Composers
Because of his enormous hands, this piano composer is known for his fiendishly difficult compositions with near-impossible reaches.
Who is Sergei Rachmaninoff?
What is the flute?
This ceremonious piece by Edward Elgar is typically played at royal processions and school graduations.
What is Pomp and Circumstance?
In a 1980 interview, the lead singer of this band said, “None of us could read music… None of us can write it. But as pure musicians, as inspired humans to make the noise, [we] are as good as anybody.”
Who are the Beatles?
This term refers to a broken chord played in rising or descending order.
What is an arpeggio?
Historians believe that this German composer was prone to manic-depressive episodes and was most likely bipolar.
Who is Robert Schumann?
This plucked stringed musical instrument of African origin was popularized in the United States by slaves in the 19th century and influences American folk music and bluegrass.
What is a banjo?
This symphonic piece is typically accompanied with a fireworks display or actual cannon fire.
What is the 1812 Overture?
This Hungarian pianist received so many requests for locks of his hair that he bought a dog and sent his admirers clippings of its fur instead.
Who is Franz Liszt? (the Lisztomania was real)
This musical notation term means to play in a singing-like fashion.
What is cantabile?
Flight of the Bumblebee was composed by this Russian composer.
Who is Rimsky-Korsakov?
Modern pianos have this number of black keys.
What is 36 keys?
Tchaikovsky's famously passionate Symphony No. 6 goes by this title, which means "evoking pity".
What is Pathétique?
This symphony orchestra was booked to travel on the Titanic, before they switched ships last-minute!
This is the 5th mode of the major scale as it is derived from the 5th note of the major scale, used in "Royals" by Lorde.
What is Mixolydian mode?
In many of his compositions, this Soviet composer hid the DSCH motif as a musical cryptogram to spell his name. (DSCH is German notation for D, E flat, C, B)
Who is Dmitri Schostakowitsch?
This electronic musical instrument was invented in 1920 and works by generating an electromagnetic field around two antennae.
What is a theremin?
Bach's Toccata and Fugue, often associated with Halloween, is written is this musical key.
What is D minor?
This Russian composer was infatuated with his nephew Vladimir Davydov and sent him love letters.
Who is Tchaikovsky?
Coined by a music scholar of Wagner, this word refers to a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation.
What is leifmotif?
Who is Johannes Brahms?
Giovanni Bottesini was considered the Paganini of this instrument.
What is the double bass?
This experimental composition was influenced by Zen Buddhism and the quiet meditation of silence.
What is 4'33''?
This baroque composer wrote his Fugue in G minor, called the 'cat fugue', after his cat walked across his keyboard.
Who is Scarlatti?
Exposition, development, and recapitulation are the three main sections of this compositional music structure.
What is Sonata form?