Q 01/05

Which Bach work thunders through the opening minutes of Disney's 1940 film Fantasia?

A) Air on the G String

B) Toccata and Fugue in D minor

C) Sheep May Safely Graze

D) Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Answer · why

B) Toccata and Fugue in D minor

Toccata and Fugue in D minor is an organ piece, but Fantasia plays it in an orchestral arrangement by the film's conductor, Leopold Stokowski; its ope...

Q 02/05

Which musical form pits a virtuoso soloist against an orchestra, usually with a cadenza for showing off?

A) Symphony

B) Sonata

C) Concerto

D) Oratorio

Answer · why

C) Concerto

Concerto soloists once improvised the cadenza on the spot; Beethoven broke with the habit in his last piano concerto, writing the passage out and forb...

Q 03/05

Which instrument is the highest-pitched regular member of the orchestra's brass section?

A) French horn

B) Trumpet

C) Trombone

D) Tuba

Answer · why

B) Trumpet

The natural trumpet of the Baroque era had no valves and could sound only the notes of its harmonic series, which is why its parts climb so high: up t...

Q 04/05

Which Beethoven work opens with the four-note 'fate knocking at the door' motif, da-da-da-DUM?

A) Symphony No. 9

B) Symphony No. 3

C) Piano Sonata No. 5

D) Symphony No. 5

Answer · why

D) Symphony No. 5

Symphony No. 5's short-short-short-long is Morse code for V, so the BBC used it, played on drums, to open wartime broadcasts to occupied Europe; it pr...

Q 05/05

The Classical era turned from the Baroque's interweaving voices toward which texture, one melody supported by chords?

A) Polyphony

B) Homophony

C) Antiphony

D) Heterophony

Answer · why

B) Homophony

Homophony, one tune over a chordal accompaniment, suited the era's taste for clarity; a pop singer backed by piano or guitar chords is using the same ...