Music 201 Midterm Review

syllabic text setting was
a. music sung on the solfeggio syllables
b. music changed on nonsense syllables
c. music sung on the syllable la
d. text set to one note per syllable

Through their music, medieval composers made the effort to:
a. influence the politics and social structure of the day.
b. heighten the expressivity of the texts they set and to elevate music beyond language.
c. make a living by selling and printing music.
d. express individuality and one’s strong personal ideas through dynamic contrast.

The monophonic texture in Hildegard’s play:
a. caused the text to be lost in the harmony.
b. allowed the performers to project the text with great clarity.
c. was very different from the homophonic texture of the Gregorian Chants.
d. made Satan appear even more frightening.

In the Middle Ages, lavish manuscripts were generally:
a. funded by the individual composer.
b. funded by the church or by a wealthy patron.
c. written by the nobility, who were the only educated class.
d. plain and written on inexpensive paper.

Hildegard’s Play of Virtues is:
a. a comedy.
b. a dramatized allegory of Good versus Evil.
c. a dramatized Mass.
d. based upon the writings of Charlemagne.

Plainchant consists of:
a. several voices and instruments with harmony.
b. one instrument playing alone.
c. readings by Pope Gregory I.
d. melody sung without accompaniment.

Medieval courts used the arts as a means of:
a. exploring religious and political debates.
b. funding their budgets through public shows and concerts.
c. projecting their cultural power and impressing subjects and visitors.
d. educating their young in the schools.

In the Middle Ages every musical document had to be:
a. printed in Italy or the Frankish empire.
b. approved by Pope Gregory.
c. written by hand.
d. written by the nobility.

In addition to her music, Hildegard:
a. experienced visions and revelations and directed the life of a thriving convent.
b. Considered herself a channel through which the Holy Spirit spoke to humankind.
c. was the first woman to receive permission from a pope to write on theology.
d. all of the above in addition to writing on medicine, plants, and the lives of saints.

Gregorian Chant during the Middle Ages was chiefly:
a. monophonic in texture.
b. homophonic in texture.
c. Polyphonic in texture.
d. only B and C.

Another name for the Middle Ages is:
a. the Greco-Roman Period.
b. the Medieval Era.
c. Antiquity.
d. the Pre-Christian Era.

By far, the largest and most imposing structures of the Middle Ages were:
a. universities.
b. marketplaces.
c. amphitheaters.
d. churches.

Melismas are cases where
a. several notes are sung to one syllable
b. a single syllable is sung to a long (scalar) descent
c. a single syllable is sung consecutively and repeatedly to different melodies
d. a single melody is repeated three or more times in a row

Trouveres, troubadours, and minnesingers performed works dealing with all of the following subjects EXCEPT:
a. the Crusades and heroism.
b. love.
c. the pastoral life, dancing, and secular entertainment.
d. religion and sacred works

Which of the following is NOT true of Gregorian Chant?
a. It was well suited for performance in the large resonant spaces of the medieval churches.
b. It is always polyphonic in texture.
c. The melodies tend to move stepwise with a narrow range of pitches.
d. It conveys a calm, otherworldly quality and enhances the meaning of the words.

Music of the Middle Ages included both:
a. well-defined note values and many instrumental works.
b. orchestras and chamber ensembles.
c. homophonic and free-style textures.
d. polyphonic and monophonic textures.

The melody of most of the music of the Middle Ages was:
a. Disjunct and lively.
b. Flowing, largely conjunct.
c. based on scales of the medieval modes.
d. both B and C.

An important female composer of the Middle Ages was:
a. Mary Lowell.
b. Eurydice.
c. Alicia de lo Rocha.
d. Hildegard of Bingen.

The Middle Ages began with the:
a. start of the first Crusades in 1095.
b. conquest of the New World.
c. fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476.
d. Protestant Reformation

Anonymous composers during the Middle Ages:
a. wrote many elaborate harmonies and polyphonic works.
b. developed and enormous repertory of plainchant.
c. were highly paid for their work in developing the Mass.
d. were not priests or monks, but troubadours.

In Hildegard’s Play of Virtues, Satan does not sing, but:
a. pantomimes his part.
b. shouts his lines.
c. is heard offstage playing the viol.
d. plays the pan pipes.

The span of the Middle ages covered almost a thousand years.
a. True
b. False

Composers created the earliest polyphonic works by discarding all of the old Gregorian Chants and composing all new material.
a. True
b. False

All Alleluias were part of the Propers of the Latin Mass.
a. True
b. False

Many of the medieval composers remain anonymous.
a. True
b. False

The Mass is the most important worship service of each day.
a. True
b. False

In polyphony, two or more voices of equal importance combine in such a way that each voice retains its own identity.
a. True
b. False

Music was perceived as a divine gift of heaven.
a. True
b. False

Music, along with all the other arts, was perceived as being of the devil, and was banned from the church.
a. True
b. False

As far as we know, drum parts were never notated in the Middle Ages.
a. True
b. False

The church dominated intellectual and cultural life in the Middle Ages.
a. True
b. False

Early manuscripts were not very expensive to produce.
a. True
b. False

The devil speaks and does not sing in Hildegard’s play to emphasize that Satan should not have this divine gift from heaven.
a. True
b. False

The technique of imitation or imitative counterpoint:
a. is a type of counterpoint in which one voice introduces each new theme and is answered by other voices that enter in succession as it continues to sing.
b. is a rhythm device that enabled the singers to stay together during long polyphonic works.
c. was only used briefly during the Renaissance era, and was not accepted very well.
d. is a type of counterpoint in which one voice introduces each new theme and then drops out completely as it is answered in succession by other voices.

The spirit of _________ was an intellectual and cultural movement that explored human interests and values.
a. Humanism
b. Culturalism
c. Socialism
d. Republicanism

The Renaissance was an age of growing confidence in:
a. electronics.
b. spiritual matters.
c. the powers of human reason and individuality.
d. the government and group dynamics.

The term “A cappella” refers to:
a. any form of music appropriate for worship.
b. singing in a hushed manner because one is in church.
c. men taking their hats off in church.
d. unaccompanied choral music or any unaccompanied singing.

By 1500, individuals could buy music for their own personal use:
a. but they had to check all of the copyright laws.
b. at a reasonable price.
c. if they pledged to donate the oldest son to a singing school.
d. at a very expensive price.

The Renaissance may be described as an age of:
a. the “rebirth” of human creativity, exploration, and individualism.
b. technology.
c. war and death.
d. orchestras touring extensively in Europe.

The Renaissance is a period extending from roughly:
a. 1825-1900
b. 450-700
c. 1425-1600
d. 1900-2000

The ideal “Renaissance Man” was someone who:
a. would have nothing to do with the arts, thinking them to be “sissy.”
b. cultivated knowledge and experience in the full range of arts and sciences.
c. helped with the housework and child care.
d. traveled to the New World at least three times.

In writing counterpoint, composers had to create at least two, and usually three or four or more, good melodies that work together.
a. True
b. False

During the Renaissance, madrigal composers used whatever musical elements they could to enhance the meaning and pleasure of the poetry, including word painting.
a. True
b. False

Harmony was a by-product of counterpoint in both the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
a. True
b. False

Music printing had become an established business by 1500.
a. True
b. False

Martin Luther set in motion a movement known as the American Revolution that would establish Protestantism in the New World.
a. True
b. False

Composers responded to the Reformation by writing new music for the Protestant liturgy in languages other than Latin.
a. True
b. False

Renaissance composers brought the spirit of humanism to their art by setting both sacred and secular texts in ways that united words and music more directly.
a. True
b. False

Baroque musicians tried to move their audiences by:
a. the political statements hidden in their works.
b. the artful imitation of emotion.
c. the loudness of the music.
d. using no emotion in the music.

Chamber music was:
a. written for an intimate setting such as a small room with a small group of instruments.
b. just like Gregorian Chant.
c. composed by those awaiting execution in the chamber.
d. written by Sir Walter Chamber.

The term “concerto grosso” means:
a. a really bad concert.
b. a concerto written for the horn de grosso on the solo part.
c. big concerto with multiple instruments.
d. concerto with many dissonant sections.

Handel’s Messiah differs from most of the oratorios because it:
a. is twice as long as any others
b. was first performed while Handel was in prison.
c. uses an orchestra.
d. does not really have characters and a plot and also contains New Testament material.

The new use of homophony began around 1600 and made possible the:
a. emergence of opera.
b. use of safe milk for drinking.
c. use of acoustic tiles and early stereo effects.
d. use of stringed instruments.

Handel’s Water music was written for:
a. a festival by the mineral water spas.
b. the christening ceremony of a Duke’s child.
c. the musical Cinderella.
d. a party hosted by King George I on the River Thames.

The organ is sometimes called the “King of Instruments” because:
a. only nobility were allowed to play the organ.
b. of its use in the castles.
c. of its size, power, and variety of tone.
d. of the gold, ivory, and rich woods from which it is constructed

In opera, the new homophonic texture:
a. restored a greater sense of balance between text and music.
b. made all of the voices sound the same.
c. was boring to the listeners.
d. blended the church modes into a new type of harmony.

By using the term “baroque,” historians were calling attention to the:
a. financial condition of the aristocracy.
b. extravagant and even bizarre qualities of the music.
c. condition of many of the instruments of the day.
d. broken nature of the arpeggiated chords in keyboard accompaniments.

Baroque composers wrote music for services of different faiths, including:
a. Muslim, Catholic, and Protestant.
b. Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican.
c. Buddist, Catholic, and Liturgical Bohemians.
d. Southern Baptist, Mormon, and non-denominational.

When the church banned opera performance during the season of Lent the:
a. impresarios filled their opera houses by hiring the same musicians to perform Oratorio.
b. musical form know as opera died out.
c. performers moved on to Eastern cultures where they could still perform.
d. opera performers protested and performed in the streets.

Foreign language opera should probably not be sung in English for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:
a. English is a challenging language when it comes to rhyme.
b. it is difficult to create translations that retain the sense of the original and mesh well with the composer’s music
c. words are sounds in their own right and we would not be hearing it as the composer intended.
d. it is impossible to create an opera in English that can be easily understood because of all of the American consonants and dialects, so it is best to keep it in other languages.

Program music is:
a. vocal works written to meet a need in a scheduled program.
b. compositions written to order for various programs in the church year.
c. a concert presented that has a printed program.
d. an instrumental work that is in some way associated with a story, event, or idea.

Trio-sonata texture features:
a. two high voices and one basso continuo.
b. three high voices written in very close harmony.
c. any combination of instruments and voices.
d. two basso continuo instruments and one recorder.

The Baroque era was a time of:
a. energy and motion, virtuosity and ornamentation.
b. no new musical advances.
c. stillness and slow paced music.
d. imbalance and dull, dreary architecture.

The opening entry of all the voices on the main subject of a fugue is known as:
a. a fugal confrontation because it presents the idea to be questioned.
b. the open presentation because it presents the theme for the first time.
c. the coda because it begins and ends the presentation.
d. a fugal exposition because it exposes the main idea of the work.

Opera was the result of:
a. a small group of philosophers, musicians, and poets who met in Florence to consider reviving the synthesis of music and drama as it had been done in the ancient Greek culture
b. a group of housewives who overheard their children acting out stories with music and shared this practice with their composer husbands.
c. nothing in particular; it just came about one day as a form of entertainment since they were all quite restless and bored without the modern day conveniences of television, movies, and radio.
d. someone uncovering a copy of Hildegard von Bingen’s play.

The dates for the Baroque era in music are:
a. 1825-1900.
b. 1600-1750.
c. 1925-1985.
d. unknown.

The Hallelujah Chorus features:
a. a shaum solo.
b. all three basic textures of music.
c. Handel himself singing the final Hallelujah.
d. soloists echoed by a chorus.

The ritornello principle is based upon:
a. alternating the organ with the full orchestra.
b. alternating sections for soloists with sections for the full orchestra.
c. improvisation and the blues scale.
d. using puppets (such as Punchinello) to act out the program during the music.

It is widely believed that King George II, while attending the London premiere of the Messiah:
a. thought that the work was too long and walked out after the second act.
b. was moved by the beauty and majesty of the music and stood in respect.
c. became tired of sitting and stood near the end of the oratorio.
d. fell asleep, snoring loudly, causing the work to be an instant failure.

G. F. Handel:
a. never traveled outside of Germany.
b. composed both opera and oratorio.
c. never wrote any works for orchestra.
d. composed only sacred works

The Castrati:
a. possessed both the high range of a woman’s voice and the physical power of a man’s voice.
b. were an unnatural phenomenon and barbaric by today’s standards.
c. often came from impoverished households where the families had given consent for their sons to have the opportunity to be among the highest paid performers of the day.
d. all of the above.

Audiences in the Baroque could be quite noisy before the beginning of the opera, due in part to:
a. the fact that the music they were about to hear was new and not a cherished and respected masterwork (much like “today’s music” concerts).
b. people regarded the opera as a social event.
c. they were a lower class and did not know how to act.
d. both a and b.

During the Baroque era, there were:
a. many schools for training women to compose music.
b. only organist positions in the churches available for women composers.
c. many opportunities for women composer.
d. virtually no professional prospects for women composers.

In the Baroque, as soloists, musicians:
a. had to obey the rules of the church and not try to be too showy.
b. were out of luck because all of the music was written for ensembles.
c. were expected to embellish the parts written for them.
d. were expected to strictly follow the notes on their score, with no changes.

During the Baroque era, all concertos were built around the:
a. demands of the composer’s patron.
b. ritornello principle.
c. harpsichord as soloist.
d. percussion section.

The oratorio is:
a. musically very similar to an opera, but is unstaged and based on a sacred topic.
b. not at all like an opera, and is only performed during Lent.
c. performed totally a cappella.
d. a genre that was banned due to the theatrics in the church and does not exist today.

During the Baroque Era, churches:
a. did not allow instruments.
b. spent large sums of money on lavish decorations and powerful organs.
c. were thrifty and used little of their resources for the arts.
d. hosted frequent opera concerts.

Barbara Stozzi was one of hundreds of women in the Baroque era who published their own compositions.
a. True
b. False

Bach took new and bold measures in combining very different instrument timbres as the solo instruments in his “Brandenburg Concerto no. 2.”
a. True
b. False

When Bach died in 1750, his music remained very popular and was being performed all over Europe.
a. True
b. False

It was in the Baroque era that organ building enjoyed its golden age.
a. True
b. False

In the Baroque era, polyphonic and homophonic textures “coexist.”
a. True
b. False

A fugue typically begins with the central theme, also known as the plot.
a. True
b. False

During the Baroque era, a nation’s splendor was measured in cultural terms in addition to political and economic terms.
a. True
b. False

The church prohibited performances of operas during the season of Lent.
a. True
b. False

The arts did nothing to project the power of the church.
a. True
b. False

During the Baroque era, the arts became increasingly available to the public.
a. True
b. False

Sacred music was not allowed to be as elaborate as the sacred architecture.
a. True
b. False

George FredericHandel was German by birth, but he also wrote many Italian operas during his years in London.
a. True
b. False

The word “tutti” indicates that only wind instruments should play a given section.
a. True
b. False

Opera failed to become a big business during the Baroque Era.
a. True
b. False

Baroque composers wrote unprecedented quantities of chamber music.
a. True
b. False

The Baroque Era was a period of energy and motion with ornamentation and extremes.
a. True
b. False

Music served as an important means of conveying the teachings of the church.
a. True
b. False

Water Music is a suite of dance movements.
a. True
b. False

For his party on the Thames River, King George commissioned Bach to compose music to be sung by a large choir.
a. True
b. False

A modulation is a change of key within the course of a movement.
a. True
b. False

Opera is a drama sung from beginning to end and is based upon sacred texts.
a. True
b. False

The Baroque era was an age of opulence.
a. True
b. False

Homophonic texture made it very difficult to understand the text.
a. True
b. False

During the Classical Era:
a. churches and royal courts remained important centers of culture.
b. theaters and concert halls open to the paying public began to flourish for the first time on a widespread scale.
c. Vienna was the musical center of Europe.
d. all of the above

The term “opera buffa” indicates:
a. music that has been banned by the Emperor.
b. performers with elaborate hairstyles.
c. comic opera.
d. libretto based upon the lives of animals.

Haydn:
a. lived in Athens for most of his life and sang for Caesar’s funeral.
b. wrote only opera and oratorios.
c. was poor and unknown throughout his lifetime.
d. worked for a royal family (The Esterhazys).

Billings named his piece Chester
a. after a town in Massachusetts
b. to honor the mayor of Boston
c. after the city he was born in
d. to honor the writer of the text

The second half of the eighteenth century witnessed:
a. the birth of Jazz.
b. a tremendous growth in amateur music making at home.
c. the downfall of Haydn’s career.
d. a move back to the basics of Gregorian Chant.

The Classical Era was a period existing from roughly:
a. 500-1200.
b. 1600-1715.
c. 1750 – 1800.
d. 1924-1980.

The development section of Sonata Form:
a. is generally harmonically unstable.
b. presents themes and transforms them so that they are different from the original hearing.
c. falls between the exposition and recapitulation.
d. all of the above.

In the string quartet, the standard ranges of the singing voice (SATB) correspond to:
a. trumpet, French horn, tuba, viola.
b. violin 1, flute, bass clarinet, violin 2.
c. oboe, bassoon, English horn, cello.
d. violin 1, violin 2, viola, cello

Billings demonstrated the spirit of the American colonist in that he
a. could name five British generals in one song
b. was financially successful throughout his life
c. went on the “midnight ride” of 1775 with Paul Revere
d. taught himself to compose

Rapid advances in technology during the Classical Era included the:
a. steam engine, the cotton gin, and the principle of manufacturing based on interchangeable parts
b. telephone, the electric guitar, and the radio.
c. car, hearing aids, and portable heaters.
d. printing press, the polio vaccine, and principles based on the works of Hildegard of Bingen.

The soloist would signal the orchestra that a cadenza was about to end by playing:
a. a sequence of sixteenth notes in the tonic key.
b. a long trill.
c. a rest longer than two measures.
d. the highest possible note on his instrument.

“Da capo” means:
a. to be played only in the palace.
b. hats are required.
c. “from the head,” or “from the top.”
d. to end.

The leading composers of the Classical Era were:
a. Vivaldi and Mozart.
b. Gilbert and Sullivan.
c. Martini and Rossi.
d. Haydn and Mozart

Sonata Form contains:
a. Exposition, Reposition, Disposition, and Content.
b. Theme, Chord, Texture, and Analysis.
c. Exposition, Development, Recapitulation, and Coda.
d. Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry, and Tutti Frutti.

Mozart’s compositions were set apart from other composers due to his plethora of musical ideas and:
a. the variety of these musical ideas within a given movement.
b. his use of too many notes.
c. his use of Gregorian chant in every composition.
d. the new instruments that he invented.

The “place to be” during the Classical Era for musicians was:
a. New York, NY.
b. Lexington, TN.
c. Vienna, Austria.
d. Tokyo, Japan.

During the Classical Era, the Baroque love of ornamentation, virtuosity, and expressive extremes gave way to more classical ideas of:
a. balance, clarity, and naturalness.
b. imbalance, lack of form, and unnatural elements.
c. dissonance, polyrhythm, and vague interpretations.
d. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The most important new structural innovation of the Classical era (used in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in g minor) was the development of:
a. the fugue.
b. call and response.
c. the twelve tone series.
d. sonata form.

A concerto is:
a. a three-movement work for solo instrument and orchestra.
b. the name of one of Bach’s 20 children.
c. a woodwind instrument.
d. a composition for strings and brass, but no woodwinds.

One possible reason that Mozart’s sister stopped touring and composed very little is:
a. she was not talented.
b. she died at the age of 12.
c. professional outlets for women composers were virtually nonexistent during the Classical Era.
d. her mother demanded that she stay at home and learn to cook.

Sonata Form allowed for the:
a. flexibility of using various timbre instruments, including the banjo and saxophone.
b. presentation, development, and resolution of multiple themes within a single movement.
c. composer to switch between choral and instrumental sections within a single movement.
d. listeners to sing along on familiar themes.

Mozart was:
a. from Italy.
b. a quiet, shy person.
c. a child prodigy.
d. a composer of mainly string quartet and piano works.

For “Enlightenment” artists and thinkers, the power to convince was found in critical thinking and reasoned discussion, which aimed to persuade the mind.
a. True
b. False

In Classical era opera, plots and characters became less realistic and more imitative of the Greek gods.
a. True
b. False

The string quartet developed in the Classical Era.
a. True
b. False

The concerto of the Classical Era combines the ritornello principle of the Baroque with the newer sonata form.
a. True
b. False

During the Classical Era, national independence and democracy became the new “ideas of sound order.”
a. True
b. False

Ludwig van Beethoven was one of Haydn’s last composition pupils.
a. True
b. False

The structural pattern ABA was rarely used in the Classical Era.
a. True
b. False

Classical Era melodies are on the whole less tuneful and more complicated with less balance than that of the Baroque Era.
a. True
b. False

Recapitulation must return to the “home” key of the tonic.
a. True
b. False

During Mozart’s time, improvisation was never allowed.
a. True
b. False

The Theme and Variation form was extremely popular, and basically presented a theme and altered it in some way in a succession of individual variations.
a. True
b. False

There is always a return to the primary key in the recapitulation and it almost always coincides with the return of the opening idea in its original form.
a. True
b. False

Harmony does not play an important role in the Sonata form structure.
a. True
b. False

The world was at peace, and there were no revolutions during the Classical Era.
a. True
b. False

Even a large number of instruments playing together can create a soft sound.
a. True
b. False

The term “Classical” also refers to Greek and Roman antiquity.
a. True
b. False

The first section in Sonata form, the exposition, never modulates.
a. True
b. False

Opera began during the Classical Era and was generally performed in the English language.
a. True
b. False

Maria Anna (“Nannerl”) Mozart was as much a child prodigy on the keyboard as her younger brother.
a. True
b. False