Reading Comprehension

PT151 · S1 · P3 · Q19 Words & Operas

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Passage A Music does not always gain by association with words.

Passage A

Music doesn't necessarily get better by having words associated, but words can be improved by having music associated with them, since music is better able to express the deepest emotions.

In general, combining words and music is mixing two effects and diluting the purity and emotional power of each separate art form.

However, you can still do good stuff by combining them, as long as the words serve the music, which is the more expressive half. That's what's happening with opera. The words of the libretto aren't the main source of aesthetic value; the emotional range conveyed by the music is.

Passage B

There are two types of operas: music-dominant and music-balanced (music is the most important factor, but it's roughly balanced by other factors). The potential third type, music-subordinate, hasn't really ever taken hold.

No matter the type, when you're aesthetically evaluating opera, you shouldn't look at music or poetry in isolation. You judge the music by whether it serves the words and the words by whether it serves the music.

Opera's essence is that the effectiveness of the music and words are deeply intertwined.

Overlap / Disconnect

Both passages were discussing the relative impacts of words and music, including whether words are better w/o music and vice versa. Passage B cared way more about opera, whereas Passage A only barely addressed that topic.

They do seem to have a disconnect when it comes to opera. Passage A said that the aesthetic value does not depend on the words; it depends on the emotional range of the music.

Passage B thought the aesthetic value was more about how the words and the music function to enhance the other.

19.

Which one of the following is a principle that is implicit in the argument made by the author of passage B but that would most likely be rejected by the author of passage A?

  1. Correct

    An opera’s nonmusical elements are

    Why this is right

    Passage B definitely believes this, because he thinks that the music and words of an opera "are as united as hydrogen and oxygen are united in water". He says that "in any aesthetic judgment of opera, you shouldn't judge music or words in isolation". Would Passage A say that the words are not essential to to the aesthetic value of the opera? Yes, it turns out Passage A explicitly says that towards the end: So too an opera is largely independent of words, and depends for its aesthetic value not upon the poetry but upon its emotional range, a region dominated by the musical element. One might object that even though Passage A things that aesthetic value depends on emotional range, and even though the musical element dominates the emotional range, that doesn't mean Passage A thinks that only the musical elements of an opera are essential to aesthetic value. That's true, but that's a very weak case. This is a squishy most likely question stem, and if you're saying "X depends on Y, and the dominant force determining Y is Z", then you pretty much think "X depends on Z".

    Skill tested: Principle · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    65% picked this

  2. Even in operas where there

    Too Strong for B

    Too Strong for B: most important Passage A agrees We couldn't infer this from passage B. The author never ranks which is more important: words or music. And passage A would agree with this.

    5% picked this

  3. An opera cannot be artistically

    Too Strong for B

    Too Strong for B: cannot unless Unsupported Disagreement We couldn't infer this from passage B. Even though that author thinks that a successful opera is balancing many factors, its feels too strong to say he was arguing under the principle that "it cannot be successful unless it skillfully balances many factors". We also have no ammunition for saying that Passage A would disagree. Where in passage A could we support the idea that "some operas are artistically successful, even though they do not skillfully balance many factors"?

    19% picked this

  4. In order for an opera

    Trap

    Unsupported for B Passage A Probably Agrees Passage A was all about the superiority of music, so she would probably agree to this. At the end of Passage B's first paragraph, he says, "theoretically, it would seem that there should be a third kind of opera, in which the music is subordinated to the other features". He then says that the earliest operas tried this tactic and had only limited appeal. He reports as a historical fact that "a bigger role for music was required to establish opera", but that doesn't mean he thinks it's impossible for an opera where music plays only a supporting role to be artistically successful.

    7% picked this

  5. An opera’s libretto has formal

    Unsupported Disagreement

    It can be derived that Passage B believes this claim is true. It would be weird to say this was a principle underlying B's argument, because it's actually a disclaimer that B brings up as an aside to his argument. B is arguing that we "should not analyze the libretto independently of the music", if we're evaluating aesthetic value. This answer is just a little disclaimer like, "naturally, you can analyze the libretto separately if you're doing something besides aesthetics." It's not a premise in B's argument. More importantly, we wouldn't be able to derive that Passage A disagrees with this, because we'd have to catch Passage A saying, "It is impossible to analyze any formal features of a libretto apart form the music".

    5% picked this

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