Sunday afternoons are special on WSHU. Every week, David Bouchier puts a different spin on classical music - anecdotes about the great composers, poetry, musical history, and even musical jokes. Sunday Matinée may explore the hidden links between music and literature, composers' letters, music for a special season of the year, or music designed to make you think. Whatever the theme, David Bouchier gives classical music a new dimension on Sunday afternoons.

On this late winter Sunday afternoon we have a musical trivia quiz for the whole family. What was Rossini's favorite food? Who said: "How Wonderful Opera Would be if there were no singers"? How many times has the legend of Faust been set to music? This is a test, but there are no grades and you can keep score secretly at home.

Here are the questions, the answers, and the musical illustrations:

  • Q. Which famous composer's name translates into English as "Joe Green?"

    • A. Giuseppi Verdi: La Forza del Destino overture

  • Q. Who said: "If everyone insisted on playing first violin there would be no orchestra"?

    • A. Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen Op. 15 "Scenes from Childhood"

  • Q. Which one of Haydn's symphonies is called "The Clock," and why?

    • A. Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 101 in D, "The Clock" (because of the ticking clock effect in the second movement)

  • Q. Which French composer tried and failed to assemble the world's largest symphony orchestra?

    • A. Hector Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture (Planned an orchestra of 467 pieces, but failed to assemble it)

  • Q. What kind of instrument is a glass armonica, and who invented it?

    • A. Dean Shostak: Greensleeves (A glass armonica is a series of tuned, spinning bowls played by hand, invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761).

  • Q. Which star conductor married which star cellist in 1966?

    • A. Sir Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations (Daniel Barenboim married Jacqueline du Pre in 1967).

  • Q. Which Shakespeare play has inspired the largest number of musical compositions?

    • A. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Tempest (Inspired 32 musical treatments).

  • Q. Which piece in the classical repertoire has inspired the largest number of popular songs?

    • A. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in c (Full Moon and Empty Arms; I Think of You; All by Myself)

  • Q. How many operas include a suicide scene?

    • A. Leo Delibes: Lakme Flower Duet (At least 32 well-known operas include a suicide scene).

  • Q. Who advised young conductors: "Never look encouragingly at the brass"?

    • A. Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspeigel's Merry Pranks

  • Q. Which great composer had the largest number of children?

    • A. Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude & Fugue in G (Bach had twenty children by two wives)

  • Q. What was Rossini's favorite food?

    • A. Gioacchino Rossini: La Cenerentola Overture (Rossini loved foie gras -goose liver.)

  • Q. What was the first American popular song inspired by a classical theme?

    • A. Frederic Chopin: Fantasie-Impromptu in c-sharp (Inspired the 1916 popular song "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows.")

  • Q. Which of Mendelssohn's symphonies is called "The Reformation," and why?

    • A. Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 in d "The Reformation" (A celebration of the tricentenary of the Augsburg Confession in 1630).

  • Q. How many times has the Faust legend been set to music?

    • A. Charles Gounod: Faust - Ballet Music (Faust has been set to music by various composers at least 32 times).

  • Q. What popular piece of classical music continues on the same beat for 326 relentless bars?

    • A. Maurice Ravel: Bolero

  • Q. What is the oldest orchestra in America?

    • A. George Bizet: Symphony No. 1, adagio (The New York Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1842).

  • Q. What Russian music was composed to celebrate a memorial exhibition of watercolor paintings?

    • A. Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Commemorating an exhibition by Mussorgsky's friend Victor Hartmann in 1874).


Join David Bouchier for Musical Trivia on Sunday Matinee, from 1 till 6, right after Sunday Baroque, only on WSHU and WSUF.

This program is produced in the Long Island Studio of WSHU & WSUF, on the campus of Suffolk County Community College in Selden, New York.

This page and its contents are copyright WSHU-FM, Fairfield, CT., and David Bouchier.

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