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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 40 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Twentieth-Century Classical Music
Beautiful mountain. Arnold Schoenberg was one of the most important composers of the early part of the twentieth century. His method of 'composing with twelve tones' took Wagnerian chromaticism to a new level and is seen as one of the boldest moves within modernist art music.
Violin Cello Clarinet Piano. Messiaen wrote this atmospheric piece whilst incarcerated in a prisoner-of-war camp for French soldiers during World War II.
England. Spearheaded by composers like Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Elgar, and Finzi, the English musical renaissance drew on traditional folk-song resources to build up a national school of classical music.
Steve Reich. Steve Reich's catchy 'Music for 18 Musicians' was written in 1976, for an ensemble including singers, percussion, and traditional orchestral instruments.
Finnish. Finland's most famous composer, Jean Sibelius, wrote seven symphonies and a violin concerto, which is considered to be one of the most difficult to play.
1913. Stravinsky's ballet score 'The Rite of Spring' premiered to a shocked audience in Paris on May 29, 1913. The first night has become notorious for the audience's angry reaction to the music, booing and protesting whilst the dancers tried to continue with their moves.
Denmark. He was born in 1865 and died in 1931. He wrote 6 symphonies.
De Meij. Johann De Meij went on to compose another symphony for band called "The Big Apple," which, of course, was based on the great city of New York.
Danny Elfman. In the 80s, Elfman was the frontman for a band called "Oingo Boingo." Now, he writes lots of film music, including the music for the "Spider-Man" movies and the first 2 "Batman" movies. He also wrote the theme music for "The Simpsons."
Shostakovich. Shostakovich wrote the piece to memorialize the dead in what the Soviets called "The Great Patriotic War." The tune is played by churchbells daily in Novorosiik, Russia.
Romania. He has the Greek nationality, but was born in Romania.
Karlheinz. Karlheinz Stockhausen was one of the inventors of integral serialism in the 50s.
The Nose. "Dead Souls" is also a novel by Gogol, but not an opera. "The Lady Macbeth from the District Mtensk" is another opera by Shostakovich, but based on a novel by Leskov. "Boris Godunov" is an opera by Mussorgsky, based on a play by Pushkin.
Luciano Berio. The others are also Italian composers. Berio and his wife experimented with new vocal techniques.
Peter Grimes. "Dumbarton Oaks" is by Igor Stravinsky, "The Seven Deadly Sins" by Kurt Weil and "Wozzeck" by Alban Berg.
0. It contains 4'33 minutes of silence.
| Where in Germany does an annual meeting of contemporary composers take place, known as the "Ferienkurse" (Holiday course)? The place was important for the developement of serial music and electronic music. | Twentieth Century Classical Music
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Darmstadt. It was and is still important for composers like Boulez, Stockhousen etc.
Bela Bartok. He could have called it a symphony, but the title refers to the old concerto grosso.
Bluebeard's Castle. That's an opera by Bartók.
There's a singer in it.. In the fourth movement a soprano sings: "Ich fühle Luft von anderen Planeten." (I feel air from other planets.)
| Which classical composer's music, played at the end of the Princess Diana's funeral as the cortege walked down the aisle towards the doors, created a stir which vaulted its popularity? | The Contemporary Classical Music Scene
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John Taverner. John Taverner's "Song For Athene" was actually written in 1993 as a tribute to a young friend of Taverner's who was killed in an accident. However it was relatively unknown until Princess Diana's funeral in September of 1997.
The other musical item at the funeral which really caught the public's attention was the classic (but not classical) "Candle in the Wind" by Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
Arthur Fiedler. The 18th conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler gave the group its character and made it one of the best known classical groups to the general public. John Williams succeeded Fiedler after his death. Ozawa and Levine were both conductors of the nearby Boston Symphony Orchestra.
conducting period instrument performances. Christopher Hogwood, leading the Academy of Ancient Music, is one of the pioneers of period instrument performances.
| Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinettist Anthony McGill performed the composition "Air and Simple Gifts" at US President Obama's inauguration. Which composer, known for his film scores, composed the piece? | The Contemporary Classical Music Scene
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John Williams. "Air and Simple Gifts" was composed by John Williams, well known for film scores including "Jaws", "Star Wars", "E.T"., "Jurassic Park", "Harry Potter", and "Schindler's List", as well as classical compositions.
The music is evocative of that of Aaron Copeland, composer of film scores such as the "Red Pony" and ballets, including "Appalachian Spring", which also draws on the folk melody "Simple Gifts".
Horner and Korngold are both composers of a great many film scores.
| Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, which conductor in 1989 lead a stirring performance in Berlin of Beethoven "9th Symphony" with performers from both East and West Germany? | The Contemporary Classical Music Scene
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Leonard Bernstein. Leonard Bernstein conducted this gala concert of Beethoven's "9th Symphony" with one significant change. In the "Ode to Joy" sung in the final movement, Bernstein substituted the word for "Freedom" in place of "Joy."
The development of the atomic bomb. John Adams' opera "Doctor Atomic" is about the development of the first atomic bomb in Los Alamos by J. Robert Oppenheimer. The opera premiered in 2005 at the San Francisco Opera and has been performed subsequently at New York's Metropolitan Opera and Chicago's Lyric Opera.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The play "Amadeus" by Peter Shaffer, a fictionalized account of Mozart's life, won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1984 film won eight Academy Awards.
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