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Masterpieces of Western Music

Humanities W1123 · Prof. Michael Thaddeus

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)


GLOSSARY

OSTINATO: a simple figure, often in the bass or the accompaniment, that repeats over and over [Italian for obstinate]

POLYRHYTHM: music with several independent rhythms at the same time

POLYTONALITY: music in several independent keys at the same time (or almost the same time)

POLYCHORD: a dissonant chord created by superimposing consonant chords

MODERNISM: the early-20th-century artistic movement which discarded traditional style in favor of radically new techniques

PRIMITIVISM: the adoption by elite art of the values or styles of primitive art