MLIT EXAM 3 questions with complete
solutions 2025/2026
Impressionism Main Characteristics - ANS ✔✔definition: musical outgrowth of French art and
poetry
Uses broad brush strokes and vibrant colors
Recognizable form and shimmering colors
Focused on light, color and atmosphere
Painters liked working in open air
Favorite subjects were light reflecting on water
French symbolist poetry characteristics - ANS ✔✔broke from traditional conventions
Avoided hard statements- preferred to suggest (symbolize) their topics
Became the basis for many Impressionist musical works
Who was Claude Debussy? - ANS ✔✔- French Impressionist composer
- Crossed Romantic/ 20th century
- Studied in Paris/ Rome
- Debussy was fascinated by Asian music, in particular the percussion orchestra or gamelan
music of Indonesia, which he had the opportunity to hear and study in Paris in the 1890s
What were Debussy's compositional influences? - ANS ✔✔- The French language, with its
blurred edges and infinity of nuance
- Romanticism: Debussy grew up during the 19th century and the overwhelming bulk of his
music is programmatic.
,- Romantic literature extolling expression and descriptive images, in particular, the symbolist
poets, Mallarme, Verlaine and Rimbaud.
- French impressionist painting
What were Debussy's innovations? - ANS ✔✔- He elevated timber (instrumental tone color; the
actual sound of the music) to a level equal to that of rhythm, pitch and harmony.
- Used orchestra as pallet of sounds, not tutti
- The use of non-Western and non-traditional pitch collections.
- Expanded harmonic vocab and practice
- Used 5 note chords, instead of traditional 3
- Made use of pentatonic and whole- tone scales
- Use of traditional structures in non traditional ways
- Obscured harmony, tempo, meter and rhythm
What was the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun? - ANS ✔✔- The program material (a faun)
concerns a pagan, half man/half goat creature
- Note: Use of solo instruments (flute introduction)
- Disguised meter
- Extended harmonic style
- As much as pitch, rhythm and harmony, it is the actual sound and timber of the instruments
that constitutes the theme in Debussy prelude
Characteristics of 20th century music? - ANS ✔✔- Rapid and radical change in the arts also
occur
- Shock value becomes goal of many art forms
- Modern dance clashes with classical ballet
- Individual artists do both traditional and radical styles
, What happened in 20th century music? - ANS ✔✔- first 13 years brought radical changes
- Composers broke tradition and rules
- Rules became unique to each piece
- Some reviewers said the new music had no relationship to music at all
- 1913 performance of the Rite of Spring ensued a riot
- Vast range of musical styles during this time
- Musical influences from Asia and Africa
- Folk music incorporated into personal styles
- American jazz influence composers
- American composers saw jazz as nationalistic music
- European composers saw jazz as exotic music
- Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music was revived and re discovered
- Forms from earlier periods imitated, but with 20th century harmonic and melody practice
- Wagner/ romantic musical seen as a point of departure or a style to be avoided
Tone color in 20th century music? - ANS ✔✔- Unusual playing techniques called for
- Glissando: rapid slide up or down a scale
- Flutter tongue: rapidly rolling tongue while playing
- Percussion use greatly expanded
-New instruments added/ created: Xylophone, celesta, woodblock
- Other instruments: typewriter, auto brake drum, siren
Harmony in 20th century music? - ANS ✔✔- Polychord: two chords heard at the same time
- Quartal and quintal harmony: tones are a fourth or a fifth apart, instead of a third
- Cluster: chord made up of tones only a half step or a whole step apart
- Degrees of dissonance
solutions 2025/2026
Impressionism Main Characteristics - ANS ✔✔definition: musical outgrowth of French art and
poetry
Uses broad brush strokes and vibrant colors
Recognizable form and shimmering colors
Focused on light, color and atmosphere
Painters liked working in open air
Favorite subjects were light reflecting on water
French symbolist poetry characteristics - ANS ✔✔broke from traditional conventions
Avoided hard statements- preferred to suggest (symbolize) their topics
Became the basis for many Impressionist musical works
Who was Claude Debussy? - ANS ✔✔- French Impressionist composer
- Crossed Romantic/ 20th century
- Studied in Paris/ Rome
- Debussy was fascinated by Asian music, in particular the percussion orchestra or gamelan
music of Indonesia, which he had the opportunity to hear and study in Paris in the 1890s
What were Debussy's compositional influences? - ANS ✔✔- The French language, with its
blurred edges and infinity of nuance
- Romanticism: Debussy grew up during the 19th century and the overwhelming bulk of his
music is programmatic.
,- Romantic literature extolling expression and descriptive images, in particular, the symbolist
poets, Mallarme, Verlaine and Rimbaud.
- French impressionist painting
What were Debussy's innovations? - ANS ✔✔- He elevated timber (instrumental tone color; the
actual sound of the music) to a level equal to that of rhythm, pitch and harmony.
- Used orchestra as pallet of sounds, not tutti
- The use of non-Western and non-traditional pitch collections.
- Expanded harmonic vocab and practice
- Used 5 note chords, instead of traditional 3
- Made use of pentatonic and whole- tone scales
- Use of traditional structures in non traditional ways
- Obscured harmony, tempo, meter and rhythm
What was the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun? - ANS ✔✔- The program material (a faun)
concerns a pagan, half man/half goat creature
- Note: Use of solo instruments (flute introduction)
- Disguised meter
- Extended harmonic style
- As much as pitch, rhythm and harmony, it is the actual sound and timber of the instruments
that constitutes the theme in Debussy prelude
Characteristics of 20th century music? - ANS ✔✔- Rapid and radical change in the arts also
occur
- Shock value becomes goal of many art forms
- Modern dance clashes with classical ballet
- Individual artists do both traditional and radical styles
, What happened in 20th century music? - ANS ✔✔- first 13 years brought radical changes
- Composers broke tradition and rules
- Rules became unique to each piece
- Some reviewers said the new music had no relationship to music at all
- 1913 performance of the Rite of Spring ensued a riot
- Vast range of musical styles during this time
- Musical influences from Asia and Africa
- Folk music incorporated into personal styles
- American jazz influence composers
- American composers saw jazz as nationalistic music
- European composers saw jazz as exotic music
- Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music was revived and re discovered
- Forms from earlier periods imitated, but with 20th century harmonic and melody practice
- Wagner/ romantic musical seen as a point of departure or a style to be avoided
Tone color in 20th century music? - ANS ✔✔- Unusual playing techniques called for
- Glissando: rapid slide up or down a scale
- Flutter tongue: rapidly rolling tongue while playing
- Percussion use greatly expanded
-New instruments added/ created: Xylophone, celesta, woodblock
- Other instruments: typewriter, auto brake drum, siren
Harmony in 20th century music? - ANS ✔✔- Polychord: two chords heard at the same time
- Quartal and quintal harmony: tones are a fourth or a fifth apart, instead of a third
- Cluster: chord made up of tones only a half step or a whole step apart
- Degrees of dissonance
