Respostas para [Recent Tests- VOL] - Classical music over the centuries

Respostas e explicações detalhadas para [Recent Tests- VOL] - Classical music over the centuries

Answer Table

1. iii

2. ii

3. v

4. vi

5. i

6. vii

7. 3|5

8. 3|5

9. 2|4

10. 2|4

11. audience

12. concert halls

13. soundtrack

Explain

[Recent Tests- VOL] - Classical music over the centuries

A 1The production of any great art form, and classical music is no exception, does not usually occur in a society dominated by the basic material demands of food and shelter. Art and music have flourished in those periods of history, and those parts of society, in which the luxury of free time and material wealth has allowed such a culture to take precedence over more material matters. In the medieval European world, it was thus primarily in the closed communities of the church and monastery, and royal courts that music, literature and learning were able to flourish.

B 2It was not until 18th century that this situation changed to any great extent, and the rise of an economically independent middle class meant that concert going became a public activity for anyone who cared to buy a ticket. It is worth remembering that the idea of classical music widely accepted today did not exist until about 300 years ago. Performing music in concert halls to a paying audience, as something inherently pleasurable and significant, was pretty much unheard of until the 18th century, and not widely established until the 19th. The concert venue, the audience, and the idea of ‘masterpieces’ of classical music, were all effectively invented during the course of the 18th century – in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin and other European cities where the arts in general were blossoming.

C Today, music that was originally written for a concert venue may appear, out of its original context, in an advert or film. Conversely, music written specifically for films is sometimes performed live. 3But nothing has changed music over the last century more radically than the invention and dissemination of recording technologies. However, although Thomas Edison originally developed the phonograph in 1877, and wax cylinders were used as early as 1880s for recording music, commercial recordings of music were not generally available to the majority until 1920s. 8From the mid-1980s onwards, the vinyl disc gradually gave way to the new technology of the CD, but just a decade later, the digital MP3 file was already displacing the CD as the favoured way to produce records music. 7Yet now, people have more music stored on their phones or computers—which they can call up with the touch of a finger—than would have been contained on all the meters of library shelves of the proud ‘record collector’ of the 20th century.

D 4Before recording, music was a social event: it involved one or more people coming together to make music. The music lasted for as long as the musicians sang or played, and then it was over. Therefore, there were no recordings that could be listened to again later. In many living or museum religions, probably taken up in the kinds of societies where time was not experienced as linear, music was treated as a means to achieve a special, even a spiritual, state. To be heard, live music created a one-off event.

E These days, however, technology makes almost all the world’s music instantly and constantly available to anyone with access to simple and cheap gadgets designed for playing it. 5-11Music thus floats free of any specific occasion or space. It is no longer restricted to a particular audience or group of musicians. For the first time, music (any music) can be entirely personal and private. This is one of the reasons that the ‘classical’ label becomes harder to pin down. 12One of its essential aspects – a performance defined by concert halls and opera houses - is dissolved by digital recording formats. 13As a consequence of all music, classical music included, can become any person’s soundtrack for activities such as commuting, exercising or shopping.

F The ubiquity of music as recorded sound means that it’s very easy to overlook perhaps the most definitive aspect of the classical music tradition – the fact that it is a written or notated music. 6-10Though classical music may lack a precise definition today and can mean quite different things to different people, at its heart is the idea of a music that has remained viable over the years because it was written down in some form. The original of what music historians think of as classical music dates from the ninth century, when a system of musical notation was first developed. Before this time, singers in religious services in cathedrals or monasteries had to learn by heart a huge repertory of chants. 9The first attempts to notate music were intended to help them remember these. Over the next thousand years, notation became more complex, incorporating such aspects as rhythm and pitch, allowing composers to rework and refine their musical ideas. Put very simply, the history of classical music, in all its varied forms, is the history of a tradition that grew out of the possibilities of musical notation.

Questions 1-6

Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-F.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings
i. Music comes to be enjoyed in a large variety of situations
ii. More people gain access to live music
iii. A focus on survival limits the practice of classical music
iv. A clash of musical styles takes place
v. A range of scientific advances brings music to a wider audience
vi. Listening to music being limited to live performances
vii. How classical music has managed to survive for centuries

Paragraph A

Correct answer: iii

Paragraph B

Correct answer: ii

Paragraph C

Correct answer: v

Paragraph D

Correct answer: vi

Paragraph E

Correct answer: i

Paragraph F

Correct answer: vii

Question 7-8

Choose TWO letters, A-E
Write the correct letters in boxes 7 and 8 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about recording technologies?

A. The vinyl disc was relatively easy to damage

B. The sound quality from wax cylinders was inferior to that of the phonograph

C. Electronic storage allows people to keep a vast amount of music

D. Recorded music sold well immediately after Edison invented the photograph

E. The CD was popular for a relatively brief period

Question 9-10

Choose TWO letters, A-E
Write the correct letters in boxes 9 and 10on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about musical notation?

A. The way it is interpreted has changed over time

B. It was originally designed as a memory aid

C. It is often ignored by classical musicians today

D. Classical music could not have survived without it

E. Its importance diminished with the arrival of recording

Questions 11-13

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

The impact of today’s technology on music

These days, the word "music" is instantly and constantly available to almost everyone. Thus, music is no longer tied to a particular location or occasion, nor is it associated with a group of musicians or a specific 11 (audience) . It can become uniquely in its history, completely personal to each and every individual. Thanks to digital recording, the need for venues such as opera houses or 12 (concert halls) , where concerts are performed, has vanished. Digitization has also made it possible for people to treat music as a 13 (soundtrack) to their daily activities.

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