Are You Smarter Than a Grade Three Piano Student?
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Answer:
Napoleon Bonaparte
Originally dedicated to Napoleon, Beethoven later scratched out the dedication, only to recant. Three months after retracting his initial Napoleonic dedication of the symphony in the autumn of 1804, Beethoven informed his music publisher that “The title of the symphony is really Bonaparte.”
Answer:
piano music
Chopin’s works for solo piano include about 61 mazurkas, 16 polonaises, 26 preludes, 27 études, 21 nocturnes, 20 waltzes, 3 sonatas, 4 ballades, 4 scherzos, 4 impromptus, and many individual pieces—such as the Barcarolle, Opus 60 (1846); the Fantasia, Opus 49 (1841); and the Berceuse, Opus 57 (1845)—as well as 17 Polish songs.
Answer:
Steinway
In 1853, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg founded Steinway & Sons. His first workshop in America was in a small loft at the back of 85 Varick Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The first piano made by Steinway & Sons was given the number 483 because Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg had built 482 pianos in Germany. Number 483 was sold to a New York family for $500.
Answer:
Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828)
A Lied (plural: Lieder) is a German song that sets poetry to music, performed by a single vocalist and piano. Franz Peter Schubert 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer who wrote more than 600 secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of piano and chamber music.
Answer:
was a pioneer in rock’n roll music
Presley is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales estimated around 500 million records worldwide.
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Billy Joel
Billy may have lost his hair, but not his eyesight.
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Otis Williams (The Temptations)
The term falsetto is most often used in the context of singing to refer to a type of vocal phonation that enables the singer to sing notes beyond the vocal range of the normal or modal voice.
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Silence
John Cage’s (1912-1992) best known work is the 1952 composition 4′33″, a piece performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing but be present for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is intended to be the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance.
Answer:
a riot!
There were anti-Russian, anti-Diaghilev and anti-Nijinsky factions at work in Paris, determined to disrupt proceedings before a note of music had been heard. Read more…https://www.classicfm.com/composers/stravinsky/news/rite-and-the-riot/
Answer:
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Debussy, the oldest of 5 children was born in a town near Paris. His father owned a china shop, and his mother was a seamstress. He started taking piano lessons at age 7 and began studying at the the Paris Conservatory at age 10.
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Ludwig van Beethoven (Fidelio)
Beethoven revised Fidelio three times; the work caused Beethoven so much vexation that he vowed never to compose another opera.
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English Horn
The English Horn or “Cor Anglais” is a woodwind instrument using a double reed. The other instruments are “brass” which use metal mouthpieces.
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As a joke…
During rehearsals, Ross Gorman (Whiteman’s virtuoso clarinetist) played the opening measure with a noticeable glissando, ‘stretching’ the notes out and adding what he considered a jazzy, humorous touch to the passage. Reacting favorably to Gorman’s whimsy, Gershwin asked him to perform the opening measure that way…. and to add as much of a ‘wail’ as possible.
Do You Know Your Theory?
Answer:
Take the second last flat and that’s your key (except for F Major which has only one flat)
Answer:
Take the last sharp, and go UP one semitone (half-step)
Answer:
F-C-G-D-A-E-B#
MNEMONIC AID: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle
Answer:
B-E-A-D-G-C-F#
The order of flats is the exact opposite as the order of sharps.
JUST REVERSE: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle
TO: Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father