Chapter 14: Symbols and Puzzles: Machaut and the Medieval Mind
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. How long has music been linked with mathematics and geometry?
a. since the 1750s c. since the Renaissance
b. since antiquity d. since the late 1900s
2. Who was the ancient Greek mathematician renowned for his musical experiments?
a. Pythagoras c. Socrates
b. Plato d. Machaut
3. What were the poet-musicians that lived on a higher social level than other wandering musicians
called?
a. minstrels c. troubadours and trouvères
b. jesters d. none of the answers shown here
4. What musical style appeared in the early 1300s in France?
a. Ars antiqua c. troubadour
b. Ars nova d. chanson
5. Machaut favored what type of themes?
a. religious c. secular
b. liturgical d. vernacular
6. In Machaut’s secular works, he favored French courtly love poems known as:
a. chansons. c. odes.
b. ballades. d. palindromes.
7. Which poetic forms established the musical repetition scheme of the chansons?
a. rondeau and virelai c. rondeau, ballade, and virelai
b. virelai and ballade d. rondeau and ballade
8. _____ ushered in developments in rhythm, meter, harmony, and counterpoint that transformed the
art of music.
a. Ars nova c. Ars musica
b. Ars antiqua d. Rondeau
9. Who is the foremost poet-composer of the Ars nova?
a. Hildegard c. Charles, duke of Normandy
b. Machaut d. Petrarch
10. Machaut had a double career as both a courtier and a ______.
a. noble. c. farmer.
b. cleric. d. miller.
11. What were the four topics considered essential to education during medieval times?
a. English, science, mathematics, and history
b. music, mathematics, geometry, and astronomy
c. music, science, Latin, and astronomy
d. Latin, mathematics, science, and religion
TRUE/FALSE
1. Medieval lyrics dealt with unrequited, or unconsummated, passion, just as in many songs today.
2. Machaut was the first composer to self-consciously collect his works and leave them for posterity.
3. Machaut was both a cleric and a courtier.
4. Machaut’s music was not appreciated during his own lifetime.
5. Ma fin est mon commencement (My end is my beginning) includes palindromes, words or phrases
that read the same backward or forward.
6. Troubadours and trouvères were poet-musicians who flourished at the various courts of Europe.
7. Ars nova appeared in the early 1500s in Spain.
8. Machaut wrote both religious and secular music.
9. The chanson is a religious song with a French text.
10. The rondeau, ballade, and virelai are the poetic forms that established the musical repetition
scheme of the chansons.
ESSAY
1. Describe how Machaut conveys puzzles through sound in Ma fin est mon commencement (My end
is my beginning).
ANS:
Answers will vary.
PTS: 1 DIF: 2 REF: Essentials: pp. 70–72
TOP: Machaut MSC: Applied
2. Describe how the work of Machaut reflects the musical style known as Ars nova.
ANS:
Answers will vary.
PTS: 1 DIF: 2 REF: Essentials: pp. 70–72
TOP: Machaut MSC: Applied