Daily Music Listening

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
1	#	Period	Composition	Composer	Composer: dates, country & interesting facts	Composition Date	Good listening focus for students
2	1	Ancient	Hurrian Hymn No. 6 (Hymn to Nikkal)	Unknown	Hurrian culture of the ancient Near East; composer unknown; discovered on a clay tablet at Ugarit in modern Syria; dedicated to the goddess Nikkal; among the oldest surviving examples of notated music	c. 1400 BCE	Ancient instruments; reconstruction; ask students what sounds "ancient" and remind them that the exact performance is necessarily an interpretation
3	2	Ancient Greek	Epitaph of Seikilos	Seikilos	Ancient Greek; dates unknown; apparently erected the inscribed stone in memory of Euterpe; remarkable because both words and musical notation survive	c. 1st–2nd century CE	Voice and ancient-style instruments; oldest substantially complete surviving notated song
4	3	Medieval	Dies irae	Anonymous	Composer unknown; Latin chant associated with the medieval Roman Catholic Requiem; its famous opening melody has been quoted by composers and film scorers for centuries	c. 13th century	Monophony; unaccompanied voices; free rhythm; save the melody in their memories for Berlioz later
5	4	Medieval	O vis aeternitatis	Hildegard von Bingen	1098–1179; German; Benedictine abbess, composer, writer, mystic and polymath; one of the earliest composers whose biography and large body of music are known	c. 1150s	Single melodic line; unusually wide-ranging chant melody; female voice
6	5	Medieval	xfxf	Pérotin	fl. c. 1200; French; associated with Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris; one of the first major named composers of polyphony; helped develop multi-voice organum	c. 1198	Multiple simultaneous vocal lines; sustained lower notes versus active upper voices; dramatic contrast with Gregorian chant
7	6	Medieval	Douce dame jolie	Guillaume de Machaut	c. 1300–1377; French; composer and poet; leading figure of the Ars Nova; among the most important composers of the late Middle Ages	c. 1350s	Medieval secular song; clear beat; repeated melody; possible instrumental accompaniment depending on recording
8	7	Renaissance	Ave Maria…virgo serena	Josquin des Prez	c. 1450/55–1521; Franco-Flemish; one of the most celebrated Renaissance composers; famous for expressive vocal writing and imitative counterpoint	c. 1485	Listen for one voice presenting an idea and other voices imitating it
9	8	Renaissance	Sicut cervus	Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina	c. 1525–1594; Italian; spent much of his career in Rome; famous for exceptionally smooth sacred polyphony; became a model of Renaissance counterpoint	c. 1580s	Interweaving voices; consonance; smooth melodic lines; a cappella choral sound
10	9	Renaissance	If Ye Love Me	Thomas Tallis	c. 1505–1585; English; served four English monarchs during enormous religious upheaval; wrote both Catholic and Protestant church music	c. 1540s	Simple English text; four-part choir; clear imitation and chordal writing
11	10	Late Renaissance / Early Baroque	L'Orfeo: Toccata	Claudio Monteverdi	1567–1643; Italian; worked in Mantua and Venice; crucial transitional figure between Renaissance and Baroque styles; L'Orfeo is among the earliest operas still regularly performed	1607	Brass and percussion; ceremonial repeated fanfare; birth of opera
12	11	Baroque	The Four Seasons: Spring, I	Antonio Vivaldi	1678–1741; Italian; violin virtuoso, priest and teacher; nicknamed "The Red Priest"; wrote hundreds of concertos	1725	Solo violin versus ensemble; ritornello; musical depiction of birds, storms and nature
13	12	Baroque	Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, I	Johann Sebastian Bach	1685–1750; German; organist, composer and church musician; member of a huge musical family; now regarded as one of the central figures of Western music	1721	String ensemble; contrapuntal lines; sequences; driving rhythmic pulse
14	13	Baroque	Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565	Traditionally attributed to J. S. Bach	1685–1750; German; famed organist and improviser; authorship of this particular work has been questioned by scholars	c. 1700–1730?	Organ; huge range of pitch and dynamics; recognizable opening gesture; fugue
15	14	Baroque	Messiah: Hallelujah	George Frideric Handel	1685–1759; German-born, later British; built his career in London; successful opera and oratorio composer; became a naturalized British subject	1741 (premiered 1742)	Full chorus and orchestra; repeated text; contrapuntal and chordal textures
16	15	Classical	Eine kleine Nachtmusik, I	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	1756–1791; Austrian; child prodigy who toured Europe; prolific composer of symphonies, operas, concertos and chamber music; died at only 35	1787	Clear melody/accompaniment; balanced phrases; string ensemble; Classical-period clarity
17	16	Classical	Symphony No. 40 in G minor, I	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	1756–1791; Austrian; child prodigy and virtuoso pianist; composed more than 600 catalogued works; Symphony No. 40 is one of his relatively few large instrumental works in a minor key	1788	Minor mode; memorable opening theme; orchestra; repeated and developed motives
18	17	Classical	Symphony No. 94 "Surprise," II	Joseph Haydn	1732–1809; Austrian; spent decades working for the Esterházy family; enormously influential in the development of the symphony and string quartet; often called the "Father of the Symphony"	1791–1792	Theme and variations; soft dynamics followed by the famous sudden fortissimo "surprise"
19	18	Classical → Romantic	Symphony No. 5, I	Ludwig van Beethoven	1770–1827; German; pianist and composer; began losing his hearing as a young adult and eventually became profoundly deaf; major bridge between Classical and Romantic styles	1804–1808	Four-note opening motive; development; dramatic dynamics; show how enormous music can grow from a tiny idea
20	19	Romantic	Erlkönig	Franz Schubert	1797–1828; Austrian; composed more than 600 songs; died at 31; master of the German art song or Lied	1815	One singer portrays several characters; relentless galloping piano; musical storytelling
21	20	Romantic	Symphonie fantastique: March to the Scaffold	Hector Berlioz	1803–1869; French; composer, conductor and influential writer on orchestration; known for enormous orchestral imagination; wrote Symphonie fantastique around an obsessive autobiographical program	1830	Program music; large orchestra; dramatic story; idée fixe
22	21	Romantic	Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9 No. 2	Frédéric Chopin	1810–1849; Polish-born; spent most of his adult career in Paris; virtuoso pianist; wrote almost exclusively for piano	c. 1830–1832	Solo piano; ornamented singing melody; rubato; intimate Romantic expression
23	22	Romantic	The Nutcracker: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy	Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	1840–1893; Russian; composer of symphonies, concertos, operas and famous ballets including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker	1892	Celesta; unusual timbre; delicate orchestration; ballet
24	23	Romantic	Symphony No. 9 "From the New World," IV	Antonín Dvořák	1841–1904; Czech; strongly influenced by Czech folk traditions; lived in the United States 1892–1895 while directing the National Conservatory in New York	1893	Powerful brass opening; recurring themes; nationalism; European composer responding to America
25	24	Romantic	Pictures at an Exhibition: The Great Gate of Kyiv	Modest Mussorgsky; orchestrated by Maurice Ravel	Mussorgsky: 1839–1881, Russian; member of "The Five" Russian nationalist composers; originally wrote Pictures for piano in memory of his artist friend Viktor Hartmann. Ravel: 1875–1937, French; master orchestrator who created the famous orchestral version in 1922	1874; orchestrated 1922	Huge orchestral color; bells; brass; compare piano original with Ravel's orchestration if desired
26	25	Impressionism / Early Modern	Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune	Claude Debussy	1862–1918; French; major musical modernist often associated with Impressionism, although he disliked the label; transformed approaches to harmony, scale and orchestral color	1894	Opening flute solo; ambiguous harmony; tone color; whole-tone and chromatic sounds
27	26	Early 20th Century	The Rite of Spring: Augurs of Spring	Igor Stravinsky	1882–1971; Russian-born; later French and American citizen; one of the most influential 20th-century composers; continually changed styles throughout his career	1913	Irregular accents; ostinato; dissonance; enormous orchestra; famous ballet premiere
28	27	American / Jazz Influence	Rhapsody in Blue	George Gershwin	1898–1937; American; born in Brooklyn to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents; combined concert music with jazz and popular styles; also wrote Broadway songs with his brother Ira	1924	Opening clarinet glissando; piano soloist; jazz rhythms and harmonies inside concert music
29	28	American	Fanfare for the Common Man	Aaron Copland	1900–1990; American; born in Brooklyn; developed an influential spacious-sounding American concert style; also composed film scores and ballets	1942	Brass and percussion only; enormous dynamic impact with relatively few instruments; written during World War II
30	29	Experimental / Mid-20th Century	Sonatas and Interludes (selection)	John Cage	1912–1992; American; experimental composer; challenged conventional definitions of music and musical sound; closely associated with chance procedures and unconventional instruments	1946–1948	Prepared piano; identify the instrument before revealing that nearly everything they hear comes from one piano
31	30	Minimalism	Music for 18 Musicians	Steve Reich	1936– ; American; born in New York; pioneering minimalist composer; known for repetition, pulse, phasing and gradual musical processes	1974–1976	Steady pulse; repeating patterns; gradual change; mallet percussion, pianos, voices and winds
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