Orchestral Repertoire
This Russian composer’s 1812 Overture features actual cannon fire in performances.
Who is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky?
This Austrian composer was a child prodigy who composed over 600 works before dying at age 35.
Who is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
The term for playing multiple notes in a single bow stroke on a string instrument.
What is a slur?
This musical period was roughly from 1750 to 1820.
What is the classical period?
This German composer’s Sinfonietta for Winds is a standard of the wind ensemble repertoire, often noted for its vibrant rhythm and color.
Who is Paul Hindemith?
This German composer’s ninth symphony includes the famous Ode to Joy melody.
Who is Ludwig van Beethoven?
This Romantic composer wrote Carnival of the Animals but refused to have it published during his lifetime, except for The Swan.
Who is Camille Saint-Saëns?
This technique requires brass players to rapidly alternate between two adjacent harmonics.
What is a lip trill?
The Rite of Spring by this composer caused a riot at its premiere in 1913.
Who is Igor Stravinsky?
This Czech composer wrote the American String Quartet during his time in the United States.
Who is Antonín Dvořák?
This symphony by Beethoven was originally dedicated to Napoleon before the composer changed his mind, and its nickname starts with an "E."
Eroica
Known for his massive orchestral works, this composer’s Symphony No. 8 is often called the “Symphony of a Thousand.”
Who is Gustav Mahler?
String players use this technique to produce a whispery, eerie sound by bowing near the bridge.
What is sul ponticello?
This composer was both a prolific symphonist and an early pioneer of the string quartet form.
Who is Joseph Haydn?
This famous piece is Samuel Barber's only chamber composition for wind ensemble.
What is Summer Music?
The opening of this piece by Richard Strauss was made famous by its use in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
What is Also sprach Zarathustra?
This composer’s symphonies are often categorized as “Russian,” though he spent much of his life in the United States, composing works like The Bells and Symphony No. 2.
Who is Sergei Rachmaninoff?
This challenging technique in woodwind playing involves blowing air while simultaneously inhaling through the nose to create a continuous sound.
What is circular breathing?
This early 20th-century composer was most famous for fusing folk music with modernism, including his Romanian Dances.
Who is Béla Bartók?
This composer wrote Verklärte Nacht, a chamber work for string sextet that later became a string orchestra piece.
Who is Arnold Schoenberg?
This symphony was written in response to criticism against Joseph Stalin.
What is Shostakovich's 5th Symphony?
This 20th-century American composer wrote Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, and Fanfare for the Common Man.
Who is Aaron Copland?
On the piano, this technique requires the player to depress the keys very lightly so that the hammers barely strike the strings, creating a soft, ethereal effect.
What is una corda (or soft pedal)?
The term Gesamtkunstwerk, meaning "total work of art," was used by this composer to describe his operas.
Who is Richard Wagner?
This monumental and complex work by Beethoven, originally the final movement of his String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, was later published separately due to its challenging nature.
What is the Grosse Fuge?