Super Eclectic Music Challenge Quiz

Answer: Barbershop Quartet

A cappella is 'like in a chapel' and normally there were no instruments in a convent. Gospel is lovely when sung without instruments too. Traditional music from many cultures uses no instruments besides the human voice too. A recent trend in polyphony in Italy and Corsica has resulted in a revival of their choirs.

In folk music, people used their bodies to make music, thigh slapping, cheek popping, finger snapping, or clog dancing. The next step up would be spoons!

Answer: Sitar

The sitar is a long necked instrument with about 17 strings. There are 3 to 4 playing strings and 3 to 4 drones. The Mizrab is the pick. There are sympathetic strings that vibrate when you pluck. You don't touch them. Ravi Shankar popularised the sitar on recordings with the Beatles and others.

The Koto is a Japanese stringed instrument. The dulcimer is a stringed instrument played in American folkloric music. Finger cymbals are what Esmeralda clicks on when she dances. The big ones I'm sure you know from those little monkey toys you wind up.

Answer: He was born in Memphis, Tennessee on January 8th, 1935

Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in a small house that may be visited. They have a website! Elvis was a true phenomenon. His manor style home Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee has become a major tourist attraction and memorial in his name. When I lived there, that mid week of August 87 was blacked out as the fans stormed in for candlelight processions for the ten year mark in the steamy Memphis summertime weather.

He and his twin brother who died at birth are buried there and the fans cover it with flowers. One of the other curious Elvis events was the courtship between Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, their lightning marriage and then their subsequent divorce in 96.

At least she was equipped to deal in fame!

Answer: Contralto

A mezzo soprano is higher. A contralto is somewhere between a tenor, though a woman can sing this pitch parts aren't usually given to her, and a mezzo soprano. A coloratura soprano is someone who has a light agile voice and can sing very elaborate rich vocal music. Beverly Sills is one of the most well known modern coloratura sopranos whereas Jenny Lind is cited as one of the most famous voices in the beginning of the 20th century. Notice I've left out the sopranos? Sorry, I'm a contralto!

Answer: the pennywhistle

The hurdy gurdy is a cranked instrument that churns out a drone sound plus a melody. A drone is one note that stays the same throughout the piece. The sitar has a sympathetic string that vibrates and a drone. The bagpipe is probably considered agonizing by some because of this drone sound.

The pennywhistle is a small melodic flute with a fippled mouthpiece normally or a mouthpiece you blow into directly.

Answer: Robert Merrill

Robert Merrill born in Brooklyn. He is a rich deep baritone whereas the others are all famous for their performances as tenors. The three tenors and I've omitted the great Placido Domingo for the sake of my example, are all considered 'popular' tenors, which means that for some, they were not trained properly and some might say that they'd sold out as they do 'pop' concerts. Enrico Caruso born in Naples in 1873 was one of the greatest operatic tenors of his day.

He died in 1921. Luciano Pavarotti was born in 1935 in Modena and has performed all over the world.

His participation in popular concerts and with popular singers got him criticized. Andrea Boccelli born in Laiatico in 1958 (Tuscany) is the new kid on the block but after going blind in his teens and still attaining a law degree despite his handicap and then realizing that he was made to sing, has received the most criticism as his popular songs were mega-hits because of the extreme purity of his voice.

His versions'Con Te Partiro' and 'Te Voglio ben assai' the latter sung by the aforementioned Caruso amongst several others. Mean-spirited critics claim that his popularity is because of his handicap but personally I may not know a lot about tenors but I know what I like! Just call me Ms Philistine!

Answer: Garth Brooks

Country singer Garth Brooks is one of today's mega stars in music and despite all his fame and fortune, seems to be a nice guy to his fans! Dolly Parton is another example of a lady who has given back to her community the Tennessee mining town she came from.

Answer: Modest Mussorgsky

Sorry, but there are at least twenty variations of the spelling of Mussorgski's name! Jackson used an excerpt from 'Paintings at an Exhibition' from 1873 called the 'Great Gates of Kiev'. He has also used Beethoven's music but that gentleman wasn't born in Russia the last time I checked but in Bonn, Germany. I might have chosen Prokofiev as his well known 'Peter and the Wolf' could have gone well in Jackson's 'Thriller'! Igor Stravinsky's 'Firebird' or the 'Rites of Spring' written for Diaghelev's Ballet Russe might have been interesting too with Jackson's mysterious stage persona resembling the great solitary dancer Nijinski. Jackson's 'Will you be there?' includes a bit of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

This is on the album 'Dangerous'.

Answer: The harpsichord plucks the strings instead of using a hammer system.

Harpsichord production virtually died out in the 19th century then was revived in the 20th but prior to that it was the most popular keyboard instrument from the 16th to the 18th century. Some say that the advent of the electronic keyboard may give the death blow to the real piano. Perhaps the modern piano's lifespan won't be that long then! The harpsichord plucks the strings instead of using a hammer system.

The piano uses felt hammers. You can increase the volume by striking it harder or softer. Piano tuners know that school pianos often contain surprises such as sandwiches, mice nests and hidden bad report cards but if a drink goes into the piano, it's not good news.

The felt needs to be shaved down or replaced from time to time. Humidity is the worst enemy of a piano and your friendly piano tuner, Hi Dad! The harpsichord program on your electronic keyboard cannot be used with the damper pedal as it reproduces the characteristics of the original instrument. Try the clavichord or harpsichord settings and you'll feel the difference.

Answer: Johann Sebastian Bach

Beethoven (1770 to 1827) was a child prodigy and was sent to study music briefly in Vienna under Mozart but had to return to his own area to help support his family. He also is known to have studied with Haydn and Salieri. (Remember Amadeus' rather exaggerated archrival in the film?).

The great composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Thuringia in 1685 and died in 1750 so unless he came to Beethoven in an apparition, it might have been hard to teach him. As most everyone knows, Beethoven was deaf for the last ten years of his life and despite the major setback to his career and life, he persisted.

Answer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky of course! This is the mainstay of most American ballet schools and companies and perhaps the most well known ballet by Tchaikovsky. Mikhael Barishnikov has danced it and the film is available. Sergei Prokofiev composed amongst other pieces, 'Romeo and Juliet' for the ballet.

Answer: A name brand for an acoustic slide guitar with a metal resonator used in country and western and other types of music.

A Dobro is the registered trademark of a steel string slide guitar and has many, many fans. It is now synonymous with a slide guitar style. Sometimes it's played flat and sometimes held like a regular guitar. It can give that trademark twang to Hawaiian music and country. Leo Kotke is another very well known player, he's also what you might call a percussive player! He hits the thing! There used to be a trick to get that twang though, playing with a bottle. Don't try this at home folks!

Answer: Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis, TN and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She was the daughter of a famous preacher who featured her singing in his choir. She became rapidly famous and has been able to ride the waves of popularity and remain versatile and current no matter what age.

Her rendition of Carole King's '(You Make Me Feel) Like A Natural Woman' is just one examples of her voice's versatility. It was number 8 in the charts in 1967. Diana Ross (Detroit 1944) rocketed to fame with the Supremes and has had a long career. Often treated as a rather spoiled diva by some critics, she has nevertheless a solid group of fans and her 'God Bless the Child' is one of her most outstanding hits.

She played jazz singer Billie Holliday in a film with Billy Dee Williams. Tina Turner born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, TN in 1939, came early to fame, marrying Ike Turner and survived great personal tragedy to become one of the most energetic figures in the business.

Answer: Dido

The enormously popular Dido (in her own right) backed up Eminem on this song. Dido's stage name reminds us of the classic Virgil's 'Aeneid' in which Dido kills herself when her lover Aeneus leaves her. Her soft breathy haunting voice is proving to be one of the new sounds of the 2000's and she'll be interesting to follow.

She's also composed a song for Britney Spears. In my opinion, Dido's voice is one of the redeeming things about the song in question.

Answer: French horn

The French horn is called the 'cor' in French, (it's curly like a horn) and is perhaps one of the most sweet mellow sounds in the orchestra. (The only brass instrument I really love). The English horn is lower in range than an oboe and is a double reed instrument like the oboe and the bassoon. (Le cor anglais in French). Its bell is rounder.