Entrance Exam

Question 1

5 parts of the Ordinary

Answer 1

Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Kyrie

Question 2

Absolute Music

Answer 2

Music that is independent of words, drama, visual images, or any kind of representational aspects. (Music for Music’s sake)

Question 3

A cappella

Answer 3

Italian for “in chapel style”

To sing without instrumental accompaniment.

Question 4

Which era of music had the goal of arousing the affections?

Answer 4

Baroque

Question 5

Ars Nova

Answer 5

Latin for “new art”

Style of Polyphony from fourteenth-century France. First use of syncopation due to the new notation style.

Question 6

Art Song

Answer 6

A song intended to be appreciated as an artistic statement rather than as entertainment. Usually through composed.

Question 7

Ballad Opera

Answer 7

Genre of eighteenth-century English comic play featuring songs in which new words are set to borrowed tunes.

Question 8

Bar form and name of two different parts.

Answer 8

AAB A= Stollen B= Abgesang

B is usually longer and may end with all or the latter part of the A section.

Question 9

Cantus firmus

Answer 9

Latin for “fixed melody”
An existing melody, often taken from a Gregorian chant, on which a new polyphonic work is based; used especially for melodies presented in long notes.

Question 10

Bel canto

Answer 10

Italian for “beautiful singing”
Italian vocal style of the early nineteenth century marked by lyrical, embellished, and florid melodies that show off the beauty, agility, and fluency of the singer’s voice.

Question 11

German Suite

Answer 11

allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue

Question 12

Les Six

Answer 12

Authur Honegger, Daruis Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric, Louis Durey

Question 13

The Mighty Five

Answer 13

Mily Balkirev, Aleksander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Musorgsky, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

Question 14

Chanson

Answer 14

French for “song” Secular song with French words; used especially for Polyphonic songs of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries.

Question 15

Clausula

Answer 15

Latin for “clause” In NoterDame Polyphony, a self-contained section of an Organum that clases with a cadence.

Question 16

de capo aria

Answer 16

Aria form with two sections. The first section is repeated after the second section’s close, which carries the instruction da capo. Italian for “from the head” Creates an ABA form

Question 17

Equal temperament

Answer 17

A temperament in which the octave is divided into twelve equal semitones. Most common tuning for Western music today.

Question 18

Ethos

Answer 18

Greek for “custom” (1) Moral and ethical character or way of being or behaving. (2) Character, mood, or emotional effect of a certain tonos, mode, meter, or melody.

Question 19

florid organum

Answer 19

Twelfth-century style of two-voice polyphony in which the lower voice sustains relatively long notes while the upper voice sings note-groups of varying length above each note of the lower voice.