Art Quiz

French Jazz: Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto written for Woody Herman who died a pauper poor. Parade music. Moulin Rouge. Decadence.

Impressionism: A term neither Claude Debussy or Maurice Ravel liked. It was coined to describe a style of painting with dots. It was soothing and pastoral and often emulated the sea. Its harmony is similar to American jazz.

Expressionism: A style of music from the l920’s meant to represent the hustle and bustle of a modern day city. 12 tone serialism and atonality are components of expressionism. It is most often heard in the orchestra or in chamber music.

Abstract Expressionism: A style of painting concerned with conveying raw emotion through extreme styles. Jackson Pollack threw paint on the canvas. Andy Warhol used comics. Mark Rothco used intense color. Mapplethorpe shoved a bullwhip up his buddy’s ass.

NeoClassicism: A style that uses traditional classical forms (such as the sonata or concerto) but in a modern context.

Musique Concrete: Music that was recorded onto analog tape, cut into pieces, and reassembled. Two Pierre’s at IRCAM were influential, Henri, and Schaffer.

Improvisation: A type of paraphrasing of a melody of an American popular song most often attributed to Louis Armstrong that later turned into a complete statement in the field of music.

Tailgate Trombone: One voice of the intricate counterpoint found in New Orleans jazz extemporized by trombone, trumpet, and clarinet.

Leitmotif: A recurring theme associated with a particular character in a musical work most often attributed to Richard Wagner.

Motivic Development: Taking a leitmotif and expanding it in various ways. In music the phrase can be augmented, diminished, transposed, and inverted among other things.