Care To Partake In This Classical Music Potpourri Quiz?
Okay, one or two of these may be fairly easy. Or maybe not. Too easy takes the fun out of playing along, don’t you think? Too difficult keeps the replies to a minimum. So here is a little of both.
1. Although Henry, Frank and Trapper John were not around to witness it, a segment of chamber music received the highest rated viewing (as background music) ever for a chamber piece as it was performed during the closing minutes of a television program’s final night. Can you name the composer and the work?
2. Listening to the later symphony by this Russian composer, one wonders if he was paying homage to Classical Music’s Greatest Hits? It doesn’t take much imagination to recognize the influences of Wagner, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Stravinsky (and this is just in the first movement). He even seems to pay homage to his own past greatness, Can you name this composer and this symphony?
3. This 20th. century composer rated himself the ninth greatest composer ever, even ahead of Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Can you name him? Also, though worlds apart in the pure scope and complexities of their music, this ego-driven composer shared, besides an inflated ego, another infamous trait with Wagner. Can you name this infection?
4. Speaking of 9ths., the premier of Beethoven’s glorious 9th. Symphony pretty much forced classical contemporary composers, and the generations that followed, to take music into different directions because few believed they could ever match The 9th. So far-reaching was the shadow cast by this great symphony that it hounded some later composers. One later composer, after finishing his own 8th. Symphony, refused to label his next full work a ‘symphony’ in fear that it would be compared to Beethoven’s. Another composer, perhaps believing in the ‘Curse Of The Ninth’. literary worked himself to death composing his (unfinished) 9th. Can you name these two composers.
5. This world renowned concert pianist (an easy question for some of you) had the habit of humming the music his was playing. In live concerts this was not so noticeable but in recording sessions? Well, it proved to be a night mare in the studio. Can you name this pianist?
6. This composer (a fairly easy question) was a sixty years ahead of his time metaphorically. Before the New Age movement became fashionable in the 1970s he was composing New Age style music back in the early 1900s. Can you name this composer?
Either you guys are too informed or these questions this time around were too easy. At least No. 6 still begs to be answered.
Also, care to share the not so appealing trait Wagner and Grainger had in common?
Yes, No. 5 could be ambiguous and Serkin was certainly, in my humble opinion. a more accomplished pianist (and perhaps a more sophisticated hummer). Perhaps I should have said the concert pianist who employed the world's most recognized piano chair instead? So next time the questions will be a bit more challenging.
Although several composers could be classified as ‘New Age’ before their time I was referring to Alexander Scriabin, who was a practitioner of theosophy and mysticism and incorporated these beliefs into his compositions. Listen to his "Poem of Ecstacy" or his Symphony No. 3. Thank you all for replying and this next weekend I’ll come up with a little more difficult quiz. Also, Raymond gets the best answer because his was the first reply and got 4 ½ out of six right (actually five, but No. 5 could have gone several ways as it’s been pointed out to me) and I’m amazed that me knew the first answer. I figured that was a tough one.