Para 1- idea that pianists should be musician-scholars whose playing reflected the way composers wanted their music to sound replaced the notion that pianists should be virtuosos; Wanda Landowska- influenced by certain Romantic traditions
Para 2- WL- miraculous quality of touch, a seemingly autonomous left hand
Para 3- her entire musical approach was Romantic: intensely personal, full of light and shade, never pedantic.
Para 4- Thanks to Landowska, Bach’s music (originally composed for the harpsichord) now sounded inappropriately thick when played on the piano; an emphasis on studying composers’ manuscript notations
1. The passage suggests that Landowska’s playing embodied a rejection of which of the following?
E) Performances emphasizing showy displays of technique that compromise the integrity of a composer’s original score.- Correct, WL's playing serves to express the idea described in the first line-" pianists should be musician-scholars whose playing reflected the way composers wanted their music to sound replaced the notion that pianists should be virtuosos whose performances thrilled audiences with emotional daring and showy displays of technique"
The last para describes preserving the integrity of composer's original score
2. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about the compositions of Scarlatti?
D) They were composed for instruments other than piano.
hen they gradually stopped performing any kind of Baroque music on the piano, even Scarlatti’s. The piano repertoire, it began to be felt, was extensive enough without reverting to transcriptions of Baroque music originally written for the harpsichord
3. The passage suggests that Landowska would probably have objected most strongly to which of the following?
We know that "performers should use the instrument for which the music was originally written"
A) A performance of a Bach keyboard piece played on the harpsichord.
B) A performance of a Handel organ piece on a Baroque pipe organ.- incorrect
C) A modern composition written for a harpsichord and two pianos.- incorrect
D) A piano solo in which the performer occasionally departs from the tempo indicated by the composer.- incorrect
E) A performance of a piano and violin sonata in which the piano part is played on the harpsichord.
I was down to options A and E and chose option A. But I think we might be able to eliminate option A because of
"Thanks to Landowska, Bach’s music (originally composed for the harpsichord) now sounded inappropriately thick when played on the piano."
4. The author’s assertion that Landowska should not be considered a classicist serves primarily to emphasize which of the following?
C) Landowska’s musical performances were not devoid of emotion.- Correct
She had a miraculous quality of touch, a seemingly autonomous left hand; no artist in her generation could clarify with such deftness the polyphonic writing of the Baroque masters. And none could make their music so spring to life.
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