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Read "Cesar Franck: Late Bloomer" written by your friendly DJ

The Great Composer Quiz - Previous Answers
(Highlight the area under the question
to reveal the Composer or Masterwork)

March 11: This time it’s a Quiz with Beethovenian connections. This Great Composer spent two days in Bonn, birthplace of Beethoven. He had a cold. He and his family visited the Kapuziner Church, where it is known Beethoven played the Baroque organ. They spent the night in the Golden Carp Inn, which was torn down in the 19th century, but was located on the site where today stands the Hotel Beethoven. Neither he nor his family had any Beethoven sightings. But later, Beethoven would visit him in the city where he lived. So who was this visitor to Bonn, this Great Composer?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, age seven. The Mozarts failed to see Beethoven. That would be because Beethoven was not yet born, and would not be for another seven years. They were on the Great Western Trip of 1763 through '66. In Septmber of 1763 the Mozarts were en route to Paris. They stopped in Bonn, arriving by boat, the Elector of the town, that is, the mayor, refused to see them. They visited the church and the castle and moved on.

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March 10: This time it’s a Quiz about doing the toad work, but not liking it. This Great Composer supplemented his income from time to time by working as a critic. He evidently had only so much tolerance for this kind of work, and during one year when he was forty-one and wrote twenty-five reviews, he grew especially agitated at the misery of being a critic; of “writing nothing about nothing;” of having to wrack his brain for a few words to say about “trivial entertainments” of minor talents. So who was this reluctant reviewer, this Great Composer?
Hector Berlioz. Not only did he hate writing reviews for themselves, but he resented the time and energy they consumed which he wanted to give to composing and performing.

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March 9: This time, it’s a Quiz about how to worry your parents. At age nine this Great Composer wrote a letter to his mother which read, “I have written to tell you my worrying secret. Now don’t cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I will have to tell it now, without any nonsense. I was not meant to be an athlete. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I’m sure. I’ll ask you one more thing. - Don’t ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.” So who was this boy with foresight, this Great Composer?
Samuel Barber, born 100 years ago today in West Chester, Pennsylvania. His mother, Marguerite, was a pianist.

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March 8: This time’s it’s a Quiz about exploring your physical limits. This Great Composer stood 5' 5 ½" tall, and could not be described as hearty, but among his pastimes was to take long hikes through the mountains. Sometimes when he felt weakened from having sat at his desk too long he would take weeks to travel through mountain passes on foot. Some of these hikes helped restore him to health, but they were just as likely to leave him exhausted, and the older he got, the more likely his overland trips would wear him out. He also frequently climbed trees in his garden. So who was this walking (and climbing) man, this Great Composer?
Richard Wagner, who made a lifelong habit of attempting to climb mountains that led to his exhaustion.

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March 4: This time, it’s a Quiz about impressing people in power. At the height of this Great Composer’s great career he had the honor of performing before the Pope. He promptly followed that with several performances for, and conversations with, the Emperor, who enjoyed our Great Composer’s company so much it was reported the Emperor spoke more with our Great Composer in two weeks than he had spoken with his advisors in two years. So who was this man who pleased the Pope and was enjoyed by the Emperor, this Great Composer?
Antonio Vivaldi, born on this date in Venice in 1678. He was a hit with Pope Benedict the XIII, and hit it off with Emperor Charles the VI, when His Highness was visiting Trieste to inspect the port. Vivaldi made the 80-mile journey from Venice to Trieste, and made a new friend in the Emperor.

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March 3: This time, it’s a Quiz without a name. (You may give it a name yourself.) This Great Composer was commissioned by CBS Radio to write a work, with the request that our Great Composer not title the work, for CBS Radio wished to hold a contest for the best title. “Everybody’s Music” was the name of the radio program. Our Great Composer finished the work in time for a mid-summer broadcast. It was performed live on CBS Radio, without a title. The CBS announcer told the audience that a prize would be given for the most suitable title. He said, “The prize has no great allure in terms of cash value, although it might someday be a collector’s item. Ha ha.” The winner would receive the original score, personally autographed by the composer. Over a thousand entries came in. CBS forwarded them to our Great Composer, who replied to CBS by telegram, “Have read all title suggestions -stop - Astonished and delighted by number and variety - stop - no one title completely satisfactory.” So who was this man who would not play along with the CBS Radio marketing department, this Great Composer?
Aaron Copland. The work was given a holding title of “Music for Radio”. Eventually someone at CBS picked a title for Copland, “Prairie Journal”. Copland himself never gave it a title.

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March 2: This time, it’s a Quiz we call “Better Late Than Never.” After showing some early promise this Great Composer settled into a lackluster life of teaching and serving as an organist, writing operas that failed, and generally falling short as a Great Composer. But in his later years he fell in love with one of his students, and this ignited the late creative period that produced all of his masterpieces. One day, now in his sixties, he burst excitedly from his study to find one of his students (not that one) in the outer room. “I have got it at last,” exclaimed our Great Composer, “a most beautiful phrase!” So who was this late bloomer, this Great Composer?
Cesar Franck. His young student-muse was Augusta Holmes. The "most beautiful phrase" was the opening to his Violin Sonata in A.

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March 1: On the Chopin Bicentennial, it’s a Great Chopin Quiz. Astronauts who blasted into orbit on the Endeavor space shuttle, February 8th, carried with them a CD of Chopin’s music and a copy of a manuscript. These were gifts from the Polish government. The commander of the Endeavor, George Zamka, has Polish roots. He said that listening to Chopin in space would enhance the majesty of the cosmos. A Polish Foreign Ministry official who helped put Chopin in space said, “Chopin is universal.” But what is this work by Chopin now aboard the International Space Station?
Prelude in A Major, Op.28 No.7 - running time under forty seconds.

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February 25: This time, it’s a quiz about how to get ahead in academe. This Great Composer dropped out of college, but once he became successful in music he wanted to add an academic credential to his credits, so he wrote to the leading university in the region asking if they would like to bestow an honorary degree upon him. University officials politely declined. Our Great Composer tried a smaller university. He said in his letter, “I’m aiming for nothing but the title.” He was told he could have an honorary degree for a sum (which to this day is undisclosed). Our Great Composer paid the money and got his degree, and thereafter went by the title of doctor. So who was this validated man, this Great Composer?
Robert Schumann. He wanted one after his wife Clara was awarded an imperial title. Leipzig University turned him down, but Jena University gave him one for a price.

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February 24: This time, it’s a Quiz about recognition long overdue. This Great Composer lived in Vienna, as did so many Great Composers. Vienna worshipped him, and he brought glory to the Imperial City. But Vienna, which had a history of erecting monuments to its local heroes, did not build a monument for this hero until fifty-three years after his death, when the city held a competition for artists to submit their designs for a monument. So who was this man who would not be a statue, this Great Composer? And for those of you working at the Masters level, who was the artist who won the competition to build the monument?
Ludwig van Beethoven. Both Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms were strong financial supporters of the effort to erect a monument. The sculptor who won the competition was Caspar Zumbusch, born three years after Beethoven's death.

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February 23: This time it’s a quiz about portion sizes. This Great Composer loved to eat. I mean, he really loved to eat. And the story goes that once he entered a tavern and ordered dinner for three. The meal took so long to prepare that our Great Composer grew impatient and sent for the innkeeper. “Why do you keep me waiting so long?” he asked. The innkeeper replied, “We are waiting until your company arrives.” To which our Great Composer said angrily, “Then bring up the dinner, prestissimo. I am the company.” So who was this hungry man, this Great Composer?
George Frideric Handel, whose birthday is today (1685). Shall we share a slice of cake with him? If you'd rather not, no problem, he'll eat your slice.

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February 22: This time it’s a Quiz about genes. This Great Composer described his mother as “nervous, ambitious and purposeful…never the doting type.” She was ambitious for her children to be completely educated. “Her idea,” said our Great Composer, “ being that if everything else failed we could always become school-teachers. But she never watched every move me made.” His mother handled the family finances, while her husband, who was an easy-going type, moved from one business to the next. She also held a regular Saturday night poker party with her “girl friends.” Our Great Composer said, “I believe I have more of my mother’s qualities than my father’s.” So who was this mama’s boy, this Great Composer?
George Gershwin. His poker-playing mother was Rose, who reportedly said, “If you want to look good, and you want to look rich, you wear a fur coat.”

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