Composers Flashcards
Which German composer’s works include the Brandenburg Concertos the Goldberg Variations two Passions and a Mass in B minor?
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Inspired by a poem by George Meredith which work by Ralph Vaughan Williams has been voted number one in the Classic FM annual Hall of Fame poll 8 times?
THE LARK ASCENDING
Who composed the piece popularly known as the 1812 Overture to commemorate Russia’s defence of its motherland against Napoleon’s invading Grande Armée in 1812?
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Which seven-movement orchestral suite by Gustav Holst was written between 1914 and 1916? Holst adapted the melody of the fourth movement to fit the metre of a poem beginning I Vow to Thee My Country.
THE PLANETS
Who composed the one-movement orchestral piece known as Boléro which premiered in 1928?
MAURICE RAVEL
Between 1825 and 1849 who composed 21 nocturnes 16 polonaises 24 preludes and 52 mazurkas?
FREDERIC CHOPIN
Which work by Rachmaninoff features significantly in David Lean’s 1945 film Brief Encounter and is frequently voted number two in the Classic FM annual Hall of Fame poll?
PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2
Which Russian composer suffered two official denunciations of his music in 1936 and 1948 and the periodic banning of his work?
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
In which 1790 opera by Mozart do two soldiers (Guglielmo and Ferrando) disguise themselves as Albanians to test the fidelity of their lovers?
COSI FAN TUTTE
The score of which composition by John Cage instructs the performers not to play their instruments during the entire duration of the piece?
4’33” (FOUR MINUTES 33 SECONDS)
Which 1853 opera by Verdi which was originally titled Violetta (after the main character) is based on La Dame aux Camélias a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils?
LA TRAVIATA
Which 1904 opera by Puccini is set in the Japanese city of Nagasaki?
MADAME BUTTERFLY
The Music for the Royal Fireworks was composed by George Frideric Handel in 1749 to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession under contract of which king?
GEORGE II
What is the English translation of Götterdämmerung the last work in Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle?
TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
Which symphonic suite composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is based on One Thousand and One Nights sometimes known as The Arabian Nights?
SCHEHERAZADE
Cavalleria rusticana has often been performed in a so-called Cav/Pag double-bill with which opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo?
PAGLIACCI
The Holst Birthplace Museum is in which English town where the composer was born in 1874?
CHELTENHAM
What name is shared by Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6?
PATHETIQUE
Façade and Belshazzar’s Feast are among the best known works of which composer who was born in Oldham in 1928 and died on the Italian island of Ischia in 1983?
WILLIAM WALTON
The Polovtsian Dances form a scene at the end of Act II of which opera by Alexander Borodin?
PRINCE IGOR
The works of which composer are categorized by D numbers after Otto Deutsch who compiled a numbered list of all his compositions?
FRANZ SCHUBERT
In which German city was Beethoven born in 1770?
BONN
Who composed the ‘Portrait Trilogy’ of operas (Satyagraha Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten) between 1975 and 1983?
PHILIP GLASS
Which opera which was unfinished at the time of Puccini’s death contains the aria Nessun Dorma which is sung by Calaf?
TURANDOT
What is the name of Symphony No.41 in C major the longest and last symphony that Mozart composed?
JUPITER
Which opera by Benjamin Britten is based on a novel of the same name by Herman Melville and is set during the French Revolutionary Wars?
BILLY BUDD
Which composer’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major is often called the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ because it requires a very large orchestra?
GUSTAV MAHLER
La Donna e Mobile is sung by the Duke of Mantua in which opera by Verdi?
RIGOLETTO
Which work of 1899 did Edward Elgar dedicate “to my friends pictured within”?
ENIGMA VARIATIONS
One of the group known as ‘The Five’ or ‘The Mighty Five’ who composed the opera Khovanshchina which was unfinished when he died in 1881?
MODEST MUSSORGSKY
Clair de Lune is the third movement of which piano suite by Claude Debussy?
SUITE BERGAMASQUE
The Hoboken catalogue which includes over 750 entries is a catalogue of the musical compositions by which composer?
JOSEPH HAYDN
By what name is Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 known? It was composed in 1830 in honour of the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession.
REFORMATION
Who composed the symphonic poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice which appears in the Walt Disney 1940 animated film Fantasia?
PAUL DUKAS
What nationality is Arvo Pärt who has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique tintinnabuli since the 1970s?
ESTONIAN
What is the name of Carmen’s lover who stabs her to death at the end of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet?
DON JOSE
Which German poet wrote Ode to Joy which is best known for its use by Beethoven in the final movement of his Symphony No. 9 in D minor also known as the ‘Choral’?
FRIEDRICH SCHILLER
The group of six symphonies (No. 82 to No. 87) by Joseph Haydn are collectively named after which European city?
PARIS
Who was the only female member of the group of composers known as Les Six?
GERMAINE TAILLEFERRE
The signature tune for the European Broadcasting Union heard in the opening credits of the Eurovision Song Contest is a prelude to the hymn Te Deum by which French baroque composer?
MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER
Who is best known for his orchestral ‘Roman trilogy’: Fountains of Rome Pines of Rome and Roman Festivals?
OTTORINO RESPIGHI
Which Austrian composer developed the twelve-tone technique a method of manipulating an ordered series of all twelve notes in the chromatic scale?
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
Who composed Funeral March of a Marionette in 1872 which is best known as the theme music for the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents?
CHARLES GOUNOD
Which opera by John Adams centres on key players in the Manhattan Project especially Robert Oppenheimer?
DOCTOR ATOMIC
Often quoted as becoming Britain’s first millionaire composer who composed In A Monastery Garden which sold over a million copies?
ALBERT KETELBEY
Which animals are represented in the fourth movement of The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens where the strings play a slow rendition of the ‘Galop infernal’ (the Can-can) from Offenbach’s operetta Orpheus in the Underworld?
TORTOISES
Who composed the 1829 opera La muette de Portici which is generally regarded as the earliest French grand opera?
DANIEL AUBER
Turbulent Landscapes and Simon Bolivar are works by which female composer who was born in Scotland but has lived in the United States since 1972?
THEA MUSGRAVE
Which piano piece by Edvard Grieg was written in 1896 as a memorial of the 25th wedding anniversary of Grieg and his wife Nina?
WEDDING DAY AT TROLDHAUGEN
Which French-born composer coined the term “organized sound” in reference to his own musical aesthetic?
EDGARD VARESE
