Final Review Previous Test Questions

The period of the Middle Ages dates from

CE 476 - 1450

________ is traditionally associated with collecting and organizing the chants of the church.

Pope Gregory the Great

Plainchant is also known as Gregorian chant.

True

Which of the following does NOT characterize plainchant?

triadic harmonies

Plainchant utilizes modes. What are modes?

scales that pre-date the major and minor system

Which of the following women was a religious leader and a prominent figure in literature and music?

Hildegard of Bingen

The knowledge of early civilizations and the culture of the Middle Ages were preserved largely in monasteries.

True

The order of church services and the structure of each service are known as the liturgy.

True

The earliest type of polyphony was:

organum.

The first major center of polyphony was:

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Who is credited with compiling the Great Book of Organum (Magnus liber organi)?

Léonin

The period of the Renaissance dates from

CE 1450 - 1600

The Roman Catholic Church service is known as a / an __________.

Mass

The portion of the Mass that remains the same in every celebration of the service is called:

the Ordinary.

The portion of the Mass that changes from day to day, depending on the feast celebrated, is called:

the Proper.

What was the primary language of the Mass?

Latin

Which of the following was a leader in the Protestant Reformation?

Martin Luther

In the Protestant church, the musical emphasis was on:

congregational singing.

After the Protestant Reformation of the early sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church responded with a movement to recapture the loyalty of its people. This was known as:

the Counter-Reformation.

The Council of Trent recommended the following:

1. Removing all secularism from church music.

2. Making the words more understandable.

3. Disciplining the irreverent attitudes of church musicians

True

Which composer responded to the reforms of the Council of Trent in an exemplary fashion, and is credited for "saving" the Mass?

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

The expressive device that Renaissance composers used to pictorialize words musically is called:

word-painting.

Where was the madrigal first developed?

Italy

Only professional musicians performed secular music during the Renaissance.

False

False

True

Secular, vocal music of the Renaissance was performed

in vernacular languages

The printing press had little impact on secular music.

False

Medieval and Renaissance instruments were classified as bas or haut, meaning these two things:

soft and loud

The sixteenth century saw a blossoming of instrumental dance music.

True

Instrumental music of the sixteenth century often did not specify its instrumentation.

True

In what modern-day country gave birth to the Renaissance?

Italy

What is the Danserye?

 

a collection of instrumental dances from 1551

Which of the following characterizes humanism?

all of the above

Which early Renaissance composer exerted a powerful influence on generations of composers who followed?

Josquin des Prez

Josquin’s Ave Maria . . . virgo serena is an example of a/n:

motet.

The period of the Baroque dates from

CE 1600 - 1750

A large vocal genre that includes acting, costumes, and scenery is called a(n):

opera.

What is a virtuoso?

a performer with remarkable technical skill

Which secular medieval musicians entertained audiences at the higher social levels?

troubadours

The term ars nova means ...

new art

In times such as the Baroque era, when women had few choices in their lives, what was the only honorable alternative to marriage?

entering a convent

Barbara Strozzi was

a Baroque female secular composer.

What was one of Martin Luther’s most important and lasting contributions to Western culture?

the idea that musical worship belongs to the congregation

Which describes the performing forces of a cantata?

soloists, chorus, and orchestra

Bach wrote many of his most important works for which instrument?

organ

This family of instruments prevalent in the Baroque that were replaced in ensembles by modern strings.

viol de gamba

Repetition is typical in folk dance music.

True

The set of keys on a harpsichord, or organ are also referred to a manuals.

True

Some prominent composers have letters and numbers after the title of their works (i.e.  Bach's "Little" Fugue in G, BWV 578). This indicates what?

It indicates the existance of a complete works catalogue.

Which of William Billing's compositions was popular during the Revolutionary War and considered by some to be the country's first national anthem?

Chester

Who are some of the men that comprise the First New England School of composers?

Williams Billings, Daniel Reed, Stephen Jenks, Francis Hopkins

What was the name of the psalster brought to New England by the Pilgrims in 1620?

The Ainsworth Psalster

Which era in music history did the major / minor tonality system solidify, homophony become the prevailing texture, and we see purely instrumental genres begin to proliferate?

Baroque

In which era of music history was monophony prevalent, polyphony began, tonality was modal, and nearly all known music was for the church?

Middle Ages

In which era of music history did music continue to be polyphonic, the mass was an important genre, and secular music emerge.

Renaissance

In which era of music history is Opera considered to be the most important new genre of music?

Baroque

The Classical period in music ranged from approximately:

1750 to 1825.

What European city was the center of music and culture in the Classical period?

Vienna

What is the difference between "classical" and Classical music?

the term classical is used to describe all types of Western Art music; Classical works are those written and exemplifying the stylistic characteristics found from 1750 to 1825

Music composed without literary or pictorial meanings is called:

absolute music.

In musical compositions, a theme is:

a musical idea that is used as a building block.

A composer can fragment a theme by dividing it into smaller units called:

motives.

In the Classical multimovement cycle, the 1st movement is usually in what form.

sonata- allegro

Which movement of a symphony is traditionally the slowest?

the second movement

What is the typical form of the 3rd movement of a Classical Symphony?

minuet and trio (dance)

A string quartet consists of:

two violins, viola, and cello.

Which group of instruments was the nucleus of the Classical orchestra?

strings

The term symphony refers to ...

an ensemble and a genre

The nickname “father of the symphony” was earned by:

Haydn.

The three main sections of sonata-allegro form are the exposition, the development, and the:

recapitulation.

Which composer was a musical prodigy who died at the age of 35?

Mozart

Which composer both maintained and disrupted the balance of the Classical style and was a transitional figure into the Romantic period?

Beethoven

Which of the following best describes the motive of Beethoven Symphony No. 5?

all of the above

The Romantic period in music ranged from approximately

1820 - 1900

The nineteenth century saw the rise of a new social order shaped by the middle class and:

the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution.

Which of the following does NOT describe orchestras of the nineteenth century?

The size of orchestras decreased, making for more compact ensembles.

Changes in instrumentation (types and numbers) along with how they were used in the music help to differentiate the historical periods.

True

An interest in folklore and folk music resulted from the rise of nationalism.

True

The German term for the art song is:

Lied.

Two important composers of nineteenth-century Lieder:

Schubert and Schumann

A group of Lieder unified by a narrative thread or by a descriptive or expressive theme is called a(n):

song cycle

A song that is composed from beginning to end without repetition of whole sections is called:

through composed.

The most important keyboard instrument of the Romantic period was the:

piano

During the Romantic era, piano music was intended for professional performers only.

False

Which of the following was a noted women composers of the Romantic era?

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

Instrumental music endowed with literary, philosophical, or pictorial associations is called:

program music

Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique is an example of a:

program symphony.

In Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, the idée fixe:

all of the above

Orchestration is:

the practice of writing music for orchestra

Which composer is considered the single most important figure in the artistic world of the latter half of the nineteenth century?

Wagner

Impressionism in music is best exemplified by the works of

Claude Debussy.

Dvořák encouraged American composers to take inspiration from European immigrants, Native and African Americans.

True

Which Bohemian composer was a well-known and respected conductor?

 

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was ...

all of the above

Which of the following describes music in America during the early nineteenth century?

Music was largely imported from Europe.

Which nineteenth-century American composer is best remembered for his parlor songs and minstrel show tunes?

Stephen Foster

The tradition of the ring shout was brought to America from:

 

Africa.

African-American slaves in the nineteenth century created a genre of religious song called:

the spiritual.

Which of the following describes spirituals?

They contained coded messages about earthly escape.

In African American spirituals, the Biblical Moses is the coded reference to this conductor on the underground railroad.

Hariett Tubman