Music History I

Why, throughout history, do scholars know more about the music-making activities of elite

members of any given society than of others in that society?

• The music of lower socioeconomic groups is not interesting.

• Only the elite could afford to pay composers to write music and artisans to make

  instruments.

• Music-making activities of the elite are probably representative of the society as a whole.

• People of lower social status did not make music.

The earliest surviving complete piece of music is written on

• papyrus

• parchment

• a clay tablet

• paper

Popes and secular rulers from the eighth century on sought to standardize the Catholic

liturgy in order to

• centralize political and spiritual authority

• identify and persecute non-believers

• reunite the Eastern and Western Empires

• revive the ideas of the church fathers

Why did early church musicians develop a system for notating chant?

• The vast repertory was too difficult to learn by rote memorization

• They wanted congregants to be able to join in the singing

• It helped advance the goal of disseminating a unified liturgy

• They wanted it to be a secret repertory, available only to the literate

In the Medieval Christian church, the primary purpose of liturgical music was to

• aid in the delivery of the text

• demonstrate the priests’ musical virtuosity

• enable congregants to participate in the service

• entertain the congregants who did not understand Latin

The liturgy of the Office focused primarily on chanting the

• Epistles

• psalms

• Pentateuch

• Gospels

Because the same troubadour or trouvère song may appear in several manuscripts with slight

variations in the text and music, scholars believe that

• the scribes were unfamiliar with the music

• the songs were transmitted orally and later written down

• later musicians adapted the old songs to appeal to more modern tastes

• the troubadours and trouvères were not concerned about creating a single authoritative

  version of the song

Which of the following is a type of medieval dance?

• cantiga

• conductus

• estampie

• contrafactum

The earliest written polyphony exhibited all of the following musical elements that continued to

occupy composers throughout the history of Western music EXCEPT

• phrasing

• counterpoint

• harmony

• meter

The rhythmic modes were developed by composers working at the

• Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris

• Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella in Spain

• monastery in Cologne, Germany

• monastery of Winchester, England