There is no surviving recording of the Duke Ellington Orchestra's

Question

There is no surviving recording of the Duke Ellington Orchestra's performance of a piece that Ellington wrote for the orchestra late in his career. Two different bands have recently recorded the piece, each claiming to have made an authentic reproduction of the Ellington Orchestra's performance. One of these two recorded performances, however, is much closer to Ellington's own handwritten score, and must therefore be the more authentic of the two.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. In an attempt to foil plagiarizers, Duke Ellington frequently wrote some parts of his pieces in code, so that the written scores misrepresent what Ellington's orchestra played.
B. None of the musicians in either of the two bands had been members of Ellington's orchestra during the period when the piece was part of its repertoire.
C. Some of the pieces that were credited as Duke Ellington's compositions when they were recorded or published were actually composed by Duke Ellington's collaborator, Billy Strayhorn.
D. The piece is believed to have been recorded by the Duke Ellington Orchestra during a recording session several years after it was written, but the recordings made at this session have been lost.
E. A saxophonist who was in Ellington's orchestra at the time the piece was written later formed his own band, which performed the piece in an arrangement that differed from Ellington's handwritten score.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Accepted Answer

The author of the argument concludes the following:

One of these two recorded performances ... must therefore be the more authentic of the two.

The support for the conclusion is the following:

One of these two recorded performances ... is much closer to Ellington's own handwritten score ....

So, we see that the author's argument is basically that a performance that is closer to the handwritten score must be more authentic, i.e., closer to the performances of Ellington's band of the same piece.

The question stem is the following:

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

So, to correctly answer the question, we must find the choice that indicates that the conclusion may not be true even though the evidence is.

(A) In an attempt to foil plagiarizers, Duke Ellington frequently wrote some parts of his pieces in code, so that the written scores misrepresent what Ellington's orchestra played.

This choice weakens the case for the conclusion by showing that a performance that is "closer to the handwritten score" may not be as authentic as one that is not as close to the score.

After all, if Ellington "frequently wrote some parts of his pieces in code, so that the written scores misrepresent what Ellington's orchestra played," then it's quite possible that, in following the score closely, a performance might be different from a performance of the same piece by Ellington's band.

Thus, this choice weakens the force of the evidence provided by weakening the connection between "closer to the handwritten score" and "more authentic."

So, this choice is the correct answer.

(B) None of the musicians in either of the two bands had been members of Ellington's orchestra during the period when the piece was part of its repertoire.

If anything, this choice strengthens the argument a little, rather than weakens it. After all, the information provided by this choice serves to eliminate the possibility that a musician from Ellington's band helped the band that recorded the performance not as close to the score to achieve a more authentic performance.

So, this choice cannot be the correct answer since, in strengthening the argument, it does the opposite of what the correct answer must do.

(C) Some of the pieces that were credited as Duke Ellington's compositions when they were recorded or published were actually composed by Duke Ellington's collaborator, Billy Strayhorn.

This choice is written to seem to cast doubt on the support for the conclusion by seeming to cast doubt on the origin of the score used in recording the two performances.

However, the truth is that this choice has no effect on the argument. The passage states as fact that the piece was "a piece that Ellington wrote," and this information about other pieces does not change that fact or anything else about the argument.

(D) The piece is believed to have been recorded by the Duke Ellington Orchestra during a recording session several years after it was written, but the recordings made at this session have been lost.

This choice has the wrong effect. We need a choice that weakens the argument, but this choice provides some information on why, as the passage says, "there is no surviving recording" of the piece. We aren't looking for such information.

(E) A saxophonist who was in Ellington's orchestra at the time the piece was written later formed his own band, which performed the piece in an arrangement that differed from Ellington's handwritten score.

This choice is perhaps the hardest to eliminate. After all, the fact that someone from Ellington's band had a band that performed the piece in a way that "differed from Ellington's handwritten score" means that someone who may have had knowledge of how the piece was performed by Ellington's band didn't play it as it was recorded by the band mentioned in the conclusion of the argument. So, this choice seems to indicate that maybe the way the band mentioned in the conclusion played it was less authentic than the way the other band mentioned in the argument played it.

However, there are two issues with this choice.

One is that we don't really know whether the band mentioned in this choice played the piece as Ellington's band played it.

The other is that we don't have information indicating that either band mentioned in the argument played the piece similarly to the way the band mentioned in this choice played it.

Thus, the truth is that this choice doesn't clearly indicate anything about whether either of the performances mentioned in the argument is authentic.

So, this choice cannot be the correct answer.

The correct answer is  A

KeithJohnson · Answer

Let us try to analyse the structure of the given Argument : 
Premise(P1): No recording found for one of the original scores written by Ellington 
P2 : 2 bands recorded the same Ellington's score

Conclusion : One of the performance is closer to the hand written score, hence it is more authentic.

Assumption : Authentic performance were closest to the handwritten scores.

now to weaken, we need to challenge this assumption, by showing closeness to handwritten score doesn't indicate authenticity.

Only A does that. (Stating Ellington used to add mistakes to his works)

Raman109 · Answer

Understanding the argument - 
There is no surviving recording of the Duke Ellington Orchestra's performance of a piece that Ellington wrote for the orchestra late in his career. - Fact. We are talking about "a piece that Ellington wrote."
Two different bands have recently recorded the piece, each claiming to have made an authentic reproduction of the Ellington Orchestra's performance. - Fact. 
One of these two recorded performances, however, is much closer to Ellington's own handwritten score, and must therefore be the more authentic of the two. - supporting premise and conclusion.

Option Elimination - Weaken

A. In an attempt to foil plagiarizers, Duke Ellington frequently wrote some parts of his pieces in code, so that the written scores misrepresent what Ellington's orchestra played. - In that case, the conclusion weakens.

B. None of the musicians in either of the two bands had been members of Ellington's orchestra during the period when the piece was part of its repertoire. - That is not a minimum condition to produce an authentic reproduction of the Ellington Orchestra's performance. Out of scope.

C. Some of the pieces that were credited as Duke Ellington's compositions when they were recorded or published were actually composed by Duke Ellington's collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. - First, "some" can be at least 2, and moreover, we are concerned about "a piece that Ellington wrote."

D. The piece is believed to have been recorded by the Duke Ellington Orchestra during a recording session several years after it was written, but the recordings made at this session have been lost. - We already know that it doesn't exist. But how we don't have it (that it was lost) is out of scope

E. A saxophonist who was in Ellington's orchestra at the time the piece was written later formed his own band, which performed the piece in an arrangement that differed from Ellington's handwritten score. - Distortion.

VerbalBot · Answer

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There is no surviving recording of the Duke Ellington Orchestra's

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There is no surviving recording of the Duke Ellington Orchestra's

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