The phrase that best describes the general shape of melody during the Romantic period is:
b. Long, singable lines with powerful climaxes and chromatic inflections for expressiveness.
2.Which answer accurately describes harmony during the Romantic period?
a. Greater use of chromaticism makes the harmony richer and more colorful; sudden shifts to remote chords for expressive purposes; more dissonance to convey feeling of anxiety and longing.
3.In which manner did Romantic period composers typically use rhythm?
c. Rhythms are flexible, often languid, and therefore meter is sometimes not clearly articulated; tempo can fluctuate greatly (tempo rubato); tempo can slow to a crawl to allow for ""the grand gesture."""
4.The statement that best describes musical color during the Romantic period is:
c. The orchestra becomes enormous, reaching upward of one hundred performers; trombone, tuba, contrabassoon, piccolo, and English horn added to the ensemble; experiments with new playing techniques for special effects; dynamics vary widely to create different levels of expression; piano becomes larger and more powerful.
5.Which answer accurately describes texture during the Romantic period?
b. Predominantly homophonic but dense and rich because of larger orchestra; sustaining pedal on the piano also adds to density.
6.Which statement about musical form is most applicable to the Romantic period?
b. No new forms created during this style period, rather traditional forms (strophic, sonata-allegro, and theme and variations, for example) used and extended in length; traditional forms also applied to new genres such as the song and symphonic poem."
7.Which genre of composition was not important during the Romantic period?
c. Madrigal and chamber sonata.
8. Which list of musicians does not include Romantic period composers?
b. Josquin, Telemann, Lully, and Prokofiev"
9. What change occurred in the audience's perception of music and composers during the Romantic period?
a. Music was transformed from entertainment to art. b. Certain works were deemed as worthy of continued performance. c. Concerts were no longer social events, but musical experiences that required careful listening." d. The composer was now seen as a demigod rather than a hired employee. e. All of these.
10. Romantic composers not only were inspired by nature, but also had a fascination with the occult, the supernatural, and the macabre."
11. What does ""rubato"" mean?"
e. The Italian word for ""robbed,"" in musical notation, an expression mark indicating that the performer may take, or steal, great liberties with the tempo."
13. From the listener's perspective, the most striking aspect of Romantic music is the dense polyphony and rhythmic intricacy of the music."
14. The ""character piece"" is:"
b. a brief instrumental work, usually for the piano, seeking to capture a single mood and often making use of simple binary or ternary form."
16. Which instrument was especially favored during the period because of its dark, rich tone and associations with the hunt--and by extension, nature?"
e. French horn
18. Which statement best describes chromatic harmony?
a. Gave more colors to the harmonic palette because is used all twelve notes of the chromatic scale. b. It encouraged bold chordal shifts. c. Is the reason why Romantic harmony sounds rich and lush. d. It made it possible to glide smoothly to chords only a half-step away. e. All of these.
19. What is a ""virtuoso""?"
a. An instrumental performer or singer possessing extraordinary technical facility.
20.Why did orchestras begin requiring a conductor during the early years of the nineteenth century?
c. Someone was needed to coordinate the efforts of the enlarged ensemble
2 Identify the correct definition of "through-composed."
d. Music that exhibits no obvious repetitions or overt musical form from beginning to end.
4 One of the hallmarks of the Romantic era was a lively interest in literature, and especially poetry. Composers believed that music could intensify poetic sentiments by expressing things that words alone could not.
5 What is a "Schubertiad"?
c. A social gathering for music and poetry that featured Schubert's songs and piano music.
7 Why did composers suddenly show a great interest in writing art songs during the nineteenth century?
b. Because great authors were writing poetry at a frenzied pace.
8 What is a "Lied"?
c. The German genre of art song for voice and piano accompaniment, that originated around 1800.
9Which of the following definitions best suits the meaning of "song cycle"?
a. A collection of several songs united by a common textual theme or literary idea.
10 Identify the correct definition of "modified strophic form."
e. The repetitive form is modified briefly to accommodate a particularly expressive word or phrase in the text.
11 Robert Schumann chose to give his song "Du Ring an meinem Finger" a rondo form, rather than the modified strophic form he used for most of the songs in the cycle Frauenliebe und -leben.
12 Schubert intended the accompaniments for his Lieder to be evocative of the text. What is this accompaniment passage meant to suggest?
b. A wild ride on horseback.
13 All of the statements apply to Schubert with the EXCEPTION of:
d. his father planned that his son would become a physician.
14Identify the statement that does NOT apply to Robert Schumann.
c. His work as a conductor for the Gewandhaus orchestra in Leipzig was highly regarded
15Which statement regarding Clara Schumann is FALSE?
e. Recognizing Robert's genius, her father encouraged her relationship with him and was pleased when they finally married.
16Identify the INCORRECT statement regarding Schubert's career.
a. During his early adult years he traveled around Germany and Austria as a touring virtuoso.
17Wich statement about Robert Schumann is FALSE?
c. He established a lifelong friendship with Berlioz, whom he met while traveling in Italy.
18How does Clara Schumann indulge in the sort of word painting employed throughout by Franz Schubert?
b. By consistently setting the word "not" ("nichts") with a sudden minor chord.
19Which statement does NOT apply to the career of Clara Schumann?
b. As a result of her ability as a composer and virtuoso, a wealthy industrialist provided her with an ample yearly stipend, but with the condition that they never meet.
20Which statement regarding Schubert is FALSE?
d. His program symphony, the "Unfinished," became a model for other Romantic period orchestral compositions.
1What is the correct definition of the "symphonic (tone) poem"?
e. A one-movement work for orchestra of the Romantic era that gives musical expression to the emotions and events associated with a story, play, political occurrence, personal experience, or encounter with nature.
2Wat is meant by "diminution"?
c. A reduction, usually by half, of all the rhythmic durations in a melody.
3What is an ophicleide?
b. A low brass instrument originating in military bands about the time of the French Revolution; the precursor of the tuba.
4What is the definition of "dramatic overture"?
b. A one-movement work, usually in sonata-allegro form, that encapsulates in music the essential dramatic events of an opera or play; many are performed today at concerts without the opera or play.
5Incidental music is:
d. music inserted between the acts or during important scenes of a play to add an extra dimension to the drama.
7 What is program music?
d. A piece of instrumental music, usually for symphony orchestra, that seeks to recreate in sound the events and emotions portrayed in some extra-musical source: a story, a play, an historical event, an encounter with nature, or even a painting.
8 Identify the correct description of "absolute music."
c. Instrumental music free of a text or any pre-existing program.
11 What is meant by the term "double counterpoint"?
c. Counterpoint with two themes that can reverse position, the top theme moving to the bottom and the bottom to the top.
12The correct definition of "col legno" is:
e. strike the strings with the wood of the bow rather than with the horsehair.
13 The concert overture is:
b. a one-movement work of programmatic content originally intended for the concert hall, and not designed to precede an opera or play.
15 In the eighteenth century, ballet was seen as too frivolous a spectacle to be in the same program as an opera seria.
16What is the cornet?
c. A brass instrument that looks like a short trumpet; it has a more mellow tone than the trumpet and is most often used in military bands.
18 Identify the character or idea associated with this theme from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.
b. Feud theme
19 Identify the character or idea associated with this theme from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.
c. Love theme (part 1)
20Which statement about Berlioz's family background and education is wrong?
a. He met his future wife while studying piano with her father.
21Berlioz was noted for his skill with instruments. Which statement is most accurate?
a. Local tutors taught him to play the flute and guitar, but he never learned to play the piano proficiently. b. His compositions call for an enormous orchestra and he felt the ideal size of this ensemble would include more than four hundred musicians. c. He experimented with new instruments. d. Wrote a treatise on musical instruments that is still used as a textbook in music conservatories around the world. e. All of these.
23 Which statement about Berlioz is not accurate?
c. as a young man he spent six years traveling across Europe, where he met the great artists and authors of his day
24 In The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky creates music and orchestrations that were meant to conjure up exotic locales, at least to Western ears in the nineteenth century. In this clip, how did he choose to call to mind a group of dancing shepherds that young Clara encounters in China?
a. The flutes play the melody.
1. Identify the correct definition of mazurka.
A fast dance of Polish origins in triple meter with an accent on the second beat.
2. What is "Lisztomania"?
Term describing the sensationalism that characterized the audience response to Liszt's concerts.
3. An etude is:
a short one-movement composition designed to improve one aspect of a performer's technique.
4. Which term best applies to "recital"?
a. A concert of chamber music.b. Generally for solo performer rather than a group of musicians. e. All of these.
5. What is meant by "cross-stringing"?
Overlaying the lowest-sounding strings across those of the middle register, thereby producing a richer, more homogenous sound.
6. What is the name of the left pedal on the piano that, when depressed, shifts the position of the hammers relative to the strings, reducing the dynamic level?
7. Identify the correct definition of "nocturne."
e. A slow, introspective type of music, usually for piano, with rich harmonies and poignant dissonances intending to convey the mysteries of the night.
9. What does the sustaining pedal do on the piano?
Removes all the dampers from the strings, allowing them to vibrate freely.
10. What new feature was added to the piano during the nineteenth century?
a.Thicker steel strings. e. All of these.
11. What was one reason why Liszt placed the piano parallel to the line of the stage in his recitals?
To show off his handsome profile.
12. Identify the statement about Chopin's family background and education that is wrong.
a. After receiving composition lessons from Antonio Salieri he was soon writing his own works at an astonishing rate.
13. Which statement does not apply to Chopin's career in Paris?
He heard Niccolò Paganini while in Paris and was so impressed that he vowed to transfer the great violinist's virtuosic technique to the keyboard.
14. Which statement described Chopin's final year?
While his tour of England and Scotland was financially profitable, it weakened his precarious health and he died in Paris of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-nine.
15. Identify the statement about Liszt's family background and musical education that is wrong.
After receiving composition lessons from Antonio Salieri he was soon writing his own works at an astonishing rate.
16. Which statement does not apply to Liszt?
His life epitomized the Romantic artist: while in Italy he consorted with a gang of bandits, twice tried to commit suicide, and he impetuously entered into a marriage that was disaster.
1. What is meant by the Italian term "Risorgimento"?
d. A political movement that sought to unite Italy and free it from foreign domination.
2. "Bel canto" is:
b. a style of singing that features the beautiful tone and brilliant technique of the human voice.
4. Which definition best suits "cabaletta"?
e. The concluding fast aria of any two- or three-section operatic scene; a useful mechanism to get the principals off the stage.
5. "La Scala" is:
d. a scenic plan in Italian opera involving a succession of separate elements such as a slow aria, a recitative, and a fast concluding aria.
6. The correct definition for "scena" is:
a. a scenic plan in Italian opera involving a succession of separate elements such as a slow aria, a recitative, and a fast concluding aria.
7. The terms ________ and ________ refer to the leading female singer in an opera.
b. diva, prima donna
8. Identify the musical term that CORRECTLY describes the listening example.
c. recitativo accompangnato
10. Which statement regarding the cabaletta is inaccurate?
a. Only used for ensemble scenes (duets, trios, chorus).
12. Identify the incorrect statement about Verdi's La traviata.
b. In spite of all the difficulties that are thrown in their path, the lovers--Violetta and Alfredo--overcome all obstacles and they live happily ever after. Verdi composed the work during the early- to mid-1850s, a period he referred to as "my years as a galley slave."
13. Identify the incorrect statement about Verdi's early years.
a. After working for several years in Milan he was forced to flee because of his radical political activities and accumulated debt.
14. Identify the biographical statement about Verdi that is wrong.
b. His operas were so popular that the city of Milan built a special opera house, La Scala, to his specifications and all his remaining operas had their premiere there.
15. Identify the biographical statement about Verdi that is wrong.
b. His last opera was unfinished when he died from throat cancer.
16. In ________ the orchestra merely provides a simple harmonic support, oftentimes like a giant guitar, for the soaring, sometimes divinely beautiful, lines of the voice
. d. bel canto
1. Which statement does not apply to the Bayreuth Festival Theater?
Funds from the composer's devoted admirers throughout Europe poured in to make it possible for the theater to be built.
3. What is the "Liebestod"?
The famous aria sung by the expiring Isolde at the end of the opera Tristan und Isolde.
6. The ________ is a brief, distinctive unit of music designed to represent a character, object, or idea; a term applied to the motives in Wagner's music dramas.
7. Germany is the home of opera. The German language, with its evenly spaced, open vowels, is perfectly suited for singing, and the first operas were created, beginning around 1600, for the cities of Dresden, Munich, and Stuttgart.
8. Identify the erroneous statement about the Ring cycle.
e. Wagner viewed the work as a fairy tale, a harmless fantasy that had no relevance to contemporary life.
9. Which answer does not apply to Tristan und Isolde?
e. The story is based on the Shakespearean drama Troilus and Cressida.
11. Identify the incorrect statement about Wagner.
d. He was refused entrance into the Conservatory of Leipzig because they considered him too old to teach.
12. Identify the incorrect statement about Wagner.
e. Recognizing the genius of his Ring cycle, publishers and opera houses clamored to print and produce this magnificent work.
13. ________ rescued Wagner from financial ruin, encouraged him to complete the Ring; and provided financial assistance for the construction of the Bayreuth Festival Theater, a theater devoted solely to the production of Wagner's music dramas.
King Ludwig II
14. Identify the trait that is not typical of Wagner's music drama
c. Makes the orchestra sound like the strumming of a big guitar.