Q 01/05

Balanchine staged Stravinsky's 1942 Circus Polka for the Ringling circus; which animals danced it?

A) Horses

B) Elephants

C) Bears

D) Poodles

Answer · why

B) Elephants

Fifty elephants and fifty ballerinas danced the Circus Polka, which Stravinsky wrote after Balanchine phoned him to ask for a piece 'for some elephant...

Q 02/05

Tournedos Rossini, a steak topped with foie gras and truffle, honours the composer of which opera?

A) The Marriage of Figaro

B) The Barber of Seville

C) Madama Butterfly

D) The Magic Flute

Answer · why

B) The Barber of Seville

The Barber of Seville's composer, Gioachino Rossini, wrote no operas after Guillaume Tell in 1829 and spent his last years in Paris hosting gourmet di...

Q 03/05

Which planet, already known when Holst finished The Planets in 1917, has no movement in the suite?

A) Earth

B) Mercury

C) Saturn

D) Neptune

Answer · why

A) Earth

Earth was skipped because Holst followed astrology rather than astronomy, and Pluto, found in 1930, got a movement only when Colin Matthews wrote one ...

Q 04/05

Which composer, afraid of 13, is said to have dropped an 'a' from Moses und Aron?

A) Alban Berg

B) Arnold Schoenberg

C) Anton Webern

D) Richard Strauss

Answer · why

B) Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg dreaded years that were multiples of 13, and 'Moses und Aaron' would have had 13 letters; he died on Friday, 13 July 1951.

Q 05/05

Haydn's 1797 birthday hymn for Emperor Francis II is now the national anthem of which country?

A) Austria

B) Hungary

C) Croatia

D) Germany

Answer · why

D) Germany

Germany's Deutschlandlied sets words Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote in 1841 to Haydn's 'Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser', an Austrian emperor's hymn.