Quiz Answers

Answers to Morawetz' "Saturday Afternoon at the Met" questions:

  1. The entire string section of the orchestra remains silent for seven consecutive minutes of the performance. 
    Tannhauser, 3rd Act, beginning with “er  kehret nicht zuruck” sung by Elisabeth.  The violins do not play again until Wolfram sings: “Da scheinest du, o lieblichster der Sterne.”
     
  2. After having been used throughout the opera, the heavy brass instruments can leave the orchestra pit more than 8 minutes before the final curtain.
    Aida, Act IV, Scene II, beginning with “Aida, ove sei tu?” as sung by Radames, to the end of the opera.
     
  3. Seven and a half consecutive bars are played exclusively by percussion instruments.
    Rheingold, the hammering of anvils while Wotan descends from Valhalla.

Answers to Morawetz' contributions to the Cammac Toronto Region newsletter:

  1. Can you name four composers who wrote exactly nine symphonies?
    Beethoven, Dvořák, Mahler, Bruckner
     
  2. Can you name at least three composers who wrote ten or more symphonies?
    Mozart, Haydn, Shostakovitch
     
  3. Name as many composers as you can who never married? How about who married more than once?
    Never married: Bruckner, Schubert, Beethoven, Hugo Wolf, Brahms, Mendelssohn
    Married more than once: Wagner, Debussy, Verdi
     
  4. Name composers who had immediate family members (parents, children, spouse, sibling) who were also musicians.
    Bach had 3 children who were composers.
    Strauss' father was a horn player.
    Mozart's father, Leopold, was also a composer.
    Wagner's son composed some operas.
    Mendelssohn's sister was a composer.
    Schumann's wife, Clara, was a composer and a pianist.
     
  5. How many relationships can you name where a marriage linked two composers together somehow as in-laws?
    Weber's cousin was Constanze Mozart.
    Suk married the daughter of Dvořák.
    Wagner married the daughter of Liszt.
     
  6. There are over 100 operas that have been written whose libretto is based on a Shakespeare play. Can you name some of the more well-known Shakespearean operas?
    Verdi wrote operas MacBeth, Othello and Falstaff.
    Benjamin Britten wrote the opera Midsummer Night Dream.
    Berlioz wrote an opera Much Ado About Nothing.
    Nicolai wrote the Merry Wives of Windsor.
    Gounod wrote an opera Romeo and Juliet.
     
  7. How many pieces of music can you think of that begin with the same melody (in any key, with any rhythm) as the notes below:

    Here are the nine that Morawetz came up with:

    Richard Strauss'
    Death and Transfiguration
    		 Debussy's
    Children's Corner:
    Do You Love Me?
     from Fiddler on the Roof
    		 Lehar's Merry Widow
    Habanera from
    Bizet's opera Carmen
    		 Seguidilla from
    Bizet's opera Carmen
    Popular song You Are My Sunshine
    		 2nd movement from
    Beethoven's Symphony #2
    Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel

    After posing this quiz to members of the Cammac community, several more examples were discovered:

    Martini's Plaisir d'amour
    Bach's sonata for viola da gamba,
    BWV 1027, 2nd movement:
    		 Bach's sonata for viola da gamba,
    BWV 1028, 4th movement:
    Bach's cantata: Wachet Auf!
         		Et resurrexit from
    Bach's Mass in B minor
    Hymn: This Joyful Eastertide
    		 Brahms' Waltz #1
    Handel's Messiah
    		 Handel's Water Music (Air)
    Liszt, Les préludes,
    Symphonic Poem #3, 5th theme
    		 Brahms, Piano Trio No. 1 in B+, op. 8
    1st movement, 1st theme
    Haydn, String Quartet 34, op. 20
    Rose of Venice
    		 Cecile Chaminade, #2 Automne,
    from Piano Works, op. 35
    Norah Jones The Nearness Of You
    		 Do Not Foresake Me
    theme song from movie High Noon
    W.W. II Drinking Song, Anon