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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of a term used to describe a piano playing style that was a brilliant romanticist musical approach that transcended technique and was made famous by Franz Liszt and others?

2. What term is used to identify a type of music that is a singing, nuanced, fluffy, polite, and melodic approach developed after Bach's death when the heavy contrapuntal style used in the tempestuous fugue fell into disfavor?

3. Who married composer Robert Schumann, wore black in his memory, and was the authority on his music?

4. What pianist never played in public but stayed in Vienna to teach pupils and compose over a thousand published works?

5. Thalberg fully retired from playing with not even a piano at home in what year?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author describe changes in playing techniques in Chapter VI, In the Interim? Who initiated these adaptations?

2. Who was Louis Moreau Gottschalk and how did he represent American ideals in musical composition?

3. When did the romantic upheaval take place in music? Who were its forerunners?

4. When and where did piano playing arise in history? What instruments led up to the development of the piano?

5. What historical period is related by the author in Chapter VI, In the Interim? Who instigated this transition?

6. What eccentricities does the author describe of the salonists in Chapter XII, More Salonists, and the Revolutionary in Octaves?

7. How did Chopin feel about his contemporaries? Who did he consider the only two great composers?

8. What was Thalsberg's career like? When did he retire?

9. What musical figure is described in Chapter XXI, An Archangel Come Down to Earth? Whose student was he?

10. Describe the early life and career of Mozart. How old was he when he first performed musically?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the contrapuntal style of Johann Sebastian Bach. When was this style at its height in popularity? What replaced it?

Essay Topic 2

How did the processes of piano manufacturing change in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? What impact did this have on the piano's popularity?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the pianist and conductor Hans von Bulow. How did he influence the German school of thought? What characteristics does the author make of the German style?

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This section contains 898 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample