Composer Trivia Flashcards
Learn about great composers, their accomplishments, and their contributions to the musical world. Over the years, the greatest composers of our time have created countless works of art, inspired thousands, and shown the world that the boundaries for music are limitless. Learn more with Ultimate Music Theory Workbooks, Videos and Online Courses. UltimateMusicTheory.com
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Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was an Austrian composer, who despite his early death was praised by the likes of Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms among others.
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Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), a Polish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher, was one of the great masters of Romantic music.
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Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was an Italian Romantic composer specializing in opera. Over 100 years after his death, Verdi’s masterworks continue to dominate his field of composition.
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Johan Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist, who over the years created several of the most famous classical Baroque pieces of all time, bringing the genre to its peak.
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Johannes Brahms (1833-1891), a German composer and pianist, was a leader of the Romantic period.
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George Frederic Handel (1685-1759) was a German-born British baroque composer, made famous through his operas, oratoriums, anthems, and organ concertos. Having composed over 40 operas in the course of more than 30 years, he has been made famous through works such as Music for the Royal Fireworks, Water Music, and Messiah.
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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German composer and pianist, regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers of all time. His great fame rests in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music.
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Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer, conductor, theater director, and essayist known most notably for his operas, having produced such works as “Ride of the Valkyries” and “Here Comes the Bride”.
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Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was a German composer and influential music critic, who later worked with Johannes Brahms, helping him establish himself as an extraordinary pianist and composer.
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Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and organist of the early Romantic period. One of the most popular compsers of the Romantic period, he is noted for such works as his Overture and his work on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
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Franz Liszt (1811-1886), a Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist, was known for his extraordinary skills as a performer, and during his life was said to be the greatest pianist of all time.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was arguably the most established composer of the Classical era, having created over 600 works, and was regarded as the pinnacle of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music.
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Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678 -1741) was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist born in Venice. His best known work is a series of violin concertos known as ‘The Four Seasons’, and he is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, his influence widespread over Europe during his life.
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Béla Viktor János Bartók (1881-1945), was a Hungarian composer and pianist, and is considered to be one of the most important composers of the 20th century.
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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic era, specializing in symphonies, operas, ballets, as well as instrumental and chamber music. Some of his most famous works include 1812 Overture and The Nutcracker.
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Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was an Austrian composer, close friend of Amadeus Mozart and teacher to Ludvig van Beethoven. He is considered one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period.
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Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a prominent French composer associated with Impressionist music, and known by most from his orchestral work Boléro, as well as his piano compositions that consistently demand a great deal of virtuosity from the performer.
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Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was a Czech composer greatly influenced by Moravian and Bohemian folk music. He was largely known as one of the first composers to combine aspects of folk music into the 19th century Romantic era.
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Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a French composer known for his Impressionist work in the 19th and early 20th century. Alongside Maurice Ravel, he is considered one of the most prominent composers of Impressionist music.
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Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) was widely known as one of the last greats of the Russian period of Romanticism, a composer and conductor, as well as one of the finest pianists of his time.
Which 19th-century composer and pianist was it that invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballad.
Frédéric Chopin, among creating the instrumental ballad, made spectacular innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, nocturne, waltz, the polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude.
This famous composer of the 18th-century kept a parrot that could sing the opening lines of the Austrian Hymn.
Joseph Haydn. The parrot resided in his studio.
Who was it that, in addition to writing letters, sent payments to Tchaikovsky of 6,000 rubles annually to have him commission chamber pieces?
Exchanging a good deal over 1000 letters, Nadezhda von Meck was Tchaikovsky’s close friend, their relationship created only from writing each other.
Which composer, while still a child at age 7, moved with his family to the Saxon Palace, living on the grounds where his father taught French at the Warsaw Lyceum?
Frédéric Chopin. In 1817, the Saxon Palace was requisitioned for military purposes by Grand Duke Constantine, and the Lyceum was moved to the Kazimierz Palace, which was also home to the newly founded Warsaw University
Upon being introduced to Franz Liszt, which famous composer supposedly fell asleep during his performance of “Sonata in B Minor”?
Johannes Brahms fell asleep during Liszt’s performance, and later excused himself, accounting it to being exhausted by his travels.
“Most of all, he wants truth in musical sentiment, and so he makes a psychological study of his emotions to convey them as they are. Thus, a strong expression is often followed by a sense of fatigue and dejection, a kind of coldness, because this is the way nature works…”
More of a statement than question, this impacting quote was said of Franz Liszt’s awe inspiring piano playing by the mother of one of his piano students around 1831.
What was the pen name of Aurore Dudevant, the novelist with whom Frédéric Chopin shared a long personal relationship with?
Dudevant, better known by her pen name George Sand, was greatly impressed with Chopin’s musical prowess and creativity, and they spent eight years together, departing from one another towards the end of Chopin’s life.
In December of 1791, Mozart died at the young age of 35. Where was this great composer buried?
Unfortunately, Mozart was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Vienna, Austria. Although it is common belief that he died in poverty and was in turn put to an unmarked grave, this was actually common practice for all but the wealthiest members of society at the time.
At the young age of 17, which 19th-century composer wrote the overture for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream?
Felix Mendelssohn, one of the most popular composers of the Romantic era, wrote the overture for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
In which German city was Bach the chief musician?
Leipzig. It was here that Bach produced most of his cantatas under the title Director Musices (Director of Music).
Which Polish composer wrote the “Revolutionary Etude”, and what was the event that inspired it?
Frédéric Chopin wrote the piece after the Russian-controlled Poland attempted a revolt, whereas Russia immediately captured Warsaw. Under control of the tsar, Nicholas the First, Russian soldiers suppressed the revolt and slaughtered several Poles including friends and family of Chopin.
Always one who loved a fine cigar, which 19th-century composer was caught smuggling tobacco stuffed into his stockings in his luggage?
Johannes Brahms. Because import taxes were so high, he would do his best to sneak it with him whenever possible.
During his short life, which 19th-century composer, after living with tuberculosis his whole life, finally succumbed to the disease and died in 1849?
Frédéric Chopin. The funeral march from his “Sonata in B Flat Minor” was played at his funeral to commemorate his passing.
Which 19th-century composer and virtuoso pianist was portrayed by cartoonists as having four hands and twenty fingers?
The dazzling and virtuous Franz Liszt. With his music sounding like he needed the extra appendages, cartoonists had good reason to exaggerate so.
Born in Le Roncole, Lombardy in 1813, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi was established as an accomplished composer by the appearance of which two works in 1843-44?
His production of “Lombardi” and “Emani” established his repute, which was later set in stone with “Rigoletto” in 1851.
Early in Mozart’s traveling career, he performed at the Schonbrun Palace, where he was well received and regarded very highly. At the end of one of his concerts, he jumped into the lap of a young lady and playfully asked for her hand in marriage. Who was this young lady?
The young lady was the future Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. At the time known as the Archduchess Maria Antonia, she was captivated by Mozart’s words and extremely pleased with his performance.
Attempting to attain fame, Frédéric Chopin left his home country of Poland and traveled to which city?
Chopin traveled to Paris in the 1830’s, which was then the center of the new movement known as Romanticism. During this period, Paris was a hotspot for up and coming novelists, composers, and other artists.
Which 19th-century composer had his own vocabulary for the different stages of his written works as he was working on them?
Giuseppe Verdi would call his first sketch of librettos ‘the forest’ because he knew that he would be cutting and clearing a lot, as well as having other interesting names for his many other stages of creation.
Which 19th century composer, after given the job of teaching a Goldsmith’s daughters, later took one’s hand in marriage in 1873?
Antonin Dvořák, assigned as a piano teacher to two daughers of a goldsmith in 1865, fell in love with the goldsmith’s daughter Josefína Čermáková, who refused to return his love and married another man. He then married Josefína’s younger sister Anna in 1873.
As well as operas and sacral work, how many concerti did Vivaldi compose?
Vivaldi was a busy and productive composer, writing about 500 concerti in his lifetime!
Which famous 19th-century composer was famous for his large beard and rotund physique, despite the fact that he could not grow a beard until 45?
Johannes Brahms. As a youth, he was quite thin, with fair blonde hair, blue eyes, and baby-smooth cheeks.
Which famous composer has been credited as the bridge between the Classical period and the Romantic?
Ludvig van Beethoven. He combined the mathematical properties of the Classical era and fused them with the more emotional aspect of the Romantic.
Which 18th-century composer used a chiroplast, a mechanism meant to strengthen the finger by stretching and lengthening?
Robert Schumann. Unfortunately, instead of helping his playing, the device ruined his playing hands, leaving him unable to properly play piano for the rest of his life.
Stated in his official documents, Giuseppe Verdi recorded what profession as his own?
Verdi, one of the 19th century’s most influential operatic composers, recorded his official profession as ‘farmer’. Although he was a musical leader, the yield of his farm at home was one of his closest concerns.
Cosima Liszt, daughter of the famous Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, was the wife to which famous 19th-century composer?
Cosima Liszt was the second wife to the well known German composer, conductor, and theater director Richard Wagner.
Created for Oberon’s wedding in Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which famous 19th-century Romantic composer wrote The Wedding March?
The Wedding March, which can be heard at most weddings, was written by Felix Mendelssohn in the year 1842.
Which 19th-century operatic composer created one of his greatest masterpieces titled “Rigoletto”, which premiered in Venice in 1851.
Giuseppe Verdi created this master work, which had to go under extreme revision before able to satisfy the epoch’s censorship, so much so that Verdi was on the brink of giving up its performance entirely.
With the Nazi’s coming to power in the 1930’s, which Hungarian composer fled Hungary with his wife Ditta Pásztory to settle in New York City?
Béla Viktor János Bartók. Before fleeing, Bartók refused to give concerts in Germany due to his opposition to the Nazis, and was harassed by the Hungarian establishment.