Music Appreciation Test #4

William Grant Still’s works in African American style, such as his Afro-American Symphony of 1931, were

never performed during his lifetime.
severely criticized by audiences and critics.
panned by critics, but popular with audiences.
performed to critical acclaim in New York.

never performed during his lifetime.

While not rejecting any influence, Béla Bartók emphasized that the strongest influence on his music was

American.
Arabic.
Hungarian.
Rumanian.

Hungarian.

The melodies Béla Bartók used in most of his works are

authentic folk melodies gathered in his research.
original themes that have a folk flavor.
reminiscent of nineteenth-century symmetrical themes.
exclusively Hungarian and Rumanian folk tunes.

original themes that have a folk flavor.

The deliberate evocation of primitive power through insistent rhythms and percussive sounds is known as

ostinato.
Africanism.
barbarism.
primitivism.

primitivism.

Béla Bartók’s ______________ are widely thought to be the finest since those of Ludwig van Beethoven.

symphonies
string quartets
concertos
solo piano works

string quartets

Which of the following characteristics is not usually associated with impressionism?

Fleeting mood
Clearly delineated forms
Misty atmosphere
Symbolism

Clearly delineated forms

Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut, illustrates Charles Ives’s technique of quoting snatches of familiar tunes by presenting fragments of

Yankee Doodle.
God Save the Queen.
Home on the Range.
Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Yankee Doodle.

An eerily expressive kind of declamation midway between song and speech, introduced during the expressionist period, is

stile rappresentativo.
bel canto.
Pierrot Lunaire.
Sprechstimme.

Sprechstimme.

Ellen Taffee Zwilich’s Concerto Grosso 1985 is an example of

total serialism.
quotation music.
minimalism.
chance music.

quotation music.

The flowering of African American culture called the "Harlem Renaissance" spanned the years

1880s-1900.
1900-17.
1917-35.
1935-45.

1917-35.

Minimalism as an artistic movement was a

way to create popular works quickly and with little effort.
reaction against the complexity of serialism and the randomness of chance music.
simplification of nonwestern thought and musical styles.
natural outgrowth of the late romantic style.

reaction against the complexity of serialism and the

Impressionist painters were primarily concerned with the effect of light, color, and

rhythm.
atmosphere.
detail.
clarity.

atmosphere.

The absence of key or tonality in a musical composition is known as

polytonality.
ostinato.
a tone cluster.
atonality.

atonality.

Which of the following is not primarily known as a minimalist composer?

Terry Riley
George Crumb
Steve Reich
Philip Glass

George Crumb

Béla Bartók was a leading authority on

peasant music.
twelve-tone music.
American jazz.
the music of ancient Greece.

Peasant music.

A piano is often used in twentieth-century orchestral music to

"sing" a beautiful melody.
play important cadenzas in slow movements.
provide a nucleus for the orchestra similar to the baroque basso continuo.
add a percussive edge.

Add a percussive edge.

The twentieth-century artistic movement that stressed intense, subjective emotion was called

impressionism.
primitivism.
expressionism.
neoclassicism.

expressionism

An example of Copland’s use of serialist technique is
Music for the Theater.

Connotations for Orchestra.
Fanfare for the Common Man.
Appalachian Spring.

Connotations for orchestra

After serving in the navy and a brief return to studies at Oberlin College, William Grant Still moved to New York where he

made band arrangements and played in the orchestras of all-black musical shows.
practiced medicine.
served as a navy recruiter.
composed full time to satisfy his many commissions.

Made band arrangements and played in the orchestras of all-black musical shows

The first opera created for television was Gian-Carlo Menotti’s

Turandot.
Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Trouble in Tahiti.
The Telephone.

Amahl and the Night Visitors

The use of two or more contrasting and independent rhythms at the same time is known as

polyrhythm.
jazz.
polytonality.
ostinato.

polyrythm

Since 1950 many composers have returned to

tonal music.
Polynesian music.
electronic music.
rhythmless music.

tonal music

Twentieth-century composers incorporated elements of folk and popular music within their personal styles because

it made their music more commercially viable.
they were attracted to the unconventional rhythms, sounds, and melodic patterns.
it simplified technical problems of musical composition.
All answers are correct.

they were attracted to the unconventional rhythms, sounds, and melodic patterns.

To create fresh sounds, twentieth-century composers used

scales borrowed from nonwestern cultures.
scales they themselves invented.
ancient church modes.
All answers are correct.

All answers are correct

A Survivor from Warsaw used three languages: English, German, and

Italian.
French.
Hebrew.
Russian.

Hebrew

In the 1950s Stravinsky dramatically changed his style, drawing inspiration from

Claude Debussy.
Richard Wagner.
Anton Webern.
Russian folk music.

Anton Webern

Which of the following compositions is not by Charles Ives?

Three Places in New England
An American in Paris
Concord Sonata
Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut

An American in Paris

All of the following are proponents of serialism except

Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Pierre Boulez.
Milton Babbitt.
John Cage.

John Cage

Composers began to shift from tonality to the twelve-tone system because

they were bored with tonal music.
they discovered it was a compositional technique rather than a special musical style.
it was easier to write twelve-tone music.
they could make more money selling atonal compositions to a wider public.

They discovered it was a compositional technique rather than a special musical style.

A scale made up of six different notes each a whole step away from the next is called a ________ scale.

pentatonic
octatonic
whole-tone
Gypsy

Whole-tone

Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is scored for

a small chamber group.
vocal soloists and orchestra.
an enormous orchestra.
a wind ensemble.

An enormous orchestra

Appalachian Spring originated as a

program symphony.
song cycle.
chamber opera.
ballet score.

Ballet score

Which of the following characteristics is not true of minimalist music?

A fast rate of change
A clear tonality
A constant repetition of melodic and rhythmic patterns
A steady, driving pulse

A fast rate of change.

Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut, is a movement from Charles Ives’s

Three Places in New England.
Essays before a Sonata.
Concord Sonata.
The Unanswered Question.

Three Places in New England

Aaron Copland was born in

Brooklyn, New York.
the Appalachian mountains.
Anatevka, Russia.
Paris, France.

Brooklyn, New York

In addition to his compositions, Copland made valuable contributions to music in America by

directing composer’s groups.
writing books and magazine articles.
organizing concerts of American music.
All answers are correct.

All answers are correct

Twentieth-century musical expressionism grew out of the emotional turbulence in the works of late romantics such as

Richard Wagner.
Richard Strauss.
Gustav Mahler.
All answers are correct.

All answers are correct

Each movement of William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony is prefaced by lines from a poem by

Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Zora Neale Hurston.
W. E. B. Du Bois.
James Weldon Johnson.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

The most famous riot in music history occurred in Paris in 1913 at the first performance of

Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder.
Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
Richard Wagner’s Siegfried.
Igor Stravinsky’s Les Noces.

Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring

All of the following are major developments in music since 1950 except the

spread of chance music.
increased use of the twelve-tone system.
continued composition of symphonies in the classical style.
return to tonality.

Continued composition of symphonies in the classical style

The twelve-tone composer whose style was most imitated in the 1950s and 1960s was

Anton Webern.
Arnold Schoenberg.
Milton Babbitt.
Alban Berg.

Anton Webern

Many of Debussy’s songs are set to poems by the symbolist poet

Stéphane Mallarmé.
Paul Verlaine.
Jean Paul Sartre.
Arthur Rimbaud.

Paul Verlaine

In chance, or aleatory music, the composer

takes a chance on which performers will perform the work.
chooses pitches, tone colors, and rhythms by random methods.
writes music that is considered impossible to perform.
writes the music in a traditional manner, but allows the recording engineer to make electronic changes.

chooses pitches, tone colors, and rhythms by random methods

The glissando, a technique widely used in the twentieth century, is

the combination of two traditional chords sounding together.
a rapid slide up or down a scale.
a motive or phrase that is repeated persistently at the same pitch throughout a section.
a chord made up of tones only a half step or a whole step apart.

a rapid side up or down a scale.

Twelve-tone compositional techniques used to organize rhythm, dynamics, tone color, and other dimensions of music to produce totally controlled and organized music are called

chance music.
minimalism.
Klangfarbenmelodie.
serialism.

serialism

Expressionism is an art concerned with

depicting the beauties of nature.
emotional restraint, clarity, and balance.
social protest.
All answers are correct.

social protest

All of the following painters may be considered part of the expressionist movement except

Claude Monet.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
Oskar Kokoschka.
Edvard Munch.

Claude Monet

Expressionist composers
contributed many patriotic songs to the war effort.

avoided tonality and traditional chord progressions.
tried to capture atmosphere with rich, sensuous harmonies and pleasant subjects.
All answers are correct.

avoided tonality

Charles Ives’s father was a(n)

insurance salesman.
physician.
professional athlete.
bandmaster.

bandmaster