EXERCISE MLA 3–1 Integrating sources in MLA papers

EXERCISE MLA 3–1Integrating sources in MLA papers

Read the following passage and the information about its source. Then decide whether each student sample uses the source correctly. If the student has made an error in using the source, click on Error; if the student has quoted correctly, click on OK.

ORIGINAL SOURCE

In a work so elusive and kaleidoscopic, a number of perspectives suggest themselves. One is seeing the Ninth [Symphony] in light of its sister work, the Missa Solemnis. At the end of Beethoven’s Mass the chorus is declaiming “Dona nobis pacem,” the concluding prayer for peace, when the music is interrupted by the drums and trumpets of war. Just before the choir sings its last entreaty, the drums are still rolling in the distance. The Mass ends, then, with an unanswered prayer.

Beethoven’s answer to that prayer is the Ninth Symphony, where hope and peace are not demanded of the heavens. . . . In the end, though, the symphony presents us as many questions as answers, and its vision of utopia is proclaimed, not attained. What can be said with some certainty is that its position in the world is probably what Beethoven wanted it to be. In an unprecedented way for a composer, he stepped into history with a great ceremonial work that doesn’t simply preach a sermon about freedom and brotherhood, but aspires to help bring them to pass. Partly because of its enigmas, so many ideologies have claimed the music for their own; over two centuries Communists, Christians, Nazis, and humanists have joined in the chorus. Leonard Bernstein conducted the Ninth at the celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and what else would do the job? Now the Joy theme is the anthem of the European Union, a symbol of nations joining together. If you’re looking for the universal, here it is.

From Swafford, Jan. “Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus 125.” Boston Symphony Orchestra. Boston Symphony Orch., 3 May 2012. Web. 5 May 2012.

Excerpt from “Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus 125.” Boston Symphony Orchestra, May 3, 2012. Used by permission.

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Question

EXERCISE MLA 3–1 Integrating sources in MLA papers - 1 of 5: According to Swafford, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is an answer to Beethoven’s Mass, the Missa Solemnis, in which the chorus is singing “the concluding prayer for peace, when the music is interrupted by the drums of war.”

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Question

EXERCISE MLA 3–1 Integrating sources in MLA papers - 2 of 5: Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis ends with an interrupted prayer for peace, and his Ninth Symphony steps in to answer that prayer.

3 of 5

Question

EXERCISE MLA 3–1 Integrating sources in MLA papers - 3 of 5: Swafford calls Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony “elusive and kaleidoscopic,” pointing out that it provides a “vision of utopia [that] is proclaimed, not attained.”

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Question

EXERCISE MLA 3–1 Integrating sources in MLA papers - 4 of 5: One commentator has written that the Ninth Symphony “doesn’t simply preach a sermon about freedom and brotherhood, but aspires to help bring them to pass” (Swafford).

5 of 5

Question

EXERCISE MLA 3–1 Integrating sources in MLA papers - 5 of 5: The universal appeal of the Ninth Symphony is undeniable: groups as ideologically different as “Communists, Christians, Nazis, and humanists” have all “claimed the music for their own.”