Listening as Criticism

Donald Rosenberg was the esteemed and long-standing music critic for which American publication?

• Star Tribune (Minnesota)

• Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

• The Chicago Tribune

• Detroit Free Press

Which of these 'layers of listening' was listed as the baseline (or the 'first') of the four layers of critical listening?

• Concepts, themes, ideas of performance

• The concert experience as a whole, repertoire and programming decisions

• Technical aspects of music (intonation, ensemble, stylistic unity, rhythmic unity, virtuosity

• Interpretive and musical choices (for premieres/rarer works, can refer to composition itself as well as performance)

Answer explanation

This is only one of the many, many ways to approach listening as a critic!

Which of these statements about the American composer Florence Price (1887–1953) is incorrect?

• Winner of the Rodman Wanamaker Competition in 1932 for her Symphony No. 3 in C Minor

• She was the first African American woman to have orchestral work performed by major American orchestra

• Symphonic style influenced by late-Romantic structures and sonorities

• Her music draws on the ‘Harlem Renaissance’ aesthetics, e.g. uses call-and-response devices, ‘Juba dance’

Answer explanation

Close! She won for her Symphony No. 1 in E minor, which premiered in 1932- her third symphony premiered in 1938

Which orchestra + conductor combination recorded Price's Symphony No. 3 in C Minor for Deutsche Grammophon?

• Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Philadelphia Orchestra

• Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic

• Andris Nelsons, Boston Symphony Orchestra

• Franz Welser-Möst, Cleveland Orchestra

Answer explanation

Take a look at that cover!

What is the 'composer-critic' according to Edward. T Cone?

• A composer who has developed their own publication for music criticism (i.e. Robert Schumann)

• A trained composer who has turned to music criticism to make a living

• A critic whose critique focusses on compositional quality over the performance

• A composer whose criticism is expressed through music, not words

Robert Schumann's music criticism journal was called what?

• Die Musikforschung

• Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung

• Neue Zeitschrift für Musik

• Neue Freie Presse

What were the names of the literary characters created by Schumann for the debate and discussion of music criticism in his writings?

• Faustinus and Emlen

• Florestan and Eusebius

• Fabius and Egidius

• Favian and Emilian

Answer explanation

Schumann wrote a review in 1831 on Chopin's variations on which Mozart operatic duet?

• Prendero quel brunettino (Cose fan tutte)

• Pa-Pa-Pa-Papageno (Die Zauberflöte)

• Là ci darem la mano (Don Giovanni)

• Sull'aria...che soave zeffiretto (Le nozze di Figaro)

The enfant terrible alter ego that Claude Debussy created for his music criticism was called what?

Answer explanation

Not to be confused with croque monsieur

Which composer was Peggy Glanville-Hicks' editor at the New York Herald Tribune?

• Aaron Copland

• Virgil Thomson

• Vincent Persichetti

• Herbert Elwell