change in the poetry? Does composer use cadences in an unusual way (deceptive)?
Does this composer use consonance? Does this composer use dissonance? What is the effect?
Does the composer use recurring harmonies in this piece, such as diminished or augmented chords, to illustrate text or highlight a dramatic mood?
What effect do harmonic techniques produce in this piece? Does it produce an unsettled feeling? Stability? Sadness? Happiness?
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RHYTHM
What is the tempo marking of this piece?
What is/are the meter(s) of the song?
Are there rhythms that unify, such as an ostinato?
Does the piece contain syncopation or suspension? What purpose does it serve?
Are dotted rhythms used in song to expressively illustrate text?
Are hemiolas used in this composition? How do they expressively illustrate text?
Are there polyrhythms or cross-rhythms with the voice in this piece? What is the effect?
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ACCOMPANIMENT
What is the predominant accompaniment figure? Block chords? Arpeggiated figures? Broken chords?
Does the song begin with one figuration and change to another? Does this change occur at a significant dramatic point in the text, or just at a new musical section?
Does the composition have a prelude, interlude, or postlude? Does it unify the larger cycle? How?
Are there any distinctive dramatic effects in the accompaniment, such as an “event”?
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POEM
What kind of poem is this? A folk song? Is it a ballad? How would you describe this poem?
What form does the composer use for the song? Strophic form? Modified Strophic? If modified strophic, is it binary or ternary in form? Is it a rondo? Perhaps palindrome form (very unusual)?
Is the song through-composed (durchkomponiert):
Is the composer setting a prose text, such as a letter or journal entry, rather than an actual poem?
Is this a good poem from a substantial poet, or is it a lesser work from, perhaps, a personal friend of the composer?
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YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS SONG
Do YOU like this song? (Be honest!)
Could you use this song for performance yourself?
If yes . . .
Where on a program would you program it? At the beginning of a group? Internally in a group? As an opener to the recital? As an ender-piece either before the intermission or at the end of the recital? As an encore? Please give reasons!
What kind of singer could perform this work? Soprano/mezzo-soprano/tenor/baritone/bass? A beginner? An advanced singer? Why?
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All definitions are drawn from the course textbook:
Song: A Guide to Art Song, Style, and Literature by, Carol Kimball. Copyright 2005. Publisher: Hal Leonard. Pages 1-21.
[Click here to return to Vocal Literature ARTSONG STYLESHEET]
DEFINITION:
What is an art song? A composer blends music and poetry in such a way that it is impossible to think of them apart. It is experienced as a complete entity — an overall impression.
We understand a song through images. Composers create the images we see when we hear an art song with words, abilities, harmonies, and rhythms. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is style? Style is a combination of all the songs parts – melody, harmony, rhythm, accompaniment, and poets/texts. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is a sound print? Answer: the sonic result of the composer’s style, like a fingerprint. Why make a stylesheet or digest of a song? Answer: to define variety in programming. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is range? Answer: range refers to the highest and lowest notes of the song.
What is tessitura? Answer: the average pitch level throughout the song (high or low?) (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is the chromatic texture? What does “chromatic” mean? Answer: a Greek word meaning “color”. In music this refers to a composers habit of “coloring” or embellishing a melody with notes foreign to the key. He/she uses chromatic alterations within a particular phrase usually to illustrate the meaning of the poem. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is a motive? Answer: a small melodic pattern that repeats throughout the song. Motives can symbolize characters, emotions, or dramatic situations, or can simply stand on their own for their own musical merit. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is articulation? Answer: It is how you use or articulate your voice in the song. The way we articulate a melody reveals the musical features of that vocal line. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is recitative? (Other names – parlando or declaratory recitative)
Answer: Vocal style that closely approximates speech rhythms. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is a melisma? More than one note—a melodic figure—on a single syllable of text. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is a lyric melody? Answer: Lyric melodies are beautifully “tuneful” within the phrase structure. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is text painting? Answer: using a melody to “paint” or illustrate the text by using certain intervals, rhythms, or melodic patterns that capture the sense in sound of the words. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is harmonic texture? Answer: harmonic texture is the sum total of all the harmonic elements in the song. Texture is a large umbrella covering many sub elements. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is tonality? Answer: refers to which scale is used. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
Diatonic: what is diatonic harmony? Answer: diatonic harmony does not deviate from the major or minor scales. All notes in the melody and the harmony are within either a major or minor scale. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is chromatic harmony? Answer: chromatic harmony includes notes which are not found in the major or minor scale. Often chromatic alterations to a chord are used for key modulation or to give dramatic emphasis to the text. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
Modal Harmony: What is modal harmony? Answer: the mode of a harmony is the type of scale that is used. In contemporary times, this refers to major or minor scales. Prior to the 17th century, music was based on a system of six different modes, given Greek names and represented by the white notes on the modern keyboard. Modal melodies may contain altered tones which correspond to these medieval modes. Example: The song “Lydia” by, Fauré is in the Lydian mode.(back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
Twelve-Tone (serial). What is Twelve-Tone (serial) harmony? Answer: A system of composition originated by Arnold Schoenberg in which the twelve tones of the chromatic scale are placed into a tone row in a particular order. The rules are that you always present the row in the complete form, although it may be inverted or used backwards (retrograde). (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is tonal music? Answer: tonal refers to music that has a key center.Tonal centers can shift or modulate during a song or they can remain the same. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is atonal music? Atonal refers to the absence of a key feeling or centered tonality. This is more frequent in 20th-century music. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is dissonance? Answer: dissonance refers to a state of tension (employing chromatic elements) between various tones in a chord, which generally produces an unsettled, often disagreeable sound. Dissonant intervals or chords have a restless quality that is highly important for a song’s sense of movement and energy. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
Consonance: what is consonance in harmony? Answer: consonance is the opposite of dissonance; consonant intervals sound stable and complete; consonant chords contain harmonious, compatible sounds. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What are recurring harmonies? Answer: any harmonic chord or device that the composer chooses to use often or repeatedly within a song or within his entire output. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is key scheme? Answer: key scheme refers to the way a composer organizes the tonal centers within a piece. Key centers are the primary way a composer can delineate the sections in a song or effectively point up an emotional change in the poetry. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What are cadences? Answer: cadences are chord progressions that indicate closure, either temporary or complete. Cadences occur at the ends of periods (two musical phrases), end of musical sections, or at the end of the complete song. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is text illustration through harmonic means? Answer: a composer using specific harmonies or harmonic progressions to suggest mood, atmosphere, or dramatic content. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is rhythm in song? Answer: rhythm is the “backbone of music” since it is the underlying pulse of the musical work. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is tempo in song? Tempi in songs are clues to the composer’s perception of the text and are revealed through the metric indications or tempo markings. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is metric organization of a song? Answer: the metric organization of the song is the way in which the composer organizes various meters within a song. A composer generally ties meter to word stress in the poetry. Often there will be only a single meter for the entire song. But, pieces composed during the 20th century can include irregular and/or multiple meters within one piece used for expressive purposes. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is irregular meter in music? Answer: Irregular meters have an odd number as the upper figure in the meter signature. (Example: 5/8, 7/8, etc.)(back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What are non-metric, improvisatory meters? Answer: This refers to some 20th-century works which have nontraditional notation that requires improvisation by the composer. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is a unifying rhythm in a song? Answer: A rhythmic motive around which an entire song’s composition is built. This can result in a highly unified song in which the rhythm perpetuates the tension in the poetry. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is an ostinato? Answer: an ostinato is a motive, phrase, or short cell repeated many times at the same pitch level. It may be long or short, several notes, a complete phrase, or an octave pattern that continuously repeats. Composers use this ostinato pattern to sustain mood, create tension, or unify the structure of the song. It is normally found in the piano accompaniment. The most common pattern is a ground bass, or constantly repeated bass phrase. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is syncopation and suspension? Answer: syncopation accents or stresses a normally weak or unaccented beat in a metric line. Suspensions are another form of syncopation where an expected tone is delayed, then held or suspended. Composers use syncopation and suspension for emotional expression, tension, and release. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
How are dotted rhythms used in song? Answer: they are used to expressively illustrate text. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is a hemiola in song? Answer: A hemiola in song is another form of rhythmic interruption which produces tension by temporarily altering the metric pattern. A hemiola upsets the normal rhythmic flow by constantly accenting a week beat which changes the meter momentarily (usually making ¾ become 2/4 or vice versa.) (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What are Polyrhythms/cross-rhythms with the voice? Answer: Polyrhythms/cross-rhythms with the voice refer to the simultaneous use of contrasting rhythms in different lines of the musical texture. Cross rhythms interrupt the flow of regular rhythmic actions creating a sense of distortion or inbalance. Cross rhythms can occur in the piano accompanimet or can be used between the piano and the voice. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is texture in accompaniment? Answer: texture in accompaniment can be thought of as the “fabric of the song” woven to support and define the poetry. It can be dense and thick or light and clear, conceived in linear form or chordal form. The end result is to produce imagery. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is a prelude? Answer: a prelude is a musical introduction to a song that is longer than a few measures, but is rather substantial in length and is almost a mini-musical form of its own. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is an interlude? Answer: an interlude is a connecting passage used between sections of a song. An interlude is used to sectionalized a piece, or to “comment” on what has gone before, or to introduce what is coming next. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is a postlude? A postlude is a section of music for the piano that closes the song. Postludes occur more frequently than preludes and interludes in songs and serve as a moment of reminiscence by bringing back melodic, rhythmic, or harmonic material heard before. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is accompaniment texture? Answer: accompaniment texture generally refers to the density or sparseness of the piano accompaniment. It may contain many threads of melody, harmony, or distinctive figures or many numerous strands of color. Or, it can be more monochromatic and simple. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is linear texture? Answer: Linear texture is sparse, fashioned of only a single line in each hand of the piano accompaniment. The texture usually evokes clarity, elegance, and control. Often the composer will begin a song with linear texture and then expand to a fuller sound. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is contrapuntal texture? Answer: contrapuntal texture is “in the style of counterpoint.” A contrapuntal accompaniment will contain independent melodies used simultaneously. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What are distinctive dramatic effects in song accompaniment? Answer: they are striking affects for the piano that point up text or action in the text. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What are unifying elements in a song or song cycle? Answer: They are unifying elements from the music or the poetry in a single song or across several songs in a song cycle. They can be musical motives, rhythmic cells or patterns, or harmonic progressions. These elements may be found in the vocal line, the accompaniment, or both. Linked themes and motives are usually used as symbols of remembrance to connect all the songs. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is strophic form? Answer: Strophic form refers to songs with several poetic verses, in which the composer repeats the same music for each verse, with little or no change. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is modified strophic form? Answer: The composer makes changes to the music of one or more of the verses of a strophic song to create interest, such as changing the key, the rhythm of the melodic line, or the piano figures. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is through-composed (durchkomponiert )? Answer: Through-composed (durchkomponiert) is a song where there is virtually no repetition of sections or phrases. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is binary form? Answer: Binary form divides a song into two parts, usually AB, with more complex variations possible, such as AA’BB’. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is ternary form? Answer: Ternary form divides a song into three musical sections, usually ABA or ABA’. It is a very popular song form with composers as it allows variation (the “B” section) as well as the thematic unity from the repetition of the A section. It is a nicely balanced type of song form. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is rondo form? Answer: Rondo form refers to a design that features a recurring section that alternates with a number of different sections, such as, ABACA or ABACADA. (back to the top…)
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DEFINITION:
What is palindrome form (“bogenform” (or bow))? Answer: It is a formal design, which reads the same backward as it does forward.
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DEFINITION:
What is a ballad? Answer: A ballad is a poem or song that tells a specific story. Ballads were influential in widening the dramatic scope of artsong, because special compositional techniques in the accompaniment were required to illustrate the emotions and the dramatic story line.