Trivia quiz game!

[Brian]

If you get a quiz answer right, you get to ask the next question!

I'll start off with something I just learned.

Q. What do Alisa Weilerstein, John Corigliano, and Alan Gilbert have in common?

[(poco) Sforzando]

If you get a quiz answer right, you get to ask the next question!

I'll start off with something I just learned.

Q. What do Alisa Weilerstein, John Corigliano, and Alan Gilbert have in common?

All have parents in the NY Philharmonic.

[Brian]

All have parents in the NY Philharmonic.

Their parents also have another, more specific job title in common...

[Mirror Image]

Their parents also have another, more specific job title in common...

Their parents were all violinists?

[(poco) Sforzando]

Their parents were all violinists?

Corigliano Sr. was concertmaster. Perhaps so are the rest.

[Brian]

Corigliano Sr. was concertmaster. Perhaps so are the rest.

I will let you ask the next trivia question - this is close enough to correct. Corigliano Sr., Papa Gilbert, and Papa Weilerstein were three successive concertmasters of the San Antonio Symphony in the 1960s!

[(poco) Sforzando]

I will let you ask the next trivia question - this is close enough to correct. Corigliano Sr., Papa Gilbert, and Papa Weilerstein were three successive concertmasters of the San Antonio Symphony in the 1960s!

So this thread grinds to a halt until I ask my question and verify the answer? Okey dokey. Here goes:

Back as a freshman composition major at Oberlin, my theory teacher noted that there were many compositions that started in the minor and ended in the tonic major. (Beethoven's 5th symphony, starting in C minor and ending in C major over the course of its four movements, being an obvious example.) But he could not think of any compositions that started in the major and ended in the tonic minor. I came up with two for the next class - one a four-movement symphony where the first movement is in the major and the finale in the tonic minor, the other a short piano piece that starts in major and ends in minor. Name 'em.

[TheGSMoeller]

So this thread grinds to a halt until I ask my question and verify the answer? Okey dokey. Here goes:

Back as a freshman composition major at Oberlin, my theory teacher noted that there were many compositions that started in the minor and ended in the tonic major. (Beethoven's 5th symphony, starting in C minor and ending in C major over the course of its four movements, being an obvious example.) But he could not think of any compositions that started in the major and ended in the tonic minor. I came up with two for the next class - one a four-movement symphony where the first movement is in the major and the finale in the tonic minor, the other a short piano piece that starts in major and ends in minor. Name 'em.

Mendelssohn's Italian? It actually came quite quickly because I've alway been fascinated with its structure.

[Brian]

So this thread grinds to a halt until I ask my question and verify the answer?

We're classical music lovers; we have long attention spans.

The short piano piece could be Chopin's Ballade No. 2, except that I think it ends in the "wrong" minor.

[amw]

Mendelssohn Italian & Schubert's E-flat major impromptu are the first answers that come to mind.

Some others offhand:
Brahms's Rhapsody Op. 119/4 (E flat major -> minor)
Brahms's Piano Trio Op. 8 (B major -> minor)
Arensky's Piano Quintet (D major -> minor)
Vorisek's Violin Sonata (G major -> minor)
one of the Chopin mazurkas, but I can't recall which
also Chopin's B major nocturne from Op. 32, though some manuscripts have a Picardy third on the last chord (which sounds weird as hell in my educated opinion)
Schubert Die böse Farbe from Die schöne Müllerin (B major -> B minor)

discounting works like Brahms 3 and the "Emperor" quartet where the tonic minor finale works its way round to major in the end, and odd cases like Mendelssohn's first string quartet in E flat whose finale is mostly in C minor

I reread this post and wow, I am a fucking nerd. :S

[(poco) Sforzando]

I go to sleep and you guys come up with excellent answers. What a bunch of fucking nerds. Mendelssohn's Italian and the Brahms 119/4 were my answers, so while TheGSMoeller is right, amw takes it having come up with the requested two examples. The Schubert impromptu works, as does the Chopin nocturne, which I always play with a minor chord at the end. Didn't know the Vorisek; back when I was in college nobody was into unsungs. Brian's Chopin ballade doesn't meet the test, as it starts in F major and ends in A minor, and thus isn't a tonic minor.

So amw gets to pose the next question.

[Brian]

Mendelssohn must have liked that sort of trick; he almost does it in the D major piano sextet, but pulls up out of D minor at nearly the last second. Maybe that gave him the courage to try it for real with the Italian symphony. Or maybe not: Wikipedia has a list of major-minor compositions and Mendelssohn seems to be one of the biggest practitioners.

I just found the Wiki now while looking up the Italian Symphony. We're all such wonderful nerds that we didn't need it.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Maybe that gave him the courage to try it for real with the Italian symphony.

How fortunate for us that Mendelssohn had such courage! The last thing we need is fraidy-cat composers.

We're all such wonderful nerds that we didn't need it.

We are indeed.

[amw]

Um, ok.

I can't think of very many good ones—maybe I'll hold off on answering so quickly next time

Name a famous composer born on February 29th. For extra credit, name another, more obscure composer also born on February 29th (of a different year), featured on a recent release from a well-known British label.

[TheGSMoeller]

Um, ok.

I can't think of very many good ones—maybe I'll hold off on answering so quickly next time

Name a famous composer born on February 29th. For extra credit, name another, more obscure composer also born on February 29th (of a different year), featured on a recent release from a well-known British label.

Uh-oh. That one I may actually have to google/wiki. 

[mc ukrneal]

Uh-oh. That one I may actually have to google/wiki. 

You actually may have known the first, as that was Rossini. But the second - really no idea. I kmow Jimmy Dorsey was born on the 29th (as was Dinah Shore), but I doubt that is who you are looking for.

[TheGSMoeller]

You actually may have known the first, as that was Rossini. But the second - really no idea. I kmow Jimmy Dorsey was born on the 29th (as was Dinah Shore), but I doubt that is who you are looking for.

I'm not good with birthdays in general. All I know is that I share a birthday with Angelina Jolie, we still have yet to share that occasion together.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Um, ok.

I can't think of very many good ones—maybe I'll hold off on answering so quickly next time

Name a famous composer born on February 29th. For extra credit, name another, more obscure composer also born on February 29th (of a different year), featured on a recent release from a well-known British label.

Does Frederick from The Pirates of Penzance qualify?

[DaveF]

... another, more obscure composer also born on February 29th (of a different year), featured on a recent release from a well-known British label.

This one?:

[asin]B007PDRQ84[/asin]

[amw]

This one?:

I was thinking of Sir Frederic Cowen on Chandos, but Richardson definitely counts as well, so you get the next question.

Rossini was the other answer so mc ukrneal can also ask a question if he desires.