Music Trivia Question 5

Fill in the missing lyrics

"Seventy Six trombones led the big parade
With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand"

Which are the missing instruments?

a. Trombones
b. Bagpipes
c. Trumpets
d. Kazoos

The answer is A, Trombones!

"Seventy Six Trombones" is the signature song from the 1957 musical play The Music Man, written by Meredith Willson. The song also appeared in the 1962 film and 2003 TV movie adaptations. "Professor" Harold Hill uses the song to help the townspeople of the fictional River City, Iowa visualize their children playing in a marching band by hearkening back to a day when he saw several famous bandleaders' bands in a combined performance. While an average-sized high-school marching band might have 10 musicians playing the trombone, and a large university band seldom has more than 30, the band that Harold is describing included 76 trombones, 110 cornets, "over a thousand reeds," double bell euphoniums and "fifty mounted cannon" (popular in bands of the time); if such a band actually existed, it would be at least a tenth of a mile long!

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Team ARC

Music Trivia Question 4

Which classical composer wrote the music for the opera "The Magic Flute"?

a. Rossini
b. Mozart
c. Verdi
d. Beethoven

The answer is B, Mozart!

The Magic Flute (German Die Zauberflöte) was composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The opera was premiered in Vienna on 30 September 1791, at the suburban Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden. Mozart conducted the orchestra, Schikaneder himself played Papageno, while the role of the Queen of the Night was sung by Mozart's sister-in-law Josepha Hofer.

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Music Trivia Question 3

Jazz is a 20th century musical idiom which has passed through various trends. One of the these, Be-bop, is mainly attributed to what two jazz legends?

a. Duke Ellington and Joe "King" Oliver
b. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
c. Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith
d. Sammy Davis Jr. and Ray Charles

The answer is B, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie!

Gillespie and Parker, both out of the Earl Hines Band in Chicago had traveled with some of the pre-bop masters, including Jack Teagarden, Earl Hines and Jay McShann. These forerunners of bebop began exploring advanced harmonies, complex syncopation, altered chords, and chord substitutions and the bop generation advanced these techniques with a more freewheeling and often arcane approach. Bebop or bop is a style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody. In a bebop compositions such as Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts", the rhythmic emphasis is on the second and fourth beats of the measure. Such new rhythmic phrasing techniques give the typical bop solo a feeling of floating free over the underlying song form, rather than being tied into the song form.

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Music Trivia Question 2

This popular classical piece was composed in 1880 in a little over a month for a ceremonial occasion commemorating the country's victory in a war earlier in the 19th century. Its composer didn't think much of it and described it simply as "Very loud and noisy".

a. Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" from Die Walkure
b. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
c. Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture"
d. Strauss' "Dance of the Seven Veils" from "Salome"

The answer is C, Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture"!

The Year 1812, Festival Overture in E flat major, Op. 49, popularly known as the 1812 Overture, is an overture written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to commemorate Russia's defense of Moscow against Napoleon's advancing Grande Armée at the Battle of Borodino in 1812. The overture debuted in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow on August 20, 1882, in the Gregorian or NS calendar (the date in the Julian or OS calendar was August 8). The overture is best known for its climactic volley of cannon fire and ringing chimes. Sixteen cannon shots are written into the score of the Overture; logistics of safety and precision in placement of the shots require either well-drilled military crews using modern cannon, or else the use of sixteen pieces of muzzle-loading artillery, since any reloading schemes to attain the sixteen shots or even a semblance of them in the two minute time span involved makes safety and precision impossible with 1800s artillery. Time lag alone precludes implementation of cues for the shots for 1812-era field pieces.

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Music Trivia Question 1

Which famous Christmas carol is sung to a melody by Felix Mendelssohn?

a. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
b. Deck the Halls
c. Jingle Bells
d. Silent Night

The answer is A, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!

"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is a Christmas hymn or carol written by Charles Wesley, brother of the Methodist movement founder John Wesley. It first appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1739, under the topic of "Hymn for Christmas-Day". The original opening couplet was "Hark! how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings". The version known today is the result of alterations by various hands, most notably George Whitefield, Wesley's co-worker, who changed the opening couplet to the familiar one we know today. The tune that is normally used for this carol is based on a chorus composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1840, part of his Festgesang (Gutenberg cantata) or Festgesang zur Eröffnung der am ersten Tage der vierten Säkularfeier der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst ("Festival Song .. to commemorate the invention of book printing"). This hymn was regarded as one of the Great Four Anglican Hymns and published as number 403 in "The Church Hymn Book" (New York and Chicago, USA, 1872).

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IHS Trivia Question 4

How many gallons of air does the average adult human inhale daily?

a. 30
b. 300
c. 3,000
d. 30,000

The answer is C, 3,000!

On average, people take 24,000 breaths each day. Each minute we breathe about 2 gallons of air, which means we take in close to 3,000 gallons in one day! Breathing is one of the few bodily functions which, within limits, can be controlled both consciously and unconsciously. So happy spring, go out and enjoy a breath of fresh air!

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Team ARC

IHS Trivia Question 3

What is the longest and largest nerve in the human body?

a. Spinal cord
b. Sciatic nerve
c. Femoral nerve
d. Ulnar nerve

The answer is B, Sciatic nerve!

The sciatic nerve--also known as the ischiatic nerve--is a large nerve fiber in humans and other animals. It begins in the lower back and runs through the buttock and down the lower limb. It is the longest and widest single nerve in the human body. The sciatic supplies nearly the whole of the skin of the leg, the muscles of the back of the thigh, and those of the leg and foot.

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