CLEP Humanities : Baroque Music (1600-1750)
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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Baroque Music (1600 1750)
Which of the following instruments is most similar to the modern piano?
Harpsichord
Lyre
Viola da gamba
Lute
Mandocello
Harpsichord
The harpsichord is the modern piano’s most direct ancestor. The harpsichord had a similarly arranged keyboard, similar string layout, and was played in a similar manner to the piano. Unlike the piano, though, the harpsichord plucked rather than hammered its internal strings, meaning it was less able to modulate and sustain its volume.
Example Question #2 : Baroque Music (1600 1750)
Which of the following styles of composition is associated with the "fugue" style?
Organ recitations
Minor keys
Trumpet flourishes
Counterpoint
Tonal clusters
Counterpoint
The fugue is a kind of melody that is based upon a relatively simple theme that is then woven and adapted with other lines that express this same theme. These variations weave in and out of each other, often opposing one another (though not in an unpleasant way). As one version of the theme is descending, another is rising, and perhaps yet another is preparing to descend. Although he had antecedents, J.S. Bach was well known for this style. He wrote a work, Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of the Fugue) that details many ways that fugues can be composed. So notorious was Bach for this style that Claude Debussy is said to have referred to his music as being "mercilessly regulated" and "joyless" in its attachment to the style of counterpoint.
Example Question #1 : Baroque Music (1600 1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was a composer of music in which of the following styles?
Medieval
Romantic
Renaissance
Baroque
Classical
Baroque
Johann Sebastian Bach was the most significant and well-known composer of the Baroque Era, which stretched from 1600 to 1750. Bach's signature elements—strong counterpoint, involved harmonies, and complex melodies—were extremely typical of Baroque music in general.
Example Question #2 : Baroque Music (1600 1750)
Which of the following is a grouping of Baroque composers?
Felix Mendelssohn, Frederic Chopin, Richard Wagner
Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Richard Strauss
Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Henry Purcell
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Carl Friedrich Abel
Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Carl Maria von Webber
Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Henry Purcell
"Baroque" generally refers to the symphonic and orchestral music composed between 1600 and 1750, which now forms a large core of the classical music canon. Baroque music is defined stylistically by heavy ornamentation, intense orchestrations, and a focus on tonality, harmony, and counterpoint. Some of the significant composers of the Baroque period are Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Pachelbel, and Henry Purcell.
Example Question #3 : Answering Other Questions About Baroque Music
Which composer wrote the suite of compositions known as the Brandenburg Concertos?
Franz Haydn
Johann Sebastian Bach
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Georg Friederich Hande
Ludwig van Beethoven
Johann Sebastian Bach
The Brandenburg Concertos are widely considered the pinnacle of Johann Sebastian Bach's musical compositions. Presented to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721, the six concertos are the perfect exemplar of Baroque composition, featuring layered harmonies of various instruments in an ornate contrapuntal orchestration. The Concertos most likely took years to compose, and were only fully completed in 1721.
Example Question #4 : Answering Other Questions About Baroque Music
Johann Sebastian Bach is representative of which of the following musical styles?
Romantic
Baroque
Medieval
Classical
Renaissance
Baroque
Johann Sebastian Bach is the composer most closely associated with the Baroque period. Bach's music, with its complex counterpoint melodies and harmonies, multilayered instrumentation, and formal structure, stands as representative of the entire era. Bach's music was seen as a high point of the Baroque era, and my of his works inspired developments away from Baroque music.
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