Question

Section 5.2

Which piece is Ravel's best-known compostition?
A) Bolero B) Pelleas et Melisande C) Prelude a L'apres-midi d'un faune D) suite bergamasque

Visual artists Rousseau and Gaugin were self taught and broke away from traditional realistic styles. Their works are exasmples of
A) neoclassicism B) primitivism C) naturalism D) romanticism

Staravinsky's The Rite of Spring is a/an
A) opera B) art song C) ballet D) program symphony

The earliest type of phomograph was recorded sound on a
A) metal cylinder B) tape C) vinyl disk D) wax cylinder

The composer who developed serialism was
A) Richard Strauss B) Igor Stravinsky C) Arnold Schoenberg D) Gusstav Mahler

Answer 1

Answer 1:

(A) Bolero

Ravel's later works include the Le Tombeau de Couperin, a suite formed circa 1917 for the solo piano, and the orchestral pieces Rapsodie Espagnole and Boléro. Perhaps the most famous of his works, Ravel was commissioned by Sergey Diaghilev to create the ballet Daphnis et Chloé, which he completed in 1912.

Answer 2:

(B) Primitivism

Primitivism is a form of aesthetic idealization that either copies or aims to recreate "primitive" experience. In Western art, primitivism typically has obtained from non-Western or prehistoric people recognised to be "primitive", such as Paul Gauguin's inclusion of Tahitian motifs in paintings and ceramics.

Answer 3:

(C) Ballet

The Rite of Spring is a ballet and orchestral concert composition by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the initial choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky with stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich.

Answer 4:

(A) Metal Cylinder

The phonograph was created in 1877 by Thomas Edison. While other inventors had designed devices that could record sounds, Edison's phonograph was the original to be able to reproduce the recorded sound. His phonograph basically recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet wrapped around a rotating cylinder.

Answer 5:

(C) Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, educator, writer, and painter. He was connected with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and head of the Second Viennese School. Schoenberg's approach, both in terms of harmony and advancement, has been one of the most important of 20th-century musical thought.

Answer 2

1. Ravel's best-known composition is definitely A. Bolero.
It premiered in 1928 and it is an orchestral piece consisting of one movement only. It was Ida Rubenstein, a famous dancer and actress, who asked Ravel to create a ballet she could dance in, and thus he created Bolero for her, which is his most famous piece.

2. I would say that their works are examples of B. primitivism.
With Rousseau, the answer is obvious - he wrote a lot about the noble savage, which obviously has to do with primitivism. On the other hand, Gauguin, he wanted to show paintings of people 'untouched by culture,' which is basically primitivism.

3. Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is a C. ballet.
Apart from being a ballet, which is its main characteristic, it is also an orchestral concert (but that is not one of your options). The choreographer who created the dance was the famous dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, and it was performed in 1913.

4. The earliest type of phonograph recorded sound on a A. metal cylinder.
I think that is the correct answer - the earliest phonograph was created by Thomas Edison back in 1877. He placed tinfoil around the cylinder and it created a sound and also managed to play it back, not only produce and record a sound.

5. The composer who developed serialism was C. Arnold Schoenberg.
Serialism refers to a composition which consists of many series which incorporate various musical elements. He was the first one to do this, with his famous twelve-tone technique, also known as dodecaphony which he created as part of his Second Viennese School.