Introduction
to Music
Part 1
1. What are the possible benefits of repeated
music listening? Should a person form a negative opinion of a musical piece
after one hearing? Why or why not?
2. What is Darwin’s explanation for music’s
appeal (i.e., in his opinion, music’s original function)?
3. Make suggestions to someone who is listening
to a recording of a particular piece of vocal music for the first time. How
will following these suggestions help to increase the affective (not effective)
response?
4. What is the difference between program music
and absolute music?
5. Make suggestions to someone who is listening
to a piece of music and who wants to make a visual outline (or blueprint) of
the piece.
6. Define pitch.
7. Define duration.
8. Define loudness.
9. Define tone color (timbre).
10. Give the frequency (in cycles per second) of
the pitch one octave above 220 cycles per second. Give the frequency (in cycles
per second) of the pitch one octave below 220 cycles per second.
11. In Western music, how many pitches (in half
steps) are in one octave?
12. Define chromatic scale.
13. Give the pitches of the major scale that
begins and ends on C.
14. What are two words that denote a sense of
musical gravity or of coming home? (You will receive credit if you list either
word.)
15. Define melody.
Part 2
1. Define monophony.
2. Define polyphony.
3. What is the word that denotes a musical
texture that is perceived as a melody with chordal accompaniment?
4. Although harmonization can be a highly
complex art, a great deal can be done with three basic _______.
5. The changing of the overall pitch level of
an entire musical work is called _______.
6. A change of key that happens during the
course of a composition is called _______.
7. The word _______ comes from the Greek word
for “flow” and we use it to describe the flow of music through time.
8. The ongoing, underlying pulse, found in
almost all music, is called the _________.
9. The grouping of beats into regularly
recurring patterns is called ________.
10. When music is grouped in patterns of ONE two
three, it is called _______ _______.
11. Name the four orchestral string
instruments. How many strings do they
each have?
12. Define pizzicato.
13. Name two woodwind instruments by which sound
is produced by blowing across a hole in the instrument.
14. Name three double reed woodwinds.
15. Name two single reed woodwinds.
16. Name four brass instruments.
17. Instruments by which sound is produced by
striking, scraping, or shaking them are in the _______ family.
18. Through the Baroque and Classical Periods,
the only instruments from this family regularly found in the orchestra were the
_______, or kettledrums.
19. Sound was produced on the __________ by a
mechanism that plucked the strings with a quill or leather plectrum.
20. The development of the __________, in which
the strings were struck by hammers rather than plucked, did allow for a range
of dynamics.
21. From the Baroque Period until mid-twentieth
century, the term ___________ referred to a large instrument in which the sound
was produced by pumping air through sets of tuned and voiced pipes.
22. The distinction between band and orchestra
hinges on the use, in the latter, of __________ instruments.
23. React to the following statement: “To rate
as important, a city must support an orchestra.”
24. How the composer (or arranger) assigns parts
to the various instruments and the details of how the parts are arranged is
called _________.
25. What are the primary tasks of the conductor
of an orchestra?
26. Large scale instrumental works usually are
divided into independent, self-contained sections called _________.
27. The Baroque suite was a large-scale work
consisting of a series of stylized ________.
28. In simple terms, a _________ begins in one
voice with a statement of the main theme followed by other voices joining in
with the subject in different ranges and in different keys.
29. In the Baroque, a piece of music that
features the contrast and juxtaposition of a small group of instruments with a
large group of instruments is called a __________ ______________.
30. In the Baroque how many instruments
comprised the basso continuo?
31. The important difference is that in an
orchestra, several players normally play the same part together as a section,
whereas in ______ music, each performer plays his or her own part.
32. In the Classical Period, the three mains
sections of sonata form are the ___________, development, and ____________.
33. Mozart composed 41 ___________ in his short
life.
34. In the solo concerto, the orchestra suspends
an unresolved chord and the soloist, unaccompanied, embarks on a passage called
a _______, based on the work’s main themes.
35. What are the elements of opera?
36. What are the required professional
attributes of opera singers?
37. What are the six main categories of solo
voices? List in order from highest to lowest.
38. Of the works that are thought of as being
the most monumental in the entire repertoire of music, most are works for
________ and orchestra.
Part 3
1. Gregorian chant is (a) polyphonic, (b)
homophonic, or (c) monophonic.
2. What is folk music?
List
a few facts about:
3. Lute songs.
4. English madrigals.
5. Gothic Motets.
6. Baroque Cantatas.
7. The Mass.
8. The Requiem Mass.
9. The Oratorio.
10. German Lieder.
List
a few characteristics of music from the following periods:
11. Medieval Period.
12. Renaissance.
13. Baroque.
14. Classical Period.
15. Romantic.
16. Twentieth Century.
List
a few facts about (include composers if possible):
17. Primitivism.
18.
Dodecaphony and Serialism.
19.
Neobaroque Music.
20. Dadaism.
21.
Aleatoric Music.
22. Electronic Music.
23.
Post-Romantic.
24. Atonality.
List
the style period and other tidbits about the following composers:
25. J. S. Bach.
26. Bela Bartok.
27. Ludwig van Beethoven.
28. Johannes Brahms.
29. Frederic Chopin.
30. Claude Debussy.
31. G. F. Handel.
32. Joseph Haydn.
33.
W. A. Mozart.
34.
Franz Schubert.
35. Robert Schumann.
36. Igor Stravinsky.
37. Peter Iliyich Tchaikowsky.
38. Giuseppe Verdi.
39.
Richard Wagner.
Part 4
1. List advantages of a live concert
experience.
Give
advice to someone attending his or her first (art music) concert regarding:
2. Where to find information on concerts.
3. What type of concert to attend.
4. Choosing seats.
5. Concert attire, etiquette, and other
miscellaneous suggestions.
Performance
Practice:
6. Performances of music from what musical
style period have been most affected by historically accurate performance
practices?
7. List differences between performance
practices of that period and of modern practice.
8. List instruments from that period that are
not used to perform music of more recent times.
Listening
Section: List title, composer, medium, style period, form, and other details:
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Public
Music Education:
16. In Hungary, today, there are no third
graders who cannot sing on pitch and sing beautifully. So what? Why have other
countries sought to achieve similar results?
17. Schools that produce the highest academic achievement in the United States today are spending 20 to 30% of the day on the arts, with special emphasis on music. What are the implications for teacher education?
List
advantages of arts education:
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
Brain
Research:
28. What are the effects of piano instruction on
math and science achievement?
29. What should scientists and educators do with
this information?
30. Studies from neuroscience laboratories
throughout the country show that early experiences determine which brain cells
(neurons) will . . ..
31. The limbic system (part of the brain) is so
powerful that it can literally facilitate or inhibit learning and higher order
thinking. It appears that positive emotions, such as love, tenderness, and
humor, can facilitate higher order thinking skills, whereas negative emotions,
such as anger, hostility, and fear, can literally downshift the brain to basic
survival thinking. What are the implications for music in education?
32. Dr. Georgi Lozonov, Bulgarian founder of
accelerated learning techniques has discovered . . .
List
ways to incorporate music into other curricula:
33.
34.
35.
36.