A Composer By Any Other Name Trivia Quiz

Answer: Verdi

This is of course Giuseppe (actually Fortunino Francesco) Verdi (Giuseppe=Joseph and Verdi=green [ones]) in Italian. He was born in Le Roncole, near Bussetto, Parma, in 1813, and died in Milan in 1901. Son of a poor innkeeper, he had to be taught by a local organist. A music loving local grocer recognized his musical ability and offered to pay for his studies at the Milan Conservatory, but he was not admitted because of his poor piano skills. He studied privately in Milan for 2 years, then returned to Bussetto to continue his studies, becoming the town's music director. By the way, he married the grocer's daughter.

'Joe Green' is quite famous as an opera composer, having given us "Rigoletto", "Un ballo in maschera", "Nabucco", "Falstaff", "Otello" (thus the Iago in the question), "Macbeth", "Aida", "La traviata", and "il trovatore", among many others. But he also composed several songs, choral works (including a Requiem), and one string quartet (n E Minor).

Answer: Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (Johann=John and Bach=brook in German) is the composer and organist in question here. This composer and organist was born in Eisenach in 1685 and died in Leipzig in 1750. He was the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, organist and town musician. Orphaned at the age of 10, Bach went to live with his elder brother Johann Christoph at Ohrdruf, where he had Klavier and organ lessons. He married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach in 1707.

Appointed Kapellmeister at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen in 1717, the composer's violin concertos, sonatas, suites, and Brandenburg concertos were from this period, since his prince employer's interest was not in religious but instrumental music. When his wife died in 1720, he married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, 20-year old daughter of the court trumpeter, in Dec. of 1721. Bach then applied for the cantorship at St. Thomas's in Leipzig a year later, eventually being appointed in May 1723 when the chosen candidate withdrew.

Bach was quite prolific (musically and reproductively) and is known for virtuousic music, whether it is played on an instrument or sung by the human voice. One cannot play or sing Bach without executing some kind of (long, drawn out) scale. Hundreds of his work, including chorale preludes, cantatas, oratorios (and passions), and chamber music are still played today.

Answer: Leoncavallo

Ruggiero (Roger in Italian) Leoncavallo (leon=lion; cavallo=horse) was born in Naples in 1857 and died in Montecatini in 1919. He is most famous for his opera "I pagliacci," hence the reference to clowns in the question. He was unfortunate, however, in having also composed "La Bohème" 15 months after Puccini's; his apparently did not hold up well in comparing the two.

Answer: Bellini

Vincenzo (=Vincent in Italian) Bellini (=small beautiful people/ones) was born in Catania, Sicily in 1801 and died in Puteaux, near Paris, in 1835. He was educated at the San Sebastiano Conservatory in Naples. The performance of his first opera "Adelson e Salvina" at the conservatory in 1825 led to a commission from San Carlo in Naples, which in turn led to a commision from La Scala in Milan, resulting in "Il Pirata", a showpiece for the expressive lyrical style of the tenor Giovanni-Battista Rubini. The opera was then produced in Paris, sparking Bellini's fame outside of Italy.

Bellini's vocal style requires excellent legato in combination with fioritura (agility); in other words, one has to be a great singing technician to be able to sing Bellini. His most famous opera is "Norma", whose "Casta Diva" has been made famous by Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland. He is also known for his "Romeo and Juliet" adaptation - "I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (the Capulets and the Montagues)", "La sonnambula", "I puritani", and "Beatrice di Tenda", among others. He also composed songs (which bear striking similarity to his arias) and some instrumental works.

Answer: Smetana

Bedrich (=Frederick in Czech) Smetana (=cream) is most famous for the opera "The Bartered Bride." He was born in Litomysl in 1824, and died in Prague in 1884. Except for the fact that he lived much longer and did not compose nearly as much music, Smetana could have been another Mozart.

He was already playing in a string quartet by the age of 5, performed a piano recital by 6, and was composing by the time he was 8!

Answer: Strauss

Of course, this is Johann (=John in German) Strauss (=bouquet or nosegay)II, the infamous waltz king. Much like his father (Strauss I), he was an Austrian composer, conductor, and violinist who was born in 1825 and died in 1899 in Vienna. His father did not want any of his children to pursue a musical career [ha ha! His two other sons, Eduard - the youngest, and Josef - the second (Johann was the eldest) were also musicians. Eduard was a conductor as well as composer, while Josef was an architect before he 'came out' as a composer], so Johann worked as a bank clerk, but secretly took violin lessons and studied composition (with Drechsler). He formally appeared as a conductor (of his and his father's waltzes) in 1844.

He turned to composing for the stage in 1871, his most famous operetta being "Die Fledermaus" (The [Revenge of the] Bat). I am sure you have heard "The Blue Danube" and "The Voices of Spring" many times. In addition to operettas and waltzes, he also composed polkas, like his brother Eduard.

Answer: Monteverdi

Claudio (=Claud in Italian) Monteverdi (monte=mountain {actually, it should be monti for the plural form!}; verdi=green, plural) was born in Cremona in 1567, and died in Venice in 1643. At the tender age of 16, when he was already an accomplished organist and viol player, he published some sacred madrigals. He then began his service to the Duke of Mantua as a viol player and madrigal singer. He heard the chamber music of the Florentine Camerata, including Peri's "Euridice" in 1600. His first opera, "La favola d'Orfeo (The Fable of Orpheus)" then followed in 1607, which has the distinction of being the oldest surviving opera to still be performed today.

Though he is better known as an operatic composer, he composed madrigals over a span of 40 years, churning out 8 books in his lifetime, with a ninth published posthumously. He introduced many musical innovations, including chromatic modulations, and some regard him as being to Renaissance music what Shakespeare was to literature.

Answer: Obradors

Fernando (=Ferdinand in Spanish) Obradors (workshops; an e is omitted between the r and s) is the composer this time. He was born in Barcelona in 1897 (and died in 1945), and studied the piano with his mother. He was largely self-taught in harmony, counterpoint, and composition. Obradors is best known for his "Canciones clásicas españolas" (Classical Spanish songs).

Answer: Falla

Manuel (=Emanuel in Spanish) de (=from/of) Falla (=defect/flaw) is the composer here. He was born in Cadiz in 1876, and died in Alta Gracia de Córdoba, Argentina in 1946. He was also taught the piano by his mother, and was taught harmony by 2 local musicians.

He studied composition in Madrid for 3 years with Pedrell, whose doctrine it was that a nation's music should be based on folk song, thus the presence of the spirit of Spanish folk music in most of de Falla's compositions. The hat in the question is in reference to his ballet "El sombrero de tres picos (The Threee-Cornered Hat)".

Not only did de Falla leaves us some memorable zarzuelas (Spanish operatic artform) and ballets, but we also have orchestral and piano works, chamber music, and songs, both choral and solo.

Answer: Boulanger

Nadia and Lili Boulanger (=baker in French) were French sisters who were musically gifted. The elder Nadia, née Juliette, was born in Paris in 1887, and died there in 1979. She is a composer as well as conductor, though she is better known as a highly influential teacher of composition. She has a long list of notable students, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Elliott Carter, and Walter Piston being the American stand-outs. She herself studied with Gabriel Fauré at the Paris Conservatoire, was awarded second prize in the Grand Prix de Rome in 1908 for her cantata "La sireine", and won first prizes in harmony, counterpoint, fugue, organ, and accompanying while a student at the Conservatoire.

Her younger sister Lili, née Juliette Marie Olga, was also born in Paris in 1893, but died way too young in Mézy in 1918. She also studied at the Paris Conservatoire, being the first woman to win the first prize in the Grand Prix de Rome in 1913. Her composition career was constantly being interrupted by poor health, but her writings include 2 psalms with orchestra, 2 symphonic poems, and music for Maurice Maeterlinck's play "Princesse Maleine".