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Composers Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
Composers Quizzes, Trivia

Composers Trivia

Composers Trivia Quizzes

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18 Composers quizzes and 205 Composers trivia questions.
1.
  Film Music by British Composers   top quiz  
Match Quiz
 10 Qns
Can you match these films with the British classical composers who wrote their scores? The year of each film is given, to avoid confusion with remakes and alternative versions.
Average, 10 Qns, stedman, Aug 07 23
Average
stedman editor
Aug 07 23
75 plays
2.
  Film Score Composer: Hans Zimmer   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer is a brilliant film score composer. This quiz tests your knowledge on the scores that he has composed for various films as well as the prestigious awards he received for his work. How much can you recall? Enjoy!
Easier, 10 Qns, Matthew_07, May 10 17
Easier
Matthew_07 gold member
799 plays
3.
  What's in a Film Score? Bernard Herrmann   best quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Bernard Herrmann worked with some of the biggest names in cinema such as Welles, Hitchcock, Truffaut, De Palma, and Scorsese. I'll give you some clues about films he did the music for, you just pick the title.
Average, 10 Qns, thula2, Jun 23 16
Average
thula2
300 plays
4.
Melodies and Motifs John Williams
  Melodies and Motifs: John Williams    
Photo Quiz
 10 Qns
Each question in this quiz is a short snippit of the melody of a main theme composed by the great John Williams. Can you match the melody to the movie? No sequels are used in this quiz.
Average, 10 Qns, qrayx, Apr 17 23
Average
qrayx
Apr 17 23
420 plays
5.
  Isai Puyal: A. R. Rahman    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This quiz is about the music of the great Indian composer A. R. Rahman, who has been called the Mozart of Madras.
Average, 10 Qns, Saleo, Jul 25 13
Average
Saleo
439 plays
6.
  Film Composers and the Oscars    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
All these composers have been nominated for or won Academy Awards. Can you guess them from the movies they've scored?
Average, 10 Qns, funktrumpet, Mar 09 11
Average
funktrumpet
295 plays
7.
  Composers of Classic Film Scores    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
When we watch a film we usually aren't aware of all the hard work these composers put into it and of how much their score contributes to the general effect.
Average, 10 Qns, sauterelle, Oct 31 12
Average
sauterelle
315 plays
8.
  Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western Music    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Morricone's unique musical style added so much to spaghetti western films. Are you ready to test your knowledge of those songs?
Tough, 10 Qns, ghosttowner, Jun 26 16
Tough
ghosttowner gold member
300 plays
9.
  Composer Hans Zimmer    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This is a quiz about one of my favourite film composers: Hans Zimmer.
Average, 10 Qns, lovesaphira, Jul 27 08
Average
lovesaphira
378 plays
10.
  Film Composers Quiz    
Multiple Choice
 20 Qns
This quiz is about some of my favourite film composers - John Williams, James Horner, Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. Do you know which composer scored the movie?
Average, 20 Qns, LadyCaitriona, Jul 19 06
Average
LadyCaitriona gold member
1863 plays
trivia question Quick Question
This classic composer wrote for "The Untouchables," "Once Upon A Time In the West," and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

From Quiz "Film Composers and the Oscars"




11.
  Film Composer John Williams Trivia    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
John Williams (film composer and conductor) is my favorite musical artist of all time. Here are some general questions on his music and career.
Difficult, 15 Qns, Maestrojw, Jul 19 06
Difficult
Maestrojw
1061 plays
12.
  Famous Film/TV Composer Danny Elfman    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Danny Elfman is my favorite composer. This quiz is about his life and career.
Average, 10 Qns, booksmart19, Mar 15 09
Average
booksmart19
430 plays
13.
  Movie Composers    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
These are the men who do the memorable music from the movies we love. See if you can guess the composer for the movies I have listed. Have fun and good luck!
Average, 10 Qns, califredrose, Nov 07 15
Average
califredrose
1075 plays
14.
  Great Movie Music Composers of the 80's & 90's    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
The following questions will test your knowledge of composers from fifteen different movies. A movie title and year relased will be given. Choose the score composer from the four options. Good Luck!
Tough, 15 Qns, Charger-Boy, Jul 19 06
Tough
Charger-Boy
565 plays
15.
  Film Scores: Composers, Directors, and Awards    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This quiz contains ten questions to test your knowledge on film composers. We all know Williams, Horner, Elfman and Goldsmith, but what about names like Goldenthal, Newton Howard, Debney and Newman? See how well you do with these composers and their work
Tough, 10 Qns, AnyaAngie, Apr 13 07
Tough
AnyaAngie
293 plays
16.
  Composer/Director Collaborations    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
Music is an important part of movies, and many directors have favorite composers to work with. The following questions revolve around this relationship.
Difficult, 15 Qns, asutbone, Nov 30 13
Difficult
asutbone
707 plays
17.
  Classic Movie Composers    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The film composers in this quiz wrote in Hollywood's Golden Age, and all are my favorites!
Difficult, 10 Qns, tjoebigham, Nov 09 06
Difficult
tjoebigham
423 plays
18.
  Danny Elfman Film and TV Music    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
These questions are all about Danny Elfman, a great film music composer. Good luck!
Average, 10 Qns, stureg10, Jul 19 06
Average
stureg10
513 plays

Composers Trivia Questions
1. Bernard Herrmann's first shot at a film score was for a 1941 film which has often been voted as one of the greatest American films of all time. It's a haunting score which echoes brilliantly the rise and fall of a larger than life character.

From Quiz What's in a Film Score? Bernard Herrmann

Answer: Citizen Kane

What an amazing way to start a career in film scores. Not only did "Citizen Kane" go on to become one of the most critically-acclaimed films of all time, but Bernard's score was seminal in a new approach to using music in film. Basically, he used short bursts of music to accompany the visuals rather than the almost continual music used in many Hollywood films at the time. Another brilliant trick Herrmann adopted was adapting a leitmotif to the events on screen; i.e. Kane's rise to riches and success and subsequent spiral into madness are echoed in the music, the same motif being played in different moods. Even the film's director, Orson Welles, is quoted as saying the music was 50% responsible for the film's success. An overstatement maybe, but well-deserved praise all the same.

2. Who wrote the score for "Gone with the Wind" and "Casablanca"?

From Quiz Composers of Classic Film Scores

Answer: Max Steiner

Steiner was an Austrian composer who became an American citizen. He also wrote the music for "King Kong" and "The Big Sleep".

3. Who composed the scores for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Jaws," and "Star Wars"?

From Quiz Film Composers and the Oscars

Answer: John Williams

John Williams has been an Academy Award winner several times, and has received two or three nominations in the same year many times as well. Many of his themes have become icons of music and film culture, most notably his themes from "Jaws", "Star Wars", "E.T.", and "Superman". Additionally, he has scored nearly every movie Steven Spielberg has ever directed; quite the duo!

4. Danny spent most of his childhood in which city?

From Quiz Famous Film/TV Composer Danny Elfman

Answer: Los Angeles

Milton Elfman, his father, was a teacher. Danny's mother, Blossom, was a novelist, and won an Emmy for her writing in a TV movie. Elfman also has a brother named Richard who became a director.

5. In 1994, this composer was nominated for an Academy Award for "The Shawshank Redemption." He lost. Who was it?

From Quiz Film Scores: Composers, Directors, and Awards

Answer: Thomas Newman

Hans Zimmer won that year for "The Lion King."

6. Danny Elfman wrote the opening credits music for this TV show.

From Quiz Danny Elfman Film and TV Music

Answer: The Simpsons

His music for The Simpsons won a British National Music Award in 2002.

7. Steven Spielberg and this composer have one of the most prolific and famous director/composer collaborations in movie history. Spielberg has used his talents in almost every single major motion picture he has directed. What's this composer's name?

From Quiz Composer/Director Collaborations

Answer: John Williams & Williams

John Williams has created memorable scores for the Indiana Jones series, "Jaws", "ET", "Jurassic Park," and so on. In fact, the only Spielberg movie the two didn't work together on was the 1985 film "The Color Purple."

8. "First Knight" - 1995

From Quiz Great Movie Music Composers of the 80's & 90's

Answer: Jerry Goldsmith

Long time music composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score for this new spin on the tale of Camelot. Other credits include "Islands In The Stream", "Alien" and "Star Trek"

9. This man composed the soundtracks for these famous movies, 'Saving Private Ryan' (98), 'Jurassic Park', (93) and 'Jaws' (75). Who is he?

From Quiz Movie Composers

Answer: John Williams

John Williams also did the 'Star Wars' movies, 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind', the 'Jaws' movies, the 'Indiana Jones' movies and 'E.T.' among many others.

10. For what film did Williams receive his first Academy Award win?

From Quiz Film Composer John Williams Trivia

Answer: 'Fiddler On The Roof' (1971)

Williams's first Academy Award was for his adaption of the music for the 1971 film version of 'Fiddler On The Roof.' His first Oscar win for his own Original Score would come for 'Jaws.'

11. What nationality was Erich Wolfgang Korngold?

From Quiz Classic Movie Composers

Answer: Moravian

Korngold, best known for 'Robin Hood', was born in Moravia, an Austro-Hungarian province that became Czechoslovakia after WW1.

12. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000)?

From Quiz Film Composers Quiz

Answer: James Horner

13. For which film series did John Barry write a lot of music?

From Quiz Composers of Classic Film Scores

Answer: James Bond

The composer of the first James Bond film, "Dr. No", was Monty Norman. Barry arranged the James Bond theme, but wasn't credited as composer. He composed the score for eleven James Bond films from 1963 ("From Russia with Love") to 1987 ("The Living Daylights"). Other scores by John Barry are "Body Heat" and "Dances with Wolves".

14. This classic composer wrote for "The Untouchables," "Once Upon A Time In the West," and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

From Quiz Film Composers and the Oscars

Answer: Ennio Morricone

Morricone was recognized with an Honorary Oscar in 2007. He rose to fame by scoring many films for Spaghetti-Western genius and onetime classmate Sergio Leone. He was also one of the first composers to utilize the sounds of electric guitar in his scores, an innovation which contributed to his unique sound.

15. The haunting theme song for "A Fistful of Dollars" utilized a different type of sound as the focus of the music. What was it?

From Quiz Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western Music

Answer: Whistling

John O'Neill providing the whistling for this song and also the theme song for "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

16. Hans Zimmer scored a number of animated films. Which film did he NOT score?

From Quiz Composer Hans Zimmer

Answer: Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

"Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" (2003) was scored by Harry Gregson-Williams who also scored "The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" (2005) and "Déjà vu" (2006), to name a few. Hans Zimmer's work on "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" (2002) earned him a Golden Globe Nomination.

17. In 2003, he won his first Academy Award for "Frida," a biographical film about painter Frida Kahlo. His song "Burn It Blue," from "Frida," was also nominated that year in the Song category.

From Quiz Film Scores: Composers, Directors, and Awards

Answer: Elliot Goldenthal

Goldenthal dedicated his award he earned for Best Score to the people of Mexico.

18. Since 1984, Robert Zemeckis has only used one composer. What's his name?

From Quiz Composer/Director Collaborations

Answer: Alan Silvestri & Silvestri

Alan Silvestri was the man responsible for the score of every Zemeckis film since "Romancing The Stone", including the "Back to the Future" series, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Forrest Gump", and "Contact."

19. "Big Trouble In Little China" - 1986

From Quiz Great Movie Music Composers of the 80's & 90's

Answer: John Carpenter

John Carpenter, the man behind a lot of these types of movies, wrote and performed the movie score. Other credits include "The Fog" and "Christine"

20. What film did the great Miklos Rozsa NOT win an Oscar for?

From Quiz Classic Movie Composers

Answer: The Killers

The three others were Rozsa's Oscar scores, though as every film buff knows, the 'da-da-da-dum' motif from 'Killers' became the theme of the TV classic 'Dragnet'!

21. Bernard Herrmann's first score for Alfred Hitchcock was for this 1955 black comedy which revolves around the dilemma of what to do with a corpse. Which film am I talking about?

From Quiz What's in a Film Score? Bernard Herrmann

Answer: The Trouble with Harry

Herrmann's score for "The Trouble with Harry" suits the film perfectly: it's frivolous, slightly whimsical, but subtly disturbing. The film appears to be a silly romp in an idyllic country village and the viewer almost forgets that central to the plot is the inconvenient corpse of a murdered man. Herrmann went on to produce some of his finest work for Hitchcock films, arguably peaking with "Vertigo" in 1958. He of course composed one of film histories most memorable scores for one of cinema's most iconic scenes; the "Psycho" shower scene. Hitchcock and Herrmann's final project together was "Torn Curtain" (1966) but they fell out over the type of music needed and Herrmann's score went unused.

22. Who wrote the music for Hitchcock films like "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "Vertigo", "North by Northwest" and "Psycho"?

From Quiz Composers of Classic Film Scores

Answer: Bernard Herrmann

His music added suspense to the shower scene in "Psycho". In "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956) he appears on screen as the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall playing Arthur Benjamin's cantata "Storm Clouds". Herrmann also wrote the music for "Citizen Kane" and "Taxi Driver".

23. "Aliens," "Braveheart," "Titanic" are included in his film score credits.

From Quiz Film Composers and the Oscars

Answer: James Horner

With two Oscar wins from "Titanic" alone, Horner has become a modern movie-music powerhouse. He has worked several times with esteemed director James Cameron.

24. Which song appeared on both the "Fistful of Dollars" and "For A Few Dollars More" soundtracks?

From Quiz Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western Music

Answer: Titoli

"Titoli" was the theme song for a "Fistful of Dollars." It also appears on the soundtrack of "For A Few Dollars More" but was added as filler because of the short running time of the LP.

25. James Newton Howard is famous for his partnership with which director?

From Quiz Film Scores: Composers, Directors, and Awards

Answer: M. Night Shyamalan

Shyamalan's film "The Village" earned Newton Howard an Oscar nomination. He also worked on Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable," and "Signs."

26. M. Night Shyamalan used the same composer for his three hit films, "The Sixth Sense", "Unbreakable", and "Signs." Who was he?

From Quiz Composer/Director Collaborations

Answer: James Newton Howard & Howard

Despite being one of the most prolific composers working today, James Newton Howard has never won an Academy Award, though he has been nominated for five.

27. "Days Of Thunder" - 1990

From Quiz Great Movie Music Composers of the 80's & 90's

Answer: Hans Zimmer

Any race fan will remember this movie. Hans Zimmer adds his signature sound to this Tom Cruise classic. Other credits include "Thelma and Louise", "Rain Man" and "Driving Miss Daisy"

28. This man made music for these movies, 'A Bug's Life'(98), 'Toy Story'(95) and 'Parenthood'(89). Who is he?

From Quiz Movie Composers

Answer: Randy Newman

Randy Newman has a unique voice. He also did the songs for 'James And The Giant Peach' in 1996.

29. Williams has written several concertos for various instruments. Which concerto was written shortly after the death of Williams' first wife and is dedicated to her?

From Quiz Film Composer John Williams Trivia

Answer: Violin Concerto

Williams's first wife passed in 1973, the violin concerto was completed in 1975 (though later revised) and later recorded in 1983. The flute concerto was completed in 1969 and was inspired and influenced by traditional Japanese sounds. More recently, the Cello Concerto was written specifically for Yo-Yo Ma, and the Bassoon Concerto inspired by and named after the myth of the 'The Five Sacred Trees'.

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Last Updated Jul 12 2025 5:49 AM
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