Deck 20: Prelude: Music and Modernism

Question 1

Modernist composers before World War I were mainly preoccupied with changing their approach to:

A) rhythm and harmony.
B) melody, rhythm, and tone color.
C) melody, harmony, and tonality.
D) tone color and rhythm.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which composer is sometimes called an impressionist and sometimes a symbolist?

A) Arnold Schoenberg
B) Anton Webern
C) Claude Debussy
D) Igor Stravinsky

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Modernist composers after World War II were preoccupied with changing their approach to:

A) tone color and rhythm.
B) melody, harmony, and tonality.
C) tonality, melody, and tone color.
D) tonality and harmony.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Schoenberg's reference to "the emancipation of dissonance" meant emancipation from the need to:

A) be free.
B) serve homophony.
C) dominate.
D) resolve to consonant chords.

Question 5

Which artistic movement took its inspiration from Wagner's leitmotivs?

A) impressionism
B) symbolism
C) expressionism
D) cubism

Question 6

In the early twentieth century,harmony:

A) became more consonant.
B) became more dissonant.
C) became less important.
D) stressed resolution once again.

Question 7

Atonal music is music in which no ________ can be found.

A) harmonic contrast
B) tonal center
C) incoherence
D) points of imitation

Question 8

The scale in which eight pitches are made to fit into the octave by alternating whole steps and half steps is the ________ scale.

A) pentatonic
B) whole-tone
C) quarter-tone
D) octatonic

Question 9

The chief composers associated with the early phase of modernism-Debussy,Stravinsky,and Schoenberg-were members of the:

A) Blue Rider group.
B) Apaches.
C) Symbolists.
D) avant-garde.

Question 10

What is one way in which Stravinsky departed from the Romantic style?

A) He wrote only atonal music.
B) He refused to use any meter.
C) He used mechanistic rhythms as opposed to rubato.
D) He wrote no works for large orchestra.

Question 11

Which musical elements were questioned in the modernist movement?

A) melody, rhythm, and tone color
B) melody, harmony, tonality, and rhythm
C) harmony and tone color
D) harmony and tonality

Question 12

The composers Stravinsky and Bartók were associated with ________ and sometimes suggested ________ in their works.

A) impressionism; atonality
B) serialism; consonance
C) minimalism; rubato
D) expressionism; violence

Question 13

Music where no tonal center can be found is:

A) dependent on a regular harmonic pulse.
B) dependent on a general harmonic set of progressions.
C) more consonant.
D) atonal.

Question 14

The "new language" for music invented in the 1920s was:

A) primitivism.
B) objectivism.
C) serialism.
D) expressionism.

Question 15

The feeling of centrality or focus toward a particular pitch is related to:

A) tonality.
B) texture.
C) rhythm.
D) dissonance.

Question 16

The composer who originated serialism is:

A) Arnold Schoenberg.
B) Richard Wagner.
C) Igor Stravinsky.
D) Béla Bartók.

Question 17

The five-note scale playable on the black keys of the piano is called the ________ scale.

A) pentatonic
B) whole-tone
C) quarter-tone
D) octatonic

Question 18

All of the following are characteristic of a modernist approach to melody except:

A) brief, emotionless fragments of folk music.
B) the use of long, sweeping, inspired melodies.
C) exaggerated intervals and intense rhythms.
D) the suggestion of melody, but no clear tunes.

Question 19

Around 1900,some conservative composers referred to melody,harmony,and tonality as:

A) the "holy trinity" of music.
B) metaphors for the dramatic aspect of music.
C) sacred elements in music.
D) crucial for the flow of form.

Question 20

The scale in which the octave is divided into six equal intervals is the ________ scale.

A) pentatonic
B) whole-tone
C) quarter-tone
D) octatonic

Question 21

Briefly describe the interdependent relationships among the developments of melody,harmony,and tonality.

Question 22

Discuss the concepts in the visual arts,literature,and music that were questioned by modernists in the early twentieth century.

Question 23

Briefly discuss the impressionist movement in the visual arts.

Question 24

Composers focused on certain musical elements before World War I and on other musical elements after World War II.Name the elements stressed in each era.

Question 25

With which nineteenth-century composer were symbolist poets fascinated? Why? Which technique of this composer intrigued them most?

Question 26

Describe some of the events and scientific discoveries that shook the late nineteenth century's confidence in the idea of progress.What effect did these events have on music,literature,and the arts?

Question 27

Name and briefly describe three new kinds of scales used by composers after 1900.

Question 28

Explain what Schoenberg meant when he spoke of "the emancipation of dissonance."

Question 29

Was early twentieth-century music responsive to public opinion? Was emotional expression to an audience important to early twentieth-century composers? Explain.

Question 30

Briefly trace the shift from tonality to atonality in terms of the use of dissonance and chromaticism from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century.What was meant by the "holy trinity" of music?

Question 31

Contrast Stravinsky's use of rhythm and attitudes with that of nineteenth-century composers.

Question 32

Were all modernist composers members of the avant-garde? Describe the variety of music that can be called modernist.

Question 33

Define expressionism as an early twentieth-century artistic movement.

Question 34

With which movement in the visual arts is Debussy most often associated? Explain.Name the other artistic movement with which he is also sometimes associated and explain why.

Question 35

Name three composers who contributed to the disintegration of melody in the early twentieth century.How did they contribute to this change?