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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where was Rudolf Serkin sent to study at the age of nine?
(a) Warsaw.
(b) Vienna.
(c) Oslo.
(d) Paris.

2. Who codified twentieth century theory of technique beyond Chopin's ideas?
(a) Vladimir Horowitz.
(b) Claude Debussy.
(c) Arthur Rubinstein.
(d) David Tudor.

3. In what year did Glenn Gould retire?
(a) 1954.
(b) 1982.
(c) 1964.
(d) 1939.

4. What Russian pianist played Chopin's Polonaise for an amazed critic, George Bernard Shaw?
(a) Moriz Rosenthal.
(b) Vassily Sapellnikoff.
(c) Percy Grainger.
(d) Alfred Grunfeld.

5. Who was described by the author as an incomparable pianist who added new theories and ideas about pedaling and sonority with new ideas of figuration and layout?
(a) Alexander Scriabin.
(b) Claudio Arrau.
(c) Franz Liszt.
(d) Claude Debussy.

6. Whose austere Russian appearance produced organized, impeccably delivered serious sonorities with musical elegance and exquisitely finished phrases?
(a) Josef Lhevinne's.
(b) Sergei Rachmaninoff's.
(c) Paderewski's.
(d) Isadora Duncan's.

7. What nickname did the pianist Leopold Godowsky go by?
(a) "Chopinzee."
(b) "The Little Giant."
(c) "The Piano God."
(d) "Brahma of the Keyboard."

8. What musical school did Anton Rubinstein found?
(a) The Vienna Conservatory.
(b) The Saint Petersburg Conservatory.
(c) The New York University School of Music.
(d) The Julliard School of Music.

9. How old was Josef Hofmann when he made his American debut?
(a) 5.
(b) 10.
(c) 9.
(d) 12.

10. How old was Wilhelm Backhaus when he made his first concert tour?
(a) 14.
(b) 18.
(c) 16.
(d) 12.

11. What album by Glenn Gould is described as combining personality, ideas, bouncing rhythm and fast tempos?
(a) "Goldberg Sonata in D Minor."
(b) "Moonlight Sonata."
(c) "Rhapsody in Blue."
(d) "Goldberg Variations."

12. How old was Josef Hofmann when he gave his debut recital?
(a) 5.
(b) 8.
(c) 11.
(d) 10.

13. Walter Gieseking played piano at what age?
(a) 5.
(b) 9.
(c) 4.
(d) 7.

14. Prokofieff, Rachmaninoff and Horowitz emigrated after the Russian Revolution of 1917 when who took control?
(a) Vasputin.
(b) Lenin.
(c) Marx.
(d) Stalin.

15. In what year did Josef Hofmann play 255 different works in twenty-one concerts without repeating any?
(a) 1938.
(b) 1940.
(c) 1912.
(d) 1919.

Short Answer Questions

1. What Russian composer and pianist initially developed a highly lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin?

2. Where was the musician Glenn Gould from?

3. When was Sergei Rachmaninoff born?

4. At what age did the musician Mischa Levitzski die?

5. At what age did Isaac Albeniz hide on a ship crossing the Atlantic to Puerto Rico and play in his French musketeer costume for passengers?

(see the answer keys)

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