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Nasty Quotes About Composers Trivia Quiz

Composers have never had an easy life. When not starving, they are faced with scorn and ridicule, even by other composers. Here are some questions based upon some specific criticisms even the greatest of composers had to face.

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

Author
fdgla

Time
3 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
107,334

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Easy

Avg Score
8 / 10

Plays
1446

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. After the premiere of "La Boheme", a reviewer said that "even as it leaves little impression in the minds of the audience, it will leave no great trace upon the history of our lyric theatre." Name the composer on the receiving end of this less than perceptive criticism. Hint

Pietro Mascagni

Giacomo Puccini

Giuseppe Verdi

Gian-Carlo Menotti

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Question 2 of 10

2. Typical of Mark Twain's acerbic wit was his comment that this composer's music "wasn't as bad as it sounds." Hint

Hector Berlioz

Richard Wagner

Johannes Brahms

Franz Liszt

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Question 3 of 10

3. After Stravinsky's opera "The Rake's Progress" appeared, this composer wrote "I like it very much. Everything but the music." Name the composer in question, who wrote such works as "Peter Grimes" and "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra." Hint

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Benjamin Britten

Thomas Arne

Aaron Copland

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Question 4 of 10

4. Camille Saint-Saens, while very popular in his time, did not meet with the approval of everyone. Which compatriot composer, who wrote "Bolero" and "Rhapsodie Espagnole", said the following about Saint-Saens: "If he'd been making shell-cases during the war it might have been better for music." Hint

Claude Debussy

Francis Poulenc

Erik Satie

Maurice Ravel

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Question 5 of 10

5. Richard Strauss said of this great innovator of the twelve-tone technique of composition that "He'd be better off shoveling snow." Hint

Alban Berg

Arnold Schoenberg

Anton Webern

Max Steiner

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Question 6 of 10

6. Eduard Hanslick, an influential music critic of the nineteenth century, missed the mark when he wrote of this composer's Violin Concerto: "It brings us face to face for the first time with the revolting thought: may there not also exist musical compositions that we can hear stink?" Thankfully, this composer did not take it to heart and went on to write such works as the "1812 Overture" and the "Pathetique" symphony. Hint

Alexander Borodin

Alexander Scriabin

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky

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Question 7 of 10

7. "Too many notes" was the judgment of which emperor after a performance of Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio"? Hint

Napoleon Bonaparte

Joseph II

Maximilian

Victor Emmanuel II

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Question 8 of 10

8. The English conductor Thomas Beecham wrote that this composer's last quartets "were written by a deaf man and should only be listened to by a deaf man." Which composer was Sir Thomas referring to?

Hint

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Antonio Salieri

Franz Joseph Haydn

Franz Schubert

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Question 9 of 10

9. Tchaikovsky said of this composer that he "is only fourth rate. He is not even interesting." Name the composer in question, who was responsible for "Messiah" and "Water Music."
Hint

Johann Sebastian Bach

Henry Purcell

George Frideric Handel

Arthur Sullivan

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Question 10 of 10

10. "Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for forty-five minutes." This is attributed to which American composer whose works include "Rodeo", "Billy the Kid", and "Fanfare for the Common Man." Hint

Walter Piston

Alan Hovhaness

George Gershwin

Aaron Copland

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: Giacomo Puccini

Needless to say, the critic in question was slightly wrong. "La Boheme" is one of the most beloved of all operas. Among other Puccini works that failed at their premieres were "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly."

2. Typical of Mark Twain's acerbic wit was his comment that this composer's music "wasn't as bad as it sounds."

Answer: Richard Wagner

Wagner's music was quite revolutionary in its time and met with a great deal of rebuke. Another favorite quote of mine came from Rossini, who said that "One cannot judge Wagner's 'Lohengrin' after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend hearing it a second time."

Answer: Benjamin Britten

Stravinsky, like Wagner, was a true revolutionary and suffered similar criticism. Puccini was present at the world premiere of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" and commented that it was "the work of an idiot."

Answer: Maurice Ravel

One wonders what made Ravel speak so harshly. Saint-Saens, while hardly a genius on the level of a Beethoven or Mozart, is a fine composer. He wrote, among other things, the opera "Samson and Delilah", "Carnival of the Animals" and five utterly charming piano concertos.

5. Richard Strauss said of this great innovator of the twelve-tone technique of composition that "He'd be better off shoveling snow."

Answer: Arnold Schoenberg

One can't imagine two more dissimilar composers than Strauss and Schoenberg. Strauss' works are very melodic and emotional, whereas Schoenberg's pieces are more on the intellectual, atonal side. Regardless of ones opinions about Schoenberg's music, his influence was enormous.

Answer: Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky

It is amazing how wrong a critic could be. Wagner, whose works were also hated by Hanslick, got revenge by basing the narrow-minded, foolish character of Beckmesser in "Die Meistersinger" on him.

7. "Too many notes" was the judgment of which emperor after a performance of Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio"?

Answer: Joseph II

This line was dramatized in the movie "Amadeus." However, far from being the genial buffoon portrayed in the movie, Joseph was an educated, enlightened ruler who was usually very sophisticated in musical matters.

Answer: Ludwig Van Beethoven

One would think that a genius of Beethoven's stature would be immune from such petty insults. No one was safe with Beecham, however, even his own countrymen as he said: "It is quite untrue that British people don't appreciate music. They may not understand it but they absolutely love the noise it makes."

9. Tchaikovsky said of this composer that he "is only fourth rate. He is not even interesting." Name the composer in question, who was responsible for "Messiah" and "Water Music."

Answer: George Frideric Handel

The French composer Berlioz was equally vicious in his appraisal of Handel: "A tub of pork and beer."

Answer: Aaron Copland

I can't vouch for his fifth symphony, but Vaughan Williams produced many fine works such as the "London" symphony, "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" and his excellent "A Sea Symphony."

Source: Author fdgla

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