1. After the premiere of "La Boheme", a reviewer said that "even as it leaves little impression in the minds of the audience, it will leave no great trace upon the history of our lyric theatre." Name the composer on the receiving end of this less than perceptive criticism. Pietro Mascagni Gian-Carlo Menotti Giuseppe Verdi Giacomo Puccini

2. Typical of Mark Twain's acerbic wit was his comment that this composer's music "wasn't as bad as it sounds." Richard Wagner Johannes Brahms Hector Berlioz Franz Liszt

3. After Stravinsky's opera "The Rake's Progress" appeared, this composer wrote "I like it very much. Everything but the music." Name the composer in question, who wrote such works as "Peter Grimes" and "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra." Benjamin Britten Thomas Arne Ralph Vaughan Williams Aaron Copland

4. Camille Saint-Saens, while very popular in his time, did not meet with the approval of everyone. Which compatriot composer, who wrote "Bolero" and "Rhapsodie Espagnole", said the following about Saint-Saens: "If he'd been making shell-cases during the war it might have been better for music." Maurice Ravel Erik Satie Claude Debussy Francis Poulenc

5. Richard Strauss said of this great innovator of the twelve-tone technique of composition that "He'd be better off shoveling snow." Alban Berg Arnold Schoenberg Anton Webern Max Steiner

6. Eduard Hanslick, an influential music critic of the nineteenth century, missed the mark when he wrote of this composer's Violin Concerto: "It brings us face to face for the first time with the revolting thought: may there not also exist musical compositions that we can hear stink?" Thankfully, this composer did not take it to heart and went on to write such works as the "1812 Overture" and the "Pathetique" symphony. Alexander Scriabin Alexander Borodin Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

7. "Too many notes" was the judgment of which emperor after a performance of Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio"? Napoleon Bonaparte Victor Emmanuel II Maximilian Franz Joseph II

8. The English conductor Thomas Beecham wrote that this composer's last quartets "were written by a deaf man and should only be listened to by a deaf man." Which composer was Sir Thomas referring to? Franz Joseph Haydn Ludwig Van Beethoven Antonio Salieri Franz Schubert

9. Tchaikovsky said of this composer that he "is only fourth rate. He is not even interesting." Name the composer in question, who was responsible for "Messiah" and "Water Music." George Frideric Handel Arthur Sullivan Henry Purcell Johann Sebastian Bach

10. "Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for forty-five minutes." This is attributed to which American composer whose works include "Rodeo", "Billy the Kid", and "Fanfare for the Common Man." Aaron Copland George Gershwin Walter Piston Alan Hovhaness