TPO58阅读真题+题目+答案下载：The Development of Instrumental Music

TPO58阅读真题+题目+答案下载：The Development of Instrumental Music

[ Paragraph 1] Until the sixteenth century, almost all music was written for the voice rather than for musical instruments Even during the Renaissance (from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century), instrumental music was, for the most part, the result of substituting an instrument for a voice in music written for singing or dancing The seventeenth century marked the rise of music that lacked extramusical meaning Like a mathematical equation or geometric formula, the instrumental music of the early modern era carried no explicit narrative content-it was neither a vehicle of religious expression nor a means of supporting a secular (nonreligious) vocalized text. Such music was written without consideration for the associational content traditionally provided by a set of sung lyrics. The idea of music as an aesthetic exercise, composed for its own sake rather than to serve a religious or communal purpose, was a notable feature of the seventeenth century and one that has distinguished modern Western European music from the musical traditions of Asia and Africa.

1. According to paragraph 1, all of the following are true of European music written before the seventeenth century

A. It was often in the form of song

B. It was often used to express religious feeling.

C. It often featured instruments playing by themselves

D. It often accompanied narrative or story-telling text

2. The word "explicit" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. complex

B. obvious

C. practical

D. lengthy

3. According to paragraph 1, what is a notable feature of seventeenth-century music?

A. Secular ideas replaced religion as the central resource for new musical ideas

B. Instrumental music was composed as an independent means of artistic expression

C. Music combined the musical traditions of Asia, Africa, and Europe

D. Instrumental music was written to serve the needs of the community

[ Paragraph 2] Not surprisingly, the rise of instrumental music was accompanied by improvements in instruments and refinements in tuning Indeed, instrumental music came to dominate musical composit ion at the very moment that Western musicians were perfecting such stringed instruments as the violin, viola, and cello and such keyboard instruments as the organ and harpsichord. By the early eighteenth century, musicians were adopting the system of tuning known as equal temperament, whereby the octave was divided into twelve half-steps of equal size Johann Sebastian Bach' s Well Tempered Clavier (1722) was an attempt to popularize this system to a skeptical musical public. The new attention paid to improving instruments and systematizing tuning mirrored the efforts of scientists and philosophers to bring precision and uniformity to the tools and methods for scientific inquiry.

4. According to paragraph 2, the rise of instrumental music was accompanied by what other changes?

A. Mixing of string and keyboard instruments in compositions

B. Improvements to instruments and systems of tuning

C. The invention of new stringed instruments

D. A reduced emphasis on the violin and harpsichord in musical composition

5. The word "adopting" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. relying on

B. holding on to

C. beginning to use

D. influenced by

6. The word "skeptical" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. doubting

B. ignorant

C. growing

D. serious

[ Paragraph 3] In the seventeenth century, northern Italy was the world center for the manufacture of violins. The Amati, Guarneri, and Stradivari families of Cremona, Italy, established the techniques of making high-quality violins that were sought in all of the great courts of Europe Transmitted from father to son, the construction techniques used to produce these instruments were guarded so secretly that modern violinmakers have never successfully imitated them. Elsewhere, around 1650, earlier instruments were standardized and refined. Also during this period amateur music making was widespread, and professional performance also took a great leap forward, as a new breed of virtuosi inspired the writing of treatises on performance techniques.

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