Hard Music Trivia Questions

33 hard music trivia questions with answers

1. How many different notes are there in a chromatic scale?

   Answer: Twelve Each step is a semitone, which on a piano means every key in turn.

2. What was Elton John's birth name?

   Answer: Reginald Dwight Gordon Sumner is Sting; the other two are Bowie and Bono.

3. Which composer kept writing music after losing his hearing?

   Answer: Beethoven His deafness began in his late twenties and grew steadily worse.

4. What is the highest female singing voice type?

   Answer: Soprano Contralto is the lowest of the standard female voice types.

5. Which instrument family does the saxophone belong to?

   Answer: Woodwind It is made of brass, but it sounds through a reed, which puts it with the woodwinds.

6. What does BPM stand for in music?

   Answer: Beats per minute It is the standard way of writing down a tempo.

7. Which Italian term tells a musician to play very fast?

   Answer: Presto Largo is at the other end of the scale, meaning broad and slow.

8. What is the technique of combining two or more independent melodies called?

   Answer: Counterpoint Bach's fugues are the textbook example of it.

9. A time signature of three-four is typical of which dance?

   Answer: The waltz The count falls in threes, which is what gives the waltz its swing.

10. Who composed the Brandenburg Concertos?

    Answer: Johann Sebastian Bach Six concertos, dedicated to a German margrave who seems never to have used them.

11. Stradivarius instruments were made in which country?

    Answer: Italy Antonio Stradivari worked in the northern Italian town of Cremona.

12. What does a fermata instruct a performer to do?

    Answer: Hold the note longer than written It is written as a dot beneath a small arc above the note.

13. Played from C to C on a piano, which scale uses only the white keys?

    Answer: C major That is why it has no sharps or flats in its key signature.

14. Which Russian composer wrote the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker?

    Answer: Tchaikovsky He also wrote the 1812 Overture, cannon and all.

15. Which composer wrote the four-opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung?

    Answer: Richard Wagner The complete cycle was first performed at Wagner's own theatre in Bayreuth in 1876.

16. Which Czech composer wrote the New World Symphony?

    Answer: Antonin Dvorak He wrote it in 1893 while directing the National Conservatory of Music in New York.

17. Whose Symphony No. 94 is nicknamed the Surprise Symphony?

    Answer: Joseph Haydn Haydn wrote 104 numbered symphonies and is often called the father of the symphony.

18. What does the circle of fifths show?

    Answer: The relationships among the twelve keys Moving clockwise around the circle adds one sharp to each successive key signature.

19. Which clef is normally used for viola parts?

    Answer: Alto clef The alto clef places middle C on the middle line of the staff.

20. What is the term for rhythm that stresses the off-beats?

    Answer: Syncopation Syncopation is central to ragtime, jazz and most popular music.

21. The theremin, an electronic instrument played without being touched, was invented in which country?

    Answer: Russia Leon Theremin demonstrated it in 1920 and it later featured in 1950s science fiction film scores.

22. Which Beach Boys album of 1966 was largely written and produced by Brian Wilson?

    Answer: Pet Sounds Wilson recorded much of it with session musicians while the rest of the band was on tour.

23. Which 1966 Bob Dylan album was a double LP?

    Answer: Blonde on Blonde It is often cited as rock's first studio double album.

24. The 1959 album Kind of Blue was recorded by which jazz musician?

    Answer: Miles Davis The sessions took just two days and featured Coltrane and pianist Bill Evans.

25. What was David Bowie's surname at birth?

    Answer: Jones He adopted the stage name in 1965 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.

26. Which producer developed the Wall of Sound recording style in the early 1960s?

    Answer: Phil Spector He used it on records by the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers.

27. Sun Records, which made Elvis Presley's first recordings, was based in which city?

    Answer: Memphis Sam Phillips founded the label in 1952 and sold Presley's contract to RCA in 1955.

28. Which term tells a performer to slow down gradually?

    Answer: Ritardando Rallentando means much the same and the two are used almost interchangeably.

29. What does the marking 'da capo' instruct a performer to do?

    Answer: Return to the beginning It is often paired with 'al fine', meaning play through to the marked end.

30. What is a leitmotif?

    Answer: A recurring theme tied to a character or idea Wagner's operas made the device famous and film composers adopted it widely.

31. Who wrote the music and lyrics for Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods?

    Answer: Stephen Sondheim Sondheim wrote the lyrics for West Side Story before composing his own shows.

32. Which 1927 show by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II is regarded as the first modern book musical?

    Answer: Show Boat Adapted from Edna Ferber's novel, it wove its songs into a serious dramatic plot.

33. Who composed the score for the 1993 film Schindler's List?

    Answer: John Williams Itzhak Perlman played the violin solos and Williams won his fifth Academy Award for the score.