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Bach Johann Sebastian Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
Bach Johann Sebastian Quizzes, Trivia

Johann Sebastian Bach Trivia

Johann Sebastian Bach Trivia Quizzes

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Fun Trivia
5 quizzes and 50 trivia questions.
1.
  Johann Sebastian Bach    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This quiz is about J.S. Bach, one of the most famous composers of the Baroque.
Average, 10 Qns, Schabrakentapir, Nov 15 21
Average
Schabrakentapir
Nov 15 21
3428 plays
2.
  I'll Be Bach!    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This quiz is about the 18th century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. If you haven't heard of him, I hope this quiz will be a good introduction to the man and his works.
Average, 10 Qns, AlexxSchneider, Nov 15 21
Average
AlexxSchneider gold member
Nov 15 21
519 plays
3.
  A Musical Offering   best quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This quiz is about Bach's famous but not-very-often-heard set of pieces, called the "Musical Offering". I think it's one of the best sets of pieces ever written.
Tough, 10 Qns, Arpeggionist, Nov 15 21
Tough
Arpeggionist
Nov 15 21
633 plays
4.
  J.S. Bach and his Cantatas   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
You will not need to know the titles of any specific cantatas to play this quiz about Bach's huge output in this genre.
Tough, 10 Qns, jbuck919, Nov 15 21
Tough
jbuck919
Nov 15 21
734 plays
5.
  Thinking Outside the Bachs    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This quiz is dedicated to the famous 17th century musician J. S. Bach.
Average, 10 Qns, meguma, Nov 15 21
Average
meguma
Nov 15 21
374 plays
trivia question Quick Question
"In the Beginning" is an exciting choral work by this American composer, also known for "Rodeo", "Billy the Kid", and "Appalachian Spring".

From Quiz "Great Choral Music"




Related Topics
  Classical Music [Music] (181 quizzes)


Johann Sebastian Bach Trivia Questions
1. J. S. Bach fathered how many children?

From Quiz Thinking Outside the Bachs

Answer: 20

J. S. Bach fathered seven children with his first wife (Maria Barbara Bach), and thirteen children with his second wife (Anna Magdalena Wilcke). Only half of his twenty children reached adulthood.

2. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy Sachsen-Eisenach (English: Saxe-Eisenach), which actually no longer exists. Which modern German province was Sachsen-Eisenach a part of?

From Quiz I'll Be Bach!

Answer: Thüringen (Thuringia)

Bach was the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, who taught him to play harpsichord and violin, and he had many other musical relatives.

3. In which country was J.S. Bach born?

From Quiz Johann Sebastian Bach

Answer: Germany

Bach was born 1685 in Eisenach, which is in Thüringen, Germany.

4. How was Bach related to his first wife, Maria Barbara?

From Quiz I'll Be Bach!

Answer: They were second cousins.

Bach and Maria had seven children, four of whom survived into adulthood. Of those four, two became important composers, carrying on the family tradition. Bach was not present when Maria died: he was at the Carlsbad spa with Duke Köthen (also known as Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen), his employer, and returned to find his wife had died and been buried.

5. Approximately how many cantatas did Bach compose?

From Quiz J.S. Bach and his Cantatas

Answer: More than 200

For a period of several years, Bach produced nearly one cantata every week. It can be stated without fear of contradiction that they constitute the densest production of masterly music of all time.

6. For whom did Bach write the "Musical Offering"?

From Quiz A Musical Offering

Answer: King Frederick the Great

By the time Bach wrote the piece in 1747, Duke Georg had already assumed the English throne as King George I.

7. J. S. Bach composed during which European musical period?

From Quiz Thinking Outside the Bachs

Answer: Baroque

J. S. Bach is considered the archetypal Baroque composer and produced a staggering 1,127 compositions.

8. Which work of Bach's was his final work, published posthumously, and unfinished?

From Quiz I'll Be Bach!

Answer: The Art of Fugue & Art of Fugue & Art Fugue & The Art of the Fugue& Art of the fugue

It's actually been determined by handwriting analysis that this work was written in the 1740s, several years before Bach's death in 1750. The first known surviving manuscript actually bears the title "Die Kunst der Fuga", which was added by Bach's son-in-law. The correct German for the title "The Art of Fugue" is actually "Die Kunst der Fuge".

9. Most of Bach's cantatas were produced while he was the chief musician in which German city?

From Quiz J.S. Bach and his Cantatas

Answer: Leipzig

Though Bach produced some cantatas earlier in his career, the vast majority of them were written while he was Director Musices (Director of Music) in this theocratic Lutheran city.

10. How many children did J.S. Bach have?

From Quiz Johann Sebastian Bach

Answer: 20

Hard to believe, but that is the truth. With his first wife, Maria Barbara Bach, he had seven children, and his second wife, Anna Madgalena Bach, bore 13 children.

11. Bach's second wife was called Anna Magdalena Wilcke, whom he married after his first wife, the mother of his first seven children, died. He and Anna had 13 children together. How many survived into adulthood?

From Quiz I'll Be Bach!

Answer: six

Yes, this does mean that Bach had 20 children! The 13 children included three Johanns, a Johanna, two Christianas, a Christian, and two Reginas! His wife Anna was a soprano, and 17 years younger than he was. He married her seventeen months after his first wife died.

12. Bach was responsible for the music at several churches in that city, but which was by far the most important?

From Quiz J.S. Bach and his Cantatas

Answer: St. Thomas

St. Thomas, already quite old in the time of Bach, was the largest and most important church in Leipzig. He was also responsible for the music at the churches of St. Nicholas and St. Peter.

13. It is known that the dedicatee introduced Bach to a rather large collection of pianos. But what was this nobleman's instrument?

From Quiz A Musical Offering

Answer: Flute

In those days, the violin and the organ were considered by far the leading instruments, the most important, and the most popular. Most composers also played the harpsichord and sang. The piano had not yet gained the importance and popularity it has today (it had only been invented 40 years before). King Frederick's father never approved of his son's interest in music, but when Frederick assumed the throne, he not only took up the flute again (that having been his instrument), but he also hired an orchestra of musicians, headed by one of Bach's sons.

14. What does his (quite short) last name mean, translated into English?

From Quiz Johann Sebastian Bach

Answer: stream

"Not 'Bach' (brook or stream), but 'Sea', should be his name", said Ludwig van Beethoven about Bach, himself being also a great composer.

15. J. S. Bach was born on March 31, 1685 in what German city?

From Quiz Thinking Outside the Bachs

Answer: Eisenach

Eisenach is close to the exact center of modern Germany and hosts a museum dedicated to J. S. Bach.

16. Which style of classical music did Bach compose?

From Quiz I'll Be Bach!

Answer: Baroque

If you know your music style periods well, then you'd realize that Bach died well before the Romantic or Contemporary periods! The Baroque period lasted approximately from 1600 to 1750. The name comes from the Portuguese "barroco" which means "misshapen pearl". Also, the art form was named before the music style!

17. Tunes of German hymns, or chorales, occur not only in four-part settings but in other contexts where they are set against independent instrumental or vocal forces. What is this technique called?

From Quiz J.S. Bach and his Cantatas

Answer: cantus firmus

The cantus firmus technique dates back to the very earliest days of polyphonic music. In many of Bach's cantatas, the opening chorus includes the chorale melody complete in one voice while the other voices and instruments pursue the main concerted idea of the movement. An obbligato is a solo instrumental line in a vocal movement, a ritornello is the "returning" musical idea that occurs between phrases of a vocal movement, and continuo refers to the harmonic continuity maintained by the constant accompaniment of all movements with organ/harpsichord and cello/double bass.

18. The music proper: what is the first piece in the set?

From Quiz A Musical Offering

Answer: Three-part Ricercar

The one thing Bach did not write for King Frederick was a concerto for his instrument. The first thing he offered in the Musical Offering was a three-part fugue or "ricercar" that he'd improvized on one of the king's pianos.

19. What is true of J. S. Bach's first wife?

From Quiz Thinking Outside the Bachs

Answer: she was his second cousin

J. S. Bach's first wife was Maria Barbara Bach, who was the daughter of Johann Michael Bach, his father-in-law.

20. In which town was Bach appointed to the prestigious post of Cantor of Thomasschule, and Director of Music in the churches of the town?

From Quiz I'll Be Bach!

Answer: Leipzig

Although Bach lived for many years in Weimar, he acquired the post of Cantor in Leipzig, where he spent the remainder of his life. He held the post until he died, 27 years later. This job included teaching the students to sing, and was a very creative time for Bach, in which he wrote 5 annual cantatas in his first 6 years there!

21. Bach wrote both cantatas and motets. What is the main difference?

From Quiz J.S. Bach and his Cantatas

Answer: Instruments were used in the motets only for doubling the voices.

The cantatas were written mostly for Sunday services, while the motets, though also religious in nature, were for special occasions such as important funerals. Because the motets rely on instruments only to double the parts, they are sometimes sung a capella.

22. The puzzles: how many are there?

From Quiz A Musical Offering

Answer: 5 & Five

These five were really the important part of the work. There are four more canons in the set, but those were not meant as musical puzzles for the king.

23. What caused J. S. Bach's death?

From Quiz Thinking Outside the Bachs

Answer: complications from surgery

J. S. Bach became increasingly blind in his later years and tried to correct his vision with surgery. This unsuccessful operation proved fatal.

24. Two of Bach's puzzles have a Latin inscription accompanying them, the first is number 4 in the manuscript: "Notulis crescentibus crescat Fortuna Regis." What does this enigmatic phrase mean?

From Quiz A Musical Offering

Answer: May the fortune of the King grow as does the length of the notes.

Bach had a lot of respect for the nobility.

25. About Bach's life: Where did Bach NOT work as a musician:

From Quiz Johann Sebastian Bach

Answer: Heidelberg

He was first an organist in Arnstadt/Mühlhausen, then he went to Weimar (as an organist),in Köthen he was director of music and since 1723 he was 'Thomaskantor' in Leipzig.

26. The first complete edition of Bach's works in the 19th century chose what method for numbering the cantatas?

From Quiz J.S. Bach and his Cantatas

Answer: They were arbitrarily given the first numbers in the edition.

Apparently the editors at the Bach Gesellschaft (Bach Society) who produced the Bach Werk Verzeichniss (BWV--Catalog of the Works of Bach), just grabbed up cantatas in convenient bunches according to the availability of manuscripts. Thus BWV 3 (Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein--Lord God, look down from heaven) was written much later than BWV 4 (Christ lag in Todesbanden--Christ lay in death's bonds). The correct ordering of the cantatas was only undertaken as a scholarly project in the second half of the 20th century.

27. The last of Bach's puzzles in the Musical Offering is inscribed: "Ascendenteque Modulatione ascendat Gloria Regis." What does this mean?

From Quiz A Musical Offering

Answer: May the King's glory rise as the modulations [of this music] rise.

In a nice tribute to King Frederick, Bach wrote one of his puzzles as a perpetual modulation of key, always rising in pitch.

28. When Bach went from one of his working places to another in 1717, what kind of 'present' did the former employer give him?

From Quiz Johann Sebastian Bach

Answer: He put him into prison, because he didn't want to let him go.

Bach was in prison from Nov 6th until Dec 2nd; there he wrote his famous 'Orgelbüchlein', a learning book for the organ.

29. What is the S. in J. S. Bach?

From Quiz Thinking Outside the Bachs

Answer: Sebastian

Sebastian. The other names are of famous Romantic and Classical Period composers.

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