Sample Contest Questions

Sample Questions - Answers

IF YOU WERE PARTICIPATING in last year's Music Listening Contest, these are the questions you'd have encountered during Round Three of the Regional Contest. This is only one of the five rounds; the other rounds require listening to musical selections and identifying works, composers, and musical forms.

At the end of the page we give the answers so you can compare your score to that of the winning teams!

Round Three Multiple Choice Questions

Instructions: You have 15 minutes to answer the questions below. Select the best possible answer of the choices you are given. All answers are based on material from the study guide.

1. The texts of the mass proper

   A. include the Kyrie, Gloria, and Agnus dei
   B. were the typical texts chosen by composer when writing for a mass
   C. change from day to day, depending upon the cycles of the church calendar
   D. are attributable to Thomas of Celano

2. A tragédie lyrique

   A. was a type of opera associated with the court of Louis XIV of France
   B. was a short, funny, Italian opera performed between the acts of an opera seria
   C. was a five act opera with a prologue that contained ballet episodes and choruses
   D. none of the above
   E. both A and C

3. Andrea Amati, Nicolo Amati, and Giuseppe Guarneri were all

   A. 17th-century composers
   B. violin makers
   C. characters in Handel's Alcina
   D. music critics

4. The lifetime of one of the historical figures below coincides with the genre, historical event, or artwork listed next to it. The other three do not. Select the person whose lifetime coincides with the date of the other.

   A. François Couperin; tragédie lyrique
   B. Pope Gregory I; Fall of Constantinople
   C. Claudio Monteverdi; Il trionfo della morte
   D. Amy Cheney Beach; The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima

5. Musica reservata refers to

   A. a fine wine
   B. a 17th-century genre characterized by the presence of high women's voices
   C. the special publishing permission granted a composer by Louis XIV
   D. a section of the mass ordinary

6. This composer was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, went to MIT to learn electrical engineering, founded the Wa-Wan Press and served as chief critic for Musical America. Who was it?

   A. Amy Cheney Beach
   B. Edward MacDowell
   C. Arthur Farwell
   D. Charles Wakefield Cadman

7. Which of the following statements is true of Mozart's Requiem?

   A. it was finished before Mozart died
   B. Franz Xaver Süssmayer and two other composers completed the work from Mozart's particelia
   C. Antonio Salieri was probably the "anonymous patron" who commissioned the work
   D. the Requiem was written by Herr Franz, Count von Walsegg.

8. Throughout the history of music, composers have teamed up with writers, playwrights, film directors, and authors to create their music. Which of the following composer/author pairings is innacurate?

   A. W.A. Mozart; Lorenzo da Ponte
   B. Arthur Farwell; Thomas Bailey Aldrich
   C. Benjamin Britten; Wilfred Owen
   D. Serge Prokofiev; Serge Eisenstein

9. "Shakes" or trills in Couperin's harpsichord works are called

   A. ordres
   B. a capella
   C. agréments
   D. melismas

10. In the exposition of a typical major key sonata form movement, the secondary theme occurs in the

    A. dominant
    B. tonic
    C. submediant
    D. development

11. One of the earliest pianos, called by its maker a gravicembalo col piano e forte, was built by --- in the year ---.

    A. Wilhelm von Humboldt, 1795
    B. Louis Daguerre, 1837
    C. Anton Stadler, 1789
    D. Bartolomeo Cristofori, 1710

12. What is the correct order of the movements of the mass ordinary?

    A. Gloria, Credo, Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus dei
    B. Kyrie, Gradual, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus dei
    C. Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, Gloria, Agnus dei
    D. Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus dei

13. Alice C. Fletcher was

    A. a composer
    B. the author of The Indians Book, and a student of Feruccio Busoni
    C. the author of Study of Omaha Indian Music, whose writings influenced Charles Wakefield Cadman and Amy Cheney Beach
    D. both B & C

14. Which of the following did not happen or was not created during the period that music historians typically call the Renaissance?

    A. Peter Paul Reubens painted his Three Graces
    B. Michaelangelo's David
    C. printing from movable type
    D. the fall of Constantinople

15. Gregorian Chant

    A. could be melismatic or syllabic
    B. was always polyphonic created during the period that music historians typically call the Renaissance
    C. was transmitted to Pope Gregory I by a hummingbird in the 10th century
    D. was invented by Notker Balbulus

16. A cadenza

    A. gives a soloist the opportunity to elaborate upon the themes of a concerto
    B. was something that came before an aria
    C. usually occurs at the beginning of a concerto movement
    D. is always accompanied by the orchestra

17. The composer of Totentanz

    A. wrote the work in 1949
    B. studied with Antonio Salieri
    C. never heard Paganini play
    D. married Richard Wagner's daughter

18. Select the number below that correctly arranges the following pieces in chronological order, from earliest to latest

    1. Bruckner, "Locus iste"
    2. Haydn, Symphony No. 100
    3. Strauss, Concerto No. 1 for Horn
    4. Schumann, Piano Concerto in A minor

    A. 2, 3, 1, 4
    B. 4, 3, 2, 1
    C. 2, 4, 1, 3
    D. 2, 4, 3, 1

19. "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a partridge in a pear tree." Which of the following instruments could you make with the tree?

    A. a violin
    B. a French horn
    C. a dulcian
    D. a clarinet

20. Which of the following is not true of the term baroque?

    A. it refers to the historical period from 1750-1840
    B. it was first used negatively to describe fast, pulsating, and surprising music
    C. it is a historical period also described by the terms "Concertato-style period" or "Figured-bass era"
    D. derived from a Portuguese word meaning an irregular shaped pearl