My Country 'Tis Of Thee Trivia Quiz

Answer: Finlandia

The Finnish composer Jan Sibelius (1865-1957) wrote many pieces that are explicitly inspired by the folklore of Finland, including the four "Lemminkäinen Legends" and the choral symphony "Kullervo". "Finlandia" (op 26) is one of his most openly nationalistic works, having been written in 1899 at a time when Finland was still part of the Imperial Russian Empire. "Finlandia" became closely associated with the nationalist movement, and many early performances had to be given under less explicitly patriotic titles to avoid Russian censorship.

Answer: Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks

During the 1880s and 90s, Richard Strauss (1864-1949) wrote several tone poems that helped to cement his reputation as a significant composer of the German "Late Romantic" movement. "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" (op 28) is based on the character of a roguish fourteenth-century German peasant, the subject of a 1515 chapbook, whose often scatological adventures poke fun at figures of authority such as priests and academics. Strauss's piece, while generally light-hearted in tone, ends with a rather gruesome representation of Till's execution by hanging for the crime of blasphemy.

Answer: Three Places in New England

Much of the orchestral music of Charles Ives (1874-1954) is a fascinating combination of avant-garde musical techniques, intermingled with musical quotations from popular American hymns and songs, marching-band tunes, and spirituals. The orchestral suite "Three Places in New England" uses all of these techniques to describe three locations associated with the American Civil War, the War of Independence, and the rural landscape of the Housatonic River in Massachusetts. To this effect, the three movements are entitled:

1. The "St. Gaudens" in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment)
2. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut
3. The Housatonic at Stockbridge

Answer: Má vlast

The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana (1824-64) is often considered to be the "father of Czech music". "Má vlast" ("My fatherland") is a set of six tone poems, each describing in music a feature of Czech legend, history, or geography. Briefly, these are as follows:
"Vysehrad" - a 10th-century castle in Prague, which was at one time the palace of the earliest Czech kings.
"Vltava" - a river which flows through Prague. The piece, which is the best-known of the six, depicts the route of the river from source to the point at which it joins the River Elbe in Germany.
"Sárka" - a legendary female warrior who led a revolt of warrior maidens at some point in the 8th century.
"Z českých luhů a hájů" (From Bohemia's Woods and Fields) - a general portrait of the Czech countryside.
"Tábor" - a city founded by the Hussites in 1420.
"Blaník" - a mountain inside which (according to legend) St Wenceslas and an army of knights lie sleeping, ready to awaken and save the country at times of grave danger.

Answer: Fountains of Rome

The Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) was born and lived in Bologna, before moving to Rome in 1913 to take up a Professorship at the Liceo Musicale di Santa Cecilia. In 1916 he wrote the tone poem "Fontane di Roma" ("Fountains of Rome"), which became internationally popular following a performance in Milan under the famous conductor Arturo Toscanini.
The piece describes in music four famous Roman fountains at different times of the day:
"The Fountain of Valle Giulia at Dawn"
"The Triton Fountain in the Morning"
"The Trevi Fountain at Noon"
"The Villa Medici Fountain at Sunset"
Respighi wrote two further tone poems inspired by the Italian capital: "Pines of Rome" (1924) and "Roman Festivals" (1928). Today, these three are probably his best-known works.

Answer: Cockaigne: In London Town

One of England's greatest composers, Edward Elgar (1857-1934) wrote "Cockaigne" in 1900-01 shortly after the premiere of his first major success, the "Enigma Variations" (1899). Commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, Elgar himself described it in a letter as "cheerful and Londony, stout and steaky: honest, healthy, humorous and strong, but not vulgar".

The word "Cockaigne" originally referred to a mediaeval land of luxurious idleness, but to the English it echoes the name "Cockney" as a term for those born in the East End of London.

Answer: Baba-Yaga

The Russian composer Anatoly Lyadov (1855-1914) wrote his short orchestral tone-poem "Baba-Yaga" in 1891 and revised it in 1904. Baba-Yaga is a well-known character from Russian folklore, usually characterised as an old woman or a witch who lives in a hut with hen's legs and has a pestle and mortar which she uses to fly around the countryside.

She is also the subject of the ninth "picture" from Mussorgsky's 1874 piano suite "Pictures at an Exhibition", which is entitled "The Hut on Fowl's Legs - Baba Yaga".

Answer: Kakadu

Many of the works of the Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe (1929-2014) are inspired by the landscape and Aboriginal culture of Australia. His tone poem "Kakadu", written in 1988, in one of these. It is a musical depiction of the Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia, inspired by not just its landscape but also the culture of the Aboriginal tribes who live there.

A later revision of the score includes recordings of Aboriginal chant and Australian birdsong, and a part for the native wind instrument, the didgeridoo.

Answer: Nights in the Gardens of Spain

The Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) wrote "Noches en los jardines de Espańa" in 1915 while he was living in Madrid, as a piece for piano and orchestra. There are three movements, each depicting a garden in the Andalusian region of Spain, where de Falla had been born. They are titled as follows:
"En el Generalife" (In the Generalife) - the gardens surrounding the Alhambra Palace.
"Danza lejana" (A Distant Dance) - a dance in an unidentified garden.
"En los jardines de la Sierra de Córdoba" (In the Gardens of the Sierra de Córdoba).

Answer: The Land of the Mountain and the Flood

It is likely that the Scottish composer Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916) would be entirely forgotten today, were it not for this lively concert overture, first performed in 1887 at London's Crystal Palace. The title comes from Sir Walter Scott's "The Lay of the Last Minstrel", the relevant stanza of which reads:
"O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of the heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band
That knits me to thy rugged strand!"
MacCunn's overture is a tuneful representation of the Scottish landscape. In the UK at least, it became more widely known in the 1970s when it was used as the theme for a BBC Scotland TV programme entitled "Sutherland's Law", which ran for five series between 1973 and 1976.