Q.1
What was the main work within which the Interludes belong?
  • The opera Billy Budd
  • The opera Albert Herring
  • The opera Peter Grimes
  • The cantata Noye's Fludde
Q.2
What more general musical techniques does Britten use to disturb and disorient the listener (and indeed, potentially, the performers!) during the ?
  • Frequent changes of key
  • Frequent shifts in the time-signature (how many beats per bar)
  • Frequent changes in both these aspects of the music
  • Wide and unpredictable changes in the overall volume
Q.3
Towards one minute into the piece, which group of instruments comes clearly through the overall sound to create an atmosphere of rising menace?
  • The percussion
  • The brass
  • The strings
  • The woodwinds
Q.4
There are four Sea Interludes spaced throughout the opera, reflecting musically the changing moods of the sea (and, by fairly obvious extension, of the action and audience). Which of the other titles below is the only WRONG one?
  • Moonlight
  • Dawn
  • Sunday Morning
  • White Horses
Q.5
What instrument do the flute-players switch to during the piece, to enhance the effect of shrieking wind and spray?
  • A whistle
  • A piccolo
  • A whip
  • A wind-machine
Q.6
The score for this piece is marked : how does this mean Britten intends it to be played?
  • Steadily but loudly
  • Gradually getting faster (like a nautical counterpart to Grieg's Mountain King!)
  • At a dashing pace and with fiery energy
  • Almost as loud as everyone can play it
Q.7
What is the name of the original singer of the role of Grimes, for whom the Interludes would have offered a few welcome minutes' break from singing onstage?
  • Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
  • Peter Pears
  • Peter Dawson
  • Benjamin Luxon
Q.8
The was one of a set of orchestral 'Interludes'. What does this term mean?
  • The music was played 'under', or during, the main onstage action
  • It was played as a series of purely musical sound-pictures, in intervals while nothing else was happening onstage
  • The music was optional and could be left out of a performance
  • The pieces were played as a set, like a four-movement symphony, during the Interval of the main stage work
Q.9
What is the technical term for when players of any instrument (strings, winds, percussion or keyboards) keep a note going and busy-sounding, by playing it in a quivering way?
  • An ornament
  • A trill
  • A shake
  • A roll
Q.10
About 3 minutes into the piece we hear a greater sense of steadiness: the calm within the storm, presumably. Which group of instruments is playing more sustainedly to suggest this?
  • The strings
  • The woodwinds
  • The brass
  • The harp
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