Surprising Facts Behind Popular Classics Quiz

Answer: Wagner: Bridal Chorus from "Lohengrin"

When "Lohengrin" opens, young Gottfried, heir to the German throne, has disappeared during an outing with his sister Elsa, who stands accused of his murder. Her accuser is one Telramund, who argues that, in view of his wife Ortrud's noble lineage, he should be next in line for the throne. Unbeknownst to everyone, Ortrud, a sorceress, has transformed Gottfried into a swan. Elsa calls upon a knight, whom she has seen in a vision, to defend her, whereupon a boat appears on the water drawm by a swan (Gottfried, though no one knows this). A knight in shining armor alights and agrees to defend Elsa, on the condition that she shall never ask him to reveal his name. He defeats Telramund, who is stripped of his lands and honors. Lohengrin and Elsa are betrothed and married, however Ortrud has sown the seeds of suspicion in Elsa's mind.

On their wedding night, Elsa's doubts overwhelm her and she asks the fatal question, just before Telramud bursts in to have another go with the mysterious knight. Telramund is struck dead with a single blow. The next day, the knight reveals himself to Elsa and the king as Lohengrin, son of Parsifal (himself the subject of another Wagner opera) and bids farewell to Elsa (why, exactly, she couldn't know his name is never fully explained). Before leaving, he disenchants the swan and restores Gottfried to his sister. Ortrud shrieks with despair, Elsa swoons into Gottfried's arms, and Lohengrin sails off into the sunset, his boat now drawn by a dove (a dove?!). The famous "Bridal Chorus" is sung at the beginning of Act III. The actual words have little to do with "Here comes the bride", roughly translated they mean "Faithful and true now come ye forth, whom love and triumph now crown with joy".

Answer: Purcell: Trumpet Voluntary

Clarke was made organist of the Chapel Royal in 1704. An emotionally unstable man, he became completely deranged by the failure of a romantic relationship and shot himself in 1707. The "Prince of Denmark's March" is part of a suite for wind instruments; it is not, technically speaking, a "voluntary" nor was it scored for trumpet.

The only piece of Clarke's to have achieved any popularity, it has often been misattributed to the great English composer Henry Purcell, who was of the generation prior to Clarke's (one of Purcell's Trumpet Tunes has a beginning similar to Clarke's march).

Answer: Mendelssohn: Wedding March from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Of the numerous plots that comprise Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the central plot is the double love triangle (square?)between Demetrius, who loves Hermia who, in turn, loves not Demetrius, but Lysander (who, you'll be happy to hear, loves Hermia as well). Hermia's father disapproves of Lysander and wants her to marry Demetrius. Demetrius, in turn, is loved by Helena, whom he does not love (got all that?).

Hermia's father appeals to Theseus, the famous Greek hero who defeated the Minotaur and escaped from the Labyrinth with the help of Ariadne, whom he promptly "forgot" on the island of Naxos. (He also, you'll recall, "forgot" to fly the white sail on his reentry to Athens, causing his father to believe him dead, upon which he threw himself off a cliff. I'm sure Dr. Freud would have had a lot to say about Theseus' "forgetfulness" if he hadn't been rather preoccupied with Oedipus). Anyway, Theseus is about to marry Hyppolyta, queen of the Amazons (try abandoning her on a desert island!). He declares that Hermia must marry Demetrius, upon which Hermia and Lysander run away to the woods where, eventually, the fairies put everything right and cause Demetrius to, at last, fall in love with Helena (who might otherwise have developed into a precursor of Glenn Close's "Fatal Attraction" character).

At the end, all three couples are joined in (hopefully) happy matrimony. Has anyone done a study on the possible connection between the music performed at weddings and the divorce rate? Anyway, Mendelssohn's incidental music to the play was composed in 1826 and is one of his most beloved works.

Answer: True

The Schubert "Ave Maria" is the last of three songs based on Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake", all of which are sung by the heroine Ellen. The other two are "Jager, Ruhe von der Jagd" ("Hunter, rest from thy hunt") and "Raste, Krieger, Krieg ist Aus" ("Rest, warrior, the war is done").

The "Ave Maria" is a prayer to the Virgin sung by Ellen when she and her father are on a deserted island together (the accompaniment is meant to suggest waves lapping at the shore). Although each of the three verses begins with the words "Ave Maria", the subsequent text is in German and has nothing to do with the traditional Latin prayer.

The Gounod version began as the Prelude #1 in C Major by Bach from the "Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach", a collection of keyboard pieces which Bach dedicated to his wife. Gounod wrote a violin melody over this piece and titled it "Meditation". Later, the words of the "Ave Maria" were added and the piece became one of the most popular standards of the sacred repertoire. Ironically, Gounod wrote quite a lot of sacred music (including the "St. Cecilia Mass" and the oratorio "The Redemption"); however, none is as well known as this piece.

Answer: Rossini: Overture to "William Tell"

The "William Tell" overture begins with an elegaic section in the lower strings describing a mountain sunrise. There follows a vivid depiction of a storm, after which a pastoral duet ensues for flute and English horn, whose melody is evocative of Swiss yodeling tunes.

A sudden trumpet fanfare heralds the famous concluding "call to arms" section. This famous melody reappears in the ballet music later in the opera, though it is arranged much differently. Rossini's "William Tell" is rarely performed because of its great length (about five hours) and the thinness and predictability of its plot (the buildup to the apple-shooting in Act I is particularly tedious; is there ANYONE who doesn't know how that's going to turn out?), however the overture remains an extremely popular concert piece.

Answer: Pachelbel: Canon in D

Johann Pachelbel was a German composer and organist, born c.1653. The "Canon", unquestionably his best-known piece, was scored for three violins and continuo (bass instrument), although an edition for organ also exists. The Canon, as written, is accompanied by another piece, the "Gigue", though it is usually performed alone.

The score to the movie "Ordinary People" was arranged by Marvin Hamlisch from the Pachelbel work.

Answer: Pomp and Circumstance No. 1

"Pomp and Circumstance" is actually a group of five marches by the turn-of-the-century composer (a sixth march was left incomplete). The best-known is No. 1, which is used traditionally in graduation ceremonies here, but was not originally intended for that purpose.

When the piece premiered in 1901, the famous English contralto Dame Clara Butt (yes, that was her name!) asked the composer if he could compose a song or anthem for her with a similar tune. Elgar offered the tune to poet Arthur Christopher Benson, who wrote the poem "Land of Hope and Glory" to be sung to it.

It was performed at the coronation of Edward VII later in 1901. In 1904, Elgar traveled to America to receive an honorary degree from Yale University. In his honor, the march was performed at this ceremony, along with music of other composers, and its future as America's official graduation march was sealed.

Answer: True

Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi" is one of three short operas which comprise his "Il Trittico" (the other two are "Il Tabarro" and "Suor Angelica"). In this opera, the wealthy Donati family are stunned when Buoso Donati, the oldest and wealthiest of them all, dies leaving his entire estate to the local monastery. The youngest Donati, Rinucchio, appeals for help to the wily, nouveau riche Gianni Schicchi, who is the father of his intended bride, Lauretta. In spite of his hatred for the snobbish Donati family (the feeling is mutual) he schemes with them to impersonate the dead man (only the family know that he is dead) and dictate a new will. The family is in for an unpleasant surprise, however, when Gianni leaves the choicest items- the house in Florence, the sawmills at Signa, and the mule (the equivalent of a luxury automobile in medieval Florence)- to himself. He excuses himself to the audience by explaining that he did it for the sake of his daughter and Rinucchio.

Schicchi was an actual person; his story was known to Dante, who placed him in his "Inferno". "O Mio Babbino Caro" occurs early in the opera, when Schicchi refuses to help out of disgust at the hypocritical Donati's behavior. Lauretta pleads to her "dearest Daddy" that, if she cannot marry handsome Rinucchio and go to the Porta Rossa (a jewelry store on the Ponte Vecchio) to buy the ring she wants, she will throw herself into the Arno. "Daddy" caves in to his little girl's wishes and agrees to help.

Answer: Copland: "Hoedown" from "Rodeo"

Born in 1900 in New York, Copland was the son of immigrant Russian Jews. He became the foremost American composer of the Twentieth century; his music, which includes "Fanfare for the Common Man", "Appalachian Spring", the opera "The Tender Land", and the ballets "Billy the Kid" and "Rodeo".

The latter was choreographed by Agnes de Mille, niece of Cecil, who was also responsible for the ground-breaking choreography for the musicals "Oklahoma", "Carousel", and "Brigadoon". Though Copland was discreet regarding his private life and avoided publicity, he was openly gay long before it became fashionable, or acceptable, to be so. Copland died in 1990.

Answer: Offenbach: Can Can from "Orphee aux Enfers"

First performed in 1858, the Offenbach operetta was a comic sendup of the romantic Greek legend of Orpheus, who descended into Hades to retrieve his beloved Euridice from the realm of death. In this version, the god's and goddesses are bored with their cushy life on Mount Olympus, endlessly swilling ambrosia. Orphee is rather pleased to have gotten rid of his nagging bride, and Euridice has found that the nether world is not such a bad place; for one thing, she no longer has to listen to her husband's fiddling.

The "Galop Infernal" (known as the "CanCan") is a jolly piece performed by the denizens of Hades. Mark Twain, the famous American author, wrote enthusiastically about the CanCan after a trip to Paris; however, he cautioned "Don't ask your gran to do it!"

Answer: Ravel's "Bolero"

Written in 1928 in response to dancer Ida Rubenstein's request for music for a dance on a Spanish theme, this piece was instantly successful and is, without doubt, Ravel's most well-known composition. His reaction to its tremendous success was somewhat mixed; he was once quoted as saying "I have written only one masterpiece. Alas, it has no music!". Recently, it has been suggested that the numerous repetitions of the same melody in this work may have been an indication of the onset of Alzheimer's disease, or of the brain tumor from which the composer is believed to have died.

Answer: "O Fortuna" from Orff's "Carmina Burana"

Composed in 1936, Orff's "Carmina Burana" is a "profane cantata" using medieval texts written in Latin and Middle-High German. The texts deal with love, both spiritual and physical, the awakening of spring, drinking, eating, and gambling. "O Fortuna", which compares Fortune to the Moon in its ever-changing nature, opens and closes this unique work.

Answer: Gounod: Funeral March for a Marionette

The Gounod piece was originally one of a series of short pieces for piano; it was later orchestrated and became a popular concert piece. The first chapter of Gaston Leroux's "Le Phantom de l'Opera" describes a concert at which a number of famous composers of the day conduct their own pieces; Gounod is described as conducting this piece.

It struck just the right note, droll yet macabre, for Alfred Hitchcock's entrance music. The Saint Saens "March of the Lions", by the way, was once used on the Dreyfus insurance agency commercial, in which the "Dreyfus" lion steps down from his pedestal and walks along the sidewalks.

Answer: Frederic Chopin

The "Funeral March" is the penultimate movement of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, composed in 1839. Actually, the march had been composed two years earlier, in 1837, at the monastery of Valldemosa in Mallorca. Chopin described composing it one "lugubrious night" after some "accursed creatures" appeared to him in a vision. Eleven years later, in 1848, he was playing this sonata for some friends in England when he had another vision of these creatures rising from the piano.

He stepped outside momentarily to compose himself, then resumed playing without saying anything. Chopin, who suffered from tuberculosis much of his life, died the following year; this piece was played at his funeral.

Answer: Yes

Brahms once had a romance with Bertha long before her marriage. They remained friends after the romance ended, but the composer still had feelings for her. She used to sing him a love song in 3/4 time; he later composed the "Wiegenlied" as a counterpoint to this melody, thus reminding her, as she sang the piece to her baby, of the love song she had once sung to him.

Answer: French

This regal melody is the "Rondeau" by the seventeenth-century composer Jean Joseph Mouret from his "Symphonies des Fanfares", written for the court of Louis XIV. The piece, which many people assume to be of British origin, is typical of music written in France during the reign of the "Sun King" who, at one point, waged an unsuccessful war with England to restore the Catholic James II to the throne.

Answer: Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!

Mendelssohn used this tune in a cantata entitled "Festgesang", a piece praising Johannes Gutenberg, which was written for a festival commemorating the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press. He was very fond of the tune and was sorry to have used it in a "piece d'occasion", which would probably not be performed again.

He hoped that someone would set other words to it so that it could be performed more often, however he insisted that the tune was all wrong for a church hymn or religious piece (which shows that composers arent always the best judge of their own music).

The Christmas text to which it is now inexorably wedded is by the great 18th century hymn writer Charles Wesley. Although this text is now almost invariably performed to the Mendelsohnn tune, it had been set by other composers both before and since.

Answer: Ponchielli: "Dance of the Hours" from "La Gioconda"

"La Gioconda" is the only opera of Amilcare Ponchielli to have achieved any lasting popularity. It is also possibly the funniest opera ever written, albeit unintentionally. I vividly remember a televised San Francisco opera production in the early 1980's with Luciano Pavarotti as Enzo Grimaldi, the prince disguised as a poor fisherman.

The leading mezzo actually kept a straight face when Pavarotti, wearing a black and silver getup with a fishnet slung over one shoulder, sang "But tell me, Laura dearest, how did you recognize me in my fisherman's disguise?" The "Dance of the Hours" is a ballet performed during the third act and provides some relief from all the unintentional hilarity.

It is the best known piece from the opera; other celebrated selections include the tenor aria "Cielo e Mar", and the soprano aria "Suicidio!" (which is sung when the soprano is contemplating suicide, in case you missed the subtle imagery of that title).

Answer: True

At this point in the story Peer Gynt, a village ne'er-do-well who has embarked on a series of picaresque adventures, is posing as an Arabian "prophet" and is involved in the sale of religious items. He is in love with Anitra, an Arabian girl who entrances him with her dancing and makes off with his purse. Because this piece is the first number of the two "Peer Gynt" suites, most people asume that it sets the mood for the beginning of the play, which does open in a Norwegian village; actually it appears much later in the story.

Answer: Thus Spake Zarathustra

Composed in 1896, this piece is unique among Strauss' tone poems in that it is not based on a narrative story, but on Friedrich Nietschie's epic 1885 poem "Also Sprach Zarathustra". This work, loosely based on the philosophy of the pre-Christian Persian mystic and prophet Zoroaster, was a rejection of the Christian ethic of meekness and humility and promoted the idea of the "Ubermenschen" ("Superman"), an idea which would be monstrously re-interpreted by Adolf Hitler in Strauss' own time. Strauss, who was totally uninterested in politics, would (not unjustly) come under great criticism for his passive attitude toward the Nazi regime.

Answer: Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi was ordained a priest in 1703 and was known as "the red priest" (il prete rosso) for his flaming red hair. Not long after being ordained, he begged off of his priestly duties, citing a chest ailment which supposedly caused him to have to leave the altar during Mass. Several biographers have noted that this disorder never seemed to afflict Vivaldi during lengthy concerts, and it is generally believed that he faked the ailment to spend more time in music composition and performance. "The Four Seasons", which featured in an Alan Alda movie of the same title from 1980, was composed in the 1720s and is undoubtedly his most famous work, notably the opening movement of "Primavera" ("Springtime").

Answer: All of these

The "Hallelujah" chorus ends the second of three sections of Handel's "Messiah". The first section of "Messiah" is the "Christmas" section, dealing with the advent and birth of Christ. The second section deals with the passion and resurrection, ending with the "Hallelujah".

The third and final section deals with the Second Coming and last judgement. It ends with the mighty chorus "Worthy is the Lamb", which comprises three sections: the chorale-like opening, the fugue "Blessing and honor, glory and power" and the great "Amen" fugue.

The "Hallelujah" chorus from Messiah is undoubtedly the most famous one Handel wrote, but there are others, notably the "Hallelujah, Amen" chorus which concludes "Judas Maccabeus".

Answer: All of these

The ode "An die Freude" was written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785. Beethoven had originally intended to set the entire poem, but eventually used a shortened version. Schiller, in later years, described "An die Freude" as "a bad poem" and its philosophy of a world united by the healing power of joy was out of vogue by the time Beethoven wrote his Ninth Symphony.

However Beethoven saw beyond the fashionable philosophies of his time, and the "Ode to Joy" remains one of the most universal classics of all time. Choruses from around the world sang it for the 1998 winter Olympic games at Nagano, Japan; Leonard Bernstein performed it at the site of the fallen Berlin Wall (with altered text, as "An die Freiheit", or "Ode to Freedom").

Its melody has been used for several church hymns and was adopted as the European anthem.

Answer: All of these

"An Der Schanen Blaue Donau" was originally written for male chorus and orchestra. It was unsuccessful at its premiere, partly because the text Strauss chose was considered subversive and had given offense. It achieved much greater success as an orchestral piece, without the offending text; however, the choral version is sometimes still performed, notably by the Vienna Boy's Choir. Johann Strauss jr.'s grandfather had been the proprietor of "Zum Guten Hirten", a rather derelict and not terribly successful tavern which was frequented mostly by riverboat men.

A man of moody and depressive temperament, he drowned himself in the Danube shortly after remarrying following the death of his first wife.

Answer: Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture"

In 1880, Tchaikovsky received a commission to compose a ceremonial piece to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Russian victory over Napoleon in the war of 1812. He composed the piece in a little over a month, utilising both the Russian national anthem and "La Marseillaise".

The piece premiered on August 20, 1882 and was an overwhelming success. Tchaikovsky conducted a performance in the year of his death, 1893. Its popularity in America is largely due to the July 4th concerts of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a tradition dating back to about 1929 by Arthur Fiedler.

This tradition continues to this day, even though the piece has nothing whatsoever to do with the United States. Tchaikovsky never had much enthusiasm for the piece and musicians and musicologists generally consider it not one of his more distinguished works, however its popularity has outstripped even his "Nutcracker" ballet and his Piano Concerto No. 1.