Classical Music in Popular Culture

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. What musical composition is playing during the sunrise scene near the beginning of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey"? "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss "The Planets" by Gustav Holst "Ninth Symphony" by Ludwig van Beethoven "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner

2. In "A Clockwork Orange" the main passions of Alex were ultra-violence, a little bit of the old "in-out,in-out" , and the glorious Ludwig Van. What was his favorite Beethoven symphony, the sound of which later made him physically ill following his rehabilitation by the government? "Eroica Symphony" by Ludwig van Beethoven "Fifth Symphony" by Ludwig van Beethoven "Ninth Symphony" by Ludwig van Beethoven "Pastoral Symphony" by Ludwig van Beethoven

3. The 1995 film "Babe" about a pig who wins a sheep-herding contest contains the uplifting song "If I Had Words" sung by both mice and James Cromwell. The lyrics were written by Nigel Westlake but the music was borrowed from what classical work? "Ancient Voices of Children" by George Crumb "Pierre Lunaire" by Arnold Schoenberg "Third Symphony" by Camille Saint-Saens "Poem of Ecstasy" by Alexander Scriabin

4. In 1963 Allan Sherman recorded "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" in which a distraught camper tells his parents of the horrid conditions at Camp Granada which include ptomaine poisoning, malaria, alligators, and counselors subjecting campers to James Joyce's "Ulysses". Allan Sherman wrote the lyrics but who wrote the music used in "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah"? Amilcare Ponchielli Alban Berg Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Anton Webern

5. In 1972 (US) Emerson, Lake, and Palmer released a live album which contained their unique interpretation of a work by a Russian composer which left out some portions but did include "The Promenade", "The Old Castle", and "Great Gates at Kiev". Who was this composer? Sergei Prokofiev Modest Mussorgsky Dmitri Shostakovich Alexander Borodin

6. All of the songs on Jethro Tull's second album "Stand Up" released in 1969 were written by Ian Anderson except "Bouree" which is a reworking of a melody originally written by which composer? Bela Bartok Henry Purcell John Dowland Johann Sebastian Bach

7. In the 1979 film "Apocalypse Now" Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore attached speakers to the helicopters during an attack on a Vietnamese village because "it scares the **** out of the slopes". What classical composition was used to strike fear into the hearts of Vietnamese villagers in "Apocalypse Now"? "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" by Krysztof Penderecki "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner "Delusion of the Fury" by Harry Partch

8. Woody Allen's "Love and Death" (1975) told the story of Boris Grushenko (Woody Allen) and Sonja (Diane Keaton) during the Napoleonic Invasion of Russia. What composer's music was used as the soundtrack? Peter Tchaikovsky Sergei Prokofiev Nicholai Rimsky-Korsakov Igor Stravinsky

9. "Mack the Knife" was a number one hit for Bobby Darin in 1959. Bobby Darin performed it, but who wrote it? Aaron Copland Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill George Gershwin Leonard Bernstein

10. "Death and The Maiden" was the name of a 1994 Roman Polanski film in which Sigourney Weaver kidnaps and interrogates a man whom she believes previously held her captive and raped her while playing a recording of "Death and the Maiden". Who composed the string quartet "Death and the Maiden"? Paul Hindemith Felix Mendelssohn Franz Schubert Leos Janacek

11. Who composed the operas "Akhnaten", "Einstein on the Beach", and "Satygraha" as well as film music for "The Illusionist", "Taking Lives", "The Truman Show", "Kundun", and "Clive Barker's Candyman" among many others? Philip Glass John Adams Terry Reilly John Cage

12. Who wrote the soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho"? Gyorgy Ligeti Arnold Schoenberg Bernard Herrmann Nicolo Paganini

13. Who first recorded "Roll Over Beethoven"? The Electric Light Orchestra Jerry Lee Lewis The Beatles Chuck Berry

14. Whose "Bolero" was prominently featured in the 1979 film "10" starring Dudley Moore whose character was infatuated with a young woman played by Bo Derek? Luciano Berio Alberto Ginastera Maurice Ravel Manuel de Falla

15. The Broadway musical "Rent" is loosely based on which opera? "La Boheme" by Puccini "La Traviata" by Verdi "Madame Butterfly" by Puccini "Rigoletto" by Verdi

16. The Doors' first album released in 1967 contained two cover songs. One was the Willie Dixon blues song "Back Door Man". What was the other cover song sung by Jim Morrison on that album? "A Lincoln Portrait" by Aaron Copland "O Fortuna" from "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff "The Rake's Progress" by Igor Stravinsky "The Alabama Song" by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill

17. "A Fifth of Beethoven" was a number one hit in October 1976 for what recording artist? Tom Waits Mason Williams Walter Murphy Walter Carlos

18. Frank Zappa is known to most for his recordings of "Valley Girl" and "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" as well as the father who named his children Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva. He also wrote numerous classical compositions and was influenced by many twentieth century composers of serious music. The liner notes for "Freak Out" contained the quote "The present day composer refuses to die". To whom is the quote attributed? Leonard Bernstein John Cage Edgard Varese Olivier Messiaen

19. Whose "Piano Concerto #21 in C major" was prominently featured in the 1967 Swedish film "Elvira Madigan"? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Franz Schubert Frederick Chopin Franz Liszt

20. The theme song for the western television show "The Lone Ranger" was originally written as the overture to the opera "William Tell" which was first performed in Paris in 1829? Who composed this opera? Rossini Donizetti Bellini Verdi