The Music Stem / Music theory practice tests / CSET Music 227
Exam practice
Timed practice for CSET Music 227, set out in the board's own sections. Every answer comes with an explanation.
CSET: Music, Subtest II (227) is a licensure test for music teachers, owned by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
This practice test covers responding and connecting: judging performances, history and culture, for California music teachers.
The listening questions use our own piano recordings. They judge tempo, balance, dynamics and articulation in a piano performance. Recognizing a style, period, instrument or voice by ear is not included. Intonation, blend, tone and diction are not included either.
Exam mode runs a clock of 2 hours 15 minutes for the whole practice test.
The full practice test holds 36 questions.
Study mode has no clock. It checks each answer as you go.
A minuet has two repeated sections. The first section ends in the dominant key. The second opens with new material and later restates the opening phrase in the tonic. Which form fits best?
The answer is B, Rounded binary.
Rounded binary keeps two repeated halves and brings the opening phrase back in the tonic late in the second half. A first half that closes in the dominant points to binary design. In ternary form the first section closes in the tonic and stands alone. Simple binary has no return of the opening.
In Schubert's Erlkönig, a single singer portrays several characters while the piano's repeated octaves depict a galloping horse. Which genre is this work?
The answer is B, A Lied.
Erlkönig is a through-composed Lied, a German art song for voice and piano, on a ballad by Goethe. A song cycle links several songs into a larger whole, as in Schubert's Winterreise.
A listening map describes a work with balanced four-measure phrases, a clear melody over light chordal accompaniment, and a sonata-form movement with contrasting themes. Which composer most likely wrote it?
The answer is A, Mozart.
Balanced phrases, homophonic texture and sonata form with contrasting themes are hallmarks of the Classical style of Haydn and Mozart. Monteverdi wrote early Baroque music, Wagner chromatic music drama, and Webern brief atonal and serial pieces.
Exam mode gives 2 hours 15 minutes for the whole practice test. It holds 36 questions. Study mode has no clock.
It follows the board's order: Responding and Connecting.
Yes. Each answer comes with an explanation of why it is correct.
See a mistake on this page? Write to info@themusicstem.com or read how to report an error.