Bmrsnr's First Common Bond Trivia Quiz

Answer: Deafness

Otosclerosis is an abnormal grown of bone in the middle ear and will lead in most cases to conductive hearing loss in which sound waves are not properly interpreted by the ear. It is estimated that one in every two hundred people will develop Otosclerosis at some point in their lifetime.

Answer: Nine

The highest of the single digit integers, nine is also the number of innings in a regulation baseball game. It's the atomic number of fluorine, the jersey number of Spurs guard Tony Parker, and the number of circles in hell according to Dante's "Divine Comedy".

Answer: Friedrich Schiller

One of the most influential German voices of his time, Schiller's plays were were set as operas by the Italian greats Verdi, Rossini, and Donizetti. Schiller, along with Goethe, Lenz, and Herder are some of the prime examples of the Sturm und Drang literary movement which was highlighted by the expression of emotional extremes.

Answer: Vienna

Though Schnitzel is a popular dish throughout the world, Wiener Schnitzel is literally Viennese Schnitzel and is always made with veal as per Austrian Law. The American fast food outlet Wienerschnitzel is, sadly, not an American distributor of the delectable dish, but a hot dog vendor.

Answer: Haydn

Secure in his employment, Haydn was often free to write what he wanted and often indulged in his own brand of musical jokes. A highly prolific composer, Haydn composed over one hundred symphonies and almost seventy string quartets.

Answer: Moonlight

Starring Alex O'Loughlin, Moonlight focuses on a private investigator who also happened to be a vampire. Though viewership was initially strong, poor reviews coupled with the 2007-2008 Writer's Guild strike eventually doomed the series.

Answer: Bonn

With a population of just over 300,000, Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. In addition to being the capital of West Germany, it was also the seat of the unified German government until 1999 when all of the government institutions were moved to Berlin.

Answer: Napoleon

In actuality, Napoleon actually stood about 5' 7" which was average for the time period. Misconceptions about his height stem from differences in French and British measurement systems and from British propaganda.

Answer: Liver

The liver is also the largest gland in the body. Jaundice, a common ailment among newborns, is a yellow discoloration of the skin is related to a number of liver diseases.

Answer: Ludwig van Beethoven

One of the seminal figures in western art music, Beethoven in largely considered with Mozart and Bach to be among the most important composers of the last three centuries.

Here's how the above answers all relate to Beethoven.

1. Beethoven was afflicted with deafness midway through his career, eventually degenerating to complete loss of hearing. Despite this, he continued to compose and even conduct his own work.

2. Nine relates to both the number of symphonies Beethoven composed and to the number of what many consider to be his greatest work, his ninth symphony. A superstition called the "curse of the ninth" gradually developed about the ninth symphony in which composers avoided writing one fearing that it would lead to their death.

3. Friedrich Schiller, in addition to the previously mentioned body of work wrote the poem "An die Freude" which Beethoven set to music in the final movement of his ninth symphony. Interestingly, in 1989 Leonard Bernstein conducted a stirring presentation of Beethoven's ninth symphony a the celebration of the Berlin Wall's destruction in which the word Freude (joy) was changed to Freiheit (freedom). That performance remains one of my favorites to this day.

4. In his early twenties, Beethoven moved to Vienna to make his mark in the musical capital of Europe. He also died and was buried there.

5. While in Vienna, Beethoven studied piano performance and counterpoint with Haydn.

6. One of his most famous and recognizable compositions, Beethoven's piano sonata number 14 in C-sharp minor was completed in 1801. The "Moonlight Sonata" moniker was not added until 1832 when music critic Ludwig Rellstab compared the first movement to the moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne.

7. Bonn was the location of Beethoven's birth and his earliest music training. Beethoven would relocate temporarily to Vienna in 1787 and then permanently in 1792.

8. Napoleon was the originally planned dedicatee of Beethoven's third symphony Though monetary considerations led him to abandon the idea, he still planned to name it "Bonaparte" in admiration of the ideals of the French Revolution. Beethoven changed the title to "Eroica" after Napoleon was made emperor of France.

9. Beethoven is widely believed to have died due to complications of liver failure. Misunderstandings about the condition at the time led to treatments that most likely hastened his death. Beethoven passed on April 26, 1827.

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