M542
Exam 2 Study Guide

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The Examinations in M542 are designed to evaluate your ability, not only to recognize the musical works, scores, terms, and readings under consideration in the course, but also to understand the stylistic characteristics of the music, as well as its place in society and in relation to important historical, political, and philosophical trends, currents, and events.  Each Examination is in two parts, each on a separate day.

Part I will comprise listening and score identification for assigned and unassigned works, as well as questions directed towards specific works on the listening list (e.g., a score comparison).

Part II will comprise identification of assigned terms and source readings, as well as an extended essay question drawn from the list below (you will be given a choice of terms and essay questions from which to choose).

[Note: Percentage values given below are tentative and may be subject to change.  They are provided primarily as a rough guideline for how much time to spend on a given section of the Examination.]

Part I (Thursday 8 August)

Assigned Listening Identification [50%]

Excerpts of fifteen (15) Assigned Listening items will be played (only once per excerpt, each approximately 45 seconds to one minute in length).  For each, you will need to supply a correct and adequate identification of the excerpt, including:

Assigned Listening:


Unassigned Listening Identification [30%]

Two unassigned listening excerpts will be played for which you will need to supply the following:
Each excerpt will be played two or three times, depending upon the nature and length of the excerpt.  The excerpts will be consistent with similar examples on your assigned listening list.  Your conclusions should thus be based upon a careful consideration of the stylistic traits of the unassigned excerpts with respect to those works on your listening list.  In addition to the tentative identification just described, you will need to supply two significant stylistic characteristics in support of your conclusions.

Keep in mind that negative style traits (e.g., "no text") are not acceptable as answers.  In other words, concentrate on what is rather than what is not present in the excerpt.  Likewise, do not give as an answer a composer and genre not linked on the assigned listening (e.g., a Haydn opera--Haydn did indeed write operas, but we are not covering them in this course, so you are not expected to be responsible for them or their stylistic traits beyond the brief description in your text).


Assigned Score Identification [20%]

You will be given a score excerpt of approximately one to two pages from the assigned listening list.  For this excerpt, you will provide a complete identification (composer, title, movement or act/scene as appropriate, and date), just as described above for the Assigned Listening.  In addition, you will be asked a series of directed questions regarding the work from which the excerpt is drawn.  These might include questions about style, intended audience, intended venue, and aesthetic or philosophical considerations.


Part II (Friday 9 August)

Assigned Term/Name Identification (terms selected from Grout/Palisca, Weiss-Taruskin, and Lecture materials) [30%]

 You will be given a list of ten terms, six (6) of which you will need to supply with substantive identifications.  A fully formed identification will include:

[Note: a good source for many term definitions is the New Harvard Dictionary of Music (3d ed., edited by Don Randall, Cambridge, MA, 1986), a copy of which should be on the Index Table in the Music Library.  (It's also a handy book to own.)]

Melodrama
Chat Noir
Cabaret
Sprechstimme
Leitmotif
Correspondences
Beaudelaire
Mallarmé
Symbolism
Expressionism
Primitivism
Neo-Classicism
Otto Erich Hartleben
Pierrot
Stabreim
Commedia dell'arte
The Mighty Handful (The Russian Five)
Schopenhauer
Music Drama
Gesamtkunstwerk
Nationalism
Mirror (Bridge) Form
Russian Formalism
Soviet Realism

New Terms (since Quiz 2)

Serialism
Wa-Wan Press
Blues
Classic Blues
Delta Blues
Race Records
Rhythm and Blues
Vaudeville
Paul Robeson
Original Dixieland Jazz Band
Tin Pan Alley
Paul Whiteman
"An Experiment in New Music"
Swing
Rhythm Changes
Bebop
Free Jazz
Third Stream
Contrafact
Absolute Serialism
Aleatory Music
Concept Music
"Silence"
Collage 
Postmodernism

Source Reading Identifications [20%]

You will be given one or two characteristic excerpts from the Source Readings in Weiss-Taruskin.  For this section, you will have to supply:

You will, in addition, need to answer a series of brief questions regarding the context and significance of the excerpt in respect to the course materials.  You may wish to bring into your answers examples of works, composers, historical ideas and philosophies, and so forth, as appropriate.  These are not, however, essay questions, and your responses should be brief.

Selected Source Readings:

Weiss-Taruskin:

Note: Although I have cut down the list of required readings considerably, those not on this list may still prove useful for essay and term preparation.   I, therefore, strongly encourage you at least to skim through them with an eye for important concepts and information. In some cases, such excerpts will prove more valuable for your preparation than will the course textbook.

108
113 [Essay: Stasov, "Our Music," 1882]
122 (p. 420) [Debussy, "Monsieur Croche, Dilettante Hater," 1921 (orig. 1901 in Revue Blanche)--pick a date; either is fine]
126  [Berg/Schoenberg, Society for Private Music Performance, "Statement of Aims," 1919]
127 [Webern, "Toward a New Music," lecture series, early 1930s]
131 (pp. 446-48) [ Bartók, Essay, n.d.]
134 [Stravinsky, "Some Ideas about My Octuor," 1924]
135 (pp. 461-62) [Stavinksky, Chronicles of My Life, 1958]
137 (pp. 467-70) [Satie, Mémoires of an Amnesiac, c.1912]
142 (p. 481) [Gershwin, from American Composers on American Music: A Symposium, ed. Henry Cowell, 1933]
145 (pp. 492-95) [Copland, Music and Imagination, 1952]
146 ["The Ideological Platform of the RAPM," 1929]
149 (pp. 507-09 [top]) ["Schoenberg is DEAD," 1952]
153 [Cage, Silence, 1966]

Supplemental Readings [these are required for the exam, as well as the WT readings above]:

Note: Some of these excerpts are abbreviated.  In these cases, I have boxed the portion of the excerpt for which you are responsible. Nevertheless, I encourage you to read the entire excerpt when it is included.

Cage--Silence.pdf
Copland--Composer.pdf
Ellison--Ellington.pdf
Parker--Coltrane--Interviews.pdf
Schuller--Third_Stream.pdf


Essay Questions [50%]

The essay portion of the Examination is designed to provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate your ability not only to internalize the course materials, but also--and more importantly--to synthesize those materials into a coherent and accurate narrative, one which involves not only the musical works themselves, but their social, political, historical, and philosophical contexts.  The very best essays will be well organized and will have a central thesis or guiding idea that controls the arrangement and presentation of the materials.  This core idea should be bolstered with supporting ideas and numerous examples, including, but not necessarily limited to, composers, musical works, music theorists and theoretical treatises, source readings (from Weiss-Taruskin), and other significant terms and figures (e.g., from the Terms/Names list above).  

Three questions, of which you choose one (1) , will be drawn from the list below.  (You should plan to spend no less than half of the exam period--i.e., 25 minutes--on the essay.)

[Those with limited essay writing experience might wish to visit the Writing Tutorial Services page on Taking an Essay Test .  You may also find it useful to visit WTS and work with one of their staff members on preparing and writing essays.  Their services are free of charge and they are there to help you.  (Be sure to take the essay questions and exam description along with you!)]


1. Explore ways in which interest in the past influenced compositional choices of composers in the Twentieth Century.  Consider aesthetic, political, philosophical, and historical, as well as musical issues in your discussion.

2. Examine ways in which American composers sought to create an American music (or musics) in the Twentieth Century.  Consider in your discussion such issues as:
3. Discuss the interactions between Art and Vernacular (i.e., Classical and Popular) musical traditions in the Twentieth Century.  How did composers and performers of each tradition employ the resources, methods, and concepts of the other(s) in the construction of their musical works?

4. Explore ways in which music has been employed as a means of shaping and defining identity (national, racial, political, religious, etc.).

5. Compare and contrast at least four of the various musical -isms of the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.  In addition to the various musical styles involved, consider also the sources, philosophies, and motivations behind each.

6. Explore the conflict of Tradition and Innovation in music and musical thought in the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.  How did the perspective of composers and performers of their relationship to music of the past (and present) inform their respective musical choices (i.e., did they see themselves as part of a tradition? as breaking with tradition? both? etc.)?




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Last updated: 5 July 2002
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