Keep Your Composer! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German composer best known for his operas and choral compositions. His 1742 piece "Messiah" remains one of his best-known works and very easily identifiable. He was born in 1685 in Prussia and his father was the court barber/surgeon (at that time, the two professions were related). Handel was influenced early on by church music and is said to have practiced on a secret clavichord.

Handel got his big break when he was able to impress Duke Johann Adolf I with his organ playing. The Duke would go on to become Handel's benefactor and sponsor. After studying music in Germany, Handel moved to Italy, and from there to England, where he lived for the rest of his life. In total, Handel composed 42 operas, 25 oratorios, and hundreds of other smaller pieces.

Answer: Liszt

Liszt Ferencz, or as you might better know him as, Franz Liszt, was a Hungarian composer known for his works of the Romantic era of music. He was born in 1811 in Doborján, Hungary, into a very musical family that was well-connected with the Hungarian royal family. Liszt had an ear for music from a young age and a keen hand at the piano. He was also composing basic melodies already from the age of 8. By his tenth birthday, Liszt was already receiving advanced musical tutoring in Vienna from Carl Czerny, a former student of Beethoven and Hummel.

Due to his father's early death, Liszt's family moved to Paris where he stopped touring, started teaching, and kept learning. He met with many important musical figures of the era, many of whom were able to influence his work. Additionally, he began developing and perfecting advanced techniques for playing the piano, something very few people were able to master. Liszt was able to tour around all of Europe with his skill as a pianist and a composer. In his life, he composed around 800 different pieces and is considered a master of the Romantic era.

Answer: Bizet

Alexandre César Léopold Bizet was born in 1838 in Paris, France. Known by and large by his baptismal name, Georges, he lived in a musical household, especially on his mother's side of the family. Learning at the knee of his mother, Bizet was a quick study and had a keen ear. When he started his formal training at the Conservatoire de Paris, he became fast friends with Camille Saint-Saëns. In 1857, Bizet won the prestigious Prix de Rome which allowed him to go to Rome for two years for his studies, Germany for another year, and finally to Paris for two, all five years paid for. For Bizet, this was "a paradise".

Bizet led an interesting life - marriage, revolution, writing music, teaching, but this was sadly all cut short at the age of 36 from an apparent heart attack. A heavy smoker all of his life, suffering from bouts of depression, as well as a nonstop worker, these probably did nothing to help Bizet's health. As a composer, Bizet excelled in orchestration as well as counterpoint, and he was influenced by both the Viennese classical style as well as the then-modern French melodic style. His opera, "Carmen", was surprisingly unconventional for its period, and would become one of the most popular operas in the world years after Bizet's death.

Answer: Pachelbel

Johann Pachelbel was a German composer who was born in Nuremberg (then a free Imperial city) in 1653. He lived through and was an instrumental part of the German Renaissance. He was born into a middle-class family and was educated in music from a young age, especially through the Catholic church. He was so musically gifted that he managed to secure a scholarship for his studies where he excelled. He was exposed to Italian and Viennese music, something that he would incorporate into his later music.

Specializing in organ music, Pachelbel was able to compose and teach music successfully. Much of his music is liturgical, and a good part of it also choral. His work is considered middle Baroque and much of it was not appreciated during Pachelbel's lifetime. Pachelbel's Canon is probably his best-known work, but, it only really became popular in the 1970s.

Answer: Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and the best-known of all of the incredibly talented Bach family. He was born in 1685 in Eisenach, Germany, the youngest child of a well-known musician. He also had very musical uncles, all of whom contributed to Bach's musical education. When his parents passed away when Bach was just 10, he moved in with, and was educated by, his older brother, a church organist.

When Bach graduated from school, he found a job as the court musician for the Duke in Weimar. From there he travelled to Mühlhausen, got married, and came back to Weimar. He also moved to Köthen and finally to Leipzig where he was based for the rest of his years.

Bach's music is very baroque, meaning it is characterized by heavy organs and a heavy feel to it. He had creative harmonies for his period and he was a pioneer of modulation. In total, over a thousand pieces are attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach.

Answer: Ravel

Joseph Maurice Ravel was born in Ciboure, France, into a half-Basque family. His father was a successful inventor who was also interested in music, and he tried to impart this upon Maurice. Music came effortlessly to Ravel and he really began to develop when he attended the Conservatoire de Paris music school. He focused on composition and he joined a group of young bohemian artists that came to be known as Les Apaches.

Maurice Ravel's musical style was labelled as impressionist, though he disliked this label. It is often compared to that of Debussy or Satie, but drew influence from many more sources. Ravel was notorious for not finishing his work, and only has 85 finished pieces but many more that were only partially finished.

Answer: Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn was born in 1732 in Rohrau, Austria, to a family that did not make a living off of music. His father was a wheelwright and the town mayor, and his mother was a cook. Nevertheless, music was always present in the household and Haydn grew up appreciating it. When Haydn's parent found out that he had a musical gift, they sent him off to a relative in Hainburg to develop that skill. From there, Haydn went to Vienna where he was part of the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Despite all of his exposure to music, Haydn did not learn how to compose music (or any music theory for that matter) until he got himself kicked out of the choir and managed to find work as the valet for the Italian composer Nicola Porpora. From there, his career took off. He wrote 108 symphonies, 17 orchestral overtures, 13 operas, and hundreds of other pieces, including Germany's national anthem.

Answer: Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was born in Poland in 1810. His father played violin and flute and his mother played piano and his first formal music teacher was probably Wojciech Żywny. He was quickly identified as a musical prodigy and began performing in Warsaw and then beyond. Since his father came from France, it was only natural for Chopin to move to Paris to continue to improve his music.

He made many connections and had close relationships with several other important composers in that time. Always a sickly person, Chopin's health began to decline, he fell out of favour, and he passed away in 1849.

Answer: Gershwin

Get it? Grrrr-Schwinn!

Ira Gershwin was born in 1896 in New York City and his brother George was born two years later. Though George initially did not show any interest in music, when their parents got Ira a piano to learn on, it ended up being George who used it more often. George ended up dropping out of school to write, perform, and produce music, whereas Ira finished high school but dropped out of CCNY for his musical career.

Some of George Gershwin's notable works include "Blue Monday", "An American in Paris", and "Rhapsody in Blue". The two collaborated on "Funny Face", "Lady, Be Good!", "Porgy and Bess", and "Girl Crazy", amongst others.

Answer: Schumann

Robert and Clara Schumann were both German composers who were both highly influential as Romantic musicians. Robert was born in 1810 in Zwickau, Saxony, and was introduced to music at a very young age. Also interested in literature, Robert wrote and published several essays about the aesthetics of music. Because of family pressure, Robert started training as a lawyer, but a performance by Paganini helped him find his true calling. When he was 22, Robert had travelled to Zwickau to play music and met Clara Wieck for the first time.

Clara Wieck was born in 1819 in Leipzig, Germany, into a very musical family. Due to her parents' divorce, she was raised by her strict father who planned out her life to the smallest details. However, Clara proved to be a musical prodigy and was performing at a young age. She was 13 when she first caught Robert Schumann's ear.

Robert proposed five years later and they married three years after that due to protestations from Clara's father. They worked on music separately and together and were very influential on one another. Unfortunately, Robert Schumann suffered from mental illness (most likely he was manic-depressive and bipolar) and he died in 1856 in a sanitorium.

The couple had eight children together, but, even greater so, their musical legacy was far more influential.