A short, entertaining musical piece known as a ____ was very popular at the beginning of the classical period.

Question

A) Countermelody
B)Molto
C)Grosso
D)Divertimento

Answer 1

NICKY ! Study and do your own work !!

Musician, teacher.

Answer 2

Well, if it were a serious poster who were just ignorant, I probably would correct him/her. To play Devil's Advocate though (and I really am lenient in practice), I don't think we should get too bent out of shape about linguistic details. I posted a question a while back about why I don't believe in grammar. I'm an English major, so it goes against my nature!, and I definitely I think it's important in the practical sense (getting a job); but philosophically, I don't believe in grammar. I've studied history and languages a lot, and in the process I've stumbled on some really interesting stuff. I have found records from Ancient Greece in which the educated members of society were freaking out about laxity in grammar. Their grammar rules, though, were so incredibly arcane and complex that they have long since become obsolete; has this really led to a "dumbing-down" of humanity? The world has always had its idiots and its geniuses, and it always will. I found a similar argument among Anglo-Saxon scholars around the year 1000; again, they were freaking out about grammar and insisting that it signified the end of cultured society. Um...? The gutter languages of ancient Rome turned into French and Spanish; who cares if French and Spanish don't distinguish between grammatical cases? The lack of the "ablative" and the "accusative" didn't stand in the way of Molière and Cervantes. I think pedantry is all in the intent. When some people on this forum explain the difference between a song and a piece, they are polite and are just trying to help; others use their superior knowledge to show off and scoff. There's a difference, and that's why some are pedants and others are just wise and knowledgeable teachers. I have had professors who knew *way* more than I did, and yet I never felt that they were pedantic; it's because they were humble. Edit: Well said OpernKatz! To Doctor John: We all acknowledge your superior intellect. The point is that those "schoolboys" you speak of (and there are very few who still study ancient Greek) would be far better served by learning to think critically and creatively than by memorizing the alpha, omicron, and attic second declensions. The insistence on grammar seems as arbitrary and pointless to me as the Aristotelian unities. The French scoffed at Shakespeare for centuries because he didn't follow these silly, strict rules; now who is laughing? The French were snobs. Pedantry is a bad thing because it is rude, proud, and it drives away people who might otherwise explore classical music. I'm sorry if you want the classical world to be an ivory tower for the "elite" to gloat over how superior they are; I'd rather it be a place for learning and teaching.

Answer 3

D. Divertimento is correct. With all the salacious material on the Internet these days, a variation of the Divertimento has become popular. The Pervertamento.

Answer 4

Divertimento: a wide variety of secular instrumental works for chamber ensemble or soloist. It applied both to lighter entertainment music of an occasional nature and to more serious genres such as the string quartet and keyboard sonata.

Answer 5

Two more points - you are SO going to fail this course you are taking.

Answer 6

I 've decided that you are lazy and sneaky.

Answer 7

pervertimento you misspelled it

Answer 8

D