Surprising Facts Behind Popular Classics

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1. Let's start with wedding music. Everyone knows this piece as "Here Comes the Bride". It comes from a 19th century German opera about a knight of the Holy Grail, where it is performed not, as you might have thought, when the heroine is going down the aisle, but after the ceremony in the bridal chamber when she and the groom are being prepared for the wedding night. There is one small problem; the bride in question not only doesn't know the name of the man she's just married, she's also not supposed to ask! Mozart: March from "Le Nozze di Figaro" Purcell: Trumpet Voluntary Wagner: Bridal Chorus from "Lohengrin" Mendelsohnn: Wedding March from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

2. Sometimes, particularly at more upscale weddings, this piece is used as the entrance march instead of "Here Comes the Bride". It was used at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, one of the more famously (and tragically) unsuccessful marriages in history. It so happens that the fellow who wrote it, Jeremiah Clarke, shot himself over an unhappy love affair, so perhaps the piece is bad luck. Clarke might have been even more depressed if he knew that his one famous piece would frequently be attributed to a more famous English composer. The correct title of the piece is "The Prince of Denmark's march" (no, it was not written for Hamlet, but for Prince George of Denmark, who was the consort of Queen Anne). I'm giving you the more usual (albeit incorrect) title below. Walton: Crown Imperial Handel: Largo from Xerxes Purcell: Trumpet Voluntary Purcell: Rondeau

3. This piece is usually played at the end of the wedding, when the happy couple leaves the church. It is from the incidental music to a Shakespearean play, written by a nineteenth century German composer. At the end of the play, three couples are simultaneously joined in happy matrimony; these include a forgetful Greek hero and his Amazonian Queen, a couple who were in love, but her father objected, and a third couple in which the man is under the spell of some magic flower juice (courtesy of some helpful fairies), which has caused him to fall in love with a woman who had, frankly, a rather unhealthy obsession with him. Wagner: Bridal Chorus from "Lohengrin" Mendelssohn: Wedding March from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Walton: Wedding March from "As You Like It" Mozart: March from "Le Nozze di Figaro"

4. Another piece frequently heard at weddings is the "Ave Maria", usually in a setting by Schubert or Gounod. Ironically, neither of these pieces was originally a setting of the "Ave Maria" text. True False

5. This piece is best known as the theme music from "The Lone Ranger". It is actually the last of four sections of a very long overture. The second and third sections of this overture describe a storm and its peaceful aftermath; these two sections have been used in numerous cartoons from the fifties and sixties. The very long opera which follows this very long overture is about the battle for Swiss independence from Austria. Rossini: Overture to "William Tell" Donizetti: Overture to "La Fille du Regiment" Verdi: Overture to "Luisa Miller" Bellini: Overture to "Norma"

6. This very tranquil piece of Baroque music became very popular in the late seventies and early eighties. It has been used in a GE lightbulb commercial, in the soundtrack for the movie "Ordinary People", and as background music for numerous boring, upscale dinner and cocktail parties. It consists of several repetitions (with variations & ornamentation) of an eight-note melody. Its composer was of German birth and wrote a large body of music, most of which (except for this one piece) is rarely performed. Pachelbel: Canon in D Handel: Largo Albinioni: Adagio Bach: Air on the G string

7. Which of these pieces by British composer Edward Elgar is traditionally used for graduation ceremonies in the United States? Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 Salut d'Amour The "Enigma" Variations Coronation March

8. The Puccini soprano aria "O Mio Babbino caro", from "Gianni Schicchi", was used in the soundtrack of the film "A Room With a View". It turns up quite often in commercials for Italian food products, wine, etc. You might have assumed that it is a love song; actually it's from Puccini's only comic opera and is sung by the heroine, who is trying to convince her con-artist father to help an unscrupulous family forge a dead man's will, so that the heroine's fiance (who belongs to the aforementioned family) can afford to buy her the ring she wants. True False

9. This piece is the background music for the "Beef, it's what's for dinner!" commercial. It is a country dance number from a 1942 ballet about a cattle roundup, which was choreographed by Cecil B. de Mille's niece. Copland: "Hoedown" from "Rodeo" Copland: "Appalachian Spring" Copland: "Fanfare for the Common Man" Copland: "Billy the Kid"

10. You are undoubtedly familiar with this dance number from a French operetta based on a Greek myth; its most famous use in America, unfortunately, is in an irritating ShopRite commercial. What you might not know is that it is sung, and danced, in Hell. Offenbach: Can Can from "Orphee aux Enfers" Rameau: Tambourin Ravel: Bolero Mouret: Rondeau

11. This piece by a turn of the century French composer is one of the most popular and frequently performed classics. It has been used in the Blake Edwards movie "10", starring Bo Derek and the late Dudley Moore and was memorably skated to by Torvill and Dean at the 1984 Winter Olympics. Ravel's "Bolero" Saint Saens' "Danse Macabre" Debussy's "Claire de Lune" Debussy's "La Mer"

12. This twentieth century choral piece always seems to turn up whenever someone creates yet another Anti-Christ or Armageddon-themed movie. The text is in Latin, it is in a minor key and there are lots of clashing gongs and cymbals. Actually, the text has nothing to do with either Lucifer and his minions or world destruction; it is about the vicissitudes of Fortune. "Dies Irae" from Berlioz's "Requiem" "Libera Me" from Verdi's "Requiem" Opening chorus from Poulenc's "Stabat Mater" "O Fortuna" from Orff's "Carmina Burana"

13. If you are a devotee of Alfred Hitchcock. particularly his 1950's television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", you may recall his walking into a caricature of his profile to the accompaniment of a sinister and rather droll march tune. Which of these French classical pieces was used as Hitchcock's "theme"? Gounod: Funeral March for a Marionette Berlioz: "Rakoczy March" from "The Damnation of Faust" Berlioz: "March to the Scaffold" from "Symphonie Fantastique" Saint Saens: "March of the Lions" from "Carnival of the Animals"

14. The music is almost invariably played, hummed, or whistled by someone whenever death or funerals are mentioned (Dum dum da-dum dum da-dum da-dum da-dum), sometimes with the words "Here comes the man with the lily in his hand". It was originally a movement from a piano sonata by a Polish composer, who died of tuberculosis at an early age. He also had an affair with author George Sand, who was actually a woman, though she dressed as a man. Who was the composer? Johannes Brahms Peter Illyich Tchiakovsky Frederic Chopin Sergei Rachmaninoff

15. Countless babies have been lulled to sleep by "Brahm's Lullabye". I've always though this was a good idea; it introduces children from the cradle to the music of one of the world's greatest composers, and it doesn't contain lines like "When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall/ and down will come baby, cradle and all!" This piece is one of several "lieder" (songs) written by the great German composer; it was composed in honor of the birth of a child to two of his friends, Bertha and Artur Faber in 1868. What you may not have known is that there is a teeny bit of scandal attached to this innocent piece- Brahms had once been in love with the baby's mother. True False

16. The majestic theme for the PBS/BBC series "Masterpiece Theater" is by a composer of what national origin? English French German Austrian

17. Which famous Christmas carol is sung to a melody by Felix Mendelssohn? Silent Night Hark, the Herald Angels Sing! Deck the Halls Jingle Bells

18. If you were around in the 1960's, you are probably familiar with a song entitled "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah", in which a boy who is having a miserable time at summer camp begs his parents to take him home. The tune of this song was borrowed from the ballet music from a 19th century Italian opera. This music, in its original form, was also used in Walt Disney's "Fantasia" for the ballet of the hippos. Which of these pieces is it? Ponchielli: "Dance of the Hours" from "La Gioconda" Verdi: "The Four Seasons" from "I Vespri Siciliani" Rossini: "Passo a Sei" from "William Tell" Catalani: "Dance of the Water Nymphs" from "Lorelei"

19. Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's "Morning Mood", from his "Peer Gynt" suite, has been used in numerous commercials, mostly for breakfast products (orange juice, pancake syrup, margarine that tastes "just like butter" etc.) and features an alternating flute and oboe solo. This piece is from the incidental music to Ibsen's play "Peer Gynt" where it is performed between acts to depict, you guessed it, a sunrise. The sunrise takes place, however, not on the mountaintops of Norway (as you might have thought) but in the Arabian desert. True False

20. Which of these Richard Strauss "tone poems" was used in the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film "2001: A Space Odyssey"? Don Juan Don Quixote Til Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks Thus Spake Zarathustra

21. "Primavera" ("Spring") from "Le Quattro Stagioni" ("The Four Seasons") is one of the most frequently heard classical pieces. Which Italian Baroque composer wrote this piece? Domenico Scarlatti Arcangelo Corelli Antonio Vivaldi Allesandro Stradella

22. Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" is known to practically everyone. Which of these surprising facts is true about this piece? It is not the only Hallelujah chorus Handel wrote. It is NOT a Christmas piece. All of these It is NOT the concluding chorus of "Messiah".

23. Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his Ninth Symphony is a well-known and loved piece. The text is from Schiller's "An die Freude". Which of these statements is true of the text of the "Ode to Joy"? Beethoven shortened it for the Ninth Symphony. The philosophy of the poem was passe when Beethoven used it. All of these Schiller himself considered it "A bad poem".

24. Johann Strauss Jr. wrote the famous "Blue Danube Waltz", with which you are undoubtedly familiar. Which of the following statements are true? Strauss' grandfather had drowned himself in the Danube. The piece was considered politically subversive when it appeared. There were originally words to this piece. All of these

25. This wildly popular classical piece was reluctantly composed in 1880 in a little over a month for a ceremonial occasion commemorating the country's victory in a war earlier in the 19th century. Its composer didn't think much of it and described it simply as "Very loud and noisy". Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" from "Die Walkure" Beethoven's Fifth Symphony Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" Strauss' "Dance of the Seven Veils" from "Salome"