Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion

1. What have you learnt about Pears' career, his personality, his style of performance?

2. Which operatic roles did Britten compose for Peter Pears?

3. What was Peter Pears' contribution to operatic art?

4. Have you heard Pears' recordings? What do you think of his style of performance?

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Questions on the Topic about the World of Opera

1. Which, in your opinion, is more important in opera: a good director or good opera singers? What makes a good opera production? What do you think of the Wagnerian ideal of production?

2. What are some of the problems in producing historically-accu­rate scores for opera production? What are some of the problems in adapting historical subjects for modern opera or­chestras and singers?

3. What is the status of opera nowadays? Will it survive?

4. What, in your opinion, are the functions of music critics? Do you find their reviews useful? Can we have an absolute scale for judging works of art? Who could establish it and how?

5. Write a composition or give a short talk on your ideal opera production.

6. Write a favourable (or unfavourable) review of a recent opera performance.

Notes Page 5

Impressionism - an artistic movement of the late 19th and early 20th c., represented in music chiefly by Claude Debussy (1862-1918).

Impressionism was first fully realized in Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun (1892) and later in his Nocturns for Orchestra (1893-99), the orchestral suite La Mer (1903-1905), the opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1902), and the collections for pianoforte, Images (1905, 1907), Préludes (1910-1913). Many other composers were strongly in­fluenced by Debussy's innovations, e.g., Ravel, Dukas, Roussel, de Séverac in France; Delhis, Bax, Scott in England; Réspighi in Italy; Falla in Spain; Carpenter and Griffes in America. Among important technical devices of impressionistic style are parallel chords and the whole-tone scale.

post-Romanticism (or late Romanticism) - a term sometimes used in reference to composers such as Mahler, R. Strauss, and others, who continued the essential Romantic expression in music after its high period in the mid-19th century.

Expressionism - a term denoting a certain trend in music begin­ning during the second decade of the 20th c., particularly in Austria and Germany. The term was taken over from the graphic arts (Nolde, Kirchnek) and used, more or less metaphorically, for music written in a deeply subjective and introspective style, conveying a typical "expressionistic" expression of tortuous emotions and psycho­analytical complexes.

The composers most often identified as "expressionists" are Arnold Schoenberg (who was also a talented painter), Alban Berg and to some extent Anton von Webern.

Dynamism - a term sometimes used in reference to the style of Stravinsky about 1910. It is characterized by a large, brilliantly colourful orchestra, by strongly percussive rhythms in irregular metric patterns, and by harshly dissonant harmonies.

Neoclassicism - a movement of the 20th c., which is essentially a reaction against the subjectivity and unrestrained emotionalism of late

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Romanticism. It is characterized by the adoption of aesthetic ideal and of forms or methods derived from the music of earlier masters, especially those of the 18th c. such as Bach, Handel, Mozart, etc. Neoclassicism became the most widespread and most important trend in music about 1920. Stravinsky's Sonata for Pianoforte (1922) and Octet for Wind Instruments (1923) are among the definitive exam­ples of neoclassical style.

atonality (literally, the absence of tonality, of a definite tonal centre) - the abandonment of key as a system of organization. At first it was used to describe characteristics of certain pioneering works by Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg.

twelve-tone technique (Am. E.), twelve-note technique (Br. E.) - a 20th-century method of composition devised (c. 1920) by A. Schoenberg. (See also Serial music, note to p. 6). Others, e.g. J.M. Hauer, had invented similar systems prior to Schoenberg. A system of composition in which all twelve tones within the octave are treated as "equal", in an ordered relationship where no group of tones predominates as in major/minor system.

Allegro barbaro («Варварское аллегро») - work for solo piano by Bela Bartok (1921), orchestral transcription by Kenessy (1946)

Cocteau, Jean (1889-1963) - French poet, novelist, and playwright, often associated with music as librettist or propagandist. Wrote sce­nario for Satie's Parade (1917) and librettos for Honegger's Antigone, Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, Milhaud's Le Pauvre Matelot (The Poor Sailor), among others.

futurism - a movement in literature and the arts founded in 1909 by the Italian writer Filippo Marinetti (1876-1944). It emphasized the machine age and the dynamic character of the industrial society. Musically this meant all kinds of noise, and special instruments were invented, such as thunderers, whistlers, etc.

quarter-tone - an interval equal to one half of half tone (one quarter of the whole tone. Some 20th c. composers who have written in quarter tones have built special pianos, e.g. Hans Barth and Alois Hâba. Quarter-tones have been often used since World War II by serial composers such as Boulez, Stockhausen, and others.

Malipiero, Gian (1882-1973) - Italian composer. He discovered and transcribed the almost forgotten works of Monteverdi, Tartini, Stradella, etc. This determined him to rebel against the "operatic tyranny" of Italian musical life. In 1913 he met Casella, who became his colleague in the struggle. He published complete edition of Monteverdi in 1926 - 42 which stimulated present revival of interest. Also edited many volumes of Vivaldi's complete works. Author of books on Vivaldi, Monteverdi, and Stravinsky.

Casella, Alfredo (1883-1947) - Italian composer, conductor, pianist,

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and author. Studied with Fauré at the Paris Conservatoire. A cham­pion of all that was new in the arts. Anticipated tastes of a later epoch by interest in Italian baroque music, particularly Vivaldi.

Milhaud, Darius (1892-1974) - French composer and pianist, member of Les Six (The Six). In his early works he showed a con­siderable interest in polytonality. He experimented with many instru­mental combinations and also with tape.

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Gebrauchsmusik (Germ.). A term originated in the 1920's mean­ing "music for use", i.e. music intended for practical use by ama­teurs, in the home or at informal gatherings as distinguished from music intended for concert performance. Paul Hindemith was closely identified with this type of music.

Johnny Spielt Auf (Germ.) - Johnny Strikes up the Band («Джони наигрывает»), opera in 2 acts by Ernst Krenek to his own libretto (1927).

prepared piano - a piano whose sound is artificially altered by various devices, e.g., metal clips or metal bolts attached to the strings; strips of paper, rubber, felt, etc., inserted across the strings. The prepared piano was introduced by John Cage (b. 1912).

concrete music (Fr. musique concrete) - a historical source of electro-acoustic music and a continuing genre in which sonic material is derived from recorded sound. The first examples were music for radio plays composed by Pierre Schaeffer at the studios of French Radio in Paris (1948). In 1951 an experimental studio under Schaeffer's direction was established, the first to be devoted to electronic music (Groupe de Recherches de Musique concrete). Between 1948 and 1980, 935 works were composed in the studios, including pieces by Varèse, Berio, Stockhausen, Cage and Boulez. See also note to p. 6 Electro-acoustic music.

serial music - music constructed according to permutations of a group of elements placed in a certain order of series (tone row). These elements may include pitches, durations, or any other musical values. Strictly speaking, serial music encompasses twelve-tone music as well as music employing other types of pitch series. Normally, however, the term is reserved for music that extends classical Schoenbergian twelve-tone pitch technique and, especially, applies se­rial control to other musical elements, such as duration. Such music, mainly developed after World War II is often distinguished from twelve-tone serialism as "integral" or "total" serialism.

aleatory music - music in which the composer introduces ele­ments of chance or unpredictability with regard to either the compo­sition or its performance. The terms aleatoric, chance music, music of indeterminacy have been applied to many works created since

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1945 by composers who differ widely as to the concepts, methods, and rigor with which they employ procedures of random selection. The first well-known example of 20th-c. aleatory composition was John Cage's Music of Changes for piano (1951).

Babbitt, Milton (b. 1916) - American composer and mathemati­cian. His compositions developed from the twelve-tone system of Schoenberg and Webern, later employing electronic devices such as synthesizers and tape. Author of articles and monographs on Bartok, Varèse, and Schoenberg. One of the most influential composers and teachers in the USA since World War II.

Cage, John (b. 1912) - American composer, pianist, and writer. Studied with Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg. In 1938 he in­vented the "prepared piano". Study of oriental philosophies led to his utilization of "chance" in his music, as in Music of Changes (1951). In 1952 he produced his first piece involving tape, Imaginary Landscape No. 5, and in the same year came 4'33" in which the performer makes no sound. He also used a wide range of electroni­cal and visual techniques.

Feldman, Morton (b. 1926) - American composer. His music was influenced by the theories and ideas of John Cage and Earle Brown. He has used indeterminacy and graphic notation in his music since Projections (1950-51).

Brown, Earle (b. 1926) - American composer. Worked with Cage in New York (1952-55) on a project for music for magnetic tape. Influenced by visual arts. His Twenty-five Pages (1953) for 1-25 pi­anofortes uses "open form" and space-time notation, e.g. pitches and durations are specified but, clefs being absent, the pages can be played either way up. The score consists of 25 pages to be arranged in any order. In open-form composition the ordering and combina­tion of the written-out material is left to the choice of the performer or conductor.

in terms of texture and color - в понятиях (категориях) фак­туры и тембра (окраски звука)

Berio, Luciano (b. 1925) - Italian composer. His compositions are influenced by serialism, electronic devices and indeterminacy. He has developed individually the "collage" technique, borrowing extracts from other composers or imitating stylistic characteristics. Examples are Simphonia and Laborintos II.

Foss, Lukas (b. 1922) - German-born American composer and conductor. Studied with Hindemith and Koussevitsky. Foss's music is both traditional and experimental, the latter employing indeterminacy though scores are wholly notated.

microtone - an interval smaller than a half tone, e.g. quarter tone (see note to p. 5).

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Johnston, Benjamin (b. 1926) - American composer, pupil of John Cage. Compositions which use microtones, serialism and inde­terminacy, include 3 string quarters, dance-opera, sonata for micro­tonal piano, and 2 Oboes and 2 Tables and 2 Banyas.

Kagel, Mauricio (b. 1932) - Argentinian-born composer, conductor, and teacher. He has worked in theatre as composer and director of his own works since 1963. His music uses tape and electronic proce­dures. In his later works, visual and theatrical elements ("mixed me­dia") have predominated. Many of the scores involve indeterminacy.

Rzewsky, Frederic (b. 1938) - American composer and pianist, pupil of Cage and Stockhausen. He has written works involving dances, film, tape, etc.

Cardew, Cornelius (b. 1936) - English composer and guitarist. Studied electronic music in Cologne 1957-58, becoming an assistant to Stockhausen 1958-60. His early piano works are in the style of the early Boulez and Stockhausen, but later compositions follow a Cage-like indeterminacy, e.g. Treatise (1963-67).

electro-acoustic music - music that is produced, changed, or re­produced by electronic means and that makes creative use of elec­tronic equipment. Since 1948 several genres have emerged that are usually related to the artistic potential of specific electronic devices. Musique concrète (concrete music) uses the phonograph and tape recorder to combine, modify, or store "natural sounds". Electronic music consists either wholly or partially of sounds produced by elec­tronic oscillators and modifying devices such as synthesizers and then stored on magnetic tape. Tape music (USA) and electrophonic music (Great Britain) combine concrete and electronic sounds and tape. Computer music is either composed or generated by a digital com­puter. Live/electronic music uses any of the equipment above for live performance. Text-sound compositions take spoken language as their literary and musical source.

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mixed media - the merging of elements from different arts into a single, composite expression, usually as in recent works in which live sound (including music) and movement (including dance and dra­matic action), film, tape, and setting are combined, often incorporat­ing indeterminate elements (see note to p. 6, aleatory music) and audience participation there has been a constant cross-fertilization between Western art music and popular music - в западной музыкальной культуре шел непрерывный процесс взаимообогащения серьезной музы­ки и музыки массовых бытовых жанров

rock - the dominant type of American popular music since 1955. The term, strictly defined, refers to a musical style that emerged in

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the mid-1960s; in a broader sense it encompasses both this and rock-and-roll, which prevailed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

minimalist school - a term applied from the early 1970s to vari­ous compositional practices, current from the early 1960s, the features of which (harmonic stasis, the use of rhythmic patterns, and repetition) have as their underlying impulse the radical réduction at compositional materials. The best-known composers of minimalist music are Le Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip

Glass.

Rochberg, George (b. 1918) - American composer Influenced by Schoenberg Mahler, his music developed an individual type of serialism but later returned to tonality. Author of many critical articles.

(especially since most composers tend to juxtapose them with post-tonal techniques) - (особенно поскольку большинство компо­зиторов стремится использовать их (т.е. классические тради­ции) наряду с пост-тональными техническими приемами)

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at the tail end of the Wagnerian hegemony - на исходе гос­подства вагнеровской традиции

Verklärte Nacht (Germ.) - Transfigured Night, a work in one movement for 2 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos by Schoenberg, op 4 (1899) inspired by a poem of Richard Dehmel. It was later arranged for string orchestra (1917, revised in 1943), and it has served as the basis for many ballets, including Pillar of Fire (1942).

Tristan - Tristan and Isolde, musical drama in 3 acts by Wagner to his own libretto (based on G. von Strassbourg's Tristan c. 1210, and ultimately on Arthurian legend), produced in Munich, 1865.

Pierrot lunaire (Fr.) - Pierro in the Moonlight, a cycle of 12 short pieces, for a "singing narrator" and chamber orchestra by Schoenberg (1912), based on poems by A. Giraud.

Zemlinsky, Alexander von (1872-1942) - Australian-born composer and conductor. Studied at the Vienna Conservatory (1884-90). Be­friended Schoenberg in Vienna, gave him counterpoint lessons. Friend of Mahler.

Harmonielehre (Germ.) - Treatise on Harmony by Schoenberg (1911); complete English translation by R.E. Carter, 1978.

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root - (муз.) основной тон аккорда

to which every harmony and harmonic succession must be referred - с которым должна быть соотнесена каждая гармония или гармоническая последовательность

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in statu nascendi (Laù) - в состоянии зарождения

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Dohnânyi, Erno (1877-1960) - Hungarian composer, pianist, and conductor. Concert pianist, international repute 1897-1908.

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ancient pentatonic Magyar airs - старинные пентатонические венгерские песни

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Ludus Tonalls (Lat) - Tonal Play («Игра тонов»), a work for pianoforte (1942)

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Rameau, Jean-Philippe (1683-1764) - French composer, harpsi­chordist, and organist, author of the famous Treatise on Harmony (1722)

Gebrauchsmusik (Germ.) - see note to p. 6

Neues vom Tage (Germ.) - News of the Day, comic opera in 3 parts by Hindemith to the libretto by М. Schiffer

Berlin Hochschule (in full the Staatliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik) - formerly the Royal High School for Music. Founded in 1869, with Joachim as director.

Yale - Yale University (USA)

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sine qua non (Lat) - necessary requirement

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when viewed with hindsight - когда воспринимается ретро­спективно

serial techniques - see note to p. 6, serial music

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chord patterns - сочетания аккордов

the growing position of texture and timbre - усиливающееся внимание к фактуре и тембру

the jagged synchronizations of irregular patterns - остро вос­принимаемые одновременные столкновения нерегулярных рит­мов

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no musical element may be isolated from its rhythmic iden­tity - ни один элемент в музыке не может рассматриваться вне его ритмических характеристик

a sort of megaconsonance - своего рода гигантский консонанс

Craft, Robert (b. 1923) - American conductor, musicologist, and author. Skilled interpreter of music of Webern, Shoenberg, Berg, and especially of Stravinsky, with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship, collaborating with him on seven books.

mauere (Fr.) - материал musique concrète (Fr.)-see note to p. 6

Gesang der Junglinge (Germ.) - Song of the Young Boys, elec­tronic composition (on tape) by Stockhausen (1955-56)