Popular Classics

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1. Which of these overtures was meant for a spectacular open air performance featuring booming cannons and ringing churchbells and even a final fireworks? Tchaikovsky's "Overture 1812" Von Suppe's "Light Cavalry Overture" Wagner's "Overture to the Flying Dutchman" Rossini's "Wilhelm Tell" Overture

2. Classic compositions tend to gain extra popularity when they are given romantic nicknames. What is the nickname of Beethoven's "Fifth Piano Concerto"? The Emperor Moonlight The Archduke Appassionata

3. Some shorter classic works or short fragments have definitely gained themselves a niche in the collective musical memory of Western civilisation. Not always because of their real musical qualities, but sometimes because of their spectacular character. Which of these is such a work composed by Rimskij-Korsakov? Finlandia The Flight of the Bumble-Bee Sabredance Night On Bald Mountain

4. Music tends to be more spectacular when it can be incorporated into a stage spectacle such as a ballet. One of the most popular balllet composers is Pjotr Illich Tchaikovski.Yet he was not the only Russian ballet composer. For which of these Russian ballets did he NOT write the music, though he wrote a Fantasy on the same theme as an Overture? The Sleeping Beauty Swan Lake Nutcracker Romeo and Juliet

5. It helps when a piece of music gets a social function, e.g. for church ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. Yet not all "music related to weddings" is "wedding-music" and suitable for a wedding-procession. Which of these is because of its rhythm absolutely unfit? "Bridal Chorus" from Wagner's "Lohengrin " Edvard Grieg's "Wedding-day at Troldhaugen " "Wedding-March" from Mendelssohn's "Midsummernight's Dream" Henry Purcell's "Trumpet Voluntary" for trumpet in B and piano.

6. Even piano music can be very spectacular and attractive to mainstream tastes. Chopin especially has written some of the more "sensational" pieces for that instrument. Which of these was not written by him however, but by Johann and Joseph Strauss? Minute Waltz in D flat Pizzicato Polka Raindrop Prelude Grande Valse Brilliante

7. Even religious works may please the crowds. Of which of these "prayer-songs" are there even two very popular versions, one by Schubert, the other by Gounod? Dies Irae Ave Maria Ave Verum Corpus Panis Angelicus

8. What appeals to the sentimental side of humans, earns a place in the hearts of the many. Popular among teachers and schoolkids is a musical version of Goethe's "Heather Rose" ( "Heider�slein"). "Boy once saw a rosebud rare Rosebud in the heather". Who wrote the music? Schubert Beethoven Brahms Mendelssohn

9. Occasionally some music even gets extra popularity because of the slight scandal linked to it. The "goliardic" poems that were the basis for Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana"(1937) had been written by drifting ex-scholars (and ex-clerics)in 12th century already. The language often was Latin and the style resembled church hymns. Which of the following lines is NOT goliardic, however, and constitutes the beginning of a real Church hymn? Puer natus est Si puer cum puellula moraretur in cellula Tempus est iocundum o virgines Ego sum abbas Cocaniensis

10. Music may play a role in political and social life. Songs as "La Marseillaise" and the International were born from social revolution. Occasionally a piece of music is composed for a special event. For which of these was the opening of the Suez Canal such an event? "Entry of the Gladiators" by Julius Fucik "Coronation March" by Giacomo Meyerbeer "March of the Toreadors" by Georges Bizet "Grand Triumphal March" from Verdi's "Aida"