Musicology Flashcards
7 cards from real BM or BMus Bachelor of Music practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Musicology flashcards as text
The 'New Musicology' movement of the 1990s, associated with scholars like Susan McClary, emphasized which approach?
Answer: Cultural, feminist, and ideological critique of music
New Musicology brought gender studies, cultural criticism, and postmodern theory into music scholarship, challenging the field's traditional positivist methods.
Which term describes the systematic classification of musical instruments by their sound-producing mechanism?
Answer: Organology
Organology is the scholarly study and classification of musical instruments, including the Hornbostel-Sachs system.
The Hornbostel-Sachs classification system divides instruments into how many primary categories?
Answer: 5
The system originally identified four categories (chordophones, aerophones, membranophones, idiophones), with electrophones added later as a fifth.
Which branch of musicology focuses specifically on the physical properties of sound, including frequency and timbre?
Answer: Acoustics
Musical acoustics studies the physical nature of sound waves, resonance, and how instruments produce and modify sound.
The term 'cantus firmus' refers to which compositional technique?
Answer: A pre-existing melody used as the basis for a polyphonic composition
A cantus firmus is an existing melody—often Gregorian chant—around which other voices weave new counterpoint.
Which scholar's concept of 'imagined communities' has been applied by musicologists to study nationalism in music?
Answer: Benedict Anderson
Benedict Anderson's 'Imagined Communities' (1983) theory about nationhood has been widely adopted in musicology to analyze how music constructs national identity.
The 'affections' (Affektenlehre) doctrine in Baroque music theory held that music should primarily do what?
Answer: Arouse specific emotional states in the listener
The Doctrine of the Affections held that each piece or movement should embody and arouse a single, specific emotional state (affection) in the audience.