I Say, You Say: Musical Works And Their Composers Quiz

Answer: Ludwig van Beethoven

In truth, "Ode to Joy" only refers to the exuberant last movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, nicknamed the "Choral Symphony". This musical setting of Friedrich Schiller's 19th century poem has been adopted as the European Anthem since 1972.

Answer: John Cage

Arguably the easiest piece ever written for the piano, John Cage's controversial composition is nevertheless a nerve-wracking work to perform. The pianist is required to sit at the piano, stopwatch in hand, for the precise duration of four minutes and thirty-three seconds before an increasingly bewildered and/or restless audience.

John Cage was attempting to make the point that "there was no such thing as silence"; no one was thus enlightened at the work's premiere in 1952, however, and many walked out in the midst of the performance.

Answer: Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky's neoclassical work "Pulcinella" draws much of its musical material from Baroque works by composers such as Giovanni Pergolesi. However, Stravinsky's treatment of the music with its unresolved dissonances and unconventional instrumentation is uniquely 20th century. Originally written as a ballet in the 1920s, Stravinsky later reworked the music into an instrumental suite.

Answer: Gustav Mahler

A grand total of two full choirs, a children's choir, eight soloists, an organ, piano, two harps and a greatly expanded orchestra is required to perform Mahler's Symphony No. 8. The actual number of performers can range from eight hundred to over a thousand.

Answer: Carl Orff

Of all the twenty-four movements of this cantata, "O Fortuna" is the most well known and it has been used extensively for dramatic effect in scenes from movies such as "Hunt for the Red October" and "Excalibur". The English football club West Bromwich Albion also broadcasts "O Fortuna" prior to kick off at their home stadium.

Answer: Arnold Schoenberg

This atmospheric atonal work features the "Sprechstimme" style of singing. Literally translated from German as "speech-voice", this mode of singing involves speaking, rather than singing, approximate pitches.

Answer: Felix Mendelssohn

Written for the piano, this set of 48 pieces may have derived their name from the mellifluous melodies they contain. Individual pieces were dedicated to Fanny Mendelssohn, his sister, and the famed pianist Clara Schumann, wife of fellow composer Robert Schumann.

Answer: George Frideric Handel

Handel successfully used a technique known as "word painting" in this English oratorio, meaning that the music reflected the meaning of the words sung. For example, the notes set to words like "low" or "earth" were lower in pitch than the notes set to words like "high" and "heaven". The images of angels and the fluttering of their wings in "And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them" were also convincingly conveyed by delicate arpeggios in the violin part.

The most famous section of "Messiah" is probably the "Hallelujah" chorus.

Answer: Georges Bizet

When it first premiered in 1875, this opera was thought to be terribly immoral. Sadly, Bizet died three months after its premiere, too soon to see its subsequent popularity in England three years later. Today, "Carmen" is one of the best received operas ever written.

Answer: Giuseppe Verdi

Adapted from "La Dame aux Camelias", written by Alexandre Dumas fils, this tragic opera follows the ill-fated love affair between a consumptive courtesan (Violetta) and a young aristocrat (Alfredo) with wild oats to sow. Like "Carmen", "La Traviata" was not well-received at its premiere. Verdi blamed, among others, the obese soprano who played Violetta - in his words, "[she] failed to understand his music".

Of course, many also thought that the corpulent soloist could not convincingly play a courtesan on the verge of death.

Answer: Joseph Hadyn

Hadyn's Symphony No. 94 gets its nickname from the unanticipated fortissimo chord in the otherwise slow and uneventful second movement.

Answer: John Dowland

This lovely Renaissance lute song was published in John Dowland's "First Book of Songs" in 1597. According to early music musicologist Robert Spencer, "The poem appears to be written on behalf of the Earl of Essex as a plea to Queen Elizabeth herself. Such open, face-to-face complaint was acceptable in robust Elizabethan society, particularly if wrapped in the soft clothing of music."

Modern interpretations of this lute song include Sting's rendition in his 2006 album "Songs from the Labyrinth". Needless to say, this crossover was not viewed favorably by most purists.

Answer: George Gershwin

The expansive clarinet solo at the beginning of this work, which consists of a low trill succeeded by a glorious glissando, is one of the most famous musical phrases known today.

Famous works by the other three composers include "West Side Story" by Bernstein, "Appalachian Spring" by Copland, and "Three Places in New England" by Ives.

Answer: Claude Debussy

Debussy dedicated this suite of piano pieces to his beloved daughter "Chou-chou", who only outlived him by little more than a year. The other three composers included here also wrote works geared towards children: Prokofiev composed "Peter and the Wolf", Britten created "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", and Schumann wrote the delightful "Kinderszenen", or "Scenes from a Childhood".

Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Literally translated as "A Little Night-music", Mozart's Serenade No. 13 in G major is perhaps one of the most identifiable string works ever written.