1. According to the passage, Barbara Strozzi’s music attracted attention early in the twentieth century because of
C) The scarcity of seventeenth-century women composers - Correct
With the notable exception of Francesca Caccini (1587 – c. 1640), she is the
only known woman among the many aria and cantata composers of seventeenth-century Italy, and is, presumably, among the
very few women of the period to have pursued a career as a composer and to have
achieved some measure of public recognition.
2. The author’s use of word “supposedly” in the line 18 implies which of the following?
A) The author doubts the historical authenticity of the quotation that follows.
B) The author doubts the accuracy of the facts she is reporting.
C) The author disagrees with the judgment she is discussing.
D) The author does not believe that Stozzi’s music has the qualities cited in the quotation.
E) The author is not sure of the significance of the quotation.
Question A - I was in a fix between C and D and ended up choosing option D. How can we eliminate option D?3. With which of the following statements would the author of the passage be most likely to agree?
A) The music of the seventeenth-century Italy is less frequently performed today than it was 50 years ago.
B) Contemporary music historians no longer discuses the music of a given composer in terms of its particular individual style.
C) The cantata tradition of seventeenth-century Italy is much better understood today than it ever has been. - Correct
D) Late-twentieth-century music historians have more accurate historical information than their early-twentieth-century counterparts.
E) Music historians of the early twentieth century were uninterested in the details of social life in seventeenth-century Venetian musical circles.
Such an appreciation now appears irrelevant as well as polemical in its incompleteness because we are in a better position – with regard to both historical knowledge and social awareness – to attempt
a more precise evaluation
4. The author of the passage bases her assertion that Strozzi is one of the very few seventeenth-century Italian women composers (lines 7-12) on which of the following assumptions?
A) Public recognition is an indispensable part of a career as a composer.
B) Strozzi and Caccini were influenced by the same composers.
C) The music of any woman composer whom her seventeenth-century contemporaries regarded as noteworthy would be known to modern scholars.
D) The cantata tradition of the mid-seventeenth-century includes composers and performers of madrigals and arias as well as cantatas.
E) More women pursued careers as composers in seventeenth-century Italy than is evident from music published in the seventeenth-century.
Question B -Please provide an explanation for question 45. The author of the passage implies that which of the following was most essential to the success of both Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi?
B) Their early firsthand exposure to music and musicians - Correct
Barbara’s presence in Giulio’s household guaranteed her and early and full exposure to Venetian musical and literary society. Similarly, Francesca Caccini, the most prominent and successful
Italian woman composer of the period, was the daughter of professional musicians and therefore exposed to music for infancy. This parallel suggests that such an environment may have been essential for the development of a female composer.
6. It can be inferred from the passage that all of the following made Barbara Strozzi "a somewhat anomalous figure" (lines 24-25) EXCEPT:
(A) She was a woman composer during the seven teenth century. - Incorrect - women composers during that period were rare
(B) She was intimately involved in Venetian literary and musical society. - her songs are addressed to a more intimate audience
(C) She did not write dramatic works for voice. - Incorrect - She is not a composer of dramatic works
(D) She did not perform operatic works. - Incorrect - yet she apparently never sang in opera in spite of Opera being very popular
(E) She wrote moving baroque vocal works. - Correct
We can eliminate options to get to answer E as writing moving baroque vocal works is not stated as an exception to the 17th-century norms.
7. The author of the passage implies that composers of Italian baroque music typically
(A) composed more operas than cantatas - Incorrect - not mentioned
(B) preferred sacred to secular musical forms - Incorrect - not mentioned
(C) aspired to reach large segments of the public with their works - Correct
(D) avoided emotional expression in their works - Incorrect
(E) wrote music for solo voices rather than for choral ensembles - Incorrect
Whereas other composers sought (and found) a public forum for their effective expression in the theater and the Church, her world remained more private.
Question C - how can we infer whether the other composers were composers of Italian baroque music?Is it because of the below statement-
But though Strozzi’s music certainly shares fully the aesthetic aim of her contemporaries, and of the baroque in general – to move the passions
8. The author of the passage quotes Barbara Strozzi in lines 53-54 most probably in order to
A) Support the claim that strozzi’s works are self-revealing- Correct her songs are addressed to a more intimate audience, expressing less the feeling of fictive characters than her own
9. The passage provides information to answer which of the following questions?
A) What was the exact family relationship between Giulio Strozzi and Barbara Strozzi? - Incorrect -Barbara was born in the house of Giulio Strozzi
B) What is the evidence that indicates that Barbara Strozzi never sang in an opera? - Incorrect - no evidence has been mentioned
C) Were Barbara strozzi’s compositions know to her contemporaries?
D) Did Barbara Storzzi know Francesca Caccini? - Incorrect
E) What instruments provide the accompaniment for Barbara Strozzi’s vocal works? - Incorrect - not mentioned
Question D-I am unable to find option C in the passageAjiteshArun ,
GMATNinja ,
MagooshExpert ,
GMATGuruNY ,
VeritasKarishma ,
VeritasPrepBrian ,
MartyMurray , other experts - please enlighten
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