Introduction to Western Music

Quiz Information

The purpose of requiring quizzes in this class is three-fold:

1. to support a more intimate knowledge of selected works through a process of immediate recall.
2. to facilitate the extrapolation of style characteristics of specific genre that can then be applied to other works.
3. to apply appropriate musical terminology to specific works as well as to genre as a whole.

Three short listening quizzes will build on the listening assignments by testing your ability to recognize assigned listening as well as comprehend and describe unknown musical pieces corresponding to the styles covered in those weeks. 

Quiz 1: on lecture listening assignments from Weeks 1-3

Quiz 2: on lecture listening assignments from Weeks 4-6

Quiz 3: on lecture listening assignments from Weeks 7-8

Quizzes will consist of five (5) listening-based questions. At least three (3) questions will be from the assigned music from lectures. For these questions, you will hear 30 seconds to 1 minute of music. You will be asked to identify the composer, title, and genre of the complete work. There will be a follow-up question specific to the musical characteristics of that piece.

Sample question:

Composer _____________________________________________________________

Title __________________________________________________________________

Genre ________________________________________________________________

Name and briefly describe the texture heard in this excerpt. ____________________

 

At least one question will be an “unknown” work; that is, music not from our syllabus. Arrive at a probable composer and genre by relating the example played to the musical characteristics of the works we have studied in our text, lecture, and recitation. 

Sample question:

Probable composer _____________________________________________________

Genre ________________________________________________________________

Support your choice of probable composer and/or genre by briefly describing two musical characteristics share by both the “unknown” example and the assigned listening.

1. ____________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________

HINT: Other ways to approach this type of question:

“This work has [musical characteristics] ______________________________________, so it sounds like ____________________________________ [genre/title] by___________ [composer].

OR

This piece sounds like _____________________ [title] by _____________[composer] because _______________.