Essay Quiz


1		What kind of life did Johann Sebastian Bach have? What do you suppose it was like to be one of the sons or daughters in this family? Would you appreciate having twenty brothers and sisters?



2		Would you have found it exciting, as Johann Sebastian Bach did, to be able to write in all keys in The Well-Tempered Clavier? Would you have liked to tackle this project, writing two volumes, with each volume having twenty-four preludes and fugues in each chromatic key, major and minor? Why or why not?



3		Study the well-tempered tuning system. In what ways did it differ from the mean-tone tuning system used in the Renaissance? Did the new system cause any tuning problems?



4		Do you think Baroque composers wanted to understand more about music theory, especially with the new system of tonality evolving and harmonic thought changing and developing?



5		Is there a reason that Baroque audiences enjoyed listening to suites of stylized dances? What was the clothing of the period like? What were the dances like? Was there a great difference between the dance styles of the aristocracy and the middle and lower classes?



6		Improvisation was popular during the Baroque period. Where would you look for information about the improvisation of ornamentation?



7		Study the Austrian horse ballets. These were massive Lippizaener horse exhibitions presented by the Austrian aristocracy, the Hapsburgs, during the Baroque period. Several hundred horses and riders with instruments led parades with many elaborate floats in the palace courts, with choreography for the horse units that fit each piece of music played. Was it considered special to be a trumpeter? Why?

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