Music Appreciation Flashcards
Music can be defined as
An art based on the organization of sounds in time
The four main properties of musical sounds are pitch, dynamics, tone color, and
Rhythm
The relative highness or lowness of a sound is called
Dynamics
In general, the smaller the vibrating element, the ______ its pitch
Lower
The distance in pitch between any two tines is called
An interval
If a pitch vibrates at 880 cycles, the octave below could vibrate at _____ cycles.
440
The interval that occurs when two different tones blend so well when sounded together that they seem to merge into one tone, is called an
Octave
The distance between the lowest and highest tones a voice or instrument can produce is called
Pitch Range
Timbre is synonymous with
Tone Color
When music is created at the same time as it is performed, it is said to be
Improvised
The bow that string players usually use to produce sound on their instruments is a slightly curved stick strung tightly with
Horsehair
The strings of a violin are tuned
By tightening or loosening the pegs
Plucking the string with the finger instead of using the bow is called
Pizzicato
Woodwind instruments are so named because they
were originally made of wood
Which of the following is not a double-reed instrument?
Clarinet
The vibrations of brass instruments come from
The musician’s lips
A ____ is an apparatus that produces ticking sounds or flashes of light at bay desired musical speed
Metronome
A ______ sign is used in musical notation to cancel a previous sharp or flat sign
Natural
Western music uses ____ letters of the alphabet to indicate pitch
The first seven
In musical notation, pitches are written on a set of five horizontal lines called a
Staff
In musical notation, silence is indicated by
Rests
A cadence is
A resting place at the end of a phrase
A chord is a
Combination of three or more tones sounded at once
The simplest, most basic chord used in western music is the
Triad
If a flute player were to play a solo without any other accompaniment, the texture would be
Monophonic
When two or more melodic lines of equal interest are performed simultaneously, the texture is
Polyphonic
In music, ____ refers to a characteristic way of using melody, rhythm, tone color, dynamics, harmony, texture, and form
Style
The word baroque has at various times meant all of the following except
Naturalistic
Baroque style flourished in music during the period
1600-1750
The two giants of baroque composition were George Frideric Handel and
Johann Sebastian Bach
Instrumental music became as important as vocal music for the first time in the _____ period.
Late Baroque
Affections in baroque usage refers to
Emotional states or moods of music
A baroque musical composition usually expresses _______ within the same movement.
One basic mood
The compelling drive and energy in baroque music are usually provided by
Repeated rhythmic patterns
Baroque melodies often are
Elaborate and ornamental
Melodic sequence refers to
The successive repetition of a musical idea at higher or lower pitches
Terraced dynamics refers to
The sudden alternation from one dynamic level to another
The main keyboard instruments of the baroque period were the organ and the
Harpsichord
A popular keyboard instrument in which sound was produced by means of brass blades striking the strings was the
Clavichord
The most characteristic feature of baroque music is its use if
Basso continuo
A bass part together with numbers that specify the chords to be played above is called
Figured bass
The orchestra evolved during the baroque period into a performing group based on instruments of the ____ family.
Violin
The music director of a baroque court usually not responsible for
Publicity in reaching an audience
The position of the composer during the baroque period was that of
A high-class servant with few personal rights
During the baroque period, ____ were not allowed to be employed as music directors
Women
Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 is unusual in that
has a harpsichord as a solo instrument
The main theme of a fugue is called the
Subject
When the subject of a fugue is presented in the dominant scale, it is called the
Answer
An ______ is a play, set to music, sung to orchestral accompaniment, with scenery, costumes, and action
Opera
The text, or book, of a musical dramatic work is called the
Libretto
A song for solo voice with orchestral accompaniment is called a/an
Aria
A(n) _____ is a musical number of two solo voices with orchestral accompaniment
Duet
A(n) ____ is an operatic number involving three or more leading singers
Ensemble
The ____ is the person who beats time, indicates expression, cues in musicians, and controls the balance among instruments and voices
Conductor
An_____ is an orchestral composition performed before the curtain rises on a dramatic work
Overture
The first opera house in Europe to offer entry to anyone with the price of admission opened in 1637 in
Venice
The earliest opera that has been preserved is Jacopo Peri’s
Euridice
Castrati
All answers are correct
In the myth of Orpheus, Orpheus goes to Hades in the hope of bringing _______ back to life.
Eurydice
The respect given Henry Purcell by his fellow Englishmen is evidenced by his burial in
Westminster Abbey
Vivaldi spent most of his life working at na institution for orphaned and illegitimate girls in
Venice
Which of the following about Vivaldi’s La Primavera (Spring) from The Four Seasons is true?
The piece is an example of program music
While at Leipzig, Bach
Taught organ and compositions, gave recitals, and was often asked to judge the constructions of organs
Bach was recognized as the most eminent _____ of his day
Organist
Bach’s personal musical style was drawn from
All answers are correct
Sets of dance-inspired instrumental movements are called
Suites
A large-scale composition for chorus, vocal soloists, and orchestra, usually set to a narrative biblical text, is called a(n)
Oratorio
Oratorio differs from opera in that it has no
Acting, scenery, or costumes
George frideric Handel was born in 1685, the same year as
Johann Sebastian Bach
Handel spent the major portion of his life in
England
Handel’s Messiah is an example
An oratorio
The phrase Middle Ages refers to the period of European history spanning
450-1450
The Renaissance may be described as an age of
All answers are correct
In the Middle Ages, most important musicians were
Priests
A virtual monopoly on learning during the Middle Ages was held by
Monks in monasteries
During the Middle Ages, what institution was the center of musical life?
The church
Church officials expected monks to sing
With proper pronunciation and tone quality
The church frowned on instruments because of their
Earlier role in pagan rites
The use of organs in church
Bothered the clergy because they distracted the listeners from worship
What we know about instruments in church comes mainly from
The pictures and literary descriptions of the day
Most medieval music was
Vocal
We know from paintings and literary descriptions of the Middle Ages that
Instruments were used
During the late Middle Ages, the church believed that music during religious services should be
Used only as a discrete accompaniment
Gregorian chant
Is monophonic in texture
Gregorian chant melodies tend to move
Stepwise within a narrow range of pitches
Gregorian chant is named after Pope Gregory I, who
Was credited by medieval legend with having created it
The two types of services at which monks and nuns sang were
The office and the mass
The highlight of the day for monks and nuns was
The mass
The earliest surviving chant manuscripts date about the _____ century
Ninth
The first large body of secular songs that survives in decipherable notation was composed
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
French secular songs of the Middle Ages dealt with all of the following subjects except
Religion
One function of secular music in the late Middle Ages was to provide accompaniment for
Dancing
An estampie is a medieval
Dance
The first steps in a revolution that eventually transformed western music began sometime between 700 and 900 with the
Addition of a second melodic line to Gregorian Chant
The center of polyphonic music in Europe after 1150 was
Paris
One of the major characteristics of ars nova music is its use of
Syncopation
A new system of music notation that allowed composers to specify almost any rhythmical pattern had evolved by the
Early fourteenth century
Guillaume de Machaut was a ______ as well as a musician
all answers are correct
The Renaissance in music occurred between
1450 and 1600
Classicism, as a stylistic period in western music, roughly encompassed the years
1750-1820
Which of the following statements is not true of the classical period?
Philosophers and writers in the classical period believed that custom and tradition, rather than reason, were the best guides to human contact
Which of the following characteristics is not typical of the music of the classical period?
Classical music is basically polyphonic
Which of the following statements is not true?
Composers in the classical period continued to use terraced dynamics in their compositions
The typical orchestra of the classical period consisted of
Strings, woodwinds, horns, trumpets, and timpani
Which of the following instruments were not normally included in the classical orchestra?
Trombones
Political and economic power shifted to the middle class from the aristocracy and the
Church
The prospering middle class in the classical period sought aristocratic luxuries such as
All answers are correct
Which of the following statements is not true?
Political and economic power shifted during the classical period from the middle class to the aristocracy and the church
Joseph Haydn was content to spend most of his life
Serving a wealthy aristocratic family
Haydn’s contract of employment shows that he was considered
A skilled servant
Composers in the classical period took middle-class tastes into account by
All answers are correct
In the classical period, comic operas sometimes
Ridiculed the aristocracy
In Vienna, Haydn and Mozart
Became close friends
Short musical ideas or fragments of themes that are developed within a composition are called
Motives
The character of the minuet is best described as
Stately and dignified
In many of Beethoven’s works, there is a _____ movement instead of the minuet.
Scherzo
The scherzo differs from the minuet in that it
Moves more quickly
Symphony may be defined as
All answers are correct
The unusual order of movements in a classical symphony is
Fast, slow, dance-related, fast
Which of the following is not true of the symphony?
It is a musical composition for solo instrument and orchestra
The lyrical slow movement of a symphony is most often the
Second
A concerto is a large-scale work in several movements for
An instrument soloist and orchestra
The classical concerto differs form the symphony in that it does not have a ______ movement
Minuet or scherzo
A classical concerto greatly relies in a soloist’s
Virtuosity
A brilliant solo section in a concerto designed to display the performer’s virtuosity is called
A cadenza
Classical chamber music is designed
For the intimate setting of a small room
The most important form of classical chamber music is the
String quartet
The string quartet
All answers are correct
A major factor that distinguishes chamber music form the symphony or concerto is that chamber music
Is performed by one player per part
Haydn was fortunate in having a long and fruitful, as well as financially stable, relationship with the noble Hungarian family of
Esterhazy
Which of the following was not one of Haydn’s duties while in the service of the Esterhazys?
Writing a cantat each week for Sunday services
Although Haydn spent most of his time in Hungary, he often traveled to _____, where his music was performed often and greatly admired
London
Along with his symphonies, Haydn’s _____ are considered his most important works
String quartets
Which of the following statements is not true?
In his later years, Mozart was financially well off, widely acclaimed, and sought after by an adoring public
Between the ages of six and fifteen, Mozart
Was continually on tour in England and Europe
Mozart tried to find fame and fortune by moving to ____, at the age of twenty-five
Vienna
Mozart composed his Requiem
On commission from a stranger
Don Giovanni, in Mozart’s opera pf that name, is
The legendary Spanish lover
Mozart’s Symphony No. 40
features and emotional intensity uncommon for the time
The Third Symphony of Beethoven was originally composed to commemorate the deeds of ____ as the embodiment of heroism and democratic ideal
Napoleon Bonaparte
Beethoven
All answers are correct
Which of the following statements is not true
Like Haydn and ,any other composers of the classical period, Beethoven depended on the aristocracy for his financial well-being
We have a record of Beethoven’s struggle with his musical material because he
Showed his workflow in musical sketchbooks
Beethoven’s sixteen ______ are generally considered among the greatest music ever composed
String quartets
Beethoven is often credited as being
The bridge between the classical and romantic periods
The opening motive of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 has a ____ rhythm.
short-short-short-long
Beethoven’s only opera is entitled
Fidelio
