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Music theory - Exam
Contributed by: Wilkins
  • 1. Music theory is the study of principles and concepts that govern the structure, harmony, and expression of music. It includes an exploration of elements such as melody, rhythm, harmony, form, and texture, as well as an analysis of how these components work together to create emotional and intellectual impact. Music theory provides a framework for understanding the language of music and helps musicians communicate with each other through notation, improvisation, and composition. By delving into music theory, musicians gain deeper insights into the mechanics behind music creation and performance, enabling them to interpret and express music more effectively.

    What is the term for the distance between two pitches?
A) Scale
B) Key
C) Chord
D) Interval
  • 2. What term describes a group of three notes played together?
A) Octave
B) Interval
C) Triad
D) Harmony
  • 3. What is the symbol that indicates to raise the pitch of a note by a semitone?
A) Flat
B) Natural
C) Sharp
D) Double Sharp
  • 4. What is the main purpose of a key signature in sheet music?
A) Specify time signature
B) Denote dynamics
C) Show tempo changes
D) Indicate key of the piece
  • 5. What is the first note of a major scale called?
A) Mediant
B) Dominant
C) Subdominant
D) Tonic
  • 6. What term refers to playing or singing in tune?
A) Syncopation
B) Transposition
C) Intonation
D) Orchestration
  • 7. What symbol is used to indicate a half step lower in pitch?
A) Flat
B) Sharp
C) Double Flat
D) Natural
  • 8. What is the term for the speed at which music is played?
A) Dynamics
B) Rhythm
C) Pitch
D) Tempo
  • 9. What is the term for a sudden increase in volume?
A) Ritardando
B) Decrescendo
C) Crescendo
D) Diminuendo
  • 10. Which three interrelated uses of 'music theory' are described by the Oxford Companion to Music?
A) Exploring electronic sound production, improvisation techniques, and orchestration methods.
B) Understanding music notation, studying scholars' views on music from antiquity to present, and defining processes in musicology.
C) Analyzing individual works, comparing musical performances, and studying historical instruments.
D) Examining tuning systems, composition methods, and practical aspects of performance.
  • 11. How does the musicological approach to theory differ from musical analysis?
A) It focuses on electronic sound production instead of traditional instruments.
B) It emphasizes improvisation over composition methods.
C) It studies only modern music, ignoring historical perspectives.
D) It starts with fundamental materials rather than individual works or performances.
  • 12. What does the development, preservation, and transmission of music theory encompass?
A) Only written treatises about music notation.
B) Comparative analysis of different musical cultures.
C) Methods and concepts used by composers and musicians in creating and performing music.
D) The study of electronic sound production exclusively.
  • 13. What is required to teach as a tenure-track music theorist in a US or Canadian university?
A) University study, typically to the MA or PhD level.
B) Experience with electronic sound production.
C) Only practical experience in performing music.
D) A degree in musical acoustics exclusively.
  • 14. Which methods are used for analysis in music theory?
A) Mathematics, graphic analysis, and western music notation.
B) Only descriptive and statistical methods.
C) Primarily improvisation techniques.
D) Exclusively comparative analysis.
  • 15. What is a music theorist?
A) A person who researches or teaches music theory.
B) Someone who only performs music.
C) A composer specializing in electronic sound production.
D) An individual focused solely on musical acoustics.
  • 16. Which ancient civilization's clay tablets include musical information such as lists of intervals and tunings?
A) Greece
B) Egypt
C) Rome
D) Mesopotamia
  • 17. What type of materials contain the earliest surviving Sumerian and Akkadian musical information?
A) Clay tablets
B) Metal plates
C) Stone carvings
D) Papyrus scrolls
  • 18. What is the approximate date of the earliest Mesopotamian texts about music?
A) Before 1000 BCE
B) Before 1500 BCE
C) Before 200 CE
D) Before 500 BCE
  • 19. Who reports on the earliest Mesopotamian texts about music?
A) Herodotus
B) Plato
C) Aristotle
D) Sam Mirelman
  • 20. What does the number five refer to in Chinese music theory?
A) The Pentatonic Scale, which primarily uses a 5-note scale
B) The number of musical instruments
C) The number of musical modes
D) The number of notes in a scale
  • 21. What did Ling Lun name the agreeable sound produced by blowing on bamboo?
A) Lülü
B) Shierlü
C) Phoenix tone
D) Huangzhong, the 'Yellow Bell'
  • 22. Who authored the work 'Harmonic Elements'?
A) Cleonides
B) Ptolemaios
C) Aristoxenus
D) Nicomachus of Gerasa
  • 23. Who wrote 'Harmonics' in Greek?
A) Ptolemaios (Πτολεμαίος), Claudius
B) Aristoxenus
C) Porphyrius
D) Nicomachus of Gerasa
  • 24. In which century was 'Introduction to Harmonics' by Cleonides written?
A) 2nd century CE
B) 3rd or 4th century CE
C) 100–150 CE
D) 4th century CE or later
  • 25. Which work is associated with Gaudentius?
A) Είσαγωγή τέχνης μουσικής [Introduction to the Art of Music]
B) Άρμονικά στοιχεία [Harmonic Elements]
C) Άρμονική είσαγωγή [Harmonic Introduction]
D) Είσαγωγή άρμονική [Introduction to Harmonics]
  • 26. Who authored 'On Ptolemy's Harmonics'?
A) Bacchius Geron
B) Aristoxenus
C) Porphyrius
D) Nicomachus of Gerasa
  • 27. During which centuries did Alypius of Alexandria write 'Introduction to Music'?
A) 3rd or 4th century CE
B) 4th–5th century CE
C) 2nd century CE
D) 100–150 CE
  • 28. What is the time period during which Ptolemaios (Πτολεμαίος), Claudius lived?
A) 428–347 BCE
B) 100–150 CE
C) 127–148 CE
D) c. 232~233 – c. 305 CE
  • 29. Which Chinese instrument theory contributed to the development of 84 musical modes?
A) The erhu
B) The dizi
C) The guzheng
D) The pipa
  • 30. Who used the first twelve letters of the alphabet to describe the twelve frets on five strings of the oud?
A) Safi al-Din al-Urmawi
B) Abū Yūsuf Ya'qūb al-Kindi
C) al-Fārābi
D) Boethius
  • 31. What is the title of Bāqiyā Nāyinῑ's work?
A) La musique arabe
B) Zamzama e wahdat-i-mῡsῑqῑ
C) Ta'rῑkh al-mῡsῑqᾱ al-arabiyya wa-usῡluha wa-tatawwurᾱtuha
D) Singing by Note
  • 32. Which French musicologist wrote about Arabian music?
A) Bāqiyā Nāyinῑ
B) Baron Francois Rodolphe d'Erlanger
C) None of the above
D) Reverend Thomas Symmes
  • 33. What does Sacred Harp music focus on in its solfege system?
A) None of the above
B) The solfege 'do, re, mi'
C) The solfege 'fa, sol, la'
D) The solfege 'ti, do, re'
  • 34. Who developed the system for 'singing by note' in Sacred Harp music?
A) Bāqiyā Nāyinῑ
B) Baron Francois Rodolphe d'Erlanger
C) None of the above
D) Reverend Thomas Symmes
  • 35. In what year did Reverend Thomas Symmes develop his system for Sacred Harp music?
A) 1900
B) 1720
C) 1750
D) 1800
  • 36. Which period saw Western musical influence spread globally, leading to the adoption of Western theory?
A) The Baroque period
B) The Renaissance
C) 1750–1900
D) The 1800s
  • 37. Which culture's music is primarily oral with specific forms, genres, and performance practices?
A) African cultures
B) Middle Eastern cultures
C) Central Asian cultures
D) European cultures
  • 38. What is transformational theory primarily concerned with?
A) Schenkerian analysis techniques.
B) Tonal spaces in music.
C) Relations between musical objects.
D) The makeup of musical objects.
  • 39. Which mathematical concept can describe just intonation?
A) A ring
B) A vector space
C) A free abelian group
D) A finite field
  • 40. What term is used for the shortest articulation in music?
A) marcato
B) tenuto
C) staccatissimo
D) legato
  • 41. What is the average number of tenure-track positions advertised per year in music theory?
A) 100
B) Around 25
C) 10
D) 50
  • 42. Which symbol can indicate a change in timbre by suggesting a marked or accented note?
A) Staccato (.)
B) Crescendo (<)
C) Decrescendo (>)
D) Marcato (^)
  • 43. What term describes the interweaving of melodic lines?
A) Counterpoint
B) Polyphony
C) Melody
D) Harmony
  • 44. What is a chord called when it includes additional notes beyond the basic triad?
A) A simple chord
B) A basic chord
C) A primary chord
D) An extended chord
  • 45. Which society was founded in 1999?
A) Vereniging voor Muziektheorie
B) Société d'Analyse musicale
C) Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie
D) Society for Music Theory
  • 46. What does 'mf' stand for in music dynamics?
A) piano followed by forte
B) sforzando
C) forte followed by piano
D) mezzo forte, meaning moderately loud
  • 47. What is the term for playing simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature?
A) Homophony
B) Monophony
C) Polyrhythm
D) Syncopation
  • 48. Which Italian term is used to indicate a moderately soft dynamic?
A) sforzando (sfz)
B) piano (p)
C) mezzo piano (mp)
D) forte (f)
  • 49. What is a common way of representing chords in Western music other than staff notation?
A) Rhythmic patterns
B) Roman numerals
C) Melodic lines
D) Harmonic progressions
  • 50. Which of the following is a harmonic set of three or more notes?
A) A scale
B) A melody
C) A chord
D) A rhythm
  • 51. Which dynamic marking indicates the loudest possible volume?
A) mezzo piano (mp)
B) sforzando (sfz)
C) pianissimo (pp)
D) fortississimo (ffff)
  • 52. Who is credited with establishing musical analysis as a pursuit in its own right?
A) David Lewin
B) Ian Bent
C) Heinrich Schenker
D) Adolf Bernhard Marx
  • 53. What is the role of nature in the relationship between music and mathematics?
A) Nature has no connection to mathematics
B) Nature's influence on music is purely aesthetic
C) Nature only influences biology, not music
D) Nature itself is amazingly mathematical
  • 54. Which theorist first elaborated many notions of musical set theory in connection with tonal music?
A) Howard Hanson
B) Milton Babbitt
C) Arnold Schoenberg
D) Allen Forte
  • 55. Which writer on music semiology is known for work on topic and gesture?
A) Jean-Jacques Nattiez
B) Raymond Monelle
C) Kofi Agawu
D) Robert Hatten
  • 56. In harmony, what term refers to the 'vertical' aspect of music?
A) Polyphony
B) Counterpoint
C) Melody
D) Harmony
  • 57. What is the relationship of separate independent voices called?
A) Homophony
B) Counterpoint
C) Polyphony
D) Monophony
  • 58. What is the term used to describe serial music that extends beyond twelve-tone technique?
A) General serialism
B) Integral serialism
C) Twelve-tone technique
D) Post-tonal thinking
  • 59. What does 'ABD' stand for in the context of hiring for academic positions?
A) Advanced Bachelor's Degree
B) Academic Board Delegate
C) All But Dissertation
D) Associate Board Director
  • 60. Which type of music often augments chords with tensions?
A) Classical common practice period
B) Baroque music
C) All of the above
D) Jazz harmony
  • 61. What is the most fundamental concept of Schenker's theory?
A) Dominant operation.
B) Tonal space.
C) Musical intervals.
D) Chord progressions.
  • 62. Who developed transformational theory?
A) Ian Bent
B) David Lewin
C) Heinrich Schenker
D) Adolf Bernhard Marx
  • 63. Which writer on music semiology focused on narrativity?
A) Eero Tarasti
B) Heinrich Schenker
C) Jean-Jacques Nattiez
D) Anthony Newcomb
  • 64. Which term indicates a non-specific, but commonly understood soft and 'sweet' timbre?
A) Cuivre
B) Dolce
C) Marcato
D) Sul tasto
  • 65. Which dynamic marking indicates a nearly inaudible volume?
A) sforzando (sfz)
B) mezzo forte (mf)
C) forte (f)
D) pianissississimo (pppp)
  • 66. Which semiotician wrote about music in 'Image Music Text'?
A) Roland Barthes
B) Kofi Agawu
C) Philip Tagg
D) Raymond Monelle
  • 67. Which articulation involves the bow bouncing off the string on bowed instruments?
A) legato
B) spiccato
C) tenuto
D) staccato
  • 68. Which dynamic marking is used for a soft volume?
A) sforzando (sfz)
B) mezzo forte (mf)
C) forte (f)
D) piano (p)
  • 69. What is polyphonic texture?
A) A single melodic voice with rhythmic accompaniment.
B) Chords accompanying a melody.
C) Multiple independent melodies played simultaneously.
D) Two voices, one playing a drone note and the other a melody.
  • 70. Who adopted the idea of musical semiosis being introversive or extroversive?
A) Raymond Monelle
B) Kofi Agawu
C) Roland Barthes
D) Philip Tagg
  • 71. What is integral serialism also known as?
A) Total serialism
B) Twelve-tone technique
C) General serialism
D) Multiple serialism
  • 72. How many pitches does the Western chromatic scale divide an octave into?
A) Twelve
B) Fifteen
C) Seven
D) Eight
  • 73. Which subset describes major chords in musical set theory?
A) {0 4 7}
B) {1 4 8}
C) {0 3 7}
D) {2 5 9}
  • 74. Which frequency was historically assigned to concert A in France in 1859?
A) 432 Hz
B) 450 Hz
C) 440 Hz
D) 435 Hz
  • 75. Which term describes an articulation that is between tenuto and staccato?
A) legato
B) portato
C) marcato
D) staccatissimo
  • 76. Which articulation is described as 'separated' or 'detached'?
A) marcato
B) staccato
C) legato
D) tenuto
  • 77. What does 'crescendo' indicate in music dynamics?
A) progressively increasing volume
B) a sudden decrease to a soft level
C) a loud attack with a sudden decrease
D) a moderately loud dynamic
  • 78. Which of the following is NOT a fundamental pattern of notes mentioned for improving musical technique?
A) Arpeggios
B) Minor triads
C) Natural scales
D) Rhythm
  • 79. Which musical operation is not typically associated with pitch-class set theory?
A) Transposition
B) Rhythm analysis
C) Inversion
D) Complementation
  • 80. What does rhythmic notation in Schenkerian analysis represent?
A) Chord progressions.
B) Musical intervals.
C) Actual rhythm of the music.
D) Hierarchical relationships between pitch-events.
  • 81. Which composer's concept of 'emancipated' dissonance became more widely accepted in the early 20th century?
A) Ludwig van Beethoven
B) Arnold Schoenberg
C) Johann Sebastian Bach
D) Claude Debussy
  • 82. What term describes chords that consist of three distinct notes?
A) Triads
B) Sequences
C) Progressions
D) Inversions
  • 83. What type of algebra is used to expand on the methods of musical set theory?
A) Boolean algebra
B) Linear algebra
C) Differential algebra
D) Abstract algebra
  • 84. What is the most basic interval in music?
A) Third
B) Octave
C) Fifth
D) Unison
  • 85. What is another term commonly used for 'timbre'?
A) Volume
B) Color
C) Rhythm
D) Pitch
  • 86. Who provided a systematic analysis of the relation between musical structures and connotations in popular music?
A) Kofi Agawu
B) Leonard B. Meyer
C) Philip Tagg
D) Anthony Newcomb
  • 87. Which element of music refers to the 'horizontal' aspect?
A) Chords
B) Harmony
C) Melody
D) Texture
  • 88. What secondary characteristic can differentiate between genres according to Allan F. Moore?
A) Tempo
B) Subject matter
C) Musical form
D) Instrumentation
  • 89. What is a semitone also known as in music theory?
A) A whole tone
B) An octave
C) A minor third
D) A half step
  • 90. What is timbre often described in terms of?
A) High, low, sharp, flat
B) Fast, slow, loud, soft
C) Bright, dull, shrill, etc.
D) Major, minor, major seventh
  • 91. What is the primary characteristic of musical technique according to Heinrich Schenker?
A) Repetition
B) Rhythm
C) Harmony
D) Improvisation
  • 92. Which aspect can affect apparent dissonance and consonance in music?
A) Volume
B) Context
C) Tempo
D) Instrumentation
  • 93. What is a series of chords called?
A) A melody line
B) A chord progression
C) An arpeggio sequence
D) A scale pattern
  • 94. What term describes accenting unexpected parts of the beat?
A) Syncopation
B) Homophony
C) Polyrhythm
D) Monophony
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