The Twentieth Century Free Essay Example

True

Debussy’s Voiles reflects the growing globalization of music in the twentieth century

True

A whole-tonal scale has no half steps, eliminating a sense of tonal center

False

True

In his compositions, Debussy sought to create sounds that had never been heard.

True

True

Impressionistic artists were particularly interested in the effects of light on our perception of an object.

False

Debussy loved the term “impressionism,” and had the word engraved on his tombstone.

True

Schoenberg searched for a new system of organizing music, and came up with a brand new concept of the 12-tone system.

True

Schoenberg was on faculty of USC and UCLA.

True

4’33” is probably the most controversial work of music ever written (or not written).

False

True

John Cage studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles.

True

Members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra have “hissed” at John Cage in response to his compositions they were asked to perform

False

Most of the audience stayed until the end and cheered for the composer and his genius at the first performance of Atlas eclipticalis in Lincoln Center

True

Einstein on the Beach is an opera with very little singing and no plot

True

Minimalist music tends to unfold across long periods and relies on the passage of time to create an almost trance-like state in the mind of the listener.

True

A

The pace of musical change:
a. increased dramatically in the twentieth century.
b. began a slow decline with the onset of the twentieth century.
c. increased so rapidly that music was of a poor quality in the twentieth century.
d. was not affected by the changes in society and the world.

D

Many composers created new and entirely novel approaches to music by:
a. writing works without a tonal center or clear sense of meter.
b. using the new electronically generated sounds.
c. incorporating sounds from the music of non-Western cultures.
d. all of the above.

C

A new spirit known as ___________ took hold in all of the arts and represented an abolishment of
tradition and a quest for novelty.
a. heathenism
b. socialism
c. modernism
d. none of the above

C

Perhaps the single most remarkable aspect of music in the twentieth century is
that for the first time:
a. the piano became a fixture in the home.
b. everyone could read music.
c. listeners could hear music when and where they wanted to hear it.
d. concerts tickets were affordable to the middle class.

A

Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, composed his 1960s hit, “Good Vibrations”:
a. entirely in the studio, and only later did the band learn to perform it live.
b. during a live concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
c. after being inspired by hearing works by Stravinsky.
d. in just ten minutes in the recording studio.

C

The piano is essentially a:
a. stringed instrument due to the strings inside.
b. brass instrument due to the metal used for the sounding board.
c. unique instrument with no family.
d. percussion instrument due to the striking of keys that activate hammers inside.

B

Debussy was intent on exploring musical timbre in much the same way that:
a. the French chefs explored the art of cooking perfection.
b. the French symbolist poets explored sound for sound’s sake.
c. Christopher Columbus explored the New World.
d. Dvorak wrote about the New World

A

In Voiles, instead of clear themes, Debussy presents:
a. what sound more like fragments of themes than actual self-sufficient themes.
b. sounds of nature such as duck calls and rain.
c. only rhythmic fragments with no melody to imitate the percussion instruments.
d. silence so that the listener can hear music in the sounds around him/her

C

Voiles provides the listener with:
a. a strong march-like sense of rhythm.
b. a basic harmonic progression that repeats throughout.
c. almost no sense of a fixed metrical pattern.
d. nothing, since it is just a composition based upon silence

C

Debussy’s works that are now recognized as masterpieces were:
a. immediately hailed as a brilliant and new style.
b. not discovered until long after his death.
c. initially greeted with indifference or even scorn.
d. all of the above

B

In 1920, a group of prominent composers honored the memory of Debussy with a:
a. twenty-one gun salute followed by the silence that he loved.
b. series of short piano pieces called Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy.
c. Ring Cycle commissioned by Wagner in the Impressionistic style.
d. fund-raiser concert for the starving Javanese of Indonesia

D

Arnold Schoenberg was:
a. an Austrian by birth who moved between Vienna and Berlin, finally emigrating to
the United States when the Nazis assumed power in Germany.
b. born Jewish, converted to Christianity, and then returned to Judaism.
c. a neighbor of Shirley Temple and living just a few doors down from what would
be O.J. Simpson’s house.
d. all of the above

B

Arnold Schoenberg developed:
a. his abs.
b. the 12 Tone Series.
c. new, more improved brass instruments.
d. traditional music theory to its highest level

D

Stravinsky, like Schoenberg:
a. settled in California and began writing 12 tone music.
b. was a neighbor of Shirley Temple.
c. was widely regarded as one of the century’s two greatest composers.
d. both A and C.

C

The real title of 4’33” when it was first performed in Woodstock, New York on August 29, 1952 was:
a. ha-ha.
b. a moment of silence.
c. the total length in minutes and seconds of its performance.
d. the questioning of music

A

Cage once declared:
a. Everything we do is music.
b. There is no such thing as music.
c. Silence is music and music is life.
d. Yes, I’m crazy, but you all followed me.

B

Cage was profoundly influenced by:
a. Southern Baptist.
b. Zen Buddhism.
c. no religion.
d. Catholicism.

A

Cage’s Atlas eclipticalis had a notated score that:
a. superimposed transparent staff paper on star charts to determine the pitches.
b. was to be read upside-down.

B

In Einstein on the Beach, a great deal of the text is:
a. stolen from Puccini’s operas.
b. recited, with limited singing.
c. based upon Schubert’s art songs.
d. improvised.

A

Which of the following is NOT a recurring image in a field in Einstein on the Beach?
a. A horse
b. A spaceship
c. A train
d. A trial

C

Phillip Glass studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, who 40 years before had taught:
a. Ludwig von Beethoven.
b. P.D.Q. Bach.
c. Aaron Copland.
d. Bo Diddley

D

Phillip Glass has written:
a. ten operas.
b. large quantities of vocal and instrumental music.
c. soundtracks for a number of films.
d. all of the above.