Until Josquin des Prez, 1440-1521, Western music was liturgical, designed as

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问题    Until Josquin des Prez, 1440-1521, Western music was liturgical, designed as an accompaniment to worship. Like the intricately carved gargoyles perched atop medieval cathedrals beyond sight of any human, music was composed to please God before anybody else; its dominant theme was reverence. Emotion was there, but it was the grief of Mary standing at the foot of the Cross, the joy of the faithful hailing Christ’s resurrection. Even the secular music of the Middle Ages was tied to predetermined patterns that sometimes seemed to stand in the way of individual expression.
   While keeping one foot firmly planted in the divine world, Josquin stepped with the other into the human. He scored magnificent masses, but also newly expressive motets such as the lament of David over his son Absalom or the "Deploration d’Ockeghem," a dirge on the death of Ockeghem, the greatest master before Josquin, a motet written all in black notes, and one of the most profoundly moving scores of the Renaissance. Josquin was the first composer to set psalms to music. But alongside Benedicite omnia opera Domini Domino ("Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord") he put El Grillo ("The cricket is a good singer who manages long poems") and Allegez moy ("Solace me, sweet pleasant brunette"). Josquin was praised by Martin Luther, for his music blends respect for tradition with a rebel’s willingness to risk the horizon. What Galileo was to science, Josquin was to music. While preserving their allegiance to God, both asserted a new importance for man.
   Why then should Josquin languish in relative obscurity? The answer has to do with the separation of concept from performance in music. In fine art, concept and performance are one both the art lover and the art historian have thousands of years of paintings, drawings and sculptures to study and enjoy. Similarly with literature: Poetry, fiction, drama, and criticism survive on the printed page or in manuscript for judgment and admiration by succeeding generations. But musical notation on a page is not art, no matter how lofty or excellent the composer% conception it is, crudely put, a set of directions for producing art. Being highly symbolic, musical notation requires training before it can even be read, let alone performed. Moreover, because the musical conventions of other days are not ours, translation of a Renaissance score into modem notation brings difficulties of its own. For example, the Renaissance notation of Josquin’s day did not designate the tempo at which the music should be played or sung. It did not indicate all flats or sharps; these were sounded ill accordance with musicianly rules, which were capable of transforming major to minor, minor to major, diatonic to chromatic sound, and thus affect melody, harmony, and musical expression, a Renaissance composition might include several parts--but it did not indicate which were to be sung, which to be played, nor even whether instruments were to be used at all.
   Thus, Renaissance notation permits of several interpretations and an imaginative musician may give an interpretation that is a revelation. But no matter how imaginative, few modern musicians can offer any interpretation of Renaissance music. The public for it is small, limiting the number of musicians who can afford to learn, rehearse, and perform it. Most of those who attempt it at all are students organized in colegia musica whose memberships have a distressing habit of changing every semester, thus preventing directors from maintaining the year-in, year-out continuity required to achieve excellence of performance. Finally, the instruments used in Renaissance times--drummhorns, recorders, rauschpfeifen, shawms, sackbuts, organetto-must be specially procured. [br] The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

选项 A、Music is a more perfect art form than painting or sculpture.
B、Music can be said to exist only when it is being performed.
C、Josquin was the greatest composer of the Middle Ages.
D、Renaissance music is superior to music produced in modern times.

答案 B

解析 这是对文章内容应用的题目。B是正确的答案。答案的内容可在第二段中找到,作者在那儿提到了概念与表演艺术间的区别。作者认定纸上印着的曲谱不等于音乐。曲谱仅是为表演提供材料。A的观点作者或许会支持,或许会反对。但是在A与B之间选择时,我们可以确信作者会选择B的观点。C是错误的,因为Josquin属于文艺复兴时期的人物,而不是中世纪。D的错误原因与A一样。
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