MUSI 3363: History of Music II

Fall 2020, Exam 1: Due Monday, September 28, at 11:59 p.m.

Important Instructions
 Please save all three of your essays in a single file.
 Please do NOT include the questions or prompts in your file, but do number your essays.
(This is different from your assignments.)
 Please save your file as a Word document.
 Please submit your file in the designated turn-it-in link in Blackboard by the specified
time.
 You may take as much time on the exam as you like. You do not need to write the exam
all at once.

The principles of the class assignments also apply to the exam:

 your essays should be entirely or almost entirely your own words;
 quotations, if included, should be limited to 5-10 words each;
 the number of quotations should be very small, perhaps no more than three in each essay
—this means that quotations should be distinctive phrases, something unusual or striking;
 the source of a quotation should be enclosed in parentheses, with a page number, for
example (GBP, 288), or (Lecture Slide 1), or (Handout on Eighteenth-Century Opera).
In three original essays of at least 150 words to as many as 250 or 300 words each, address the
following comments and questions.

1. During the Enlightenment, (a) which new social conditions resulted in the development
of the new galant style, (b) what were the new style’s features, (c) where and in what
kinds of music did the style originate, (d) and how did it spread to different countries in
Europe and to different genres of music? In parts (c) and (d) be sure to include and
discuss how all the relevant composers and pieces from the class syllabus illustrate or
exemplify the style’s origins and the ways in which it spread.
a)cosmopolitan era, the ideas of freedom, rationality, and nature (reason, nature, progress)
- desire for democracy (alongside Greek antiquity) 463, smaller national independence 463,
rising and growing middle class,
b)periodic phrasing, musical simplicity, transparent homophonic texture, primary harmonies,
short balanced phrases,
- 469 vocally conceived melody, wide appeal,
(Missing the meaning - manners and attitudes at
court. What is galant behavior and musical
expectations? Good answer, but looking for specific
connections between musical features and galant
attitudes -)

c)Italian comic opera, la serva padrona

- intermezzo (480)
d) la serva padrona toured, pamphlet war, (more examples)
- pg 484-490 talks about France pamphlet war, English ballad opera, german singspiel

2. During the Enlightenment, (a) why was it considered necessary to reform serious opera,
(b) what reforms were undertaken, and by whom (c) and how do the musical styles and
the subjects and characteristics of the texts (librettos) in every operatic work on the
syllabus relate to these reforms and to the Enlightenment’s social principles?
a)gluck thought they were abused by singers, elaborate
b) list gluck’s reforms
c) compare Orpheus and Eurydice (reform opera) to other operas in the syllabus
and then assess whether the features of those operas line up with enlightenment ideals of
reason, progress, and nature

3. Trace how binary form evolved into sonata form, using all of the instrumental
compositions on the class syllabus to illustrate stages in this development. You will need
to draw on the course textbook, Teams sessions, PowerPoint slides, and class Handouts.
(Another way to think of this question is: Which formal characteristics of each piece on
the syllabus relate to a fully evolved type of normative sonata form?)

Go into syllabus and slides and take out every piece he mentions, take note of significant features
Organize them chronologically
Go into textbook, find any piece not mentioned in slide and syllabus, add them to the timeline