1.
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Why would the whole idea of Mars most likely have been in Holst's mind at the time when he wrote this piece? |
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He had lost many friends in the Boer War at the turn of the 20th century |
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World War I was beginning at the time when he began composing The Planets |
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H G Wells had fairly recently published The War of the Worlds in which Martians were 'the enemy' |
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The Mars Bar was newly on sale, so the name was in people's minds |
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2.
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Mars has many obvious, and intentional, 'warlike' and military features of style: not least that it is march-like ... though not quite. What's 'deliberately wrong' with it as a march? |
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It uses stringed instruments, which would plainly be impractical for marching people to play |
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It has the wrong number of beats in the bar (5 rather than 4) |
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It isn't loud enough from the outset |
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There are no 'effects' to suggest gunfire during it |
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3.
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What is the usual semi-technical name for a 'call' by one or more trumpets? |
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A peal |
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A blast |
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A fanfare |
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A blether |
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4.
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What unusual technique are the string players asked to use during the outer section of Mars? |
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They flick the bodies of their instruments with their fingernails |
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They pluck the strings with their fingertips instead of stroking them with the bow |
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They turn the bow over and bounce the wooden side off the string instead of stroking it with the horsehair |
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They tune their strings to pitches different from the usual |
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5.
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What is the Italian musical term for the insistent use of a rhythm or shape right through a piece, such as the 'wonky-march' motif in this movement? |
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Ground bass |
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Chaconne |
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Round |
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Ostinato |
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6.
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Apart from Neptune, what musical forces did Holst originally have in mind for this Suite? |
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Brass / military band |
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Piano duo or duet (2 players at 1 instrument each) |
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Chamber orchestra with enlarged percussion section |
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Organ |
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7.
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There is another link between Neptune and the organ: what is it? |
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Holst's first schoolgirl choir (from St Paul's, where he taught) rehearsed their notes to the accompaniment of an organ before practising with the full orchestra |
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The singers were instructed to vocalise without forming actual words, so as to sound as near as possible like the tone of an organ |
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The singers could breathe 'secretly' whenever they wanted, so the overall sound of their chords never ran out of puff ~ like the potentially unbroken sound of an organ |
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The final 'fade' is achieved by slowly closing a door so that the audience can no longer hear the offstage chorus: this is the same basic acoustic / mechanical principle as the pedal-controlled 'swell box' on all but the smallest pipe organs |
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8.
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What is the simple but startling musical 'recipe' for the first three notes around which Holst builds the tune in Mars? |
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Up by a fifth, then down by a tone |
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Up by a fifth, then down by a semitone |
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Up by a tritone, down by a diminished second |
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Up by an augmented fourth, down by a third |
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9.
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Which of the following types of drum, used in this piece, would not feature in an actual marching military band? |
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Side drum |
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Bass drum |
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Kettledrum |
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Snare drum |
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10.
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Who conducted the first performance of the Planets suite? |
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Sir Adrian Boult |
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John Barbirolli |
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Malcolm Sargent |
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Thomas Beecham |
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