Download Music and the Brain: Stravinsky`s Rite of Spring

Music and the Brain: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Orchestra Final Exam Worksheet
WNYC Radio Lab Episode 202: “Musical Language”
1) How many universal language melodies did the researcher find? ___________________.
2) The Rite of Spring is about:
a. Water nymphs and their pot of gold.
b. Signing up for driving classes
c. Pagan ritual sacrifice
d. A powerful ring to rule them all.
3) Put the steps of translating sound waves into electrical nerve impulses in order (1 – 7).
You may use the diagram above to help you:
____ The vibrating bones disturb the fluid of the inner-ear.
____ Neurons in the brain analyze the sound signal for familiar patterns.
____ Compressed air (a sound wave) passes through the outer ear and into the ear canal.
____ The motion of the fluid bends tiny hairs in the inner ear.
____ Compressed air (a sound wave) vibrates the ear drum which rattles the tiny bones of
the middle ear.
____ Auditory nerves conduct the electric signals to the brain.
____ The hairs create electric current.
4) “Pleasing” or Consonant pitch intervals produce:
a. even nerve impulse patterns
b. irregular, jagged nerve impulse patterns
c. soft impulse patterns
d. bile
5) Dissonant pitch intervals produce:
a. even nerve impulse patterns
b. irregular, jagged nerve impulse patterns
c. loud impulse patterns
d. euphoria
6) When auditory neurons struggle to make sense of a sound they release:
a. the dogs
b. Ibuprofen
c. Dopamine
d. a press release
7) As the Rite of Spring was being premiered, audience members became so agitated that:
a. They booed the performers
b. They threw punches
c. Old women attacked one another with canes.
d. All of the above
8) The auditory cortical fugal network adjusts neuron “settings”. This tune-up or
reprogramming gives neurons the tools they need to make sense of new sound. This
plasticity might explain why:
a. Music once considered too dissonant or upsetting can be heralded as a
masterpiece a year later.
b. In Sync broke up.
c. People’s opinions about music rarely change.
d. Mr. Ereditario has no hair