Scarlet & Grey
Ohio State University
School of Music

Music 824: Assignment #6

DUE: Friday November 19, 2004; 4:30 PM.

  1. A music scholar finds that a sample of Italian baroque music shows 32 works in major keys and 28 works in minor keys. In a diverse sample of baroque music from many European countries (including Italy), 480 works were found to be in major keys and 210 works in minor keys. Compared with their European colleagues, did Italian baroque composers tend to favor works in minor keys?
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  2. In a survey of 100 orchestral works it was found that 70 percent include an oboe as part of the orchestration. A music scholar finds that composer A uses an oboe in only 5 of 11 orchestral works (just 45%). Is this a statistically significant difference?
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  3. An ethnomusicologist finds that just 130 of 220 Xhosa listeners say they prefer bumbuju rhythms to nobuju rhythms. In one Xhosa village however, 16 of 21 people say they prefer bumbuju. Can we claim that the members of this village differ significantly from other Xhosa in their rhythmic preferences?
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  4. A music scholar compares a sample of music by Bach (400 notes) with a sample of music by Mozart (500 notes). The scholar finds that Bach uses chromatic tones 15 percent of the time and that Mozart uses chromatic tones just 12 percent of the time. Is this a statistically significant difference?
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  5. For a large database of European melodies it is found that the average phrase length is 8.3 notes. For a sample of Spanish melodies we find phrase lengths of 8, 4, 6, 7, 6, 4 and 3 notes. Does this small sample differ statistically from the European average?
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  6. A historical musicologist has found that the average audience size in 17th century Venetian concerts was 425 people. Eight 15th century concerts are known to have the following audience sizes: 380, 460, 410, 395, 430, 400, 390, 388. Is this statistically significant evidence that 17th century audiences were larger in size?
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