REVIEW QUESTIONS for Exam #1

1. What definition does Wright offer for music?
2. What is the textbook's definition of rhythm?
3. According to the reading, what are the three most basic musical elements?
4. The textbook's definintion of meter as "the gathering of beats into regular groups," is not a very practical one. As a listener, what do you need to listen for in order to group beats into the larger groups that project the meter of a work.
5. What is a time signature? What is a downbeat or upbeat?
6. Syncopation is created in two ways; explain them breifly.
7. Be able to give the English translations for each of the Italian tempo terms.
8. Why are musical directions for tempo most often given in Italian?
9. Explain how pulse, meter, and rhythm form a heirarchical structure.
10. Explain compound meter (from lecture notes).

1. What is the aural effect of principle of octave duplication? Give an example. What is the physical explanation for this phenomenon?
2. Define: tonic, tonality, key, major scale, minor scale, and modulation.
3. What is the difference between a change in mode and a change in key (or modulation)?
4. What is a diatonic melody? What is a chromatic scale? A chromatic melody?
5. Distinguish conjunct and disjunct melodies.
6. What is a melodic motive? 9. What are antecedant and consequent phrases and how are they related to full and half cadences?

1. What is the distance between two notes called?
2. What is the intervalic structure of a triad? How do triads appear in musical notation (when written in their simplest form)?
3. What is the triad built on the first scale degree called? The triad on the 4th scale degree? The fifth scale degree?
4. Which triad usually follows the dominant triad?
5. How do you write a full cadence using Roman numerals? Which triads are involved? What is the aural effect?
6. What is a chord progression?
7. Define arpeggio, consonance, and dissonance.

1. Give a synonym for musial color.
2. What are the four principal voice classifications? What two other terms are also used to describe the range and color of a voice and what do they indicate?
3. What is pizzicato?
4. What is the difference between vibrato and tremolo on string instruments?
5. Define: fortissimo, piano, diminuendo, and pianissimo.
6. What is monophonic texture? In what body of music is this texture used extensively?
7. Define polyphonic or contrapuntal texture.
8. What is the difference between imitative counterpoint and free counterpoint (free counterpoint=nonimitative counterpoint)?
9. What is homophonic texture and in what sorts of music would you be likely to hear it?
10. Distinguish Strophic, binary, ternary, rondo, and theme and variation forms.