Deck 21: Early Modernism

Question 1

The cloud theme in Clouds is represented in the beginning by:

A) a quiet series of chords by woodwinds.
B) a cadenza in the flute.
C) a diatonic scale at the end of the theme.
D) clear modulations throughout.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Who composed Pierrot lunaire?

A) Claude Debussy
B) Alban Berg
C) Igor Stravinsky
D) Arnold Schoenberg

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The performing forces in The Rite of Spring consist of:

A) woodwinds, brass, and percussion.
B) strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.
C) strings, woodwinds, and brass.
D) strings, woodwinds, percussion, and choir.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The rhythms and tempo of "The Game of Abduction" seem to create a mood that is:

A) peaceful and pastoral.
B) religious.
C) intellectual and restrained.
D) violent, surging, and frantic.

Question 5

What instruments seem to dominate the first minute of The Rite of Spring?

A) strings
B) brass
C) woodwinds
D) percussion

Question 6

What instrument introduces a "haunting" motive that occurs many times throughout Clouds?

A) flute
B) French horn
C) bassoon
D) English horn

Question 7

What is heard at the end of the "Round Dances of Spring"?

A) a short return of the slow introduction theme in the bassoon
B) a sequence of the three folk songs
C) a loud, rhythmic passage with irregular accents
D) a tender, lyrical cadenza

Question 8

Who composed Clouds?

A) Igor Stravinsky
B) Charles Ives
C) Arnold Schoenberg
D) Claude Debussy

Question 9

Debussy's approach to musical form in Clouds is to:

A) give homage to Classical forms.
B) compose in simple, easily perceived structures.
C) use sequences.
D) shrink from clear, formal outlines.

Question 10

The opening theme of The Rite of Spring is played by the:

A) bassoon, in the highest part of its range.
B) alto flute.
C) oboe.
D) trombone, in the highest part of its range.

Question 11

Which texture(s)do you hear in Clouds?

A) monophony and homophony
B) homophony
C) monophony and polyphony
D) homophony and polyphony

Question 12

The Rite of Spring is a(n):

A) opera.
B) symphony.
C) symphonic poem.
D) ballet.

Question 13

Which musical element is clearest in Clouds?

A) form
B) tone color of solos
C) motivic development
D) rhythm and meter

Question 14

The performing forces in Clouds consist of:

A) strings and woodwinds.
B) strings and brass.
C) strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.
D) strings, woodwinds, brass, and choir.

Question 15

What is heard at various times in the "Round Dances of Spring"?

A) musique concrète
B) a tone row
C) fragmented folk songs
D) a passacaglia

Question 16

Who composed The Rite of Spring?

A) Béla Bartók
B) Luciano Berio
C) Igor Stravinsky
D) Claude Debussy

Question 17

Which statement about The Rite of Spring is false?

A) It has a primitive quality.
B) It has some complex rhythms with irregular meters.
C) It is composed for ballet.
D) It is based on a symbolist poem.

Question 18

The Rite of Spring does not include:

A) a tone row.
B) irregular, shifting meters.
C) Russian folk music.
D) use of the extreme high and low ranges of instruments.

Question 19

The haunting,recurring English horn motive in Clouds is based on a(n):

A) tone row.
B) octatonic scale.
C) pentatonic scale.
D) major scale.

Question 20

The performing forces in "Night" consist of:

A) voice, bass clarinet, and piano.
B) voice, cello, and piano.
C) voice, cello, bass clarinet, and piano.
D) voice, two violas, and piano.

Question 21

The texture of "The Moonfleck" is:

A) monophony.
B) homophony.
C) homophony, then monophony.
D) polyphony.

Question 22

Wozzeck is a(n):

A) opera.
B) song cycle.
C) symphony.
D) Mass.

Question 23

Who composed "The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting"?

A) Aaron Copland
B) Leonard Bernstein
C) Charles Ives
D) Alban Berg

Question 24

In Act III,scene iv,of Wozzeck,when the orchestra plays alone after the voices stop,the compositional style changes from ________ to ________.

A) fugal; homophonic
B) atonal; late Romantic
C) late Romantic; atonal
D) impressionist; expressionist

Question 25

What seems disturbingly out of place in Act III,scene iii,of Wozzeck but contributes to the mood and setting?

A) the voice
B) the string melody
C) the French horn melody
D) the piano part

Question 26

The performing forces in Act III,scene iii,of Wozzeck consist of:

A) the full orchestra and ragtime piano.
B) voices, the full orchestra, and ragtime piano.
C) voices, banjo, piano, and the full orchestra.
D) the full orchestra and voices.

Question 27

The vocal technique heard in "The Moonfleck" is:

A) Sprechstimme.
B) vocalise.
C) Singspiel.
D) pizzicato.

Question 28

Three of the leading first-phase modernist composers were:

A) Stravinsky, Debussy, and Schoenberg.
B) Mahler, Stravinsky, and Debussy.
C) Mahler, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky.
D) Manet, Mondrian, and Braque.

Question 29

Who composed Wozzeck?

A) Charles Ives
B) Alban Berg
C) Arnold Schoenberg
D) Claude Debussy

Question 30

Which is true of "The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting"?

A) The meter is constant and stable.
B) The themes are stated in their entirety, then varied.
C) The themes are generally fragmentary, like sound bites.
D) The accompaniment never intrudes on the themes but instead always assumes a secondary role.

Question 31

The first phase of avant-garde music emerged in:

A) Paris and Vienna.
B) London and Paris.
C) Berlin and London.
D) Paris and Milan.

Question 32

The first phase of avant-garde music lasted from:

A) 1850 to 1874.
B) 1874 to 1890.
C) 1890 to 1914.
D) 1914 to 1945.

Question 33

In Act III,scene iii,of Wozzeck,what can be heard as an influence of American music?

A) a patriotic tune
B) a Protestant hymn
C) ragtime piano
D) a blues guitar

Question 34

The performing forces in "The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting" consist of:

A) strings, woodwinds, and piano.
B) strings, woodwinds, and percussion.
C) choir, strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.
D) strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and piano.

Question 35

In Act III,scene iii,of Wozzeck,what compositional device is heard?

A) a short chant
B) spoken dialogue
C) a flute and soprano duet
D) a "master rhythm"-a kind of ostinato in many different tempos

Question 36

In "Night," the image of "giant black butterflies" from the poem is evoked by the:

A) muted trumpet.
B) use of Sprechstimme.
C) frantic clarinets.
D) lowest instruments of the ensemble.

Question 37

The innovative vocal technique heard in Act III,scene iv,of Wozzeck is:

A) Singspiel.
B) vocalise.
C) Sprechstimme.
D) isorhythm.

Question 38

"Night" is:

A) atonal.
B) in a major mode.
C) in a minor mode.
D) based on the octatonic scale.

Question 39

The performing forces in "The Moonfleck" consist of:

A) voice, piano, and woodwinds.
B) voice, piano, and strings.
C) voice, piano, woodwinds, and strings.
D) voice, piano, percussion, and woodwinds.

Question 40

Which statement about Debussy is false?

A) Like the Romantics, he searched for new ways to express emotion in music.
B) His orchestral sound is very similar to Mahler's.
C) His tone colors avoid the usual heavy sonorities of the Romantic era.
D) He developed new rich harmonies and new tone colors for orchestra and piano.

Question 41

The artistic movement that came about after World War I and signified a rejection of Romantic emotionality and a return to the styles of earlier composers is:

A) expressionism.
B) symbolism.
C) Neoclassicism.
D) serialism.

Question 42

The premier of The Rite of Spring was famous for:

A) lovely, graceful dancing.
B) a riot by the audience.
C) thunderous applause.
D) the first audience sing-along.

Question 43

The expressionist musical style took root mainly in:

A) Germany and Austria.
B) France and Italy.
C) England and France.
D) Hungary and Russia.

Question 44

The major works of Stravinsky's early period were:

A) ballets.
B) operas.
C) symphonies.
D) lieder.

Question 45

Debussy's Three Nocturnes are titled:

A) Clouds, Festivals, and Sirens.
B) Clouds, Sirens, and Pierrot.
C) Clouds, Games, and Sirens.
D) Clouds, Pelléas, and Mélisande.

Question 46

For a time,Stravinsky composed in the ________ style.

A) Renaissance
B) Neomedieval
C) impressionist
D) Neoclassical

Question 47

What characterizes Debussy's use of tone color?

A) serialized combinations of tone colors
B) one family of the orchestra featured at a time
C) heavy, rich Romantic sonorities
D) subtle, blended, mysterious shades of tone colors

Question 48

The first ballet by Stravinsky was:

A) The Firebird.
B) Petrushka.
C) The Rake's Progress.
D) The Rite of Spring.

Question 49

Which American musical style caught Stravinsky's ear?

A) opera
B) jazz
C) folk
D) rock

Question 50

Toward the end of his career,Stravinsky wrote music in the ________ style.

A) Classical
B) Romantic
C) serialist
D) impressionist

Question 51

The two nonmusical influences on Debussy's style were:

A) symbolist poetry and impressionist painting.
B) symbolist poetry and expressionist painting.
C) German Romantic literature and impressionist painting.
D) Neoclassical literature and cubist painting.

Question 52

What characterizes Debussy's treatment of melody?

A) clear themes based on major or minor scales
B) symmetrical themes built on tidy phrases reminiscent of the Classical era
C) fragmented themes and motives based on exotic scales
D) no identifiable themes, melodies, or motives; atonality

Question 53

The events in The Rite of Spring involve:

A) a walk in the woods in springtime.
B) ancient fertility rites.
C) a fairy tale about a magic spring with healing waters.
D) true stories about life under the tsar.

Question 54

A repeating figure that serves to unify works by composers such as Stravinsky and Debussy is called a(n):

A) passacaglia.
B) ground bass.
C) ostinato.
D) leitmotiv.

Question 55

Debussy's enduring contributions to twentieth-century music are in the areas of:

A) chamber music and piano music.
B) ballet and sonatas for stringed instruments.
C) piano music and orchestration.
D) music criticism and serialism.

Question 56

The main contribution of expressionist composers was:

A) a return to intellectual compositional approaches.
B) the breakdown of tonality.
C) their innovative orchestration technique.
D) a return to Classical forms.

Question 57

One of the devices used by the composer in The Rite of Spring is:

A) serialism.
B) Sprechstimme.
C) the octatonic scale.
D) ostinato.

Question 58

The leading expressionist composer was:

A) Claude Debussy.
B) Igor Stravinsky.
C) Arnold Schoenberg.
D) Alban Berg.

Question 59

In Debussy's music criticism,his ________ views concerning ________ music are clear.

A) positive; Italian vocal
B) negative; German
C) positive; German
D) negative; American

Question 60

Stravinsky was influenced early in his career by:

A) Gustav Mahler.
B) Ludwig van Beethoven.
C) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
D) Modest Musorgsky.

Question 61

Which statement about Charles Ives is false?

A) He was born in the South, where he was deeply moved by African American music.
B) He had jobs in insurance and as a church organist.
C) He developed unique mystical notions about music that were related to New England transcendentalism.
D) He believed that all kinds of music and all musical experiments are equally valid.

Question 62

Which statement about Charles Ives's compositional style is false?

A) He wrote music for pianos tuned to quarter tones.
B) He quoted American folk songs and popular music in his compositions.
C) He was the first important American nationalist composer.
D) He used mostly consonant harmonies.

Question 63

Where and when did avant-garde music get its start? Name three early leading composers of this era and style.

Question 64

Briefly compare and contrast the orchestral compositional styles of Claude Debussy and Gustav Mahler,particularly in light of the cities in which they practiced their art.

Question 65

Charles Ives's The Unanswered Question is novel because of:

A) its reflections of transcendentalism.
B) its three distinct, independent levels of music.
C) the presence of a trumpet solo.
D) the use of non-imitative polyphony in the woodwinds.

Question 66

In which musical element was Debussy most innovative in terms of his orchestral music? In which other element was he innovative?

Question 67

Which statement about Pierrot lunaire is true?

A) It includes poems written by Schoenberg himself.
B) It is in the Neoclassical style.
C) It features Sprechstimme.
D) It includes an unconventional ensemble.

Question 68

Schoenberg's way of imposing order on "emancipated" elements of music resulted in:

A) atonality.
B) expressionism.
C) the twelve-tone system (serialism).
D) chromaticism.

Question 69

The composers of the Second Viennese School believed that the chromaticism of Wagner led them to:

A) the advent of electronic music.
B) the advent of aleatoric music.
C) the breakdown of tonality.
D) a revival of eighteenth-century harmonic practices.

Question 70

A combination of song and speech is called:

A) Singspiel.
B) ostinato.
C) impressionism.
D) Sprechstimme.

Question 71

Ives's orchestral sets can be thought of as:

A) popular opera overtures.
B) casual piano concertos.
C) informal symphonies.
D) light songs with orchestral accompaniment.

Question 72

Arnold Schoenberg invented a method that guarantees that no one pitch in the chromatic scale is more important than the others.This method is called:

A) the twelve-tone system (serialism).
B) Neoclassicism.
C) ostinato.
D) Sprechstimme.

Question 73

In what genre is Pierrot lunaire?

A) song cycle
B) opera
C) oratorio
D) symphonic poem

Question 74

Alban Berg based his opera Wozzeck on:

A) descriptions of ancient fertility rites.
B) fragments of a play by Georg Büchner.
C) a series of poems by Albert Giraud.
D) a story he wrote himself.

Question 75

Schoenberg,Webern,and Berg are often referred to as:

A) the Fauves.
B) impressionists.
C) the Apaches.
D) the Second Viennese School.

Question 76

The two famous pupils of Schoenberg were:

A) Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky.
B) Anton Webern and Alban Berg.
C) Anton Webern and Claude Debussy.
D) Charles Ives and Alban Berg.

Question 77

Arnold Schoenberg was a very creative composer who also expressed himself through:

A) acting.
B) books on conducting.
C) literary criticism.
D) painting.

Question 78

Webern's music is ________,whereas Berg's music is ________.

A) boisterous and grandiose; quiet and concise
B) brief and concentrated; slightly Romantic yet atonal
C) Neoclassical; aleatoric
D) atonal yet slightly Romantic; quiet and concise

Question 79

Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck can generally be thought of as:

A) Wagnerian in its dependence on musical continuity carried by the orchestra.
B) avoiding the use of leitmotivs.
C) owing its musical style to Webern.
D) retaining both recitatives and arias from the nineteenth century.

Question 80

Which statement about Schoenberg is false?

A) He was a great teacher, in Europe and then at UCLA.
B) He was the first impressionist composer.
C) He was the inventor of serialism.
D) He was part of the Second Viennese School.