Music History 255: Nineteenth-Century European Music

Exam 1

Question 1 (20 points, 10 minutes): Choose one of the following topics and discuss it by writing
at least two paragraphs (at least one page) in your blue book.

1. Beethoven. With reference to specific pieces, describe the most salient features of
Beethoven’s late style. How did these pieces tend to differ from his earlier compositions?

or

2. Lieder. With reference to specific pieces and composers, describe the Lieder of the
Berlin School in the late eighteenth century. In what ways did they tend to differ from the
Lieder of Schubert?

Question 2 (20 points, 10 minutes): Choose one of the following topics and discuss it by writing
at least two paragraphs (at least one page) in your blue book.

1. French Romantic Opera. With reference to specific musical examples, describe the
main features of French Grand Opera as exemplified by Daniel François Esprit Auber’s
La Muette de Portici and Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots.

or

2. German Romantic Opera. With reference to specific musical examples, describe the
ways in which Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischutz differed from earlier operas in the
German-speaking lands.

Question 3 (60 points, 30 minutes): Choose one of the following topics and discuss it in a more
extended essay your blue book. Be sure to cite specific pieces when appropriate.

1. Sonata form. Compare three sonata-form works: one by Beethoven, one by Rossini, one
by Schubert. Describe how each composer handles the sonata form. How are they
different? Why are these differences significant?

or

2. Beethoven / Rossini. In his book Geschichte der europäisch-abendländischen oder

unserer heutigen Musik (“History of European / Western music, or history of our music
of today,” 1834), Raphael Georg Kiesewetter called the early nineteenth century the “era
of Beethoven and Rossini.” Why? With reference to specific compositions, please
explain the specific features that separated each side of this divide.