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Classical Music
TRIVIA QUIZ


CLASSICAL MUSIC MONTH, September 1996, has come to an end and so has our trivia contest. John Ezovski of San Jose, California is the winner of the Deutsche Grammophon 29-compact-disc set "The Originals," having answered all 30 questions correctly. You can still try your hand at the quiz, put together by MPR's music experts. The answers are available, but don't peek until you've given it a shot: we'll tell you how many you answered correctly.

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  1. If you were in Vienna in the late 19th century and had gone to the coffeehouse The Red Hedgehog you might have seen a composer who was a regular there. Who?
    A: Johannes Brahms
    B: Richard Strauss
    C: Franz Liszt
    D: Claude Debussy
  2. Antonin Dvorak wrote some of his most beloved music while living in a small Midwestern town ­ name it.
    A: Winona, Minnesota
    B: Sioux Falls, S. Dakota
    C: Spillville, Iowa
    D: Eau Claire, Wisconsin
  3. Which composer was nicknamed the red priest?
    A. Francesco Geminiani
    B. Antonio Vivaldi
    C. Archangelo Corelli
    D. Giovanni Sammartini
  4. Giuseppe Tartini wrote a famous violin sonata that came to him in a dream. What's the nickname of this piece?
    A. Sonata de Camera in E-flat major
    B: Satyr's Masque
    C: Fantasy for Violin
    D: The Devil's Trill
  5. Louis Spohr claimed that he was the person who first introduced to England a musical implement that is now very well known. What was Spohr referring to?
    A: the tuning fork
    B: the chromatic tuner
    C: the conductor's baton
    D: the metronome
  6. This composer spent the last weeks of his life sick in bed, reading the novels of James Fennimore Cooper. Which composer was this?
    A: Franz Schubert
    B: Robert Schumann
    C: Sir Arthur Sullivan
    D: John Philip Sousa
  7. Name the composer who spent part of his life running an orange plantation in Florida.
    A: Scott Joplin
    B: William Grant Still
    C: Antonin Dvorak
    D: Fredrick Delius
  8. What great composer is nicknamed Papa?
    A: Franz Joseph Haydn
    B: J. S. Bach
    C: Josef Strauss
    D: Antonio Vivaldi
  9. This has to do with the title of Handel's Water Music. It's called that because:
    A: it was inspired by the seven seas
    B: it was first performed on a barge on the River Thames
    C: it forms part of the opera The Kingdom of Neptune
    D: the first five notes spell "water," in German music notation
  10. The music of Bach fell into obscurity after his death, until another great composer mounted a famous revival of the St. Matthew Passion. Who was this composer?
    A: Felix Mendelssohn
    B: Richard Wagner
    C: Richard Strauss
    D: Franz Schubert
  11. Frederic Chopin is unusual because he composed almost exclusively for one instrument. What instrument?
    A. the piano
    B: the glass armonica
    C: the accordian
    D: the harpsichord
  12. One of the most famous operettas is "Die Fledermaus". What does "Die Fledermaus" mean?
    A. the ugly duckling
    B: the Death of Count Von Fleder
    C: the bat
    D: the butterfly
  13. One of the following composers did NOT compose music based on the theme of the four seasons: Which one?
    A: Milhaud
    B: Brahms
    C: Verdi
    D: Vivaldi
  14. Jean Sibelius is his country's most famous composer. What country?
    A. France
    B: Finland
    C: Belgium
    D: Denmark
  15. Who was the first composer to have one of his works performed in space?
    A: Dmitri Shostakovich
    B: George Gershwin
    C: Johann Strauss II
    D: John Williams
  16. According to the Guiness Book of World Records, who is the most prolific of all composers?
    A. Mozart
    B. Bach
    C. Telemann
    D. Vivaldi
  17. What well-known composer & pianist was married in the Hollywood Bowl?
    A: Van Cliburn
    B: Elton John
    C: Percy Grainger
    D: George Gershwin
  18. Some of the most visible concerts and recordings recently have been the ones featuring the Three Tenors. Which of these does not fit?
    A. Jose Carreras
    B. Placido Domingo
    C. Luciano Pavarotti
    D. Carlo Bergonzi
  19. Who was nicknamed the dean of Afro-American composers?
    A. William Grant Still
    B: Scott Joplin
    C: James P. Johnson
    D: Duke Ellington
  20. If you listened to Minnesota Public Radio during the summer Olympics, you heard a new piece called Javelin commissioned especially for the Olympics, by an acclaimed young composer. Who wrote Javelin?
    A: Michael Torke
    B: Gloria Estefan
    C: Hugh Wolff
    D: Paul Schaffer
  21. What famous composer was also a professional chemist and the author of "On the Analogy of Arsenical with Phosphoric Acid"?
    A: Modest Moussorgsky
    B: Gustav Mahler
    C: Sir Arnold Bax
    D: Alexander Borodin
  22. The Pulitzer Prize in music has only been given to a film score once. What composer won it?
    A. Virgil Thomson
    B. John Williams
    C. Erich Korngold
    D. Henry Mancini
  23. Before he took up conducting, Toscanini played in the orchestra ­ what instrument?
    A. Cello
    B. Timpani
    C. Double bass
    D. Oboe
  24. Mendelssohn's Fifth Symphony makes use of a familiar hymn. Which one?
    A: A Mighty Fortress is Our God
    B. Arise, My Soul, Arise
    C. O for a Thousand Tongues
    D. Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
  25. Every year at King's College, Cambridge, a Festival of Lessons and Carols is presented. How many Lessons?
    A. Five
    B. Twenty-five
    C. Twelve
    D. Nine
  26. Who wrote the Farewell Symphony? At the end of which the musicians gradually stop playing and leave the stage...
    A. Leonard Bernstein
    B. Leopold Mozart
    C. Franz Joseph Haydn
    D. John Cage
  27. Everyone has heard the operatic excerpt in which a singer repeats, "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro." What opera does it come from?
    A. Mozart: Don Giovanni
    B. Rossini: The Barber of Seville
    C. Verdi: Rigoletto
    D. Puccini: La Boheme
  28. To whom did Beethoven originally plan to dedicate his Third Symphony (the "Eroica")?
    A. Napoleon
    B. Frederick the Great
    C. Mozart
    D. George III
  29. This composer was born in New Orleans, died in Brazil, and is buried in Brooklyn ­ who is he?
    A. Scott Joplin
    B. Louis Moreau Gottschalk
    C. Aaron Copland
    D. Heitor Villa-Lobos
  30. Salzburg, Austria is the setting of the musical The Sound of Music ­ what is its other musical claim to fame?
    A. home of the world's finest harpsichords
    B: birthplace of Beethoven
    C: birthplace of Mozart
    D: the home of Europe's oldest boy choir



Quiz Answers




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