Chapter 43: Mythical Impressions: Program Music at the End of the Nineteenth
Century
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. The earliest harbingers of modernism were artists and writers from:
a. Russia. c. France.
b. Spain. d. Germany.
2. Impressionism: Sun Rising, the painting that sparked the Impressionist art movement, was created
by:
a. Auguste Renoir. c. Claude Monet.
b. Edgar Degas. d. Paul Verlaine.
3. Impressionism was a style of painting that was cultivated principally in:
a. Paris. c. Berlin.
b. London. d. Rome.
4. Which of the following painters was associated with the Impressionist school?
a. Delaunay c. Renoir
b. Schoenberg d. Picasso
5. Which of the following best describes the work of the Impressionist painters?
a. They adhered firmly to academic traditions.
b. The hero of their painting was man.
c. They attempted to capture the freshness of first impressions.
d. They preferred to do their painting indoors.
6. Which of the following best describes the effect achieved by Impressionist painting?
a. bold, brilliant colors c. luminous, shimmering colors
b. drab, dark colors d. consistent use of a single color
7. The French movement in poetry that revolted against traditional modes of expression is called:
a. Imagism. c. Expressionism.
b. Symbolism. d. Impressionism.
8. Mallarmé and Verlaine were:
a. Symbolist poets. c. Impressionist composers.
b. Impressionist painters. d. none of the answers shown here
9. The Symbolist poets were strongly influenced by the works of:
a. George Sand. c. Robert Frost.
b. Emily Brontë. d. Edgar Allan Poe.
10. The whole-tone scale used by Impressionist composers derives from:
a. the post-Romantic music of Mahler. c. medieval church music.
b. non-Western music. d. the Classical-Romantic tradition.
11. Which of the following is/are characteristic of Impressionist music?
a. whole-tone scales
b. ambiguous tonality
c. ninth chords
d. all of the answers shown here
12. The Impressionist painters’ interest in color is paralleled by the Impressionist composers’ interest
in:
a. rhythm. c. timbre.
b. melody. d. texture.
13. Impressionism in music is best exemplified by the works of:
a. Claude Debussy. c. Hector Berlioz.
b. Gustav Mahler. d. Frédéric Chopin.
14. What nationality was Claude Debussy?
a. German c. Italian
b. French d. Austrian
15. Debussy’s opera Pelléas and Mélisande is based on a Symbolist drama by:
a. Giraud. c. Maeterlinck.
b. Ibsen. d. Mallarmé.
16. The program of Debussy’s Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun” evokes:
a. a nationalistic folk dance.
b. a river flowing through France.
c. a child’s view of heaven.
d. a landscape with a mythological creature.
17. The overall form of Debussy’s Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun” is best described as:
a. binary. c. sonata-allegro.
b. ternary. d. rondo.
18. Which sentence best describes the opening of Debussy’s Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun”?
a. It opens with solo bassoon in the high register.
b. It opens with a drumroll and fanfare.
c. It opens with a flute solo in the velvety lower register.
d. It opens with unison strings.
19. What is a blue chord?
a. chord with lowered thirds and sevenths c. chord played by muted horns
b. chord built on the note B d. chord built on the whole-tone scale
20. Which of the following does NOT characterize Nijinsky’s choreography for Debussy’s Prelude to
“The Afternoon of a Faun”?
a. It caused a scandal in Paris.
b. It was a turning point in modern dance.
c. It continued the traditions of classical ballet.
d. It featured one of the great male dancers of the time.
21. The Symbolists sought to evoke poetic images:
a. through suggestion rather than description.
b. through description rather than suggestion.
c. through statement rather than symbol.
d. through the use of precise language.
22. What did Debussy help to establish as a French national art form?
a. opera c. mélodie
b. the symphony d. the piano sonata
23. Where did Debussy first encounter non-Western scales and instruments?
a. while studying in Rome c. while living in Tahiti
b. at the 1889 Paris Exhibition d. on an 1889 trip to Egypt
TRUE/FALSE
1. Impressionist artists abandoned the grandiose subjects of Romanticism.
2. Impressionism takes its name from a painting by Claude Monet.
3. Impressionist painters slowly recreated an idealized impression of an object with perfect lighting.
4. The Symbolist movement began in England.
5. Impressionist composers felt, even more strongly than their predecessors, the need to resolve all
chords back to the tonic.
6. Impressionist composers avoided ninth chords because they were prohibited in the Classical
system of harmony.
7. Debussy was greatly influenced by the non-Western music he heard at the Paris World Exhibition
of 1889.
8. Like Berlioz, Debussy won the coveted Prix de Rome during his compositional studies at the Paris
Conservatory.
9. Debussy’s music reflects a strong adherence to traditional forms and scales of Western music.
10. Debussy was important in establishing the French art song.
11. Debussy’s Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun” was inspired by a poem by Maurice Maeterlinck.
12. As a label, Impressionism was originally a term of derision.
13. The Symbolist movement in poetry was a parallel development to Impressionism.
14. Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir were both Symbolist poets.
ESSAY
1. How did composers like Debussy translate Impressionism and Symbolism into sound?
ANS:
Answers will vary.
PTS: 1 DIF: 2 REF: Essentials: pp. 239–240
TOP: Debussy MSC: Applied
2. What effects did non-Western music have on Impressionist and early-twentieth-century
composers? Cite examples.
ANS:
Answers will vary.
PTS: 1 DIF: 3 REF: Essentials: pp. 238–241
TOP: World Music MSC: Conceptual