Xinyi's Exam Study Hub 🌸

A reverie is a daydream or dream-like piece. The title is most closely associated with a piano piece by Claude Debussy (1890). Other composers of reveries include Tchaikovsky, Tansman, Miriam Hyde and Einaudi.

Composed November 1998; dedicated to the Puyallup Valley Chapter of the Washington State Music Teachers Association — an award created in memory of the composer's son, Darren, who died unexpectedly in June 1998, aged 23.

Dennis Alexander (born 1947), American composer, pianist and teacher. Born in Kansas; studied at University of Kansas (teacher: Richard Reber). Taught piano and piano pedagogy at University of Montana 1972–1996. President of Montana State Music Teachers Association. Affiliated composer/clinician with Alfred Publishing from 1986; published 400+ works. Received Lifetime Achievement Award from National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, 2015. Lives in Albuquerque.

Other works: 24 character preludes, Concertante in G major, Danse humoresque, El Zapateado, Serenade in E♭ major, Tarantella burleska, Valse romantique, several toccatas.

Contemporaries: David Del Tredici, John Adams (Neo-Romantic); pedagogical composers: William Gillock, Eugénie Rocherolle, Melody Bober, Catherine Rollin.

Written in late 20th C. but in the Neo-Romantic tradition (Chopin, Schumann, Brahms). Similar in texture to Brahms' Intermezzi (Op. 118 No. 2) and Chopin Nocturnes.

Romantic characteristics: lyrical melodies (smooth, songlike); colourful harmonies (7ths, 9ths, extended chords, chromaticism); flowing rhythms with rubato; "two against three" rhythmic independence; widely-spaced accompaniment (extensive pedal needed); fairly wide dynamic range; dense textures at climax; simple ABA form.

Special harmony: Neapolitan chord (♭II7) = chord built on the flattened 2nd degree of the scale. Creates mysterious, expressive colour. Final chord has added 9th — gives an unresolved, dreamy ending.

A hoedown is a lively dance in duple time, usually accompanied by the fiddle. The name refers to a farming tool and also to the social gathering (with a competitive aspect).

Rodeo is a ballet set on an American ranch, first performed October 1942 (choreography: Agnes de Mille). Backdrop: wide rural American landscapes; story: unconventional love story between a feisty cowgirl and the ranch's champion roper. 'Hoedown' is the last of 5 sections: Buckaroo holiday, Corral nocturne, Ranch house party, Saturday night waltz, Hoedown. Uses traditional American and Irish folk tunes.

Aaron Copland (1900–1990), American. Born Brooklyn; decided to become a composer at 15. Studied harmony with Rubin Goldmark. Moved to Paris 1921 — first American composition student of Nadia Boulanger. Returned NY 1924; two Guggenheim Fellowships. Supported by conductors Koussevitzky and Bernstein. Pulitzer Prize for Appalachian Spring (1945); Academy Award for The Heiress (1949); Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964); Congressional Gold Medal (1986). Taught at Berkshire Music Centre most summers 1940–1965. Died NY, age 90.

Piano works: concerto, sonata, The Cat and the Mouse, Three Moods, Four Blues, Piano Variations, Fantasy.

Other major works: Fanfare for the Common Man; ballets Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Appalachian Spring; film scores; symphonies.

Copland's 1940s style = "imposed simplicity" — deliberately accessible, evoking authentic American musical identity.

Key characteristics: traditional fiddle tunes (pentatonic/hexatonic scales); drone-style accompaniments; mostly diatonic harmonies; strongly rhythmic with frequent accents; syncopation (off-beat accents, ties across strong beats); bare "rough-hewn" textures (parallel 5ths).

Folk tunes used: 'Bonaparte's Retreat' (Section A — American fiddle) and 'Miss McLeod's Reel' (Section B — Irish). Melody often hexatonic (missing the 7th scale degree).

A serenade is a song-like piece. Traditionally, it referred to music performed outdoors in the evening, such as a lover singing beneath someone's window.

Opus means a work or group of works; the opus number identifies the composition. Sinding's Serenade was published in a collection of six Charakterstücke (character pieces), Op. 33, in 1896.

Christian Sinding (1856–1941) was a Norwegian late-Romantic composer, born in Kongsberg and raised in Oslo (then called Kristiania). He studied violin and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory and spent much of his life in Germany.

He received encouragement from fellow Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg and became recognised as one of Norway's most important composers after Grieg. His best-known piano work is Frühlingsrauschen (Rustle of Spring). His music shows the influence of German Romantic composers including Liszt, Wagner and Richard Strauss.

Late Romantic character piece: tender, intimate and lyrical, with long flowing melodic phrases and expressive shaping, generally in the softer dynamic range.

Key characteristics: wide-ranging arpeggiated accompaniment; rich, sometimes restless chromatic harmonies; shifts between major and minor (mode mixture); flexible tempo and expressive rubato; warm tone and generous but controlled pedal use.

Rhythm: the melody often moves independently of the accompaniment, creating a 2-against-3 effect. The continuous semiquaver pulse helps the music flow beneath the singing melody.

Harmony to remember: D♭ major is the home key. The music visits F minor, E♭ major, E♭ minor, E minor and F minor before returning to D♭ major for the coda.