Q4

[lhermary]

Wow, what a hard passage.
Where can I find A? I've read the last paragraph a few times and I still don't know where I'm supposed to infer the answer from.

[bbirdwell]

Tough question!

Our job is undermine a *portion* of Ringer's argument.

So what are the pieces of his argument?

"¢ there is "something" worth calling the London Pianoforte School
"¢ Beethoven looked outside Austria for creative models
"¢ He found it in a group of London pianists
"¢ the School is a unified group of musicians around 1800
"¢ Beethoven responded to advances of Broadwood piano
"¢ London pianists who composed for it during its development exercised influence on Continental musicians

So we're looking to weaken one of those.

(A) "as soon as it became available" + "innovative"... this seems to apply to the last statement above by suggesting that Continental musicians themselves were composing during the "critical phase" of the Broadwood's development, as well. In a very slight way, this seems to suggest that the London group's influence was maybe less than Ringer is suggesting.

(B) This goes right along with what Ringer says: around 1800.

(C) This doesn't contradict the idea that Beethoven also looked outside of Austria for influence.

(D) This goes along with Ringer.

(E) This goes along with Ringer just fine -- doesn't matter where they were born. If they were in London working with Clementi, then they can be called the "London group."

Process of elimination really helps us out here. (A) is not a fantastic answer, and yet if suffices, while none of the others really comes close.

[christinachenn]

Hi bbirdwell,

This was a hard passage to understand on a first read. Would you be able to provide a breakdown of the passage for us?

Thanks!

[doylemurphy89]

I chose A but for a different reason. The text says that Ringer argued that Beethoven had to leave Austria because of the "laws of artistic survival" which I took to mean that Beethoven had to look elsewhere if he wanted to develop a creative style. Answer choice A says that musicians developed innovative music once the piano became available. Wouldn't this weaken Ringer's argument that Beethoven left Austria so that his style would not become stagnant? Please let me know if this makes any sense

[maryadkins]

This was a hard passage to understand on a first read. Would you be able to provide a breakdown of the passage for us?

Yes! You can find a passage map here: http://www.manhattanlsat.com/forums/pos ... 840#p29516

The text says that Ringer argued that Beethoven had to leave Austria because of the "laws of artistic survival" which I took to mean that Beethoven had to look elsewhere if he wanted to develop a creative style.

That works, too!