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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What pianist never played in public but stayed in Vienna to teach pupils and compose over a thousand published works?

2. What son of a Hungarian official was born in 1811 became a priest in 1865 but had no authority to celebrate mass or hear confession?

3. What German pianist, composer, piano teacher, and piano manufacturer was born in 1785?

4. What Hungarian composer wildly gesticulated back and forth all over the keyboard when he played?

5. Chopin introduced changes in fingering and what that remained stylish into the next century?

Short Essay Questions

1. What relationship did Chopin share with Franz Liszt? How did they meet?

2. Describe the differences in piano manufacturing and their impact on piano music in Chapter VI, In the Interim. Where were pianos made?

3. What four pianists are described in Chapter VII, From Ireland to Bohemia? Who is noted as the best of the group?

4. How are Franz Liszt's fans described in Chapter X, Thunder, Lightning, Mesmerism, Sex? How did Liszt react to the public?

5. Who was Saint-Saens? What were his musical contributions?

6. How does the author describe changes in playing techniques in Chapter VI, In the Interim? Who initiated these adaptations?

7. Who were the great models of piano and composition teaching in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? How was their style defined?

8. Who were the salonists described in Chapter XII, More Salonists, and the Revolutionary in Octaves?

9. Who was Theodor Leschetizky? Where was he from and what contributions did he make to music?

10. What students of Leschetizky are described in Chapter XXIII, Some of the Leschetizky Group?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the style and works of Sigismond Thalberg. What was Thalberg's nickname and why? Who was his greatest rival?

Essay Topic 2

How did the processes of piano manufacturing change in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? What impact did this have on the piano's popularity?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the piano style and techniques of Felix Mendelssohn. What school of music did Felix Mendelssohn later form? How did this influence music?

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