M527 History of the Concerto

Summer 2004

Take-Home Test 1

Due: Wednesday, 21 July 2004

Each essay is worth 25 points.  Your answers should incorporate ideas and factual information from both lecture notes and readings.

1)      Choose one of the following analytical questions (you may attach diagrams and annotated examples from the score if you wish):

a)      Compare the first-movement structure of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos #3 and #6.

b)      Discuss the structure of the first movements of Vivaldi’s “Summer” and “Winter” concertos from op. 8.  Focus on the form of the two movements and on the ways in which the program correlates with it.  Given the ways in which form and narrative interact, consider the question of how Vivaldi may have conceived the program to reflect the music, or vice-versa.

2)      Discuss the formal, expressive, and stylistic principles governing the solo concerto during the Baroque (through the death of J. S. Bach), taking into account both typical examples and departures from the “norm.”

3)      Discuss the blending of sonata and ritornello form in the concertos of the Classical era.  What structural and rhetorical “tensions” exist between the two models, and how does Mozart exploit the different elements to assemble the principal structural blocks (Tutti and Solo) of his piano concertos?

4)      Discuss the social circumstances that fostered the concerto—in its various forms—during the Baroque and Classical periods.  How do you think the different social settings affected the ways in which soloist(s) and ensemble are made to interact in the various concertos covered in the course?