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Part 2: The Renaissance: Ca. 1425–1600
1. The Renaissance may be described as an age of
a. the “rebirth” of Enlightenment-era logic.
b. war and death.
c. orchestras touring extensively in Europe.
d. the “rebirth” of arts and sciences from antiquity.
2. The Renaissance was an age of growing confidence in
a. the government and group dynamics.
b. mystical intervention.
c. industrial technologies.
d. the powers of human reason and individuality.
3. William Byrd was a
a. Catholic who wrote Protestant music for the English monarch.
b. Protestant who wrote Catholic music for the English monarch.
c. heretic.
d. Protestant who wrote Protestant music for the English monarch.
4. Counterpoint is a(n) _________________, and one that is still taught in almost exactly
the same manner as it was in the Renaissance.
a. easy method
b. demanding art
c. secret code
d. improvisatory practice
5. Josquin had his music praised by
a. Hildegard of Bingen.
b. an agent of the Duke of Ferrara.
c. Pope Gregory I.
d. Julius Caesar.
6. In Josquin’s “The Cricket,” when the text sings about drinking,
a. a smooth, flowing melody is heard that evokes liquid.
b. the melody is sung in octaves.
c. cricket-like chirping is heard that sounds like the hiccups of someone who has
been drinking.
d. cricket-like mating sounds are heard.
7. Martin Luther declared which of the following?
a. “Josquin is sinfully abusive of the art of music, while other composers write with
true artistry and beauty.”
b. “Josquin is the master of the notes, which must do as he wishes, while other
composers must follow what the notes dictate.”
c. “Josquin is well behind the times in his compositions and has no idea of how to
master the notes as other composers do.”
d. “No composer is worthy of writing music for worship, and the church should go
back to the traditional Gregorian chant in Latin.”
8. What is the name for the equal-voice texture that results from Renaissance counterpoint?
a. monophony
b. homophony
c. polyphony
d. heterophony
9. “The Cricket” praises the singing of
a. the minstrels of the royal court.
b. children in the summertime.
c. crickets over birds.
d. all of the above.
10. Which is NOT a textual theme in “The Cricket”?
a. love
b. drinking
c. being able to hold a long melody
d. dancing
11. Josquin’s music makes the meaning of a text
a. less obvious.
b. more vivid and memorable.
c. difficult to understand.
d. battle the movement of the melodic line.
12. In “The Cricket,” Josquin uses catchy, clever rhythms to evoke the
a. the sound of the cricket.
b. rhythms of dance.
c. fanfare of a trumpet.
d. carefree feeling of children at play.
13. How does Josquin use word painting to emphasize the word “love”?
a. long notes
b. parallel thirds
c. melisma
d. back-and-forth between upper and lower voices
14. Which voice is most prominent in Josquin’s four-voice texture?
a. alto
b. tenor
c. bass
d. They are all essentially equal.
15. Josquin’s “The Cricket” uses what kind of form?
a. binary
b. ternary
c. sonata
d. none of the above
16. In Josquin’s “The Cricket,” the A section
a. is repeated after a contrasting B section.
b. is first heard in the middle of the B section.
c. repeats nonstop in the tenor voice throughout the song.
d. is heard once at the beginning of the song, and doesn’t return.
17. How is the B section of “The Cricket” different from the A section?
a. lower in register, slightly darker in sound
b. faster rhythms
c. fewer voices, thinner in texture
d. longer notes, slower
18. Josquin des Prez was
a. unknown in his day.
b. an international celebrity in his time.
c. born a nobleman in southern France.
d. also a noted painter and sculptor.
19. In which cathedral did Josquin spend several years working?
a. Westminster Cathedral in London
b. Almudena Cathedral in Madrid
c. St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome
d. St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna
20. How is “The Cricket” performed?
a. singers alone
b. singers with instruments
c. played on different kinds of instruments
d. any of the above
21. Manuscripts for Renaissance polyphony
a. always included the song text.
b. never included the song text.
c. sometimes had the song text and sometimes didn’t.
d. included song text alongside suggested instrument combinations.
22. Which composition does NOT include sounds from outside the world of music?
a. Janequin’s La bataille
b. Balinese Cecak
c. Josquin’s Missa Pange Lingua
d. Josquin’s “The Cricket”
23. Which music imitates the sounds and gestures of legendary fighting monkeys?
a. the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea
a. Balinese Cecak
b. La bataille
c. none of the above
24. A madrigal is a
a. court jester.
b. multi-movement sacred instrumental composition.
c. secular vocal work set to a poem, usually about love.
d. none of the above.
25. “Since Robin Hood” is a
a. motet.
b. solo oratorio.
c. tone poem.
d. madrigal.
26. “Since Robin Hood” is based upon
a. a Morris dance tune.
b. Gregorian chant.
c. sounds of nature.
d. all newly composed tunes.
27. William Kemp was an actor who
a. is the actual author of many of Shakespeare’s plays.
b. became famous across Europe as a lute virtuoso.
c. was known for playing Robin Hood on stage.
d. danced the Morris dance from London to Norwich as a publicity stunt.
28. How many voices are in “Since Robin Hood?
a. one
b. two
c. three
d. four
29. How could you describe the texture of “Since Robin Hood”?
a. polyphonic
b. voices moving together in more or less the same rhythm
c. declamatory
d. all of the above
30. What is the word for a poem’s basic rhythmic unit?
a. texture
b. counterpoint
c. meter
d. syncopation
31. In the second section of “Since Robin Hood,” which meter does the music shift to in
order to accommodate the trochaic meter of the poetry?
a. duple
b. triple
c. quadruple
d. pentameter
32. Which poetic meter does NOT occur in “Since Robin Hood”?
a. iambic
b. trochaic
c. dactylic
d. anapestic
33. What type of musical device is used to graphically set words like “skip” and “drip”?
a. word painting
b. humanism
c. metrical modulation
d. none of the above
34. What musical effect was used in “Since Robin Hood” to represent the striving in the
phrase “hope of gains”?
a. long notes
b. increase of voices
c. monophony
d. syncopation
35. Like most composers of his day, Weelkes was a
a. non-musician.
b. self-taught musician.
c. professional musician.
d. composer of only Gregorian chant.
36. Which statement is NOT true of Thomas Weelkes?
a. He wrote both sacred and secular music.
b. He was fired for drunkenness and blasphemy.
c. He spent considerable time working for German nobility.
d. He received a bachelor of music degree from New College, Oxford.
37. Weelkes and his English contemporaries were fascinated by
a. Greek musical harmonic structures.
b. Italian music and poetry.
c. the exoticism of the Far East.
d. all of the above.
38. Thomas Weelkes worked during the reign of
a. Elizabeth I.
b. George II.
c. Victoria I.
d. Henry VI.
39. What could have been a good source of supplementary income for musicians in
Elizabethan England?
a. writing poetry
b. distilling whiskey
c. spying
d. joining the clergy
40. What essential entertainment function did musicians enable among Elizabethan landed
gentry?
a. dancing
b. poetry recitation
c. opera
d. all of the above
41. The English madrigal
a. preceded the Italian madrigal.
b. was directly indebted to the Italian madrigal.
c. was not related to the Italian madrigal.
d. arose at the same time as the Italian madrigal.
42. Which was NOT a late-sixteenth-century Italian madrigal composer admired by the
English?
a. Josquin des Prez
b. Claudio Monteverdi
c. Lucca Marenzio
d. Luzzascho Luzzaschi
43. Long lyrical melodies, melismatic text setting, and rich polyphonic textures
a. made text more clearly understood.
b. ran the risk of obscuring the text to be sung.
c. were outlawed completely by the Catholic Church.
d. made printing difficult.
44. William Byrd and other composers of his time were committed to setting the music in a
manner that
a. demonstrated rhythmic complexity.
b. utilized standard dance rhythms.
c. projected the words clearly.
d. opposed the political power of the Catholic Church.
45. The English anthem is the equivalent to what composers writing for the Roman Catholic
Church called a
a. hymn.
b. mass.
c. lied.
d. motet.
46. An anthem is an example of
a. a capella choral music.
b. sacred monophony.
c. sonata de chiesa.
d. lieder.
47. The technique of imitation or imitative counterpoint
a. is a type of counterpoint in which one voice introduces each new theme and is
answered by other voices that enter in succession as it continues to sing.
b. is a type of counterpoint in which one voice introduces each new theme and then
drops out completely as it is answered in succession by other voices.
c. was only used briefly during the Renaissance era, and was not well accepted.
d. is a rhythmic device that enables the singers to stay together during long
polyphonic works.
48. In William Byrd’s “Sing Joyfully,” the voices enter
a. in unison.
b. all at the same time, in imitation.
c. one after another, in imitation.
d. after an imitative instrumental overture.
49. How many voices are in William Byrd’s “Sing Joyfully”?
a. three
b. four
c. five
d. six
50. In William Byrd’s “Sing Joyfully,” each voice is differentiated by its
a. range.
b. meter.
c. instrumentation.
d. mode.
51. William Byrd’s “Sing Joyfully” is notable for its
a. word painting.
b. completely homophonic texture.
c. use of lute and tambourine.
d. contrasting instrumental timbres.
52. In William Byrd’s “Sing Joyfully,” each line of the text receives its own
a. harmonic mode.
b. unique texture.
c. meter.
d. melodic idea.
53. In William Byrd’s “Sing Joyfully,” each line of text ends with a
a. cadence, though some are elided with the next line of text.
b. sequence of paired imitation.
c. homophonic plagal figure.
d. shift in meter.
54. Women were not permitted to sing until well into the eighteenth century for all of the
following reasons EXCEPT:
a. Women might create a distraction.
b. Women sang better than men, and the men were jealous.
c. Churches used students from singing schools, which were all male.
d. none of the above
55. The term “a cappella” refers to
a. men taking their hats off in church.
b. singing in a hushed manner because one is in church.
c. any form of music appropriate for worship.
d. unaccompanied choral music, or any unaccompanied singing.
56. William Byrd wrote that singing
a. was an elite skill to be learned only by professionals.
b. should always remain subordinate to musical instruments.
c. should be learned by everyone.
d. can only be learned directly from the Franco-Flemish masters.
57. William Byrd gave the following reasons for learning to sing EXCEPT:
a. It is a remedy for stuttering.
b. It increases health.
c. It is easy to learn.
d. It can be used to glorify the Roman Catholic Church.
58. William Byrd worked for the ________ Queen of England.
a. Catholic
b. Puritan
c. Calvinist
d. Protestant
59. William Byrd lived under surveillance, because of the suspicion that he was harboring
a. papists.
b. Heugenots.
c. escaped slaves.
d. Protestants.
60. The intense spirituality of the Renaissance
a. gave rise to a plethora of secular songs.
b. had nothing to do with the music.
c. gave rise to some of the most moving sacred music ever written.
d. caused the major religions to avoid music altogether.
61. Which was the leading composer of sacred music in sixteenth-century Italy who wrote an
influential Mass for Pope Marcellus?
a. Tomás Luis de Victoria
b. Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina
c. Antonio Vivaldi.
d. Giovanni Coperario
62. Who was the greatest Spanish composer of the Renaissance?
a. Antonio Alonso
b. Giovanni Coperario
c. Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina
d. Tomás Luis de Victoria
63. Polyphony is a phenomenon
a. that was limited to Western Europe until the mid-twentieth century.
b. used only for sacred music.
c. found worldwide.
d. that marks a professionalization of singing in the Bahamas.
64. “My Lord Help Me to Pray” is an example of
a. secular monophony.
b. sacred heterophony.
c. three-voice polyphony.
d. a liturgical drama.
65. What is the relationship among the voices in “My Lord Help Me to Pray”?
a. call-and-response
b. pervading imitation
c. homophony
d. integrated serialism
66. The musical features of rhyme song reflect
a. the economic plight of the working-class singers.
b. the rugged individualism of the North American work ethic.
c. structural elements of African music.
d. all of the above.
67. Rhyme singing is an example of syncretism, meaning it
a. combines different forms of belief and practice.
b. combines commercial interests with musical practice.
c. has remained unchanged since its inception.
d. has a three-voice polyphonic structure.
68. Rhyming singers come from where in the Carribbean?
a. Cuba
b. Jamaica
c. the Dominican Republic
d. the Bahamas
69. The melodic lines in “My Lord Help Me to Pray” are referred to as
a. imitations.
b. responsories.
c. intonations.
d. refrains.
70. In “My Lord Help Me to Pray,” the rhyme line is
a. always pre-composed.
b. generally melodically static.
c. often improvised, but always descending in motion.
d. often varied, but always ascending to a climax.
71. In “My Lord Help Me to Pray,” which voice is the “call”?
a. treble line
b. rhyme line
c. alto line
d. bass line
72. In “My Lord Help Me to Pray,” which voices sing together?
a. treble and alto
b. rhyme and bass
c. treble and rhyme
d. treble and bass
73. Carribean music in the twentieth century can be characterized as
a. a homogenous tradition.
b. widely varied among the many islands.
c. shadowing developments in early European sacred music.
d. a strictly sacred tradition.
74. One of the most popular musical genres to emerge from the Carribean is
a. reggae.
b. samba.
c. cumbia.
d. tango.
75. Bob Marley is a singer whose musical genre is closely associated with
a. Catholicism.
b. Baha’i.
c. Rastafarianism.
d. Santeria.
76. In the middle section of “My Lord Help Me to Pray,” the voices overlap to create a
a. slow homophonic texture.
b. texture of pervading imitation.
c. monophonic chant-like texture.
d. thick polyphonic texture.
77. “Lord Help Me to Pray” begins with a
a. call-and-response section.
b. monophonic introit.
c. spoken introduction where the singer states the title.
d. instrumental improvisation.
78. The general texture of “My Lord Help Me to Pray” can be characterized as
a. heterophonic and strophic.
b. strophic and monophonic.
c. monophonic.
d. polyphonic and responsorial.
79. When the rhyme part of “My Lord Help Me to Pray” breaks out of the couplet pattern, it
sings an embellished version of
a. “One Love.”
b. “Ave Maria.”
c. “The Lord’s Prayer.”
d. “Communion.”
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80. Which of the following is true of the call-and-response texture?
a. It is quite common in religious singing throughout the world.
b. It is one way of helping a large group of people work together.
c. It appears in American shape-note singing.
d. all of the above
81. “One Love,” “I Shot the Sheriff,” and “No Woman, No Cry” are popular songs by what
Carribean singer?
a. Joseph Spence
b. Bob Marley
c. Lord Invader
d. Bruce Green
82. In the 1950s, Lord Invader popularized calypso in what American city?
a. Chicago
b. New York
c. Houston
d. New Orleans