Counterpoint Quiz Answers

1. ´Woman is fickle´ is the approximate translation of the title of which famous Verdi aria?

´La donna é mobile´ (from Rigoletto)

2. In musical terms, why do ´A Night At The Opera´, ´A Day At The Races´, and ´News Of The World´ form a sequence?

They were consecutive album releases by Queen

3. Which stage musical features the ballet ´Slaughter On Tenth Avenue´?

On Your Toes

4. A setting of the hymn ´Veni Creator Spiritus´ opens which 20th century symphony?

Mahler´s Symphony No.8 (´The Symphony Of A Thousand’)

5. What collective name was given to the group of British musicians of which Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle and John Ogdon were members?

The Manchester School

6. Who composed the ´Turangalila Symphony´?

Olivier Messaien

7. Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin were singers in which group?

The Temptations

8. Which post-war bandleader is known for arrangements involving such unconventional instruments as piledriver, anvil, Paris taxi horn, hiccough, ´burpaphone and ´poontangaphone´?

Spike Jones

9. Don Alfonso and Dorabella are characters in which Mozart opera?

Cosi fan Tutte

10. When a female virtuoso pianist and composer died suddenly in 1847, it was such a shock to her devoted and more famous brother that he, too, died six months later. Who were they?

Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn