Reading comp PrepTest 130 · Section 2 · Question 21

Topic: Humanities

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • What makes music enjoyable
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Not too simple, not too complex/disorganized
  • Moderate complexity with coherence

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Relate music and language
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Music and language need some combo/sequence/rhythm to convey meaning/be enjoyable
  • Music - This is melody

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Relaxing music, explanation
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Continuous/rhythmic music is relaxing
  • Why? Sudden unexpected sounds = danger in nature
  • Constant noise = peaceful

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Music, expectation emotion - process/sequence
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Musical elements create expectation → Not resolved → Tension → Release
  • Emotion = Tension and release (scales up)

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Negative vs. Positive emotions
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Negative - Music diverges from expectations
  • Positive - Music meets expected course

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Factors in enjoyment
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Factors - Complexity and novelty
  • Enjoyment positively correlated with familiarity until totally known
  • Enjoyment from constant level of positive emotions
  • Complexity - Higher more enjoyable for experienced listener; Lower more enjoyable for “naive listener”

Main Points:

Passage A - Complexity and continuity both are key elements in music in determining what emotional impact that music will have.

Passage B - Musical elements factor into expectations in music, and how well that music matches expectations determines enjoyment.

Passage A:

• Lines 6-8 - What makes music enjoyable
• Line 9 - An analogy is introduced
• Line 18 - A phenomenon
• Lines 21-22 - An explanation
• Lines 28-29 - Another element of enjoyable music

Passage B:

• Lines 35-38 - A phenomenon/relationship
• Lines 46-49 - A causal relationship
• Lines 50-52 - Factors in enjoyment
• Lines 54-57 - Relationship between familiarity and enjoyment
• Lines 60-63 - Relationship between complexity and enjoyment

Both passages discuss elements of music that have an emotional impact. Passage A discusses how complexity and melody factor into enjoyment (Paragraphs 1 and 2), and how continuity factors into relaxation (Paragraph 3). Passage B talks about the connection between emotion and expectation (Paragraphs 1 and 2), and how other factors such as complexity and novelty factor into these expectations (Paragraph 3).

Phenomenon/Explanation (Both) - As we noted above, both passages describe a variety of effects that music has on people. Those effects can be seen as phenomena, and both passages provide some explanations for these phenomena. Passage A provides three general Explanations for emotional reactions to music - complexity, melody, and continuity. Passage B provides a few that can all be lumped under the same bucket - expectation. These explanations for phenomena tend to be the main point of a passage that falls into this Meta-Structure, as reflected in our statements of the main point above.

These passages were very detail heavy. They do make points about the relationship between music and elements of music and emotion, but it’s not nearly as strong of an “argument” as we usually see. As such, let’s focus on those details as we work through the questions.