A Study of Composers

Question: Which of these composers was not alive in the 20th century?

Answer: German composer Richard Wagner died in 1881. Although his work has had an enormous effect on 20th-century music, it fell out of fashion for decades, after Germany lost two world wars.

Question: Which of these composers wrote atonal music?

Answer: Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) was the creator of the deeply influential “twelve-tone” style of atonal composition. His compositions disregard many age-old rules and expectations for music.

Question: In which country was the composer Claude Debussy born?

Answer: Achille-Claude Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, France, on August 22, 1862.

Question: Which of these was a famed English madrigal composer?

Answer: Thomas Morley, the most popular and Italianate of the Elizabethan madrigalists, assimilated the Italian style and adapted it to English taste, which preferred a lighter mood of poetry and of music.

Question: What composer wrote symphonies and other major works before he was 13 years old?

Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart learned to play the harpsichord and violin before he was five years old, composing several major works before he became a teenager.

Question: Which of these is not by Pyotr Tchaikovsky?

Answer: Pyotr Tchaikovsky composed some of his most famous works while still a student. They include the ballet Swan Lake, the overture Romeo and Juliet, and the First Piano Concerto.

Question: Who composed "Sabre Dance"?

Answer: Sabre Dance is a movement in Aram Khachaturian’s 1942 ballet Gayane.