Musicians of the 17th century often enjoyed baroque style music that

Why is B wrong??
Can someone please explain?

Hi Babzsn84,
B is wrong because:-
a) "baroque style music that was" causing the sentence to be an ambiguous one.
b) music that was, during the time and prominent primarily are all causing unnecessary fragments/modifiers....
Hope this helps...

The passage revolves around the inapt placement of the modifier - during the time, - and the wrong usage of punctuation mark comma with relative pronouns ---that and which --


(A)
Music that during the time was prominent primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach---- music that during the time --- This problematic since it refers to a particular type of many baroque styles of music; This is distortion of the meaning. There was only one baroque style at that time and Bach was a master of that.

(B)
music that was, during the time, prominent primarily because of J.S. Bach's works ---- --music that was, during the time, -- We cannot render the modifier –during the time – inessential to the original intent of the text, Without the modifier, the meaning is warped

(C)
music, which, because of the works of J.S. Bach, were primarily prominent during the time --- comma after is ungrammatical

(D)
music, that was prominent primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach during the time ---- comma before that is ungrammatical

(E)
music, which was prominent during the time primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach ; the correct choice

Hello mike

In this question can I eliminate A and B because of the restricted use of that?

show your magic ..

Dear stunn3r

I'm happy to help. Succinctly, this is an atrocious question.

First of all, on a purely factual level, J. S. Bach was not particularly famous as a composer in his lifetime, and he was only 15 years old in the year 1700, so he had composed hardly anything by the end of the 17th century: he really had zero impact on music of the 17th century. He had minimal impact on the 18th century, and started to be a major musical presence in the 19th century. This question was written by someone who has absolutely no factual knowledge of the history of classical music. Of course, strictly speaking, whether the sentence is factually correct has nothing to do with evaluating its grammar, but I point out that the GMAT, in all its official material, maintains impeccable standards of veracity. Sometimes, they have questions about totally made-up scenarios, but when they are discussing historical figures, everything they say is 100% accurate. Therefore, the level of a question's veracity is one subtle test of how well a question is modelling the standards of the GMAT. Here's the question.

Musicians of the 17th century often enjoyed baroque style music that during the time was prominent primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach.
(A) music that during the time was prominent primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach
(B) music that was, during the time, prominent primarily because of J.S. Bach's works
(C) music, which, because of the works of J.S. Bach, were primarily prominent during the time
(D) music, that was prominent primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach during the time
(E) music, that was prominent during the time primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach

The grammar is also atrocious. In general, there are two kinds of modifiers. The first set contains restrictive modifiers, also called vital modifiers --- I believe MGMAT calls the "mission-critical" modifiers. These NEVER are separated by a comma from the noun they modify. They can begin with the word "that", but on the GMAT, these will never begin with the word "which". The other set, the non-restrictive or non-vital modifiers, are ALWAYS separated by a comma from the noun they modify. These can begin with the word "which", but on the GMAT, these will never begin with the word "that." See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/that-vs-which-on-the-gmat/
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... modifiers/

Now, in this sentence, the question of whether the modifier should be vital or non-vital, restrictive vs. non-restrictive, is somewhat open to debate. Technically, we would have to know a little more about the intentions of the author and/or the musical conditions of the time. Is the author making a statement about all that "baroque style music" that happened to be popular, and not other "baroque style music" that was less popular? If that were the case, then it would be vital noun modifier. It seems more likely, though, that the modifier is just making a clarifying statement about all "baroque style music", in which case, it would be a non-vital modifier. The two correct forms would be:
(a) vital = music that ("that" + no comma)
(b) non-vital = music, which ("which" + comma)

Therefore, you can't eliminate (A) & (B) -- they actually have the correct structure, assuming we want to make the modifier vital. What this question has for an OA, using "that" as a non-vital, non-restrictive modifier, would be wrong 100% of the time on the GMAT.

Don't worry, my friend. You don't have a problem. The problem is with the question itself.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

Musicians of the 17th century often enjoyed baroque style music that during the time was prominent primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach.


(A) music that during the time was prominent primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach

(B) music that was, during the time, prominent primarily because of J.S. Bach's works

(C) music, which, because of the works of J.S. Bach, were primarily prominent during the time

(D) music, that was prominent primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach during the time

(E) music, which was prominent during the time primarily because of the works of J.S. Bach; Correct (Non Restrictive clause & More concise and clear )

Rest in peace, Legend.
Though Daagh, completely shows why option B is incorrect, I would like to add to his original explanation.

By putting something in commas, we make it inessential to the complete meaning of the sentence. Information in the parentheses then acts as extra information. But, in this question, the author wants to emphasize the prominence of that music in that particular period (signified by during that time). So, we can not put it in the parentheses and render it inessential to the complete meaning of the sentence.

Also, some are pointing out that the usage of comma + that is always wrong. It is not the case always. See this example below-

Oprah Winfrey hosts a talk show, considered the highest-rated program of its kind in history, that has won multiple awards.

Here, "that" joins its beloved Noun "talk show" by jumping over the non-essential information placed inside the parenthesis.

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