Places in Classical Music Trivia Quiz

Answer: Italy

The mood of Berlioz's "Harold in Italy", first performed in 1833, was inspired by the poem by Byron, "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage". Although the form of the work is symphonic, having four movements, it has elements of a concerto for viola. It was commissioned by Paganini who had recently acquired a Stradivarius viola, but in the end it was rejected because it had too many rests - Paganini wanted a piece that involved playing his viola continuously.

Answer: Zlonice

This was actually Dvorak's first symphony, but curiously it was the last to be played, long after the composer's death! Dvorak wrote the piece for a German competition in 1865, but the score was never returned to him. It was thought to be lost, but it turned up in 1923 in the possession of another unrelated Dvorak family and was first performed in Brno in 1936. Dvorak had given the work the name "The Bells of Zlonice" for an unexplained reason, perhaps because it does contain some bell-like passages.

Answer: London

Between 1793 and 1795 Joseph Haydn was residing in London, and during this time he completed his century of symphonies! In fact he wrote five on this visit, numbers 99 to 104. This final one turned out to be his last. It is this one out of the whole batch which is known as "The London Symphony".

Answer: Earth

At a time of great personal stress, the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler read a German translation of classical Chinese poems, and was inspired to set six of them to music in his work "Das Lied von der Erde" (The Song of the Earth). He didn't name it as a symphony, as he had already written eight, and having been diagnosed with a heart defect he was afraid of "the curse of the ninth", a superstition that nobody since Beethoven would live to complete nine symphonies.

This work is for two singers and orchestra, a tenor and an alto (or a baritone) alternating the six movements.

In fact Mahler did write most of a Ninth Symphony, but died before completing it.

Answer: Leningrad

Dmitri Shostakovich was working in the city of Leningrad in 1941 when Russia was attacked by Germany. He began his seventh symphony there while the long siege began, before being evacuated first to Moscow and then to the Soviet provisional capital of Kuibyshev where the symphony was completed.
The city of St Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great, but after the October Revolution of 1917 it was renamed Petrograd, and then after Lenin's death it became Leningrad. It was not until 1991 after the break up of the Soviet Union that the city reverted to its original name.

Answer: Alpine

Strauss' "Alpine Symphony" is a massive work, completed in 1915, the performance of which occupies some 125 musicians for about 50 minutes. Although called a symphony the piece is actually a tone poem, with a program of 22 episodes depicting a day spent on a mountain.

Answer: Antarctica

Vaughan-Williams wrote the music for the film "Scott of the Antarctic" in 1947 and was inspired to write a symphony (to be his seventh) using much of the music from the film. He gave it the Italian title "Sinfonia Antartica"
The English composer Peter Maxwell Davies was commissioned by The British Antarctic Survey to write a new piece commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Vaughn-Williams music for the 1948 film. Part of the commission was that he had to visit Antarctica, which he did, and the result was his 8th Symphony, also called "The Antarctic Symphony".

Answer: Mexico

Aaron Copland visited Mexico several times in the 1930s including a trip to the famous dance hall "El Salón México" in Mexico City. He based his work, which he named after that dance hall, on four Mexican melodies.

Answer: Warsaw

This tuneful piece was popular in the years of World War 2, reminding people of the German invasion of Poland and the tragic destruction of much of the capital Warsaw. It was originally written for the film "Dangerous Moonlight" which was about Poland's plight, but in concert form it only lasts about ten minutes.

Answer: Spain

Édouard Lalo's "Symphonie Espagnole" had its maiden performance in Paris in 1875, and was the French composer's first successful work. Lalo was born in Lille in 1823 to a military family of Spanish origin.