Q3

[hanhansummer]

I am struggling between B and D when I am doing this.

I eventually eliminate D because I think the whole passage is more focused on Schoenberg, rather than the comparison between he and Beethoven.

So why B is wrong?

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Great one! Questions about purpose always intrigue me, I think mostly because I found them so challenging at first.

We're asked for the author's purpose in beginning the passage with a quote, which is also the entire first paragraph. The second paragraph is the first place we should look at to answer the question. In the second paragraph there are two sentences, one about Schoenberg and one about Beethoven. If you think the first sentence is the author's point of that paragraph, go with (B). If you think the second sentence is the point of the paragraph, go with (D).

Notice the word "But" at the beginning of the second sentence and it's clear that the author pivots to his main point in the second sentence. Hence, answer choice (D) is correct.

Incorrect Answers
(A) is contradicted. (lines 7-19)
(B) misrepresents the author's purpose, even though the answer choice accurately reflects statements from the passage.
(C) is contradicted. (lines 7-19)
(E) misrepresents the author's purpose, even though the answer choice accurately reflects statements from the passage.

#officialexplanation

[crocca]

How does the second sentence of the second paragraph reflect answer D? For me, that sentence doesn't do much in terms of explaining why the music shouldn't seem alienating.

I appreciate the extra explanation!

[Didius Falco]

I struggled on (B) for far to long, until I found an easy way (at least in my mind) to eliminate it.

First;
(E) Totally Unsupported
(C) No indication/ Unsupported

That left A, B, and D.

Then I realized; it is pretty clear that the author does not agree with the characterization presented in the first paragraph quote. "Few puny ideas"??? "Disagreeable and deafening effect"???

In what world can we possibly characterize the author of this passage as agreeing with this assessment---either in relation to Beethoven or Schoenberg! So how could he possibly be including the quote in order to give "an accurate account of the music" of either one!

Clearly he is presenting it in order to represent some view that was at one time held in relation to them (encapsulated in D), but he is definitely not endorsing the quote as an "accurate account".

During the test, I realized this, eliminated A and B without bothering with referential analysis on who he was aiming the quote at. I selected D confidently, and moved on.

[DavidS899]

I eliminated D because the quote says nothing about it being alienating and the passage doesn't go on to say it was ever seen as not alienating.

He says the music is seen as chaotic, which he compares to Schoenberg: "unstable harmonies, disturbing, violent in its contrasts."

I thought the main point of the passage to say, Schoenberg's music is chaotic but that's good in certain ways in the same sense that it made Beethoven's music good, and the pair have additional parallels.

I thought the quote was just to characterize that stylistic interpretation of a popular figure. I chose A, because although the author may disagree whether the music is good OVERALL or not (he doesn't say, he just says it got more popular, compares certain values of aspects of it) he spends the rest of the passage comparing this aspect of Beethoven to Schoenberg. If that was not an accurate account of one aspect of Beethoven's music, then why use that as the basis for your comparison?

[MeganL677]

I was down to D and E.

D) I think this one's support is in paragraph3, line14- 19, it says: "Beethoven's works DIDN'T become popular UNTIL well into the 20th century."
"Not until" parallels well with "at first....later..."
And notice, the author says AS shares certain similarities with Beethoven, so what's said about Beethoven is also about AS in a way.
Also, this choice didn't specify whose "music". So it needn't be about AS's music specifically.

The word "alienating" may seem unsupportable from the text, but actually, it can be inferred. The dictionary meaning of ALIENATING is "to make somebody feel sb/sth is not friendly or sympathetic". Same as "disturbing", it's a kind of subjective feeling of listeners, not the objective characteristics of the music per se. "Alienating" is supported by Line 4 "disagreeable" and Line 16 "not popular until..".


E) I don't think E is "accurate but simply miss the point". It's not accurate to me.
In line 6-7 it says: "This remark aptly characterize the reaction of MANY listeners..." Those many listeners may not be representative of "the general critical consensus." Probably there're also many listeners who like AS's music just as the author.

Hope this helps!

[ChaseP618]

Upon reviewing, I definitely see how D is right, but C almost seems like a precursor to D...I felt like the point of the quote was almost a "gotcha" from the author - "see, this negative characterization could even be applied to a great like Beethoven (i.e. C), showing that certain music can become appreciated over time (i.e. D).

Do you throw out C simply because "uneven quality" is just too strong of verbiage / an incorrect characterization?

[ohthatpatrick]

Yeah, the author wasn't trying to say, "Don't be hard on Schoenberg. Yeah, he wrote some duds, but even Beethoven wrote some duds.

The author is trying to say, "Don't write off Schoenberg. Yeah, his style is off-putting to a lot of people, but so was Beethoven's (until years later when people finally 'got' Beethoven and now he's a beloved treasure)."

The quote was about only one opera of Beethoven's, but the negative description of the music in the quote was not specific to that opera As it says in line 6, this remark aptly characterizes the reaction to the music of Schoenberg.

Line 11 is clarifying that Beethoven and Schoenberg both had STYLES (not individual pieces) that stirred controversy.

And then line 16 is referring to works such as this opera as Beethoven's "most challenging" works, not his "most uneven".

They're challenging because they "alter the language and extend the expressive range", not because they're unbalanced.

Does that make sense?