American composer and conductor John Philip Sousa viewed the increasin

Question

American composer and conductor John Philip Sousa viewed the increasing popularity of the phonograph with deep dismay. He suggested that it would “reduce the expression of music to a mathematical system of megaphones, wheels, cogs, disks, cylinders, and all manner of revolving things, which are as like real art as the marble statue of Eve is like her beautiful, living, breathing daughters.” Such “mechanical” music was not sincere, according to Sousa: “The nightingale’s song is delightful because the nightingale herself gives it forth. The boy with a penny whistle and glass of water may give an excellent imitation, but let him persist, he is sent to bed as a nuisance.”

Sousa further decried a “decline in domestic music,” noting the decline of musical instrument purchases and predicting that when music comes so easily out of a phonograph, mothers will not bother to sing lullabies to their babies. He opined that when music is so readily playable, musical and vocal instruction as a normal part of education will fall out of fashion, the “tide of amateurism” receding, and music will become the province of machines and professional singers only. “What of the national throat?” asked Sousa. “Will it not weaken? What of the  national chest ? Will it not shrink?”    1 
 Consider each of the answer choices separately and indicate all that apply.

1. Which of the following, if they occurred, would contradict Sousa’s arguments?

A. A private school that once demanded two semesters of vocal instruction as a requirement for graduation now offers the same classes as electives.
B. A young boy in an isolated rural area during the Great Depression hears a professional bluegrass band for the first time on a phonograph, and it inspires him to ask his grandfather to teach him to play the family banjo.
C. A modern recording artist comments that, because of her terrible stage fright, her live performances are less genuine than the recordings she is able to produce when she feels comfortable in the studio.

2  
 2. In the context in which it appears, “national chest” ( Highlighted ) most nearly refers to

(A) the performances of professional singers
(B) the U.S. Treasury
(C) the phonograph
(D) the vocal abilities of amateur American singers
(E) musical instruments found in American homes

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

1. Which of the following, if they occurred, would contradict Sousa’s arguments?

Sousa argues against mechanical music on the grounds that it is insincere, and that it will decrease music in the home and music played or sung by amateurs as well as music instruction in education. The first statement is an example of one of the things Sousa was afraid of—vocal instruction being less a  “normal part of education” —and thus does not  “contradict.”  The second statement is an example of the phonograph increasing amateur music playing and “domestic music,” so this does contradict Sousa’s point. Finally, the third statement is an example of recorded music being more sincere than live music, so this definitely contradicts Sousa’s point. 
 
  Answer: B,C

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE

2. In the context in which it appears, “national chest” (     Highlighted     ) most nearly refers to

Here,  “chest”  really does mean a part of the human body not a trunk or treasury. The statement about the  “national”  throat and chest comes right after a worry that  “music will become the province of machines and professional singers only.”  Thus, the  “national chest”  is a reference to amateur singers, which matches  choice (D) .

Answer: D

American composer and conductor John Philip Sousa viewed the increasin

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