MUS 

100 Introduction to Music

MUS 100
Introduction to Music
Whitehall Classroom Building Room 331
Yingchao Han (韩应潮)

Ballet Music
• Ballet music is written to be performed as
accompaniment to a dance performance.
• Sometimes ballet music is played in concert
halls without dance. Composers often extract
sections of ballet music to shape into ballet
suites (same as incidental music and film
music).
• The important ballets were written in the
late 19th century and 20th century.

Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky

(1840-1893)

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MUS 100 Introduction to Music

The Life of Tchaikovsky

• Tchaikovsky was a government clerk before
entered the first Russian conservatory. After
graduation he became a professor or
harmony.
• He was a gay, but had to marry to conceal his
homosexuality. This was disastrous, only
lasted several weeks.
• He conducted his music in Europe and
America before a sudden death in 1893. Many
people doubt that his death was a suicide.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:

excerpts from The Nutcracker
• This ballet tells a story in the fair of fairy tale,
and is traditionally performed every year
during the Christmas period for children.

• March: listen to the brass fanfare and the

string tune, and how they interreacts.
• Dance of the Reed Pipes: this dance is
dominated by the winds. Listen to the
different timbre of the instruments.
• The rhythm of these two sections are all
clear and kind to the dancers.

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MUS 100 Introduction to Music

A Production of The Nutcracker

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

The Life of Stravinsky

• Stravinsky was the son of an opera singer. He
studied law before turned to music.
• He achieved early success with several ballet
scores in Paris.
• After World War I he moved to Paris, and
developed a neoclassical style.
• In 1939 he moved to the United States and
lived in South California.

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Le sacre du printemps
• Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) is a
ballet score written for a large orchestra in
1913.
• The topic of the ballet is the mystery and
great surge of the creative power of Spring.
The setting is prehistoric.

Le sacre du printemps
• It is an example of Primitivism in art: a
trend to capture the raw energy and apply it
in a Modernist context.
• The music breaks many traditions. It has
irregular and restlessly changing meters,
percussive orchestral effect, and dissonant
harmonies.

Henri Matisse: Dance

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MUS 100 Introduction to Music

A Production of Le sacre du
printemps

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

The Life of Aaron Copland

• Copland was a Jewish American grew up in
New York.
• In the 1920s he went to Paris to study, and
developed his personal style.
• After returning to the States, he worked as
composer, teacher, and writer.
• Copland was gay, but like many at his lifetime,
he guarded his privacy.

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MUS 100 Introduction to Music

“Hoe-Down” from Rodeo

• Rodeo (1942) is a ballet score, and the subject
is a cowboy story.
• A hoe-down is a social gathering featuring
lively folk dancing.
• The main melody is a folk tune from
Kentucky. It is interrupted by other
melodies to form a rondo-like structure.
• The rhythm and harmony are somewhat
regular, but the orchestral timbre is colorful.