Baroque music continues to captivate modern audiences with its ornate compositional techniques. Musicologists frequently analyze how the composer of T...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

Sentence 1:

• Baroque music continues to captivate modern audiences with its ornate compositional techniques.

Sentence 2:

• Musicologists frequently analyze how the composer of The Four [Seasons (?) Antonio Vivaldi (?)] revolutionized the concerto form through his innovative approach to instrumental dialogue.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start by understanding what these sentences are telling us:

The first sentence introduces the topic:

• "Baroque music continues to captivate modern audiences with its ornate compositional techniques."
  • This tells us that Baroque music (a classical music style) still interests people today because of its elaborate composition style.

Now the second sentence:

• "Musicologists frequently analyze how the composer of The Four..."

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:

• Choice A: Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi
• Choice B: Seasons Antonio Vivaldi,
• Choice C: Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi,
• Choice D: Seasons Antonio Vivaldi

The choices vary in whether there's a comma before "Antonio Vivaldi," after it, both, or neither. To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The complete structure is:

• "the composer of The Four Seasons [?] Antonio Vivaldi [?] revolutionized the concerto form through his innovative approach to instrumental dialogue."

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• "The Four Seasons"
  • is a famous musical work (shown in italics as a title)

• "Antonio Vivaldi"
  • is the composer's name – the actual person who wrote The Four Seasons

• The sentence structure has:
  • "the composer of The Four Seasons" as the main subject
  • "revolutionized" as the verb
  • "Antonio Vivaldi" giving us the composer's actual name

What do we notice about the structure here?

• "The composer of The Four Seasons" already identifies a specific person
  • This phrase alone tells us who we're talking about

• "Antonio Vivaldi" is giving us additional information
  • It's providing the person's actual name
  • It's extra identifying detail that could be removed and the sentence would still work: "the composer of The Four Seasons revolutionized the concerto form"

• This name is inserted into the middle of the sentence
  • It comes between the subject and the verb
  • The main sentence flow is: "the composer...revolutionized the concerto form"
  • "Antonio Vivaldi" interrupts this flow to add the name

When you insert additional identifying information into the middle of a sentence like this, you need to set it off with commas on BOTH sides – one before it starts and one after it ends.

So we need: "Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi," (comma before AND comma after)

The correct answer is Choice C.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Commas to Set Off Additional Identifying Information

When you add a noun or noun phrase that renames or provides extra identifying information about something you just mentioned, and this information could be removed without losing the basic meaning, you need to set it off with commas (called an appositive in grammar terms).

The key rule: If this additional information is inserted in the middle of a sentence, you need commas on BOTH sides – before it begins and after it ends.

Pattern:

• [Main identifier], [additional identifying name/information], [rest of sentence]

Examples:

1. Work + Creator:
   • The author of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, influenced countless writers.
   • "The author of Pride and Prejudice" = already identifies a specific person
   • "Jane Austen" = adds the actual name (extra information)
   • Both commas needed because the name is inserted mid-sentence
2. Position + Person:
   • The director of the program, Dr. Martinez, announced new policies.
   • "The director of the program" = identifies the role
   • "Dr. Martinez" = adds the specific name
   • Both commas needed because it's inserted before the verb

In our question:

• "the composer of The Four Seasons" = identifies a specific person by their work
• "Antonio Vivaldi" = adds the composer's actual name
• Since this name is inserted between the subject and verb, it needs commas on both sides: "the composer of The Four Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi, revolutionized..."