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Medium Music Trivia Questions
The medium questions from our music set, 33 of them, each with the answer and an explanation below the game.
Keys 1-4 pick an answer, Enter moves on. Nothing is saved to an account.
The middle set moves into composers, band line-ups, genres and where they came from — the Delta, Jamaica, Nashville, Detroit — plus the handful of notation questions most people met at school and have not thought about since.
33 medium music trivia questions with answers
Who composed the Ninth Symphony that includes the Ode to Joy?
Answer: Beethoven It was the first major symphony to bring a choir into the final movement.
Which band's members included Freddie Mercury and Brian May?
Answer: Queen May built his own guitar with his father before the band formed.
Which percussion instrument is made of wooden bars struck with mallets?
Answer: Xylophone Its metal-barred cousin is the glockenspiel.
How many musicians are in a string quartet?
Answer: Four Normally two violins, a viola and a cello.
Which composer wrote The Four Seasons?
Answer: Antonio Vivaldi Each of the four concertos was published with a matching poem.
Which city is the traditional home of country music in the United States?
Answer: Nashville The Grand Ole Opry radio show made it the centre of the industry.
Which genre of music originated in Jamaica in the 1960s?
Answer: Reggae It grew out of the earlier local styles ska and rocksteady.
What is a group of three notes sounded together called?
Answer: A triad Stacking two thirds gives the major and minor triads.
Which instrument did Louis Armstrong play?
Answer: Trumpet He was also a singer with one of the most imitated voices in jazz.
Who composed the opera The Magic Flute?
Answer: Mozart It premiered in Vienna in 1791, the year he died.
The blues developed in which region of the United States?
Answer: The Mississippi Delta It fed almost directly into rock and roll a few decades later.
Which four-string instrument became closely associated with Hawaii?
Answer: The ukulele It descends from a small guitar brought over by Portuguese migrants.
In written music, what does a sharp sign do to a note?
Answer: Raises it a semitone A flat sign does the opposite, and a natural cancels both.
Which record label did Berry Gordy found in Detroit?
Answer: Motown The city's car industry gave the label its name.
Who composed the ballet The Rite of Spring, whose 1913 premiere caused a near-riot?
Answer: Igor Stravinsky The Paris premiere was staged by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with choreography by Nijinsky.
Which composer wrote the oratorio Messiah?
Answer: George Frideric Handel Handel composed it in 1741 and it was first performed in Dublin in 1742.
Which Polish-born composer is known almost entirely for his piano works?
Answer: Frederic Chopin Chopin spent most of his adult life in Paris and died there in 1849.
How many symphonies did Beethoven complete?
Answer: Nine Sketches for a tenth exist, but he died in 1827 without finishing it.
Which double-reed instrument plays the bass line of the woodwind section?
Answer: Bassoon The oboe also uses a double reed but sits much higher in pitch.
What is the distance in pitch between two notes called?
Answer: An interval An octave is one particular interval, the gap between a note and the next note of the same name.
In four-four time, how many beats does a semibreve (whole note) last?
Answer: Four A minim lasts two beats and a crotchet one.
Which band released the album Rumours in 1977?
Answer: Fleetwood Mac Rumours won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1978.
Which Michael Jackson album followed Thriller in 1987?
Answer: Bad Bad produced five US number-one singles.
Which band's founding line-up included Mick Jagger and Keith Richards?
Answer: The Rolling Stones The band formed in London in 1962 and took its name from a Muddy Waters record.
Which genre of music grew up in New Orleans in the early twentieth century?
Answer: Jazz Its blend of ragtime, blues and brass-band music spread north to Chicago after 1917.
Which 1969 festival was held on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York?
Answer: Woodstock It ran for three days in August 1969 and drew an estimated 400,000 people.
Which country singer was known as the Man in Black?
Answer: Johnny Cash Cash is a member of both the Country Music and the Rock and Roll Halls of Fame.
Who composed the music for West Side Story and Candide?
Answer: Leonard Bernstein Bernstein also served as music director of the New York Philharmonic for over a decade.
Which musical is set in a Paris opera house and features a masked composer?
Answer: The Phantom of the Opera Based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel, the show opened in London in 1986.
The musical Les Miserables is based on a novel by which author?
Answer: Victor Hugo The stage show premiered in Paris in 1980 before its English-language version opened in London in 1985.
Which musical, set in 1920s Chicago, follows Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly?
Answer: Chicago The 2002 film version won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
What does 'tempo' refer to in music?
Answer: Speed Tempo markings are traditionally given in Italian, from largo to presto.
What is a libretto?
Answer: The text of an opera or musical The word is Italian for 'little book' and was originally sold to audiences before performances.
Answer key
- Beethoven
- Queen
- Xylophone
- Four
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Nashville
- Reggae
- A triad
- Trumpet
- Mozart
- The Mississippi Delta
- The ukulele
- Raises it a semitone
- Motown
- Igor Stravinsky
- George Frideric Handel
- Frederic Chopin
- Nine
- Bassoon
- An interval
- Four
- Fleetwood Mac
- Bad
- The Rolling Stones
- Jazz
- Woodstock
- Johnny Cash
- Leonard Bernstein
- The Phantom of the Opera
- Victor Hugo
- Chicago
- Speed
- The text of an opera or musical
How to play
- Pick a mode: multiple choice, true or false, a 60-second sprint, or the daily quiz.
- Answer with a tap, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. The right answer appears straight away with a line explaining it.
- Finish the round to see your score, copy the result grid, and step up a difficulty.
- Hosting a night? The full music list and a separate answer key are printed below, and the print layout drops the game and keeps the paper.
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