Louis Spohr, an Undeservedly Obscure Composer Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Louis Spohr is counted among the early Romantic composers, though his career overlapped with Beethoven. In what year was he born?

Answer: 1784

Spohr was born in 1784 in Braunschweig (Brunswick) and died in 1859 in Kassel. His birth name was Ludewig, but he later preferred the French version. As a young man he was friendly with Beethoven, but he was critical of the Ninth Symphony and other late works.

2. What innovation in musical performance is Louis Spohr often credited with?

Answer: Conducting with a baton

Spohr was at least one of the first to conduct with a baton, and he claimed it as his innovation. Earlier conductors might use their bare hands or a staff. Spohr conducted with a violin bow before adopting the baton. Withholding applause till the end of a symphony is a relatively modern custom; performers in the early 19th Century were happy to be applauded at any time, even in the middle of a piece. Spohr disliked excessive vibrato, and musicians didn't agree on 440 Hertz as the standard frequency for A above middle C till the 20th century.

3. Louis Spohr's Fourth Symphony had an unusual structure and may have been his most popular one. What was its title?

Answer: The Consecration of Tone

Spohr gave his Fourth Symphony the title "Die Weihe der T�ne" ("The Consecration of Tone"), after a poem of the same title by Carl Pfeiffer. It ends with a funeral march and "consolation in tears." The "Historical" Symphony was Spohr's sixth, the "Pathetique" Symphony was Tchaikovsky's sixth, and the "Symphony of a Thousand" was Mahler's eighth.

4. Louis Spohr was so famous a composer in the 19th Century that Gilbert and Sullivan mentioned him alongside Bach and Beethoven in one of their operas, though they seemed to suggest his music was a punishment. Which opera was it?

Answer: The Mikado

In his song about making "the punishment fit the crime," the eponymous Mikado includes this penalty: "The music-hall singer attends a series / Of masses and fugues and 'ops' / By Bach, interwoven / With Spohr and Beethoven / At classical Monday Pops." OK, he made listening to Spohr a punishment, but he put him in the highest company!

5. Louis Spohr's wife Dorette was herself a notable musician. The two of them often performed as a duo, with Louis on the violin, playing works which he wrote. What instrument did Dorette play?

Answer: Harp

Dorette Spohr, Louis's first wife, was an outstanding harp player, and Louis wrote several works for violin and harp, which they performed together. Her instrument was the older single-action harp, which couldn't easily play in all keys, so sometimes he wrote works with the violin and harp parts in different keys, and the violin would be tuned to bring them into the same key.

6. Louis Spohr's "Historical Symphony" imitates the styles of several earlier composers, whose names are given in the titles of the movements. Who was NOT one of the composers included?

Answer: Rossini

The first movement of Spohr's Sixth Symphony, the "Historical," is titled "Bach-Handel Period" and imitates the Baroque style. The second, titled "Haydn-Mozart Period," follows the early Classical style, and the third, "Beethoven Period," imitates a Beethoven scherzo. The last movement, called "Very Latest Period," is a noisy piece that may have been intended as satire.

7. What tragedy did Louis Spohr experience in 1834, which may have reduced the quality of his later music?

Answer: The death of his wife Dorette

Dorette Spohr died in 1834, devastating him. From a professional standpoint, she gave him not just encouragement but valuable criticism, as well as performing with him in concerts. Spohr remarried, but his new wife Marianne couldn't give him feedback of the same quality. To make things worse, his daughter Therese died in 1838.

Much of Spohr's later music is considered less inspired than his earlier compositions, and the loss of Dorette may have been one reason.

8. Louis Spohr wrote an opera called "Faust."

Answer: True

The story of Faust, who supposedly sold his soul to the Devil, fascinated many nineteenth-century composers, including Berlioz, Liszt, Gounod, Boito, and Spohr. Unlike Gounod's more famous opera, Spohr's "Faust" doesn't stick closely to Goethe's version of the story, relying instead on less familiar sources.

He had trouble getting it produced at first, but later it became a major success.

9. With which of these cities is Louis Spohr most closely identified?

Answer: Kassel

In 1822 Spohr became Hofkapellmeister (music director) in Kassel under the Elector of Hesse. He lived there till the end of his life in 1859. The city has a prominent statue of him, showing him conducting. Before that his residences included Gotha, Vienna, and Frankfurt.

10. Like Mozart, Louis Spohr began a sacred work late in his life but didn't complete it. It used the same Latin text as Mozart's unfinished work. What was the name of the planned composition?

Answer: Requiem

Spohr began a Requiem toward the end of his life. Unlike Mozart, whose work was cut off by his death, Spohr was unsatisfied with his progress and abandoned the composition. He wrote one Mass, which he completed, but never used the grander title "Missa Solemnis." Mozart set the "Ave Verum Corpus" text to music, but Spohr didn't. Spohr wrote a German-language oratorio called "Die letzten Dinge" (The Last Judgment), which he completed and is still performed occasionally.

Source: Author madfilkentist

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
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Do you know Louis Spohr's music? Don't feel bad if you don't; he was famous in his time but rather obscure today, even among classical music devotees. If you know about him, show off your expertise here. If not, I hope this will get you interested.

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