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Quiz about Composers of Classic Film Scores

Composers of Classic Film Scores Quiz

When we watch a film we usually aren't aware of all the hard work these composers put into it and of how much their score contributes to the general effect.

A multiple-choice quiz by sauterelle. Estimated time: 3 mins.

Author
sauterelle

Time
3 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
353,746

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
7 / 10

Plays
307

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Who wrote the score for "Gone with the Wind" and "Casablanca"? Hint

Hans Zimmer

Max Steiner

Marvin Hamlisch

Adolph Deutsch

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Question 2 of 10

2. For which film series did John Barry write a lot of music? Hint

Star Wars

The Pink Panther

Indiana Jones

James Bond

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Question 3 of 10

3. Who wrote the music for Hitchcock films like "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "Vertigo", "North by Northwest" and "Psycho"? Hint

Bernard Herrmann

Roy Webb

Franz Waxman

Louis Levy

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Question 4 of 10

4. Which of these films scores was not written by John Williams? Hint

Superman

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Star Wars

Back to the Future

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Question 5 of 10

5. Which father and son were both famous film composers? Hint

Hugo and Leroy Shield

Leonard and Elmer Bernstein

Alfred and Thomas Newman

Henry and Victor Young

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Question 6 of 10

6. Who composed the music for "Lost Horizon", "It's a Wonderful Life", "Strangers on a Train" and "High Noon"? Hint

Dave Grusin

Jerry Goldsmith

Dimitri Tiomkin

Mikl�s R�zsa

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Question 7 of 10

7. For which film about Ancient Rome did Alex North create the score? Hint

Ben-Hur

The Fall of the Roman Empire

Quo Vadis

Spartacus

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Question 8 of 10

8. Who wrote the music for "The Godfather"? Hint

Alan Silvestri

Ennio Morricone

Nino Rota

Armando Trovajoli

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Question 9 of 10

9. For which film with a mute lead character did Michael Nyman write the score? Hint

Ordinary People

Speak

The Spiral Staircase

The Piano

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Question 10 of 10

10. Who wrote the music for "The Pink Panther" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's"? Hint

Maurice Jarre

Dimitri Tiomkin

Henry Mancini

Georges Delerue

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Who wrote the score for "Gone with the Wind" and "Casablanca"?

Answer: Max Steiner

Steiner was an Austrian composer who became an American citizen. He also wrote the music for "King Kong" and "The Big Sleep".

2. For which film series did John Barry write a lot of music?

Answer: James Bond

The composer of the first James Bond film, "Dr. No", was Monty Norman. Barry arranged the James Bond theme, but wasn't credited as composer. He composed the score for eleven James Bond films from 1963 ("From Russia with Love") to 1987 ("The Living Daylights"). Other scores by John Barry are "Body Heat" and "Dances with Wolves".

3. Who wrote the music for Hitchcock films like "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "Vertigo", "North by Northwest" and "Psycho"?

Answer: Bernard Herrmann

His music added suspense to the shower scene in "Psycho". In "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956) he appears on screen as the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall playing Arthur Benjamin's cantata "Storm Clouds". Herrmann also wrote the music for "Citizen Kane" and "Taxi Driver".

4. Which of these films scores was not written by John Williams?

Answer: Back to the Future

The music of "Back to the Future" was written by Alan Silvestri. John Williams wrote the scores for a lot of Steven Spielberg films, including "Jaws", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Hook", "Jurassic Park", "Schindler's List" and the Indiana Jones films.

5. Which father and son were both famous film composers?

Answer: Alfred and Thomas Newman

Alfred Newman wrote the music for "All about Eve", "How the West Was Won" and "How Green Was My Valley". He was nominated for an Academy Award forty-five times, winning nine of them. His son Thomas wrote the score for "The Shawshank Redemption", "American Beauty" and "The Horse Whisperer".

6. Who composed the music for "Lost Horizon", "It's a Wonderful Life", "Strangers on a Train" and "High Noon"?

Answer: Dimitri Tiomkin

Tomkin was a Jewish composer born in 1894 in the Russian Empire, in today's Ukraine. In St. Petersburg he played the piano accompaniment for silent films. After the Russian Revolution he fled to Germany and France. In 1925 he moved to the United States as part of a piano duo.

He performed in the Carnegie Hall, but had to retire as a pianist after breaking his arm. His score for Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon" gave him recognition in Hollywood.

7. For which film about Ancient Rome did Alex North create the score?

Answer: Spartacus

North used antique instruments like the sarrusophone, the Israeli recorder and the Chinese oboe; but also the ondioline, an early electronic instrument. He also wrote the music for "Cleopatra", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and "A Streetcar Named Desire".

8. Who wrote the music for "The Godfather"?

Answer: Nino Rota

Rota was an Italian composer who worked a lot with Fellini, Visconti and Zeffirelli. He wrote the music for "The Godfather" Part I and II.

9. For which film with a mute lead character did Michael Nyman write the score?

Answer: The Piano

Holly Hunter played the mute pianist Ada McGrath in 1993. Nyman is a British composer of minimalist music, an style that emerged in the 1960s in New York as a reaction against the complexity of twentieth century classical music.

10. Who wrote the music for "The Pink Panther" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's"?

Answer: Henry Mancini

Most people can hum two tunes by Henry Mancini: the "Pink Panther Theme" and the "Peter Gunn Theme". He also wrote the score for films like "Touch of Evil", "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Charade".

Source: Author sauterelle

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