Chapter 13 Monteverdi and Early Opera

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. All of the following are important developments in early Baroque music that were manifested prominently in opera except: a. expressive vocal writing that responded to d. Harmonically oriented accompaniments the mood of the moment that provided singers with a firm, but unobtrusive foundation b. composing for smaller more generic e. composing that took advantage of groups of instruments; often blending instruments’ distinctive capabilities timbre and range into one unified sound. c. Vocal and instrumental virtuosity

ANS: B REF: p. 84

2. For the better part of ______, opera has been the most spectacular and lavish form of stage entertainment in Western culture. a. four years d. four decades b. four score and seven years e. four centuries c. a half-century

ANS: E REF: p. 85

3. By the mid-seventeenth century, opera had become: a. the first commercial music d. outdated and practically forgotten b. the first a cappella music e. a useful tool in the Counter-Reformation c. the downfall of the Roman Catholic Church

ANS: A REF: p. 85

4. When “The Who” wanted to make an artistic statement, they called their concept album Tommy: a. a soap opera d. a happening b. a moondance e. a tribute to Wagner c. a rock opera

ANS: C REF: p. 85

5. Opera is: a. always very loud; there are no quiet d. drama, either tragic or comic, in which all moments dialogue is sung b. never sung in English e. only performed today at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House c. only for the wealthy class

ANS: D REF: p. 85

6. Recitative is: a. a section of an opera that generally d. both a and b contains dialogue to further the action b. a section of an opera that features syllabic e. both b and c setting of the text delivered in a rhythm approximating speech c. opera performed in a recital setting

ANS: D REF: p. 85

7. Girolamo Mei, an Italian Renaissance historian who produced the first serious study of Greek music, proposed that all Greek Drama was: a. imagined, and never really existed d. junk, and should not be explored or imitated b. sacred and was performed by chanting e. sung and not spoken monks c. strongly influenced by Florentine musicians

ANS: E REF: p. 86

8. In 1613, Monteverdi took a position as the director of: a. several opera houses d. music at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, where he stayed for only 2 months b. music at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, e. the Florentine Camerata where he stayed for the rest of his life c. a bank, and never returned to music

ANS: B REF: p. 88

9. Monteverdi’s eight books of ______represent the final significant contribution to that genre. a. madrigals d. chant b. prayers e. recitatives c. operas

ANS: A REF: p. 88

10. It was all but inevitable that the first operas: a. would not be of interest to the people of d. would take a classic Greek story about the Italy power of music as their subject b. would have no plot or storyline, just good e. would be based on the Bible music c. would be rejected by the royal courts

ANS: D REF: p. 88

11. Early opera composers chose as their subject the most famous musical story of all: a. The Legend of Zelda d. The Legend of Orpheus and Eurydice b. The Legend of Hogwarts e. The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde c. The Legend of Robert Johnson

ANS: D REF: p. 88

12. Basso continuo is: a. a long family line of bass singers d. a concept that was introduced with Gregorian Chant b. a continuous bass line, as well as harmony e. consort music for low-pitched instruments built on the bass, in the support of the melody c. a vocal composition in which the bass singer never rests

ANS: B REF: p. 90

13. The orchestra of Orfeo a. requires forty-two instruments d. does not specify any specific instruments b. requires the deepest contrabassoon ever e. consists of only a harpsichord heard c. requires a large pipe organ with seven manuals

ANS: A REF: p. 90

14. Monteverdi himself a. could not play any musical instruments, but d. coined the term “dramma per musica” only composed b. would not sing harmony, but only melody, e. played more than one musical instrument which gave rise to his solo passages and was also an accomplished vocalist c. was persecuted and thrown in jail for leaving the style of Gregorian Chant

ANS: E REF: p. 88

15. In the instrumental ensemble of Monteverdi’s era,______. a. we can see the roots of rap d. there were few instruments, and they were impossible to tune correctly b. we can see the beginnings of the modern e. brass instruments were never employed symphony orchestra c. we can see the beginnings of the Big Band Era

ANS: B REF: p. 91

16. Specifying the instrumentation of a composition ______. a. was not legal in 1607 d. is never done in today’s modern orchestra b. was based on instruments used with the e. was a common practice by 1607. madrigals c. was still relatively a new practice in 1607

ANS: C REF: p. 91

17. Monteverdi was born in the country of______. a. Romania d. Brazil b. Italy e. Spain c. Ireland

ANS: B REF: p. 88

18. Opera was the result of: a. someone uncovering a copy of Hildegard d. nothing in particular. It just came about von Bingen’s play. one day as a form of entertainment. b. a small group of philosophers, musicians, e. an improvised performance at the court of and poets (the Camerata) who met in the duke of Mantua. Florence to consider reviving the synthesis of music and drama as it had been done in the ancient Greek cultures. c. a group of housewives who overheard their children acting out stories with music and shared this practice with their composer husbands.

ANS: B REF: p. 86-87

19. Orpheus is allowed to cross the River Styx and bring Eurydice back from the dead, but, ______. a. he has to jump in the river and die himself d. they will have to appear in episodes of the series “Lost” b. the serpent will be waiting to bite her again e. he cannot look back while leaving, or when they return Eurydice will be gone forever c. she will not be the same person that he lost

ANS: E REF: p. 89

20. Early opera composers, such as Monteverdi, sought to exploit the expressive potential of a. the clarinet. d. the percussion family. b. the piano. e. the trumpet. c. the human voice.

ANS: C REF: p. 87

21. A key factor that led to the selection of the story of Orpheus for the first operas is that: a. Orpheus had wings which melted when he d. Orpheus had supernormal musical abilities, got too close to the sun. being able to charm anyone and anything with his singing and playing of the lyre. b. Orpheus had winged sandals and could fly e. Orpheus was tormented by musical quickly to the underworld. hallucinations. c. Orpheus had no emotions, like the character of Spock on Star Trek.

ANS: D REF: p. 88

MATCHING

a. Aria f. Score b. Basso continuo g. Girolamo Mei c. Cremona h. Camerata d. Opera i. Giulio Caccini e. Recitative j. Jacopo Peri

1. Drama, either tragic or comic, in which all dialogue is sung

2. accompanied solo operatic melody

3. wrote the earliest opera to come down to us in its complete form: Eurydice

4. a circle of cultured aristocrats and musicians who produced the first operas

5. notated musical document that contains every part to be performed

6. continuous bass line, as well as harmony built on the bass in support of the melody

7. section of an opera that generally contains dialogue to further the action; features syllabic setting of the

text, delivered in a rhythm approximating speech, often with strings of repeated notes

8. an Italian Renaissance historian who produced the first serious study of Greek music

9. important member of the Camerata, contributor to the production of Eurydice, and publisher of Le nuove

musiche (The New Music)

10. Monteverdi’s hometown; the center of fine violin making

1. ANS: D REF: p. 85

2. ANS: A REF: p. 85

3. ANS: J REF: p. 87

4. ANS: H REF: p. 86

5. ANS: F REF: p. 89

6. ANS: B REF: p. 90

7. ANS: E REF: p. 85

8. ANS: G REF: p. 86

9. ANS: I REF: p. 87

10. ANS: C REF: p. 88

ESSAY

1. How was the musical that occurred in Northern Italy during the seventeenth century similar to the one that produced rock and roll in the 1950s and 1960s? What parallels can be drawn between the two

“revolutions in music?”

ANS: Any combination of the following: -The type that occurs every couple of centuries -Radical revolution with great impact on the future -A change in attitude toward a more deeply felt music: rock was “real” and confronted life and reality; opera (“new music”) was meant to move the affect (emotion) of the soul, and delight the senses. Both represented a much stronger appeal to feelings. -Star power -Generation gap, with those who like the older style not accepting and even speaking out against the newer styles of music. -Spotlight on soloist

-New virtuosity (soloists with ornamentation vs. inventive bass players and “guitar gods”)

REF: p. 87