Preparing for the midterm Wednesday October 8 th Test form, question examples, expected readings

Review in preparation Please review the readings, and your notes the discussions we have had to this time. This includes the materials on Virtual Vernacular Music: The place of music in cultural creations Defining the vernacular The past before electricity was a foreign country, they did things differently then. Music of Procession and Dance The Parlor and Home: Pianoforte, guitar, harp, and song The mid-century influence of European Music: Inventing the Classical, demoting the Popular. Stage and Public Performance in mid-century America: Minstrelsy: Inventing the Stage Negro The Spiritual and Black Music of the Post-Civil War Professional Musicians and the evolution of the Military and Concert Band The Business of Sheet Music: Tin Pan Alley Actuality and Novelty: Changing the nature of musical performance The Virtue of Virtuosity: Variations on a familiar theme and other early recording agendas The Boom and Bust of professional musicians: pit orchestras and theater organists Ragtime: the first recorded musical enthusiasm Why was it all about Sound? Marketing regional traditions: The Invention of Hillbilly Records

Bring to the Test What you’ll need to take the midterm: Positive mental attitude, strengthened by: Sleep that promotes mental agility Preparation by reviewing the materials to be covered Your water bottle, or be prepared to get up and go get water during the test. A dark writing implement What you don’t need to bring to the test: Blue books, writing paper, notes, lap-top computer, I-Phone. This test is open mind, but not open source.

Quizzical Form The text has two parts: Part one and Part two. Part One: This has twenty questions mostly short answers of a word or phrase. You must only answer fifteen. Part of your participation is choosing which questions you can answer most confidently. Part Two asks you to write a paragraph considering the implications of the facts that you know. There will be no fewer than five, probably no more than eight choices—answer one. An example from class or the readings is always useful to show your control of the material in the answer. Two examples (unless for comparison or contrast) is one too many.

Questions: Short Questions Our midterm will be a mixture of short answer questions (with choices available) and an essay question (with choices available). Here are samples of the kinds of questions you might be asked to answer: 1. Give one way that the technical medium of mechanical recording influenced the musical materials that performers recorded. 2. Give an example of a ragtime composition. In a sentence why is that piece best described as “ragtime”. 3. When music is written for the market-place it may have many characteristics but it must be accessible. That is to say it must be a. Able to be sung by amateurs. b. Only purchased in stores. c. Scored for every instrument. d. Inexpensive.

Questions: Paragraph answers Close your eyes and image a garden of narrative question relating to our readings and class conversations. For example: The components of virtuosity that Anya Royce describes focus on technique; mastery of extra-technical elements; level of execution of technical elements; attitude of nonchalant, self-critical, limiting. How does her evaluation of these aspects of performance contrast with what is most often heard in mechanical recordings made for listening? In this sharp contrast what is the heart of distinction between the goals of concert performance and popular performance? Why would a well-known, simple tune be a better vehicle for the display of virtuosity than say a very technically difficult composition?