Quiz.

Started by Irons, January 19, 2019, 11:54:09 AM

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NikF4

Quote from: Christo on March 08, 2019, 03:49:54 AM
OK. Which performer-composer had a vivid interest in both philosophy and science, wrote a philosophical treatise, lectured on natural phenomena (and published about them) and owned a telescope to observe meteorites and other cosmic events?  ::)

Koechlin?

Christo

Quote from: NikF4 on March 08, 2019, 04:47:31 AM
Koechlin?
Nope.

Quote from: ritter on March 08, 2019, 04:46:07 AM
Saint-Saëns?

YESSS! "Saint-Saëns studied geology, archaeology, botany, and lepidoptery and was an expert at mathematics. He held discussions with Europe's finest scientists and wrote scholarly articles on acoustics, occult sciences, Roman theatre decoration, and ancient instruments. He wrote a philosophical treatise, Problèmes et Mystères, which spoke of science and art replacing religion, his pessimistic and atheistic ideas foreshadowing Existentialism. He was a member of the Astronomical Society of France, lectured on mirages, had a telescope made to his own specifications, and even planned concerts to correspond to astronomical events such as solar eclipses".

Your turn.  ;D
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

ritter

#682
Quote from: Christo on March 08, 2019, 05:02:18 AM
Nope.

YESSS! "Saint-Saëns studied geology, archaeology, botany, and lepidoptery and was an expert at mathematics. He held discussions with Europe's finest scientists and wrote scholarly articles on acoustics, occult sciences, Roman theatre decoration, and ancient instruments. He wrote a philosophical treatise, Problèmes et Mystères, which spoke of science and art replacing religion, his pessimistic and atheistic ideas foreshadowing Existentialism. He was a member of the Astronomical Society of France, lectured on mirages, had a telescope made to his own specifications, and even planned concerts to correspond to astronomical events such as solar eclipses".

Your turn.  ;D
I do hope he was better at all that than he was at composing music.  ::)  Just kidding, of course.  ;)

This young composer, later to became arch-famous, dedicated one of his early pieces to his teacher (who is also relatively well known). After the dedicatee had read it, he returned it to the student with corrections in red ink. The young composer shouted something that could be translated as "You are full of sh**!" at his teacher, and never returned to class with him.

Some time later, when the piece in question was to be published, the editor asked the composer whether the dedication should be maintained. It's reported the composer grabbed a letter opener and started stabbing his manuscript until it was almost shredded to pieces.  ??? ;D

Who was the (later to become arch-famous) composer, who was the teacher, and what work was it?


Jo498

Someone even more irate and choleric than Beethoven!
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

ritter

At that young age, yes...he later mellowed (a bit).

ritter

Quote from: San Antone on March 08, 2019, 06:04:51 AM
Stravinsky
Nope. ..but the student did have a close rapport with Igor Fyodorovich,.

Florestan

Quote from: ritter on March 08, 2019, 01:43:42 AM
Another easy one (while we wait for Florestan to come up with something like "I composed 200 piano sonatas that have never been performed, and my name only appears in the birth registry of some remote outpost of the Habsburg empire. What was my dog's name? " ;D).

You actually gave me a splendid idea. I can hardly wait for my turn.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Biffo

The incident with the manuscript is stuck somewhere in the back of mind but refuses to show itself. Meanwhile I can only guess at Pierre Boulez (again) - he had a rancorous falling out with his teacher Rene Leibowitz. Boulez had a rapport with Stravinsky as a conductor.

Florestan

The incident itself describes quite well Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein quarrelling over the former's First Piano Concerto.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

ritter

Quote from: Florestan on March 08, 2019, 06:56:42 AM
The incident itself describes quite well Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein quarrelling over the former's First Piano Concerto.
Only one word in that sentence coincides with what we're looking for...and can we really say that either of the men you mention had any kind of rapport with Stravinsky?

Florestan

Quote from: ritter on March 08, 2019, 07:02:01 AM
Only one word in that sentence coincides with what we're looking for...and can we really say that either of the men you mention had any kind of rapport with Stravinsky?

Oh, I wasn't suggesting this was the solution, I was just thinking out loud.  :)
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

ritter

Quote from: Florestan on March 08, 2019, 07:09:22 AM
Oh, I wasn't suggesting this was the solution, I was just thinking out loud.  :)
Fair enough...and I suppose you know me well enough as to infer i wouldn't include Tchaikovsky in my question (this is a clue in itself, kinda).  ;)

Florestan

Quote from: ritter on March 08, 2019, 07:12:29 AM
Fair enough...and I suppose you know me well enough as to infer i wouldn't include Tchaikovsky in my question (this is a clue in itself, kinda).  ;)

What about biffo's suggestion above? You might have missed it.

Quote from: Biffo on March 08, 2019, 06:54:39 AM
The incident with the manuscript is stuck somewhere in the back of mind but refuses to show itself. Meanwhile I can only guess at Pierre Boulez (again) - he had a rancorous falling out with his teacher Rene Leibowitz. Boulez had a rapport with Stravinsky as a conductor.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

ritter

#693
Quote from: Florestan on March 08, 2019, 07:13:13 AM
What about biffo's suggestion above? You might have missed it.
Sorry, I indeed missed it. :-[

Spot on. The incident is reported in Joan Peyser's gossipy biigraphy of Boulez. The work was Boulez's Première sonate.

Biffo's turn... :)

Biffo

Probably too easy!

This long-lived composer was born in Russian Poland but subsequently lived and studied in Warsaw, Vienna and Dresden. He eventually finished up in London. He is best known for his film music and allegedly turned down the opportunity to write a 'concerto' now named after his childhood home.

Florestan

Quote from: Biffo on March 08, 2019, 07:50:39 AM
Probably too easy!

This long-lived composer was born in Russian Poland but subsequently lived and studied in Warsaw, Vienna and Dresden. He eventually finished up in London. He is best known for his film music and allegedly turned down the opportunity to write a 'concerto' now named after his childhood home.

Andrzej Panufnik?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

ritter

Quote from: Florestan on March 08, 2019, 08:45:15 AM
Andrzej Panufnik?
Unlikely. I thought of him too, but found no connection to Dresden, and the film that features the Warsaw Concerto (Dangerous Moonlight) being from 1941, when AFAIK Panufnik was trapped in Warsaw, I doubt they thought about him for that piece.

Biffo


Florestan

Allan Gray alias Józef Żmigrod.

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Biffo