Classical Music

Follow composers and musical styles chronologically, keeping works and their identifying passages with their creators. Use the later sections to compare forms, performers, institutions, and instruments across periods.

Listening and Early Musical Traditions

Learn a listening vocabulary and follow medieval and Renaissance traditions.

Listening across Historical Styles

Use these four listening points as a map of the historical chapters. Read composers before their works; return to the later form comparisons when a genre or technique needs a closer look.

• classical music — Classical music is the broad Western art-music tradition associated with composers such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. The term also appears in aesthetic theory, where Whistler and Walter Pater treat it as the model for the highest form of art.

• Medieval and Renaissance voices — compare a single chant melody with polyphony in which several voices move together or imitate one another. Sacred texts and institutions shaped much of the surviving repertoire, alongside secular song. Hildegard, Machaut, Josquin, and Palestrina provide different listening points, not a single unchanging “early music” style.¹

• Baroque practice — follow the bass line, recurring patterns, and exchanges among voices or instrumental groups. Basso continuo, fugue, concerto, and opera connect the works below to different performing forces and settings.¹

• Classical form — in a symphony, quartet, or sonata, track how themes return after contrast and development. The ensemble is part of the argument: a string quartet distributes material among four players, while a concerto sets a soloist in relation to an orchestra.¹

• Romantic approaches — compare the relation of words and piano in a song, recurring themes in a symphony, and narrative suggestion in a programmatic work. National traditions, public concerts, domestic music-making, and virtuoso performance offer different contexts for the repertoire.¹

Use the definitions and worked formal outlines in Music theory alongside the Core listening list. On a first hearing, identify texture and returning material; on a second, connect those observations to genre and historical setting.¹

Medieval and Early Renaissance

• Chant and the Growth of Polyphony

  • Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) — German; the most prolific surviving composer of medieval monophony; works include Ordo Virtutum (one of the earliest surviving morality plays with music) and the song collection Symphoniae harmoniae caelestium revelationum. She was a 12th-century German Benedictine abbess, mystic, visionary, and polymath, and founded Rupertsberg. Her other writings include Scivias, Physica, and Liber divinorum operum, and she is associated with the invented language Lingua Ignota and with the idea of viriditas, the divine greening power.

  • Plainchant
    • Gregorian chant — Gregorian chant is the medieval monophonic liturgical music of the Roman Rite and the Catholic Mass. It is traditionally associated with Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great), though it developed later. The chant tradition uses plainchant-style melodies written in neume notation before modern staff notation, including the four-line staff, and was later studied and revived at Solesmes; the Liber Usualis is a notable source for it.
      • antiphon — An antiphon is a psalm refrain or a short chant sung in alternation by two choirs. In medieval and Gregorian chant usage, antiphons frame psalm verses and appear in parts of the Divine Office such as the Introit and Offertory.
        • antiphons — Antiphons are short chants sung before and after psalms or canticles in church services. The term also covers Marian chants such as Salve Regina and the repertory associated with the Saint Martial school.
      • Dies Irae — Dies Irae is the medieval Latin sequence whose title means “Day of Wrath.” It is a famous plainchant melody quoted by composers such as Berlioz, Verdi, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Mahler, and Ysaÿe.

  • Léonin (c. 1150–c. 1201) — French; Notre Dame school; credited with Magnus Liber Organi, an early collection of organum (two-voice polyphony for liturgical use). Credited by Anonymous IV with compiling the Magnus Liber Organi. He is remembered as an early master of organum and as a predecessor to Pérotin.

  • Pérotin (c. 1160–c. 1230) — French; Notre Dame school; extended Léonin’s work into three- and four-voice polyphony; notable works Viderunt omnes and Sederunt principes. He is also referred to as Magister Perotinus, Perotinus the Master, or Perotin.

  • Notre-Dame school — The medieval Parisian tradition of polyphony centered on the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. It belongs to the ars antiqua period and is associated with Léonin and Pérotin, who are its best-known composers. The school is known for the Magnus Liber and for early organum.
    • Notre Dame — Notre Dame names the Paris cathedral associated with the school of Léonin and Pérotin and with Machaut’s Messe de Notre Dame. The same name also points to the great Gothic church on the Île de la Cité, famous for its bells, flying buttresses, and restorations by Viollet-le-Duc.
  • Anonymous IV — Anonymous IV is the name given to an otherwise unidentified thirteenth-century medieval writer on music associated with the Notre Dame school of polyphony. His writings identify Léonin and Pérotin and are an important source for the theory of early polyphony and organum, including rhythmic modes and early mensural practice. The designation reflects the author’s unknown identity rather than a personal name.
• Ars Nova and Late Medieval Song

  • Philippe de Vitry — Philippe de Vitry was a major early ars nova composer, associated with polytextual motets and the treatise Ars nova notandi. His surviving music is largely motets, and works like “Vos qui admiramini / Gratissima virginis species” are tied to him.

  • Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377) — French; leading composer of the Ars Nova; Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest surviving complete polyphonic mass setting by a known composer; also renowned as a poet. He was associated with early polyphonic settings of the Mass ordinary, and his secular songs, including “Douce dame jolie,” evoke courtly love.

  • Francesco Landini (c. 1325–1397) — Italian; leading Trecento composer; known for ballate and the characteristic “Landini cadence.”

  • Music theory
    • Guido of Arezzo — Guido of Arezzo was an early medieval music theorist who helped standardize musical notation and developed staff notation. He devised a teaching system based on the hexachord and the hymn Ut queant laxis, from which the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la were taken; this system is also associated with the origin of the word gamut. He is also associated with the Guidonian hand, a mnemonic for teaching hexachords and pitch relationships.
  • chanson
    • chansons — Chansons are French secular songs, especially associated with the medieval and early Renaissance formes fixes such as the ballade, rondeau, and virelai. Guillaume de Machaut is a key composer of these pieces, which later developed into the Parisian chanson tradition.
  • Medieval music

    • ars nova — Ars nova was the fourteenth-century French musical style associated with Philippe de Vitry and later exemplified by Guillaume de Machaut. Its works include the Roman de Fauvel and the Squarcialupi Codex, and the term also titles Vitry’s treatise on new rhythmic and mensural notation.

    • ars subtilior — Ars subtilior was a highly refined late medieval musical style centered around Avignon. Its composers used elaborate notation, including heart-shaped and circular scores, and it followed the ars nova.

• Early Renaissance and the Burgundian Tradition

  • John Dunstaple (c. 1390–1453) — English; influential on the Burgundian school; helped establish the smooth consonant style that shaped Renaissance polyphony. Veni Sancte Spiritus is another work associated with him.

  • Gilles Binchois — Gilles Binchois was a Burgundian School composer known for graceful melody and chansons such as “De plus en plus” and “Mon seul et souverain désir.” He was praised for the contenance angloise and is often linked, though debatably, to the painting Léal Souvenir.

  • Burgundian school — The Burgundian school was a 15th-century musical tradition centered on the court of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. Its best-known composers include Guillaume Du Fay and Gilles Binchois, and it helped shape early Franco-Flemish polyphony.

  • Cantus firmus

    • L’homme armé — A famous Burgundian medieval secular melody whose title means “the armed man” or “The Armed Man.” It became one of the most common cantus firmi in Renaissance mass settings, including works by Josquin des Prez, Guillaume du Fay, and Antoine Busnois.

High Renaissance

• Continental Polyphony and Sacred Music
  • Guillaume Dufay (c. 1397–1474) — Franco-Flemish; Burgundian school; synthesized French and Italian styles; motets and mass cycles including L’homme armé mass. He is associated with fauxbourdon and isorhythm, and with works such as Nuper rosarum flores. He also wrote masses and motets connected to Florence Cathedral and the Malatesta family. Other works include Se la face ay pale.
    • Nuper rosarum flores — Nuper rosarum flores is Guillaume Dufay’s isorhythmic motet written for the completion of the Florence Cathedral dome. Its sections are famously proportioned 6:4:2:3 and use Terribilis est locus iste as the cantus firmus.

  • Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1410–1497) — Franco-Flemish; master of intricate counterpoint; Missa prolationum showcases elaborate canonic technique. He is associated with the earliest surviving polyphonic requiem and with the Missa prolationum, and Josquin later memorialized him in Nymphes des bois.

  • Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1521) — Franco-Flemish; considered the supreme master of Renaissance polyphony; masses, motets (Ave Maria… virgo serena), and chansons. He is associated with Mille Regretz, Nymphes des bois, El grillo, Vive le roy, Missa Pange lingua, Missa De beata virgine, and Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae, as well as other masses on L’Homme armé; he is also linked to soggetto cavato.
    • Mille Regretz — “Mille Regretz” is a famous Renaissance chanson attributed to Josquin des Prez and associated with lamenting departure from a lover. It was used as the basis for later mass settings by Cristóbal de Morales and for transcriptions admired by Charles V.

  • Orlando di Lasso (c. 1532–1594) — Franco-Flemish; prolific; over 2,000 works spanning masses, motets, and secular pieces; worked at the Munich court.

  • Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594) — Italian; paradigm of Renaissance sacred polyphony; smooth voice-leading; Pope Marcellus Mass (Missa Papae Marcelli); his style became the model for ecclesiastical counterpoint. He wrote many masses and motets and served at the Cappella Giulia in Rome; later writers linked him to the Council of Trent and the legend that the Missa Papae Marcelli helped preserve polyphony in church music.
    • Pope Marcellus Mass — Giovanni Palestrina’s famous Renaissance polyphonic mass, dedicated to Pope Marcellus II. It is Palestrina’s best-known mass setting and is associated with the Council of Trent; legend says it demonstrated that polyphony could preserve the clarity and devotional character of sacred text, helping keep church music from being banned at Trent.

  • Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548–1611) — Spanish; intensely expressive Catholic sacred polyphony; O magnum mysterium, Officium Defunctorum. He wrote Officium Defunctorum for the funeral of Empress María.

  • Gregorio Allegri — Gregorio Allegri was a Roman composer best known for the Miserere mei, Deus, a setting of Psalm 51 written for the Sistine Chapel. He also composed settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and Mozart famously transcribed the Miserere after hearing it in Rome. His music is often associated with the high soaring solo line and the aura of Vatican secrecy.
    • Miserere mei, Deus — Gregorio Allegri’s celebrated setting of Psalm 51, written for the Sistine Chapel’s Tenebrae service. It was long forbidden to copy, and became famous outside the Vatican after Mozart reportedly transcribed it from memory after hearing it in the chapel. The title means “Have mercy on me, God”; the setting belongs to the Roman School.
• English Sacred Music and the Madrigal
  • Thomas Tallis — Thomas Tallis was the major English Renaissance composer of Spem in alium and the Lamentations, and he shared a royal monopoly on church music printing with William Byrd. Quizbowl often mentions his forty-part motet, the tune later used by Vaughan Williams, and his chant settings such as O nata lux and Why fum’th in fight.
    • Spem in Alium — Spem in alium is Thomas Tallis’s famous 40-part Renaissance motet for eight five-voice choirs. Its text comes from the Book of Judith, and it is often cited as one of the great works of English Renaissance polyphony.

  • William Byrd (1543–1623) — English; leading composer of the Elizabethan era; Catholic polyphony, keyboard music (My Ladye Nevells Booke), and Anglican service music. He wrote My Ladye Nevells Booke, the Gradualia, and important sacred works with Thomas Tallis such as Cantiones sacrae. He is also remembered for the pavans and galliards, The Carman’s Whistle, Ave verum corpus, and Ye Sacred Muses, and studied under Tallis.

  • Thomas Morley — Thomas Morley was an English Renaissance composer and writer on music who helped popularize the English madrigal. His Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practical Musicke and collections such as The Triumphs of Oriana are central to his reputation.

  • English Renaissance composers
    • John Dowland — John Dowland was an English Renaissance lutenist and composer famous for melancholy songs like “Flow, my Tears.” His works include Lachrimae and other lute songs whose puns on his name echo the Latin dolens, or “sorrowful.”

      • Flow, My Tears — “Flow, My Tears” is the lament by John Dowland whose title image asks tears to fall from their springs. It was adapted into the pavane collection Lachrimae, and quizbowl clues often note its descending motif and grief-stricken text.

      • Lachrimae — Lachrimae is John Dowland’s famous collection of pavans and lute music, closely associated with his melancholy style and the song “Flow, My Tears.” Its title plays on the Latin for sorrow, and the collection remains one of the central monuments of English Renaissance lute writing.

    • Orlando Gibbons — Orlando Gibbons was an English Renaissance composer and organist of Westminster Abbey. He is especially known for the madrigal The Silver Swan and for sacred works such as This Is the Record of John.
• Italian Secular Vocal Music

  • Carlo Gesualdo (c. 1566–1613) — Italian; renowned for extreme chromaticism in his madrigals; Tenebrae Responsoria. Also a prince of Venosa, he wrote fiercely chromatic madrigals such as “Moro, lasso, al mio duolo.” His life became notorious for the murder of his wife and her lover, and his music later attracted fascination from writers and filmmakers. Stravinsky later honored him in Monumentum pro Gesualdo.

  • Italian secular vocal genre

    • Frottola — A frottola was an Italian secular vocal genre prominent in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It was often homophonic, usually for three or four voices, and is associated with composers such as Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marchetto Cara.

Baroque Music

Connect Baroque composers to genres, techniques, and major works.

Baroque (c. 1600–1750)

Transition and Early Baroque

• Italian Opera, Vocal Music, and Instrumental Experiment

  • Vincenzo Galilei — Vincenzo Galilei was a sixteenth-century Italian composer associated with the Florentine Camerata and early efforts to revive ancient Greek musical ideals. He is also remembered as the father of Galileo, which often makes him easier to identify than by his own surviving music.

  • Florentine Camerata
    • The camerata — The Camerata was a Florentine circle of writers, artists, and musicians associated with Count Bardi’s salon. Their efforts to revive Greek tragedy in music helped give rise to the first operas.

  • Giulio Romolo Caccini — Giulio Romolo Caccini was an early Baroque composer of the Florentine Camerata and a major figure in monody. His Le nuove musiche helped define the expressive, speech-like stile fiorentino and includes the song “Amarilli mia bella.”

  • Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) — Italian; bridged Renaissance and Baroque; pioneered opera with L’Orfeo (1607) and L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643); also composed Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610). He also wrote madrigals and early operas such as Arianna and The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland, and was criticized by Giovanni Artusi for bold dissonance and expressive style.
    • Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda — Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is Monteverdi’s dramatic scena based on Torquato Tasso. It is known for early uses of pizzicato, tremolo, and a divided string texture.

  • Francesca Caccini — Francesca Caccini was an early Baroque Italian composer known for stage music and for La liberazione di Ruggiero. Her Primo Libro was written as teaching material, and her music is associated with her father Giulio Caccini’s stile moderno.

  • Barbara Strozzi — Barbara Strozzi was a prolific seventeenth-century Venetian composer of secular vocal music and cantatas. She was associated with the Accademia degli Unisoni and wrote pieces such as Lagrime mie and Sul Rodano Severo.

  • Girolamo Frescobaldi — Girolamo Frescobaldi was a Ferrara-born early Baroque keyboard composer and organist at St. Peter’s who helped popularize the toccata. He is especially known for Fiori musicali, a liturgical organ collection that influenced later composers such as Bach.

  • Giovanni Gabrieli — Venetian composer whose polychoral sacred music helped define the transition from Renaissance to Baroque style. He worked at St. Mark’s Basilica and was among the first to specify instrumentation and dynamics. His works include Sacrae Symphoniae, Sonata pian’ e forte, and In ecclesiis. He also taught Heinrich Schütz, who carried Venetian innovations north into German music.

  • Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713) — Italian; codified the concerto grosso and trio sonata forms; Christmas Concerto (Op. 6 No. 8). Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian Baroque composer whose name is tied to the concerto grosso and trio sonata forms. He is especially known for the Christmas Concerto, Op. 6 No. 8, and for a celebrated set of violin sonatas based on La Folia. Corelli’s music helped standardize church-sonata movement patterns and inspired later composers such as Couperin and Rachmaninoff. Clues about the Corelli cadence or clash often point to his influence on harmonic practice.

    • Christmas Concerto — Arcangelo Corelli’s Christmas Concerto is his Concerto Grosso No. 8 in G minor, the sixth concerto in Op. 6. Its final Pastorale movement, in G major, evokes shepherds and angels near Bethlehem and is associated with Christmas Eve.

    • Opus 6 — Opus 6 is the famous collection of concerti grossi by Arcangelo Corelli, a foundational Baroque genre built from a concertino and ripieno. The set is especially remembered for the Christmas Concerto and later homage by composers such as Handel and Schnittke.

• German Sacred and Keyboard Traditions

  • Michael Praetorius — Michael Praetorius was a German Renaissance and early Baroque composer and theorist best known for Syntagma Musicum and the dance collection Terpsichore. He also wrote hymns and sacred music, and his work remains an important source for seventeenth-century music theory.

  • Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) — German; brought Italian styles north; Symphoniae sacrae, Musikalische Exequien; major precursor to Bach. He studied with Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice. His sacred works include Psalms of David and Die sieben Worte, alongside Symphoniae sacrae and Musikalische Exequien.

  • Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637–1707) — Danish-German; organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck; influential organ preludes and passacaglias; cantatas; Bach walked some 400 km to hear him play in 1705. He is also associated with the Abendmusik concerts, the Passacaglia in D minor, and sacred vocal works such as Membra Jesu Nostri. Dieterich is another form of his first name; his organ writing exemplifies stylus phantasticus.
    • Membra Jesu Nostri — Membra Jesu Nostri is Dieterich Buxtehude’s cycle of seven cantatas devoted to the wounds or body parts of the crucified Christ. The work is typically identified by its Latin title and by movements such as Ad Pedes and Ad Faciem. Quizbowl clues often mention its dedicatee Gustaf Düben and its concerto-aria style. It is one of Buxtehude’s most famous sacred vocal works.
  • Heinrich Ignaz Biber — Heinrich Ignaz Biber was a Baroque composer who became Kapellmeister at Salzburg Cathedral in 1684. He is especially known for the Mystery Sonatas and for a highly imaginative stylus fantasticus style. His full name includes Franz. His Rosary Sonatas use scordatura; other works include Harmonia artificioso-ariosa and Missa Salisburgensis.
    • Rosary Sonatas — Heinrich Biber’s Rosary Sonatas are a set of violin-and-continuo works that use different scordatura tunings for meditative scenes from the lives of Jesus and Mary. The collection is divided into Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious cycles and ends with a Passacaglia.
  • Johann Pachelbel — Johann Pachelbel was a German Baroque composer and organist best known for Canon in D. He also wrote Hexachordum Apollinis, music for keyboard, chaconnes, Magnificat fugues, many marches, and masses; a companion gigue is often published with the canon. He taught Johann Christoph Bach.

    • Hexachordum Apollinis — Hexachordum Apollinis is Johann Pachelbel’s collection of keyboard arias with variations. It was dedicated to Richter and Buxtehude, and its final aria is the Sebaldina variation set.

    • Pachelbel’s Canon in D — A Baroque chamber work by Johann Pachelbel, originally scored for three violins and continuo and often paired with a gigue in the same key. It is built over a repeating bass pattern or chord progression, with layered violin entries, and became widely popular through wedding use, later pop adaptations, parody, film, and other arrangements.

  • Johann Joseph Fux — Johann Joseph Fux was an Austrian Baroque composer and theorist best known for Gradus ad Parnassum. His treatise systematized species counterpoint, and his operas and ceremonial works include Costanza e Fortezza.

  • Christian Petzold
    • Minuet in G major — The Minuet in G major is the famous short keyboard piece long attributed to J. S. Bach but now usually credited to Christian Petzold. It is a graceful minuet from the Baroque/early Classical dance tradition and appears in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.
• French and English Court and Stage
  • Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687) — Italian-born French; dominated French Baroque opera; established the French overture form; collaborated with Molière on comédies-ballets. He founded French tragédie en musique at the court of Louis XIV and helped establish the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661. His stage works include Armide, Amadis, and the comédie-ballet Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, and he worked with Beauchamps on dance, codifying the five positions of the feet. He is also remembered for the foot injury that later proved fatal when he struck it with the staff he used to keep time.
    • Lully’s court career and French overture — As surintendant de la musique to Louis XIV, Lully helped establish the French overture, with its slow–fast–slow design, and tragédie en musique. His collaborations with Molière include Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. He died of gangrene in 1687 after injuring his foot with a conducting staff during a Te Deum.²

  • Marc-Antoine Charpentier — Marc-Antoine Charpentier was a French Baroque composer associated with the Jesuits, Molière, and the Duchess of Guise. Quizbowl clues frequently point to his Te Deum in D major, whose prelude became the Eurovision theme.

  • Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre — Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre was a French Baroque composer and harpsichord virtuoso supported at the court of Louis XIV. She is noted for publishing the first collection of solo harpsichord pieces by a woman in 1687. Her works include cantatas such as The Parting of the Red Sea and The Deluge.

  • John Blow — John Blow was an English Baroque composer and organist of Westminster Abbey who taught Henry Purcell. He is remembered for Venus and Adonis, his anthems, and his place in the development of English sacred and court music.

High Baroque

• Bach, Handel, and German Baroque Networks
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) — German; Lutheran; synthesized all Baroque styles; Brandenburg Concertos (six, BWV 1046–1051); Mass in B minor (BWV 232); St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244); The Well-Tempered Clavier (two books, all 24 keys); Goldberg Variations (BWV 988); The Art of Fugue; Cello Suites; Violin Partitas and Sonatas. He was also an organist and cantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.
    • Brandenburg Concertos — J. S. Bach’s set of six concertos, presented to and dedicated in 1721 to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg. They are concerti grossi/instrumental concertos known for inventive and unusual scoring, including recorders, natural horns, a natural trumpet, a piccolo violin, violas da gamba, and the fifth concerto’s prominent, unusually extended harpsichord cadenza. The first concerto is in four movements, and the sixth is notable for lacking violins. The works were not performed for the intended patron in Bach’s lifetime. The six works are cataloged as BWV 1046–1051.

      • Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 — J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 is the F major concerto famous for its stratospheric clarino trumpet part, often performed today on piccolo trumpet. Its second movement is a reduced-ensemble Andante, and the work’s first movement appears on the Voyager Golden Record.

      • Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 — Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 is a fast Baroque concerto in G major by J. S. Bach scored for three violins, three violas, three cellos, and continuo. Its middle movement is reduced to two chords, making it famous for performances that improvise a cadenza there.

      • Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 — Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 is a G major concerto grosso with a prominent solo violin and two flauti d’echo in the concertino. Its finale features a fugato texture and the work is famous for its virtuosic outer movements and E minor Andante.

      • Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 — Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major is famous for its extended harpsichord cadenza in the first movement. Its second movement is an Affettuoso, and the third movement features a canon-like texture among the three solo instruments.

    • Cello Suites — Bach’s Cello Suites, BWV 1007–1012, are a landmark set of solo works for cello. Each suite begins with a prelude and continues through stylized Baroque dances such as allemande, courante, and sarabande. These six unaccompanied suites end with a gigue and include dances such as minuets and bourrées. The first opens with a famous G-major arpeggio, the fifth uses scordatura, and the sixth was written for a five-string instrument. Pablo Casals championed the cycle; Yo-Yo Ma is another celebrated interpreter.

    • The Well-Tempered Clavier — The Well-Tempered Clavier is J. S. Bach’s two-book set of 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys, famous for its opening C-major prelude and for promoting well-tempered tuning. It was admired by Schumann, used in Nadia Boulanger’s teaching, and later inspired works such as Shostakovich’s own paired preludes and fugues.

    • Goldberg Variations — Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations are a keyboard set of thirty variations on an aria, originally for harpsichord and published as BWV 988. The same aria frames the work at the beginning and end; every third variation is a canon, and the final portion includes a quodlibet. It is especially associated with Glenn Gould’s landmark recordings. Published in 1741 and named for Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, the set is linked to a disputed anecdote about Count Keyserlingk’s insomnia. Gould’s 1955 and 1981 recordings are notable interpretations.
      • Johann Gottlieb Goldberg — Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was the young musician for whom Bach’s Goldberg Variations are named. The set is famous for its thirty variations and the recurring canon every third movement.

    • St. Matthew Passion — Johann Sebastian Bach’s major Passion oratorio, first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday in 1727. It sets the Passion narrative from the Gospel of Matthew, especially chapters 26 and 27, with text compiled by Christian Henrici (Picander). The work is scored for double choir and double orchestra, alternates recitative, arias, and reflective choruses, and treats Jesus’s words with sustained strings. Famous movements include the opening chorus “Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen,” “Erbarme dich,” and “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden.” Felix Mendelssohn’s 1829 Berlin revival helped restore Bach’s reputation and spark the modern revival of his music.

    • St. John Passion — This Bach Holy Week oratorio recounts the Passion according to John, and it opens with a choral plea answered by dissonant oboes and strings. It includes the alto aria “Es ist vollbracht” and was first performed on Good Friday before the later St. Matthew Passion.

    • Mass in B Minor — Bach’s Mass in B minor, BWV 232, is his monumental setting of the Latin Ordinary and the last major choral work of his career. It assembles earlier and newly composed movements, including the Kyrie and Gloria from 1733, a central Crucifixus, and a concluding Dona nobis pacem. Its movements encompass the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. The final compilation dates from about 1748–49; the Kyrie and Gloria had been submitted to the Dresden court for a court-composer title.

    • The Art of the Fugue — J. S. Bach’s late, unfinished contrapuntal collection built on a single subject. It consists of multiple Contrapuncti, canons, and mirror fugues; the manuscript breaks off in Contrapunctus XIV, and the final fugue is noted for introducing B-A-C-H-like thematic material.
      • Art of the Fugue — The Art of the Fugue is J. S. Bach’s unfinished contrapuntal exploration of a single theme in many transformations. Published from his papers after his death, it is famous for its increasingly elaborate canons and fugues.

    • The Musical Offering — J. S. Bach’s collection built from a theme given by Frederick the Great, consisting of canons, a six-voice Ricercar a 6, and a four-movement trio sonata. Its riddle canons include the famous “Quaerendo invenietis,” and the complex ricercar later drew an orchestration by Anton Webern; it also includes a palindromic crab canon.

    • Anna Magdalena Bach — Anna Magdalena Bach was Johann Sebastian Bach’s second wife and an important figure in the Bach household. Manuscript collections and notebooks named for her preserve short keyboard pieces, including the famous Minuet in G. She is also remembered as the dedicatee of the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.

    • BWV — BWV is the catalog number system used for works by J. S. Bach. The abbreviation stands for Bachwerkeverzeichnis, the Bach works catalog compiled by Wolfgang Schmieder.

    • Coffee Cantata — Bach’s Coffee Cantata, formally titled Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, is a comic cantata about a father trying to stop his daughter Lieschen from drinking coffee. Its dialogue centers on Schlendrian and Lieschen. The work treats coffee as an obsession and plays like a small comic opera. Its title is often translated as Be Still, Stop Chattering.

    • Es ist genug! so nimm Herr — “Es ist genug!” is a Bach chorale whose title means “It is enough.” It is identified by its catalog number 216 in the Breitkopf edition and is noted for the tritone opening quoted by Alban Berg in his Violin Concerto.

    • French Suites — The French Suites are a set of six keyboard works by J. S. Bach. They are dance suites that usually begin with an allemande and are distinguished from Bach’s English Suites.

    • Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben
      • Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring — Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is the familiar chorale from Bach’s cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147. Its flowing triplet accompaniment and closing-chorale texture made it a popular transcription and wedding piece.
    • Inventions and Sinfonias
      • inventions — Bach’s Inventions are keyboard teaching pieces written as contrapuntal exercises for students. They are grouped into two-part inventions and three-part sinfonias.

    • Italian Concerto — Bach’s Italian Concerto is the two-manual harpsichord work published in Clavier-Übung II alongside the French Overture. Its outer movements frame a contrasting slow middle movement, and it adapts the concerto style associated with Italian models like Vivaldi.

    • Keyboard suites
      • English Suites — Bach’s English Suites are a set of six keyboard suites, BWV 806–811, each opening with a prelude. They follow the usual dance-suite sequence and are often linked by tradition to a nobleman of English association.

    • Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin — Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin is Johann Sebastian Bach’s cycle of six unaccompanied violin works. The set includes the famous D minor Chaconne and movements that were later transcribed for other instruments, making it a standard virtuoso test piece.

    • St. Thomas Church — St. Thomas Church in Leipzig is the church where J. S. Bach served as cantor and where many Leipzig music clues converge. It is frequently tied to the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Thomanerchor, Mendelssohn, and the city’s broader Bach tradition.

    • the Two-Part Inventions — The Two-Part Inventions are Bach’s set of pedagogical keyboard pieces intended to teach playing in two independent voices. They are often paired with the composer’s fifteen Sinfonias and were written for instruction, including for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.

    • Two-Part Inventions — Bach’s Two-Part Inventions are a set of fifteen keyboard pieces written for harpsichord and studied alongside his Sinfonias. They are arranged by ascending keys, beginning in C major and ending in B minor, and the eighth in F major is especially familiar.

    • Wilhelm Friedemann Bach — Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was the eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier was written for him. He was one of the greatest organists of his day and an accomplished keyboard composer. He is associated with Berlin, Dresden, and Halle periods, as well as sinfonias, trio sonatas, and collections of polonaises before later poverty; he worked at Dresden and is remembered for leaving relatively few written works behind.

    • Orchestral Suites — The Orchestral Suites are four Baroque suites by J. S. Bach, often numbered BWV 1066 to 1069. They are built from dance movements and include the famous Air from the third suite.

      • Air on the G String — Air on the G String is the violin-and-piano arrangement derived from the Air movement of Bach’s Orchestral Suite in D major. The title refers to the melody lying comfortably on the violin’s G string, and the piece was popularized by performers such as Mischa Elman.

      • Dances of Galanta — Dances of Galanta is a five-movement suite by Zoltán Kodály based on verbunkos and gypsy dance styles. It is often linked to Kodály’s hometown and to the earlier Dances of Marosszék.

    • Toccata and Fugue in D minor — Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is the famous spooky organ piece attributed to J. S. Bach. It opens with the dramatic toccata before moving into the contrapuntal fugue and is closely associated with Fantasia and other organ transcriptions.

    • Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
      • Toccata and Fugue — Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is the famous organ piece often used for a spooky effect in films and games.
    • Well-Tempered Clavier — J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is a two-book collection of preludes and fugues in every major and minor key. Written to demonstrate a new tuning system, it is one of the foundational keyboard works of the Baroque repertoire.
  • George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) — German-born British; Messiah (oratorio, premiered Dublin 1742; “Hallelujah” chorus); Water Music (suites for George I’s Thames pageant); Music for the Royal Fireworks; operas including Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare. He dominated Italian opera seria in London and composed over 40 operas. His coronation anthem Zadok the Priest became a standard of British coronation music, and he was born in Halle, Germany.

    • Alexander’s Feast — Alexander’s Feast is Handel’s ode on John Dryden’s St. Cecilia’s Day poem. It dramatizes Timotheus’s music inspiring Alexander to burn Persepolis.

    • Coronation Anthems — Handel’s Coronation Anthems are a set of four choral works written for the coronation of George II. They include Zadok the Priest, Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened, The King Shall Rejoice, and My Heart Is Inditing.

    • Georg Fredrich Handel — George Frideric Handel wrote operas such as Serse, Rinaldo, and Giulio Cesare, as well as the oratorio Messiah. His music includes “Ombra mai fu,” the Pifa, and “For Unto Us a Child is Born,” and part of Messiah was adapted for the UEFA Champions League anthem.

    • Georg Frideric Handel — Georg Frideric Handel was a German-born Baroque composer known for Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks. His oratorios also include Israel in Egypt, Solomon, Judas Maccabaeus, and Jephtha.

    • Israel in Egypt — Handel’s Israel in Egypt is a 1739 oratorio built from texts from Exodus and Psalms. It is famous for vivid choral word-painting such as “He smote the first-born” and was poorly received at its premiere.

    • Judas Maccabaeus — Judas Maccabaeus is Handel’s oratorio about the Jewish rebel leader who fought Antiochus’ forces. It is especially associated with the chorus “See, the conqu’ring hero comes” and with performances around Hanukkah.

    • Messiah — George Frideric Handel’s English-language oratorio Messiah, HWV 56, was premiered in Dublin in 1742. Charles Jennens assembled its libretto from biblical texts, drawing largely from Isaiah, Luke, Revelation, and the Book of Common Prayer. The work is famous for the “Hallelujah” chorus and includes set pieces such as “Comfort Ye, My People,” “Ev’ry valley shall be exalted,” the pastoral Pifa, “There were shepherds abiding in the field,” “Glory to God in the highest,” “He shall reign for ever and ever,” “And with his stripes,” “He was despised,” and “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” The tradition of standing during “For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” is also associated with it. The oratorio is divided into three parts.

      • Hallelujah Chorus — The triumphant chorus near the end of Part II of Handel’s Messiah. It sets words from Revelation, including “for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth,” and culminates in praise of the “King of Kings” and “Lord of Lords.” It is famous for the tradition of audiences standing during it.

      • I Know That My Redeemer Liveth — “I know that my redeemer liveth” is the soprano aria that opens the third part of Handel’s Messiah after the Hallelujah Chorus. Its text comes from Job 19:25 and is a standard sacred-music clue.

    • Music for the Royal Fireworks — Handel’s celebratory orchestral suite was written for the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and for the 1749 London fireworks celebration marking the end of the War of the Austrian Succession. It is an outdoor wind-and-percussion work whose familiar movements include the overture, La Paix, La Réjouissance, and the movement often called Peace/Rejoicing; its first performance was tied to a London display that famously went badly, and a Vauxhall rehearsal caused a traffic jam.

    • Suite No. 5 in E major
      • The Harmonious Blacksmith — The Harmonious Blacksmith is the popular name of the final movement of Handel’s Suite No. 5 in E major for harpsichord. It is an air and variations often linked to a story about a blacksmith’s hammer or anvil. Quizbowl clues sometimes mention the printed edition associated with William Lintern or the movement’s use in later arrangements and quotations. It remains one of Handel’s best-known keyboard pieces.
    • The Water Music — Handel’s suite collection of three orchestral suites, first performed for a royal outing on the Thames for George I in 1717. Its best-known movement is often the Hornpipe/Alla Hornpipe, and it is commonly associated with the French overture and with later performance pairings with Music for the Royal Fireworks.
      • Water Music Suites Nos. 1–3 for orchestra, HWV 348–350 — Handel’s Water Music is a three-part orchestral suite written for King George I’s 1717 Thames excursion. Its best-known movements include an Air, a Bourrée, and the Alla Hornpipe, and the suite is catalogued as HWV 348–350.

    • Zadok the Priest — A coronation anthem by George Frideric Handel, written for George II and based on the biblical anointing of Solomon. It is known for its famous slow opening that builds to a grand choral climax, with repeated cries of “Amen” and “rejoice,” and has been used at British coronations ever since.

    • Jephtha — Jephtha is Handel’s final oratorio, premiered in London in 1752 to an English text by Thomas Morell. It draws on the biblical story of Jephthah and a drama by George Buchanan.

    • The Royal Fireworks Music — The Royal Fireworks Music is Handel’s celebratory orchestral suite, famous for its public premiere in London and its association with a fireworks display. It includes festive movements such as a double minuet and was written for a large wind-and-percussion ensemble.
  • Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) — German; extraordinarily prolific; Tafelmusik (Musique de Table); more works survive than those of Bach or Handel. He served as music director in Hamburg, wrote numerous fantasias, a Water Music suite, operas such as Pimpinone, and is often noted for mixing French and German styles. He was the godfather of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. The Paris Quartets are another familiar set.
    • Works
      • Georg Phillip Telemann — Georg Philipp Telemann was a prolific German Baroque composer whose works include Tafelmusik, the Paris Quartets, and many sacred pieces. He also wrote operas and concertos, including an early viola concerto, and was highly admired by Bach.
  • Bach family — The Bach family was a large German musical dynasty associated above all with Johann Sebastian Bach. Earlier generations such as Hans and Ambrosius Bach helped establish the family line, which produced multiple composers and church musicians; later members such as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Christian Bach are often identified by the cities where they worked.
    • Johann Jakob Bach — Johann Jakob Bach was an oboist and one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s brothers. His departure to join the Swedish army in 1704 inspired Bach’s Capriccio on the Departure of His Beloved Brother.
  • Jan Dismas Zelenka — Jan Dismas Zelenka was a Czech Baroque composer known for liturgical music such as his masses and the coronation work Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis. His output also includes a Miserere in C minor and other Catholic ceremonial works.
• Italian Instrumental and Vocal Traditions

  • Scarlatti — Scarlatti is the surname of the Italian father-son composers Alessandro Scarlatti and Domenico Scarlatti. Alessandro wrote operas, sacred music, and concertos, and is associated with Neapolitan and Venetian-style opera as well as the Italian overture. Domenico became famous for more than 500, or 555, keyboard and harpsichord sonatas and worked in Portugal, Spain, and at the Vatican.

  • Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) — Italian; “the Red Priest”; The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni, four violin concertos, part of Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione, Op. 8); Gloria in D major; over 500 concertos total. He was nicknamed the Red Priest because of his red hair and his ordination as a Catholic priest. A Venetian composer and violinist, he was ordained in 1703, later stopped saying mass, and was associated with the singer Anna Giraud. He also wrote operas and sacred works, including L’estro armonico, Orlando Furioso, and Dorilla in Tempe, and his style is marked by vivid programmatic effects and ritornello-driven concertos.

    • L’estro armonico — L’estro armonico is Vivaldi’s set of twelve string concertos for four violins, two violas, cello, and continuo. It was his first published concerto collection and was later transcribed in part by Bach.

    • The Contest Between Harmony and Invention — This Vivaldi collection of twelve violin concertos includes The Four Seasons, with famous pieces such as Spring, The Hunt, and The Sea Storm. It is also published as Opus 8 and is one of the composer’s best-known concerto sets.

    • The Four Seasons — Antonio Vivaldi’s set of four violin concertos, each paired with a sonnet and depicting Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. It belongs to the larger collection Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione and is famous for vivid programmatic musical imitation of nature, including birds, storms, barking dogs, and other scenes. Le quattro stagioni forms Op. 8 Nos. 1–4 within a twelve-concerto collection. The sonnets may have been written by Vivaldi; shepherds are among the depicted scenes.

    • Gloria in D major (Vivaldi) (RV 589, c. 1715) — choral work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra; one of the most performed Baroque choral works; rediscovered in the 20th century.

  • Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) — Italian; father of Domenico; over 600 cantatas and 114 operas; helped establish the da capo aria. He was closely associated with the Neapolitan school of opera and helped develop opera seria. He was the father of Domenico Scarlatti, famous for 555 keyboard sonatas.

  • Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) — Italian; spent much of career in Spain and Portugal; 555 single-movement keyboard sonatas exploring brilliant harpsichord technique. Also known as Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti; his works are catalogued in the Kirkpatrick catalogue. He published the Essercizi and is associated with the so-called Cat Fugue. His father was Alessandro Scarlatti, and later vocal works include the Stabat Mater and Salve Regina.

    • Domenico — Domenico is a common first name for several Baroque composers, especially Domenico Scarlatti and Domenico Cimarosa. The clues center on Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas and on Domenico Cimarosa’s comic opera Il matrimonio segreto, with a nod to Domenico Zipoli in Latin America.

    • Fugue in G minor, K. 30

      • Cat Fugue — This Scarlatti keyboard piece is better known by the nickname Cat Fugue, a title tied to the legend that a cat walked across the keys and improvised its main motif. It is the Fugue in G minor, K. 30, also called La Fuga del gatto or Katzenfuge.

  • Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni — Venetian Baroque composer noted for his oboe concertos, other instrumental works, and operas; many of his stage works have been lost. He is often linked to the Adagio in G minor, which was reconstructed by Remo Giazotto from fragments of Albinoni’s music rather than securely surviving as an authentic Albinoni composition.

  • Tomaso Albinoni
    • Adagio in G minor — Adagio in G minor is the famous pseudo-Baroque piece usually associated with Tomaso Albinoni but largely or entirely composed by Remo Giazotto. It is frequently heard in film and is a standard clue for music hoaxes and misattributed works.

  • Pietro Antonio Locatelli — Pietro Antonio Locatelli was an Italian Baroque violin virtuoso and composer known for dazzling solo writing and the set L’arte del violino. He studied under Corelli and is associated with pieces that push violin technique to extremes, including the “Harmonic Labyrinth.”

  • Francesco Geminiani — Francesco Geminiani was an Italian Baroque composer and violinist who worked in England and wrote important violin treatises. He is known for concerti grossi, violin sonatas, and the influential Art of Playing on the Violin.

  • Giovanni Battista Pergolesi — Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer best known for La serva padrona and the Stabat Mater. La serva padrona helped ignite the quarrel over comic and serious opera in France, and his music was central to the Buffonists’ quarrel. He died at age twenty-six, and Stravinsky later arranged some of his music in Pulcinella.
    • Giovanni Pergolesi — Giovanni Pergolesi was an 18th-century Italian composer remembered for the sacred Stabat Mater and for comic operas such as La serva padrona. He studied as a teenager under several Neapolitan teachers, wrote La conversione di San Guglielmo d’Aquitania, and died very young in 1736.
  • Ospedale della Pietà — The Ospedale della Pietà was a Venetian orphanage and musical institution famous for training female musicians. Antonio Vivaldi taught there, and its performers played behind a grill to conceal them from visitors.
• French and English Late Baroque
  • Henry Purcell (1659–1695) — English; Dido and Aeneas (opera; notable for Dido’s lament “When I Am Laid in Earth”); The Fairy Queen; Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary. He was a leading English Baroque composer and also wrote the semi-operas The Fairy-Queen and King Arthur, helping define English opera in the late seventeenth century.
    • Abdelazer
      • Abdelazer suite — Purcell’s Abdelazer suite is a set of incidental music best known today because Britten used its theme in The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. It is associated with an earlier stage work about a Moorish ruler named Abdelazer.
  • François Couperin (1668–1733) — French; “Couperin le Grand”; Pièces de clavecin (four books); codified French harpsichord style. His keyboard music includes Les Barricades mystérieuses within the ordres; other works include Concerts royaux, Les Nations, and Leçons de ténèbres. He wrote L’art de toucher le clavecin.
    • Couperin — The Couperin family was a dynasty of French Baroque composers, including Louis Couperin and François Couperin le Grand. Louis is linked to the unmeasured prelude, while François is known for The Art of Harpsichord Playing and pieces such as The Mysterious Barricades.

  • Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) — French; leading theorist and opera composer of the French Baroque; Hippolyte et Aricie, Castor et Pollux; his Traité de l’harmonie (1722) became foundational music theory. He dominated French Baroque opera after Lully; works include Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), Castor et Pollux (1737), and Les Indes galantes. His harmonic innovations helped define eighteenth-century tonal practice and provoked the Querelle des Bouffons. His harpsichord music is another important part of his output.

  • Marin Marais — Marin Marais was a French Baroque composer and viola da gamba virtuoso associated with Louis XIV. Clues often mention his studies with Sainte-Colombe, his folia variations, and the film Tous les Matins du Monde.

  • Jean-Joseph Mouret — Jean-Joseph Mouret was a French Baroque composer who lived from 1682 to 1738. He is best remembered for the Rondeau from his Sinfonies de Fanfares, later used as the theme for Masterpiece Theatre.

  • Louis-Claude Daquin — Louis-Claude Daquin was a French Baroque composer and organist known for keyboard and organ works. His harpsichord pieces include Le coucou and Les trois cadences, while his organ music includes a famous set of twelve Noëls.

  • John Gay (1685–1732) — English; playwright and poet; The Beggar’s Opera (1728), a satirical ballad opera using popular tunes of the day rather than original composition; forerunner of musical theatre and direct inspiration for Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera.

  • Jeremiah Clarke — Jeremiah Clarke was an English Baroque composer and organist best known for the Prince of Denmark’s March, often called the Trumpet Voluntary. He worked with John Blow and at St. Paul’s Cathedral before his life ended in suicide.
    • Prince of Denmark’s March — Prince of Denmark’s March is the famous baroque piece by Jeremiah Clarke often called the Trumpet Voluntary. It is commonly heard in arrangements for brass and organ at weddings and ceremonial occasions.
  • Baroque arias
    • aria da capo — An aria da capo is a Baroque aria in ABA form, with the opening section repeated after a contrasting middle section. The term also names Edna St. Vincent Millay’s anti-war pastoral play about Corydon and Thyrsis.

Related Works, People, and Context

• Baroque dance

  • Gigue — A lively Baroque dance, usually in compound meter such as 3/8, that often closes a suite. It is associated with works such as Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Bach’s cello suites, and Corelli’s concertos, and is closely related to the jig.

  • sarabandes — A sarabande is a slow Baroque dance in triple meter with a strong accent on the second beat. It appears in the standard suite sequence after the courante and before the gigue, and Bach uses the form in the Goldberg Variations.

• Baroque music
  • Tafelmusik — Tafelmusik is a Baroque genre of banquet or table music, most famously associated with Georg Philipp Telemann’s three-part collection. Other examples include works by Johann Hermann Schein, Thomas Simpson, and Isaac Posch, and the term also names modern ensembles.

• Baroque period — The Baroque period in Western art and music runs from about 1600 to 1720, between the Renaissance and Classical eras. In music it is associated with composers such as J. S. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell, Scarlatti, Lully, and Rameau, and with features like dramatic contrast, dance suites, common-practice tonality, and prominent use of the harpsichord. It is also linked to the Catholic Counter-Reformation and to historically informed performance practice. In the visual arts it includes early modern artists such as Caravaggio.

• Requiem
  • a requiem — A requiem is a mass for the dead, and Mozart’s unfinished Requiem was completed by Franz Sussmayr. Fauré’s Requiem is another famous example and is noted for omitting the Dies Irae.

The Classical Era

Distinguish Classical-era composers through forms and representative pieces.

Classical Era (c. 1750–1820)

Early Classical and Galant Style

• Galant Style and the Mannheim School

  • galant style — The galant style was a mid-eighteenth-century musical style that simplified late Baroque complexity in favor of elegance and clarity. It is associated with composers such as C. P. E. Bach, J. C. Bach, Telemann, and Boccherini.

  • 18th-century musical styles
    • Empfindsamkeit — Empfindsamkeit is an 18th-century German musical style associated especially with C. P. E. Bach. It emphasized heightened feeling as a reaction against the more restrained galant style and helped lead toward Sturm und Drang.
  • Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788) — German; second son of J. S. Bach; key figure bridging Baroque to Classical; Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments; empfindsamer Stil.
    • Solfeggietto — Solfeggietto is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s brief, blisteringly fast keyboard study in C minor. It is famous for its near-monophonic texture and for being playable, at least in simplified form, with the left hand alone.

  • Johann Christian Bach — Johann Christian Bach was the youngest son of J. S. Bach. He spent much of his career in London, becoming known as the “London Bach” or “English Bach,” and served as musician to Queen Charlotte and later as music master to her. He collaborated with Carl Friedrich Abel in a long-running concert series, wrote Italian operas, and composed in the galant style, including early symphonies, sinfonia concertantes, Opus 5 piano sonatas, and Opus 18 symphonies. He influenced the young Mozart, both through contact in London and through his concertos and symphonic style.

  • Giovanni Battista Sammartini (c. 1700–1775) — Italian; early symphonist who influenced Haydn. An early Milanese symphonist often credited with helping develop the symphony out of the Italian overture. His music influenced later Classical composers, and he is also remembered as a teacher of Gluck.

  • Mannheim school — The Mannheim school was an influential eighteenth-century German musical school centered around the court orchestra at Mannheim. Its composers, especially Johann Stamitz, helped standardize the symphony and popularized devices such as the Mannheim rocket and Mannheim crescendo.

    • Mannheim — Mannheim is the German city associated with the Mannheim school in Classical music. Clues include Johann Stamitz, the Mannheim crescendo, the Mannheim rocket, and Charles Burney’s remark that its orchestra was like “an army of generals.”

    • Stamitz — Stamitz is the surname of the Mannheim School composers Johann, Carl, and Anton Stamitz. Johann Stamitz helped establish the symphonic style associated with the Mannheim orchestra, later famous for its orchestral discipline and dynamic effects.

    • the Mannheim Rocket — The Mannheim Rocket is a rising, rapidly accelerating arpeggiated musical figure associated with the Mannheim school. It is often cited as an early orchestral crescendo effect and appears at the start of Beethoven’s First Piano Sonata.

  • Johann Stamitz — Johann Stamitz was a Mannheim composer and violinist associated with the early symphony and the Mannheim orchestra. He helped standardize the four-movement symphonic form and the dramatic orchestral crescendos later linked to the Mannheim school.

  • Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf — Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was an Austrian Classical composer known for symphonies based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses and for early double bass concertos. He worked closely with the Haydn circle and wrote comic operas such as Doctor and Apothecary.

  • Johann Joachim Quantz — Johann Joachim Quantz was a German flautist and composer who taught Frederick the Great. He is especially known for his treatise on playing the transverse flute and for a large body of flute concertos and sonatas.
• Reform Opera, Keyboard, and Court Composers

  • Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) — German-Bohemian; reformed opera away from ornate castrato conventions toward dramatic simplicity; Orfeo ed Euridice (1762), Alceste. He articulated his reform principles in the preface to Alceste (1769). His reform operas also include Iphigénie en Aulide, Iphigénie en Tauride, and Paride e Elena; he worked in Paris and Vienna and collaborated with the librettist Calzabigi.

  • Leopold Mozart — Leopold Mozart was Wolfgang Mozart’s father and teacher, and an important violin pedagogue. He wrote A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing, composed the Toy Symphony and a trumpet concerto in D major, and also trained his daughter Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart.

  • Giovanni Paisiello — Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer best known in quiz contexts for writing an early adaptation of The Barber of Seville, based on Beaumarchais’s Figaro material. He also revised Proserpine at Napoleon’s request, and Rossini’s later Barber of Seville became more famous than his version.

  • Antonio Soler — Antonio Soler was a Spanish composer and monk who wrote around 150 keyboard sonatas, along with organ quintets and concertos for two organs. He is often associated with the Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial and with keyboard music possibly influenced by Scarlatti.

  • Giuseppe Tartini — Giuseppe Tartini was the Italian violinist and composer associated with the Devil’s Trill Sonata. He is also remembered for advice about ornamentation and for noticing difference tones, which helped him tune double stops.
    • Violin Sonata in G minor
      • Devil’s Trill — Giuseppe Tartini’s famed violin sonata, inspired by a dream of Satan performing it, and remembered for its difficult double stops and virtuosic demands.
  • Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges — Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was a Guadeloupe-born French composer and celebrated swordsman. He led Le Concert Olympique and is associated with symphony-concertantes and the opera L’Amant anonyme.
    • Chevalier de Saint-Georges — Chevalier de Saint-Georges, or Joseph Bologne, was a biracial Guadeloupean virtuoso violinist and composer in late-18th-century France. He is associated with symphonies concertantes, the Paris Symphonies, and the opera L’Amant anonyme.

  • Muzio Clementi — Muzio Clementi was an Italian pianist and composer often called the father of the pianoforte. He is known for his sonatinas and for Gradus ad Parnassum, a set of keyboard studies that later composers like Debussy referenced. He also famously dueled Mozart at the keyboard in 1781.

  • Dmitry Bortniansky — Dmitry Bortniansky was a Ukraine-born court composer in St. Petersburg often called the “Russian Palestrina.” He composed many a cappella choral concertos and church works shaped by Orthodox chant and Italian training in Venice.

  • Anton Reicha — Anton Reicha was a Czech-French Classical composer best known for his wind quintets. He also wrote about polyrhythm and left influential chamber music for wind ensemble.

  • John Stafford Smith — John Stafford Smith was an English composer and organist. He wrote the tune of ‘To Anacreon in Heaven,’ later adapted for ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’
    • To Anacreon in Heaven — “To Anacreon in Heaven” is a British drinking song by John Stafford Smith. Its tune was later used for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and the song celebrates Anacreon and wine.
  • Late Classical piano style
    • brilliant — Brilliant is the title adjective in several famous novels, including My Brilliant Career and My Brilliant Friend. It also names a late-Classical piano style associated with virtuoso composer-pianists such as Czerny and Hummel, and with Chopin’s Grande polonaise brillante.

Haydn and Mozart

• Haydn and His Musical Circle
  • Joseph Haydn / Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) — Austrian Classical composer closely associated with the Esterházy family, whom he served for nearly thirty years before his first London visit. Often called the “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet” for his development of those genres; his standard numbered symphonies run to 104. His London concerts were organized by Johann Peter Salomon, and the final twelve numbered symphonies are the London or Salomon symphonies. Major works include the “Farewell,” “Surprise,” “Clock,” and “London” symphonies; The Creation and The Seasons; the Emperor Quartet; and the Trumpet Concerto.³⁴⁵ Other familiar works include the Paris symphonies and The Seven Last Words of Christ; the Hoboken catalogue organizes his output.

    • Symphony No. 45, “Farewell” (Haydn) (1772) — F-sharp-minor symphony whose fast finale gives way to an Adagio. Players finish their parts, extinguish candles, and leave successively, leaving two violins near the end. The traditional account connects this staged departure with Esterházy musicians wanting leave to rejoin their families; the departure is the identifying feature, rather than a funeral subject.⁶

    • Symphony No. 94, “Surprise” (Haydn) (1791) — a London symphony in G major, famous for the sudden loud orchestral chord after the quiet opening theme of its second-movement Andante. That movement proceeds through variations. The nickname refers to the dynamic interruption, which is not the symphony’s opening gesture.⁷

    • Symphony No. 104, “London” (Haydn) (1795) — Haydn’s final numbered symphony, in D major. Its slow introduction begins with a stern unison in D minor; the finale introduces a folk-like theme over a drone. “London symphonies” can also mean the entire twelve-work group, Nos. 93–104, so the group name and this particular nickname have different scopes.³

    • String Quartet in C major, Op. 76 No. 3, “Emperor” (Haydn) (1797) — its slow movement varies Haydn’s anthem Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, with the melody passing between instruments. The tune later became associated with the German national anthem. This is a string quartet; Beethoven’s “Emperor” is Piano Concerto No. 5 and uses a different theme.⁸

    • The Creation / Die Schöpfung (Haydn) — an oratorio whose introduction represents Chaos and whose chorus announces light with a brilliant C-major chord. Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael narrate creation in the first two parts; Adam and Eve appear in the third. Haydn published the score with German and English text, connecting biblical subject matter with pictorial orchestral writing.⁹

    • Emperor Quartet — Haydn’s Emperor Quartet is his String Quartet No. 62 in C major, Op. 76, No. 3, from the Erdődy quartets. Its famous second movement is a set of variations on Haydn’s anthem melody, later associated with the German national anthem.

    • Emperor string quartet — Haydn’s Emperor String Quartet is the famous C major quartet whose second movement is a set of variations on “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser.” Its melody later became associated with the German national anthem.

    • London symphonies — Haydn’s London Symphonies are his final twelve symphonies, numbered 93 through 104. They include nicknamed works such as the Surprise, Clock, Drumroll, Miracle, and Military symphonies. They were written for Johann Peter Salomon.

    • Lord Nelson Mass — Haydn’s mass in D minor, his only completed mass in a minor key, written in 1798 amid the upheavals of Napoleon’s wars. It was originally titled Missa in Angustiis, meaning “Mass for Troubled Times” or “Mass in Anguish,” and was scored without winds and horns because Esterházy had dismissed the court players. The choral setting features prominent trumpet and timpani writing and moves toward D major. It became known as the Lord Nelson Mass after the Battle of the Nile and was performed to welcome Admiral Nelson at Eisenstadt in 1800; it is the third of Haydn’s six masses.

    • Oratorios
      • The Seasons — Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons (Die Jahreszeiten) is based on James Thomson’s poem of the same name and follows his The Creation. It is organized into four parts: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Its peasant trio consists of Hanne, Lucas, and Simon.

    • Paris Symphonies — The Paris Symphonies are Joseph Haydn’s set of six symphonies numbered 82 through 87, written for the Parisian concert series. They include nicknamed works such as “The Bear” and “The Queen,” and are among Haydn’s most famous mature orchestral pieces.

    • Sun Quartets — Haydn’s Sun Quartets are the six string quartets of his Opus 20, named for the sunburst design on the first edition’s cover. They were written while Haydn served as Kapellmeister to Nikolaus Esterházy.

    • Symphonies

      • Franz Joseph Haydn’s symphonies — Haydn’s symphonies are the 104 orchestral works that include the nicknamed Farewell, Surprise, Military, and London sets. They are a standard Classical-music clue cluster tied to Haydn’s experimentation with form, orchestration, and wit.

      • symphonies by Franz Joseph Haydn — Haydn’s symphonies include famous nicknamed works such as the Surprise, Drumroll, Hen, and Miracle. The set of London and Paris symphonies comes up often, along with characteristic classical-era orchestral writing and occasional folk-like or theatrical effects.

      • Symphonies by Joseph Haydn — Joseph Haydn’s numbered symphonies are a cornerstone of the Classical repertory and a major Classical-era orchestral cycle. They are associated with inventive scoring, folk influences, orchestral wit, false endings, playful programmatic moments, and humorous effects, and include the nicknamed works Surprise, Farewell, Clock, Hen, The Bear, Military, and the London and Paris sets.

      • Symphony No. 100 — Haydn’s Symphony No. 100 in G major is nicknamed the Military Symphony for its martial effects, especially in the second movement. It uses Turkish-style percussion including cymbals, triangle, and bass drum, along with fanfares and bugle calls, and the second movement adapts music from an earlier concerto for two lire organizzate. It is among the best-known of the London symphonies.
        • The Military Symphony — Haydn’s Symphony No. 100 is nicknamed the Military Symphony. The title reflects its prominent martial effects and is the standard clue for this work.
      • The Drumroll — This nickname refers to Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, one of his last symphonies. It gets its title from the timpani roll that opens the first movement.
    • Symphony No. 103
      • Drumroll Symphony — Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 is nicknamed the Drumroll Symphony because of the timpani opening in its first movement. It is one of his London symphonies and was premiered during the composer’s later career in London.
    • Symphony No. 104 (“London Symphony”)
      • London Symphony — Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 is called the London Symphony and is the last of his twelve so-called Salomon symphonies. Written during his London visits, it closes with a lively finale and was named for the city where it was composed and premiered.
    • Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, Hob. I/45
      • Farewell Symphony — Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, known as the Farewell Symphony, was written at Eszterháza to signal his wish to leave and to urge Prince Nikolaus Esterházy to let the court return to Vienna. Its final adagio features a staged departure in which the players extinguish their candles and leave one by one until only two violins remain.
        • Farewell Symphony (Symphony 45) — Haydn’s Farewell Symphony is the Symphony No. 45, associated with the story that he wrote it to persuade Prince Esterházy to let the musicians go on vacation. In performance, the players leave one by one until only two violins remain.
    • Symphony No. 82
      • Bear Symphony — Haydn’s Symphony No. 82 is nicknamed the “Bear Symphony.” The nickname comes from a dance-like effect in the finale that listeners associated with a bear dancing, often linked to bagpipe-like sonorities.
    • Symphony No. 92
      • Oxford Symphony — Haydn’s Oxford Symphony is his Symphony No. 92 in G major, composed in 1791 and later associated with an honorary doctorate from Oxford. It was written in Paris and is one of the late symphonies often grouped with his London works.

    • Symphony No. 93 — Haydn’s Symphony No. 93 is the first of the London symphonies. Its second movement includes the famous bassoon joke, and its finale quotes Mozart’s “Viva la libertà” from Don Giovanni.

    • Symphony No. 94
      • Symphony no. 94 “Surprise — Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 is the Surprise Symphony, part of the London cycle. It gets its nickname from the sudden loud chord in the second movement Andante.

    • Symphony No. 94 in G major — Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 in G major is nicknamed the Surprise Symphony. It is one of the London symphonies, and its second movement contains a sudden fortissimo chord after a deceptively quiet opening; the nickname comes from this shocking interruption. A popular legend says Haydn wrote the effect to wake drowsy English listeners during his first trip to England.

    • Symphony No. 96 “Miracle”
      • Miracle Symphony — Haydn’s Symphony No. 96 is nicknamed the “Miracle” Symphony because a chandelier reportedly fell at its premiere without injuring anyone. The nickname is tied to a story about the audience crowding near the composer and then escaping the falling chandelier.

    • The Clock Symphony — Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 101 in D major is one of the London Symphonies. Nicknamed “The Clock” or the Clock Symphony, it gets its name from the steady ticking-like rhythm in the second movement (Andante), a prominent ostinato in the winds and strings. Its finale features a double fugue, and it was premiered under Johann Peter Salomon.

    • The Creation — Haydn’s late oratorio dramatizes the Genesis creation account, and also draws on Paradise Lost. It is in three parts and features the archangels Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael as soloists. Famous moments include the opening musical Chaos, the chorus’s blazing C-major “let there be light,” vivid word painting such as the stormy sea, and the appearance of Adam and Eve in the pastoral final section.

    • The Seven Last Words of Christ — The Seven Last Words of Christ is Joseph Haydn’s meditation on Christ’s final sayings from the cross, first written for orchestra and later adapted into versions for string quartet and oratorio. It is built from a slow introduction, seven slow movements, and a concluding “Earthquake” section. Mark Strand later supplied new secular interludes for a Brentano Quartet project.

    • Haydn — The Haydns were Austrian composers whose quizbowl clues center on Joseph Haydn and his brother Michael, both major figures in the classical sacred-music tradition. Joseph Haydn is the “father of the symphony” and “father of the string quartet,” wrote The Creation and the “London” symphonies, and is often identified through the Surprise and Emperor symphonies. Michael Haydn appears in clues about Catholic masses such as the Missa Hispanica and works once misattributed to his brother.

  • Esterházy family — The Esterházy family was a wealthy Hungarian noble house that employed Joseph Haydn as kapellmeister, especially under Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. Haydn spent nearly three decades in their service, and that long court employment helped shape his output as one of the leading composers of the Classical era. Their patronage extended through much of his career; his successor as master of concerts for the family was Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

  • Hungarian noble families
    • Esterházy family — A major Hungarian noble house known for its wealth, Habsburg loyalty, and patronage of musicians. Joseph Haydn served the Esterházy family for decades as Kapellmeister, and its patronage is associated with works such as the baryton divertimenti and Symphony No. 88.

  • Johann Michael Haydn — An Austrian composer and the younger brother of Joseph Haydn, associated with the Salzburg circle. He wrote symphonies and sacred music, including the Missa Hispanica and a Requiem that influenced Mozart’s own Requiem; his Symphony No. 25 was later mistaken for Mozart’s Symphony No. 37, and one of his symphonies was long misattributed to Mozart.

  • Luigi Boccherini — Italian Classical composer and virtuoso cellist best known for chamber music, especially string quintets and cello works. He spent much of his life in Spain and is associated with Night Music of the Streets of Madrid, the Fandango Quintet, the celebrated minuet from his E-major String Quintet, Op. 11, No. 5, and the frequently arranged B-flat cello concerto; one cello concerto was later distorted by Friedrich Grützmacher. His works also include symphonies and chamber pieces catalogued in the Gerard system.
    • String Quintet in E major — Luigi Boccherini was an Italian Classical-era composer best known for chamber music, especially the String Quintet in E major with its celebrated minuet. His other quizbowl markers include Night Music of the Streets of Madrid, the Fandango quintet, and a cello concerto later arranged by Grützmacher.
  • Anton Weidinger — Johann Nepomuk Hummel was the Austrian pianist-composer who wrote a famous trumpet concerto for Anton Weidinger. Weidinger was the innovative trumpeter for whom Haydn also composed his trumpet concerto and whose name appears in clues about Hummel’s career.
• Mozart and His Musical Circle
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) — Austrian; child prodigy; 41 symphonies, the last three (Nos. 39–41) written in six weeks in 1788; Symphony No. 40 in G minor; Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”; piano concertos Nos. 20–27; Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major (“Elvira Madigan”); Clarinet Concerto in A major (K. 622); operas Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute); Requiem in D minor (K. 626, unfinished at death, completed by Süssmayr); Eine kleine Nachtmusik (K. 525); string quartets dedicated to Haydn. He was the Austrian Classical composer influenced by J. C. Bach and known for music of exceptional clarity and balance. His works are cataloged by Köchel numbers (K.), and his output also includes operas such as Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito.
    • Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622
      • Clarinet Concerto in A major — Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622, was written for Anton Stadler’s clarinet. It is Mozart’s final instrumental work and is especially famous for its lyrical Adagio second movement.

    • Eine kleine Nachtmusik — Mozart’s Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525, is better known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik or A Little Night Music. It is a G major serenade for strings and one of his most famous orchestral works, with a bright Classical style and a famous opening theme, sometimes described as a “rocket theme.” The familiar four-movement version has a marchlike first movement, a lyrical Romanza, a minuet, and a rondo; some descriptions note an additional minuet that may have been lost.

    • Haffner Symphony — Mozart’s Haffner Symphony is his 35th symphony in D major, written for the Salzburg Haffner family. Its finale is a brisk Presto that recalls the style of The Marriage of Figaro.
      • Haffner symphony or Sigmund Haffner — Mozart’s Haffner Symphony is the well-known 35th symphony in D major, written to honor the Salzburg citizen Sigmund Haffner. The same name also belongs to the Haffner Serenade, composed for the marriage of Haffner’s daughter.

    • Kronungsmesse — The Kronungsmesse, or Coronation Mass, is a mass associated with the Church of Maria-Plain near Salzburg. It acquired its nickname after performance at the coronation ceremony of Leopold II as King of Bohemia in 1791.

    • Köchel catalogue — The Köchel catalogue organizes Mozart’s works chronologically and gives them K numbers. It is the standard catalogue for Mozart, and later revisions identified spurious works and transcriptions in its appendices.

    • Linz Symphony — Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425, known as the Linz Symphony, was written during a stopover in Linz for Count Thun and was famously composed and premiered rapidly in 1783. It was the first Mozart symphony to use a slow introduction, and its second movement is an Andante in F major siciliana time.

    • Paris Symphony — Mozart’s Paris Symphony is Symphony No. 31 in D major, nicknamed for the city where it was composed and first popularized. It was written for the Concert Spirituel and is known for its brilliant opening and the revision of its slow movement for French audiences.

    • Piano Concerto
      • piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Mozart’s piano concertos are a set of 27 works for solo keyboard and orchestra, including the nicknamed “Jeunehomme,” “Coronation,” and “Elvira Madigan” concertos. They show his development from early arrangements to later original concertos in a variety of keys, including several major and two minor-key works.
    • Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467
      • Elvira Madigan — Elvira Madigan is the nickname commonly used for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467. The work is especially associated with the film Elvira Madigan, which popularized its lyrical second movement.

    • Posthorn Serenade — Mozart’s Posthorn Serenade is a serenade named for the post horn, a small brass instrument used to signal on mail coaches. It is one of Mozart’s major works in the genre and is known by its K number, 320.

    • Requiem
      • Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626 — Mozart’s unfinished D minor mass for the dead, completed after his death by Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg, it is one of Mozart’s most famous works and is especially known for the Dies Irae sequence, Kyrie, Tuba mirum, Confutatis, and Lacrimosa; one proposal also notes the later-discovered Amen fugue.

        • Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626 — Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626, was commissioned by Count von Walsegg and left unfinished at Mozart’s death. Franz Süssmayr completed much of the work, including the ending of the Lux aeterna and parts of the Lacrimosa.

        • Rex tremendae — Rex tremendae is the section of the Dies irae sequence that addresses God as a mighty king who grants salvation to the saved. In Mozart’s Requiem it is marked by a solemn, descending gesture and repeated choral emphasis on the opening word.

        • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor — Mozart’s Requiem in D minor is his unfinished mass for the dead, completed after his death by Franz Xaver Süssmayr. It is famous for movements such as the Introit, Kyrie, Confutatis, and Lacrimosa, and it is identified by the K. 626 catalog number.

    • Requiem in D minor — Mozart’s Requiem in D minor is the unfinished mass for the dead completed after his death by Franz Xaver Süssmayr. It remains one of the best-known liturgical works in the choral repertory.

      • Mozart’s Requiem in D minor — Mozart’s unfinished 1791 funeral mass, completed after his death by Franz Süssmayr. It was commissioned by Count von Walsegg; Süssmayr’s additions include the Sanctus and Benedictus. Its best-known movements include the Tuba mirum and the Lacrimosa.

      • Tuba mirum — “Tuba mirum” is a section of Mozart’s Requiem within the Dies irae sequence. It opens with a distinctive trombone solo before the first vocal entry.

    • Requiem in D minor, K. 626 — Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626 is his famous unfinished Latin mass for the dead, named for the introit that asks for eternal rest. It was completed after his death, first by his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr, and later attracted other completion attempts such as Robert Levin’s.

    • String Quartet No. 17 in B-flat major, K. 458 (Dissonance Quartet)
      • Dissonance Quartet — Mozart’s String Quartet No. 17 in B-flat major is nicknamed the Dissonance Quartet because of the uneasy harmonic opening of its Adagio introduction. The title refers to the opposite of consonance in music.
    • Symphonies

      • symphonies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Mozart’s symphonies comprise the standard forty-one orchestral works numbered in the Köchel catalogue. Clues often point to the Jupiter Symphony, the Haffner and Prague symphonies, and the two G minor symphonies.

      • Symphonies of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Mozart’s symphonies include the “Linz,” “Haffner,” “Great G minor,” and “Jupiter,” among the best-known examples of the form. Quizbowl clues often highlight the minor-key symphonies, the adagio introductions, and the dramatic fugato finales associated with these works.

      • Symphony No. 41 or “Jupiter” Symphony — Symphony No. 41 in C major, nicknamed the “Jupiter” Symphony, is Mozart’s final symphony. Its last movement is famous for contrapuntal writing that combines several themes in a fugato conclusion.

    • Symphony No. 25 in G minor — Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 in G minor is the earlier of his two symphonies in that key and is often called the Little G minor. Its driving opening and tense, stormy character make it one of the best-known early Mozart symphonies.

    • Symphony No. 38
      • Prague Symphony — Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D major is known as the Prague Symphony because it was premiered there in 1787. It is a three-movement symphony associated with the city where it first won success after The Marriage of Figaro.
    • Symphony No. 40 in G minor — Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, is one of only two symphonies he wrote in a minor key and the penultimate of the last three symphonies he wrote in 1788. It is often nicknamed the Great G minor Symphony. The work opens with a restless string figure whose melody enters a measure later, its finale features a Mannheim Rocket opening, and later revisions added clarinets to the score. It is frequently contrasted with the lighter Symphony No. 25.
      • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor — Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, is the composer’s famous “Great G Minor” symphony. Its opening theme is one of Mozart’s best-known, and the work is notable for its later revision adding clarinets and for its unusually dark minor-key character.

    • Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 — Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 is his final symphony and is nicknamed the Jupiter Symphony. The nickname is attributed to Johann Peter Salomon. The work is especially famous for its grand finale, which builds from a compact four-note theme into a brilliant contrapuntal close, often described as a double fugue or fugato and as combining five themes or motifs, with blazing trumpets and timpani contributing to the ending.

    • The Magic Flute
      • Pan pipes or chimes — Papageno’s magical instrument in The Magic Flute is a set of pan pipes or chimes. It is the birdcatcher’s counterpart to Tamino’s flute. Clues may simply ask for the instrument given to Papageno by the ladies-in-waiting.
    • Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major
      • Turkish Concerto — Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major is nicknamed the Turkish Concerto because of the exotic-style passage in its finale. The title reflects the same Turkish fashion that inspired The Abduction from the Seraglio.

  • Anton Stadler — Anton Stadler was the Viennese clarinet virtuoso for whom Mozart wrote the Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet. He is one of the key performers in the history of the clarinet and basset horn.

  • Franz Xaver Süssmayr — Franz Xaver Süssmayr was an Austrian composer best known for completing Mozart’s Requiem in D minor after Mozart’s death. He also wrote operas and other works in the late classical style, including music associated with La clemenza di Tito and an opera called Der Retter in der Noth, and later tradition credits him with finishing other Mozart pieces as well.

  • Mozart family
    • Mozart — Mozart is the surname of the prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his musical family, including Leopold and Nannerl. The family is associated with works such as Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the Jupiter Symphony, and Leopold’s violin treatise.
      • Haffner works
        • Haffner — Haffner is the Salzburg family that gave its name to Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 and to a serenade written for the same household. Mozart’s Haffner works are standard clue material for linking the composer to a specific aristocratic patron family.
      • Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major
        • Rondo alla Turca — “Rondo alla Turca” is the finale of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major. Its military-band imitation and Janissary-style effect make it one of Mozart’s most recognizable keyboard pieces.

  • Johann Nepomuk Hummel — Johann Nepomuk Hummel was an Austrian composer and pianist, a Mozart student and a contemporary of Beethoven who succeeded Haydn at Esterházy. He is best known for his trumpet concerto for Anton Weidinger, his piano concertos, and his instructional piano method. His music bridged the Classical and early Romantic styles and influenced Chopin. Other works include the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 85, and Septet in D minor.

  • French folk song
    • Ah! vous dirai-je, maman — The French melody that became the basis for the English nursery song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Mozart wrote twelve variations on it in C major, and it also appears in Haydn’s Surprise Symphony and other playful classical arrangements.
  • Exotica and national styles
    • Turkish style — Turkish style, also called alla turca, is the European classical imitation of Ottoman Janissary music. Mozart and Haydn used it for works with distinctive percussion effects, and it appears in pieces such as The Abduction from the Seraglio and the so-called Turkish marches.

The Magic Flute: roles and trials

• The Magic Flute / Die Zauberflöte — Mozart’s Singspiel, with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, premiered in Vienna in 1791. Prince Tamino seeks Pamina, while the birdcatcher Papageno seeks a companion. Magical instruments, vows of silence, and trials of fire and water connect fairy-tale comedy with initiation and wisdom.¹⁰¹¹

• Tamino — The prince in The Magic Flute, saved from a serpent by the Queen’s Three Ladies. He falls in love with Pamina’s portrait and receives the magic flute. His eventual initiation requires discipline, silence, and the final trials he undergoes with Pamina.¹¹ Tamino is Mozart’s young prince in The Magic Flute who woos Pamina; he is a stock heroic tenor role in the opera’s fairy-tale quest.

• Pamina — The Queen of the Night’s daughter and Tamino’s beloved in The Magic Flute. She misreads his required silence as rejection. The Three Spirits prevent her suicide, and she joins Tamino in the fire and water ordeals, protected by the flute.¹¹

• Papageno and Papagena — The comic birdcatcher and his eventual partner in The Magic Flute. Papageno’s bells help overcome danger, but he cannot sustain the discipline required of Tamino. Papagena first appears disguised as an old woman; the Three Spirits help reunite them.¹¹

• Sarastro — The priestly ruler in The Magic Flute, initially described as an evil captor. His community tests Tamino, and he rejects vengeance against the Queen. Later events overturn the rescue story’s first apparent division between good and evil.¹⁰

• Queen of the Night — Pamina’s mother in The Magic Flute. She asks Tamino to rescue her daughter, then orders Pamina to kill Sarastro with a dagger. Her final attack on the temple fails.¹⁰ The high coloratura villainess of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, identified by the aria “Der Hölle Rache” and her terrifying high notes.

• Monostatos — Sarastro’s overseer in The Magic Flute, who threatens Pamina and later assists the Queen’s attack. Papageno’s magical bells thwart his men during the escape, linking his role with coercion and pursuit.¹⁰

• Three Ladies and Three Spirits — Different guides in The Magic Flute: the Ladies serve the Queen and supply magical instruments. The Spirits, also called boys or genii, guide the protagonists and prevent Pamina’s and Papageno’s suicides.¹⁰

Beethoven

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) — German; bridged Classical and Romantic; progressive deafness from early adulthood; nine symphonies: No. 3 “Eroica” (in E-flat; originally dedicated to Napoleon), No. 5 in C minor (famous four-note opening motif), No. 6 “Pastoral,” No. 7 in A major, No. 9 in D minor (premiered 1824; choral finale sets Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”); 32 piano sonatas including “Pathétique” (Op. 13), “Moonlight” (Op. 27 No. 2), “Appassionata” (Op. 57), “Hammerklavier” (Op. 106); five piano concertos (No. 5 “Emperor”); Violin Concerto in D major; string quartets including the late quartets (Op. 127–135); opera Fidelio; Missa Solemnis. He was trained in counterpoint by Albrechtsberger and Haydn, and his other well-known works include the Egmont overture, the Kreutzer Sonata, the Waldstein Sonata, Für Elise, and The Creatures of Prometheus.

  • Appassionata Sonata — Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata is his Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, and one of his major middle-period keyboard works. It is known for its dramatic opening, F-minor intensity, and intense contrasts; its second movement is a set of variations in D-flat major that leads directly into the stormy finale.

  • Archduke Trio — Beethoven’s Archduke Trio is the B-flat major piano trio, Op. 97, for violin, cello, and piano, dedicated to Archduke Rudolph. It is one of Beethoven’s most frequently performed and best-known chamber works, and among the last works he performed as a pianist before deafness ended his public playing.

  • Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59
    • Für Elise — Beethoven’s solo piano bagatelle in A minor, published after his death and widely known for its opening E-flat/E-natural motif, arpeggiated left hand, and quiet ending. It is one of the best-known short piano pieces in the Romantic repertoire. The work is commonly associated with a possible dedication to Therese Malfatti, though the dedication remains uncertain, and its title became standard because of Beethoven’s difficult handwriting.

  • Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is his final symphony and the famous “Choral” Symphony. Its finale sets Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” for orchestra, chorus, and soloists, beginning after the instrumental movements with the well-known bass recitative. The work is especially associated with its D-minor opening, its triumphant major-key close, and Beethoven’s use of a scherzo in second position and a slow third movement (Adagio molto e cantabile). It has also been linked to European unity and later performances such as Leonard Bernstein’s post-Berlin Wall concert, where “Freude” was changed to “Freiheit.”

  • Choral — Beethoven’s “Choral” nickname refers to works such as the Ninth Symphony and the Choral Fantasy. The label points to the prominent use of voices in pieces where Beethoven fused symphonic writing with vocal forces.

  • Choral Fantasy
    • the Choral Fantasy — Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy is the Op. 80 work for piano, orchestra, and chorus that opens with a solo piano introduction. It anticipates the Ninth Symphony by combining instrumental variations with a choral finale set to a German text.

  • Coriolan Overture — Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture is a C minor concert overture based on Heinrich Joseph von Collin’s play about the Roman general Coriolanus. Its stark opening theme and contrasting lyrical material make it a standard clue for Beethoven and dramatic C minor works.

  • Diabelli Variations — Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations are a set of 33 piano variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, published as Opus 120. The cycle includes parody, fugue, and brilliant late-style keyboard writing that turns a simple C major theme into a vast compositional showcase, and it is one of the composer’s most famous late keyboard cycles.

  • Egmont Overture — Beethoven’s Egmont Overture was written for Goethe’s play about the Dutch nobleman Count Egmont, who resisted Spanish rule under the Duke of Alba. It begins in a dark F-minor mood and ends in triumphant F major, mirroring the title hero’s struggle and victory.

  • Grosse Fuge — Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, was originally intended as the finale of String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130. The massive contrapuntal work opens with an Overtura of unison Gs, and its dense fugal writing and difficult notation made it notorious to performers and critics. It was later published separately; Stravinsky praised it as a work that would be contemporary forever.

  • Heiligenstadt Testament — The Heiligenstadt Testament is Beethoven’s famous 1802 letter to his brothers about the anguish of his growing deafness. It frames his hearing loss as the secret cause of his misanthropy and is one of the most important personal documents in the Beethoven canon.

  • Kreutzer Sonata — The Kreutzer Sonata is Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9, dedicated to George Bridgetower and later associated with Tolstoy’s novella of the same name. The work is known for its virtuosic first movement and its later role in literary and musical adaptations.

  • Leonore Overtures
    • Leonore Overtures I, II, and III — These three Beethoven overtures were written for Fidelio, which he kept revising because he was dissatisfied with them. The third is still traditionally played before the opera’s third act.
  • Les Adieux — Les Adieux is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Op. 81a. Beethoven associated it with the 1809 French attack on Vienna and dedicated it to Archduke Rudolf.
    • Les Adieux” sonata — Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Opus 81a is the Les Adieux sonata. Its three movements are often identified as departure, absence, and reunion, with the finale titled Das Wiedersehen.
  • Missa Solemnis — Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is his massive setting of the Catholic mass, originally intended for the enthronement of Archduke Rudolph as Archbishop. It is often noted for its unusually expansive treatment of the liturgy, including a dramatic Agnus Dei with martial trumpet interruptions. The work is Beethoven’s longest composition and is frequently ranked among the greatest mass settings in the repertoire. Its fugues and borrowed grandeur make it a hallmark of his late sacred style.
    • Missa solemnis in D major — Beethoven’s Missa solemnis in D major, Op. 86, is a large-scale mass whose movements include the Gloria and Agnus Dei. Its Gloria ends in a cappella unison, and the Agnus Dei is interrupted by a martial allusion from the Napoleonic era.
  • Missa Solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 — Missa Solemnis in D major, Op. 123 is Beethoven’s massive setting of the mass ordinary, dedicated to Archduke Rudolf of Austria. It is especially known for its expansive Gloria and Credo and for the prominent violin solo in the Benedictus.
    • Missa solemnis in D major — Beethoven’s Missa solemnis in D major, Op. 123, is one of his major late sacred works, written for Archduke Rudolph. He described it as his greatest and most perfect achievement, and he later sold it to multiple princes and publishers at once.

  • Moonlight Sonata — Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, is popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata. It was originally labeled quasi una fantasia and is dedicated to Giulietta Guicciardi. Ludwig Rellstab coined the nickname after comparing the first movement to moonlight on Lake Lucerne. The first movement is the famous Adagio sostenuto with a sustained arpeggiated, pedaled texture; the second movement is a lyrical adagio often arranged independently; and the finale is a fast, stormy Presto agitato with rapid arpeggios and strong accents. Beethoven later complained of its popularity despite having written better works.

  • Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor
    • “Tempest” sonata — Beethoven’s “Tempest” Sonata is Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, famous for its stormy opening and the nickname supposedly inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Anton Schindler attached the nickname to the sonata, whose dramatic first movement and finale make it a standard Beethoven quizbowl staple.
  • Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2
    • The Tempest Sonata — Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata is the Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, with stormy rolled chords and sudden lyrical breaks. Its nickname alludes to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, though Beethoven did not explicitly title it that way.
  • Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 (Waldstein Sonata)
    • The Waldstein Sonata — Beethoven’s middle-period piano sonata in C major, Op. 53, named for Count Ferdinand Ernst von Waldstein, is known for its pulsing opening, an E major second subject, and a finale rondo whose opening idea grows into a brilliant close. Beethoven replaced the originally intended Andante favori with a short Adagio introduction, and the final rondo was written to exploit the range of an Erard piano.
  • Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57
    • Appassionata — The Appassionata is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57. Its intense opening and stormy character make it one of his most famous sonatas. The work’s more common name is the Appassionata, and archive clues point to its vigorous final movement as well. The title is the standard quizbowl answer for the sonata.
  • Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106
    • Hammerklavier Sonata — Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106, is known as the Hammerklavier Sonata. It is famous for its difficulty and for the long Adagio sostenuto in the third movement.
  • Piano Sonata No. 8
    • Pathétique Sonata — Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, commonly called the Pathétique Sonata, is one of his best-known early piano sonatas. It is noted for its Grave introduction, stormy first movement, and lyrical Adagio cantabile slow movement; the nickname reflects its tragic, dramatic character.

  • Razumovsky quartets — The Razumovsky quartets are Beethoven’s Opus 59 string quartets, dedicated to Count Andreas Razumovsky. They are notable for their Russian themes and for being among Beethoven’s major middle-period chamber works.

  • Sonata for violin & piano No. 9 in A major (“Kreutzer”), Op. 47 — Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata is Sonata for violin and piano No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, dedicated to the violinist George Bridgetower and later associated with Rodolphe Kreutzer. Its three movements include a slow introduction and presto first movement, a theme and variations slow movement, and a finale with a tarantella-like rondo.

  • String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130

    • Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major — Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130, is a six-movement quartet originally ending with the Grosse Fuge. Its cavatina is famous, and the substituted finale was published separately as Op. 133.

    • String Quartet No. 13 — Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130, is the sprawling late quartet originally paired with the Grosse Fuge. It includes the famous Cavatina movement, and its original finale was later replaced after the work’s difficult reception.

    • String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major — Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130, is the large late quartet associated with the Cavatina and the Grosse Fuge. Its originally difficult finale was replaced after criticism, but the quartet remains one of his most famous chamber works.

  • String Quartet No. 14
    • Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 — Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131, is the seven-movement late quartet admired for its continuous design and opening fugue. It is often paired with its predecessor’s Cavatina and successor’s Heiliger Dankgesang in discussions of Beethoven’s late style.
  • Symphonies

    • Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor is the famous symphony built around the short-short-short-long fate motif. Its second movement is a set of variations, and its final two movements are linked without a break. The work moves from stormy C minor to a triumphant C major ending, with the finale adding piccolo and trombones and closing on long stretches of C major chords. It is one of the most recognizable works in the symphonic canon and helped define Beethoven’s dramatic middle-period style. It is often called the Fate Symphony.

    • Beethoven’s Third Symphony — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, is the Eroica Symphony, also called the Heroic Symphony or Sinfonia Eroica. It marks the beginning of his middle period and is a landmark of the early Romantic symphonic tradition. Originally dedicated to Napoleon, Beethoven later withdrew or altered the dedication after Napoleon crowned himself emperor, and the work was later associated with “a great man.” Its famous features include the bold opening chords, a funeral march second movement, and a finale of variations on a theme from The Creatures of Prometheus.

    • symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven — Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies include the Eroica, the Pastoral, and the choral Ninth, whose finale sets Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.” One of them opens with the famous four-note fate motif. The cycle marks a decisive expansion of the symphonic form and exerted such influence that Brahms’s First Symphony was long nicknamed the “Tenth” in its shadow.

  • Symphony No. 5 — Symphony No. 5 is the famous symphony number associated with Beethoven’s C minor work and its short-short-short-long opening motif. Other Fifth Symphonies in the canon include works by Mahler, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Vaughan Williams, and Bruckner.

    • Adagietto — Mahler’s Adagietto is the slow fourth movement of his Symphony No. 5, scored only for strings and harp and often linked with a love letter to Alma.

    • Beethoven’s 5th Symphony — Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C minor is famous for its short-short-short-long opening motif, often described as fate knocking at the door. Its finale breaks through into C major and ends with the widely recognized triumphant cadence.

    • Fifth Symphony — A fifth symphony is a standard quizbowl target because Beethoven’s C-minor Fifth opens with the famous short-short-short-long motif and Mahler and Sibelius also wrote well-known fifth symphonies. Shostakovich’s Fifth and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth are other canonical examples that are often identified by key and subtitle or context.

    • Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 — Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 moves from C-sharp minor to D major and is famous for its trumpet-led funeral march and its strings-and-harp Adagietto. The work’s expansive scherzo and finale complete one of Mahler’s most celebrated symphonic cycles.

    • Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor — Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C minor opens with the famous short-short-short-long motive often linked to “fate knocking at the door.” It ends in C major, and its finale turns from the scherzo back into the home key, creating one of the most recognizable transitions in symphonic music. The work was celebrated by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who praised its power to transport the listener.

    • Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 — Mahler’s Fifth Symphony opens with a trumpet funeral march in C-sharp minor and is famous for its lyrical F-major Adagietto. The Adagietto became especially well known after Leonard Bernstein performed it at Robert Kennedy’s funeral mass.

    • Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler — Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 begins with a trumpet funeral march in C-sharp minor and is famous for its expansive fifth-movement-adjacent Adagietto. Its scherzo features a prominent horn solo and dance-like trio passages, making it one of Mahler’s best-known symphonies.

    • Symphony No. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven in C minor — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor is the famous “fate” symphony, opening with the short-short-short-long four-note motif often described as fate knocking at the door. Its first movement includes a notable oboe cadenza-like passage in the recapitulation, and the work ends with a triumphant shift from C minor to C major in the finale.

      • 5th symphony — Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the famous C minor symphony that opens with the short-short-short-long motif. It premiered in 1808 alongside the Sixth Symphony and is among Beethoven’s best-known works.

  • Symphony no. 5, op. 67 — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, is the famous fate symphony. Its opening four-note motif became one of the best-known gestures in Western classical music.

  • Symphony No. 6
    • Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony — Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony in F major, Op. 68, is the programmatic “Pastoral Symphony,” evoking rural life and nature rather than simple pictorial description. Its five movements include an opening movement about cheerful feelings on arriving in the countryside, “Scene by the Brook,” “Merry Gathering of Country Folk,” a thunderstorm, and a final “Shepherds’ Song” or hymn of thanks after the storm. The score famously uses bird calls in the Andante, including the nightingale, quail, and cuckoo, and the storm movement features piccolo, trombones, and trumpets. It premiered in Vienna in 1808 alongside the Fifth Symphony.
  • Symphony No. 7 in A major
    • 7th symphony — Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony in A major is famous for its driving rhythms, especially the allegretto movement.
  • Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
    • Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 is notable for its celebrated Allegretto second movement, with a persistent rhythmic figure, and for its first movement, which begins with a long introduction before the faster dance section. Richard Wagner called the work the “apotheosis of dance,” and it premiered alongside Wellington’s Victory. The premiere was an 1813 benefit concert for wounded soldiers.

  • Symphony No. 8 in F major — Beethoven’s compact Symphony No. 8 in F major is notable for its playful character and comic disruptions. Its second movement imitates a ticking mechanism and is often heard as a joke about Johann Maelzel’s metronome, while the finale features sudden dynamic shifts and other playful surprises.

  • Symphony No. 9

    • 9th Symphony — Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Op. 125, is the Choral Symphony, famous for its finale based on Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.” It was Beethoven’s last symphony and a landmark work that prominently incorporates chorus into a major orchestral symphony.

    • Symphony No. 9 or Ninth or Choral — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is the Choral Symphony, famous for its finale based on “Ode to Joy.” It was composed when Beethoven was almost completely deaf.

  • The Creatures of Prometheus — Beethoven’s ballet centers on Prometheus bringing two clay figures to life and educating them in the arts and knowledge. Its music later fed into the finale of the Eroica Symphony, including the famous funeral march material.

  • The Ruins of Athens — Beethoven’s incidental music for August von Kotzebue’s play of the same name. Its best-known movement is the lively Turkish March, reflecting the era’s Janissary style, and the set also includes the Dervish Chorus. It is often performed separately from the rest of the incidental music.

  • Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
    • Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D-major — Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, opens with four soft timpani strokes and a folk-song-like finale. The concerto is famous for Fritz Kreisler’s cadenzas and for its revival after Mendelssohn conducted a performance with the young Joseph Joachim.
  • Violin Sonata No. 5
    • Spring Sonata — Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5 is nicknamed the Spring Sonata. The same seasonal title is also used for the first concerto in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

  • Wellington’s Victory — Beethoven’s Op. 91, Wellington’s Victory, is a patriotic orchestral work commonly called Battle Symphony. It commemorates Napoleon’s defeat at Vitoria and was originally planned for Maelzel’s panharmonicon before being written for orchestra and muskets.

  • Piano Sonata No. 29
    • Hammerklavier — Hammerklavier is the German term for piano and the nickname of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29. The sonata is famous for its length, opening fortissimo chords, and formidable fugue in the finale.
  • Symphony No. 5 in C minor
    • opening motive of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony — This is the famous opening motive of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the short-short-short-long figure often tied to the idea of fate knocking at the door. It also became a World War II victory signal because its rhythm matched the Morse code for V.

  • Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” (Beethoven) (E-flat major, Op. 55, 1803–04) — originally inscribed to Napoleon; Beethoven reportedly erased the dedication when Napoleon declared himself emperor; second-movement funeral march (Marcia funebre); its unprecedented length and ambition marked a turning point in symphonic history.

  • Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven) (C minor, Op. 67, c. 1804–08) — famous four-note short-short-short-long opening motif (described by Beethoven’s secretary Schindler as “Fate knocking at the door,” though this is disputed); transitions directly from third to fourth movement without pause.

  • Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” (Beethoven) (F major, Op. 68, 1808) — five movements each with descriptive titles; depicts a day in the countryside; includes a “Thunderstorm” movement; premiered on the same concert as Symphony No. 5.

  • Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven) (A major, Op. 92, 1811–12) — Wagner called it “the apotheosis of the dance”; second-movement Allegretto became so popular it was encored at the premiere and is sometimes performed independently.

  • Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) (D minor, Op. 125, 1822–24) — premiered 1824; Beethoven conducted (or stood near the podium, effectively deaf); choral finale sets Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” for soloists, chorus, and orchestra; adopted as the European Union’s anthem.

  • Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” (Beethoven) (E-flat major, Op. 73, 1809) — largest and most technically demanding of Beethoven’s five piano concertos; nicknamed “Emperor” by publisher Johann Baptist Cramer (not by Beethoven); composed during Napoleon’s bombardment of Vienna; slow movement in B major creates an unusual key relationship.

  • “Moonlight” Sonata (Beethoven) (Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2, 1801) — nicknamed “Moonlight” posthumously by critic Ludwig Rellstab; first movement’s triplet arpeggios in the bass became iconic; Beethoven placed the unusual marking quasi una fantasia on both Op. 27 sonatas.

  • “Hammerklavier” Sonata (Beethoven) (Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106, 1817–18) — longest and most technically demanding of the 32 sonatas; Hammerklavier simply means “fortepiano” in German; the Adagio and the fugal finale are among Beethoven’s most imposing piano movements.

  • Late String Quartets (Beethoven) (Opp. 127–135, 1825–26) — five quartets comprising the “late quartets”; No. 14 in C-sharp minor (Op. 131) is in seven movements played without pause; No. 16 in F major (Op. 135) contains the enigmatic inscription “Must it be? It must be!”; the Grosse Fuge (Op. 133) was originally the finale of Op. 130 before being published separately.

• Anton Diabelli — Anton Diabelli was the Austrian composer and publisher whose waltz inspired Beethoven’s famous set of 33 variations. He is remembered mainly for that waltz and for publishing many of Beethoven’s late works.

• Immortal Beloved — Immortal Beloved is the unsent 1812 Beethoven letter that became the basis for a film about who it was addressed to. The phrase is tied to possible addressees such as Josephine Brunsvik, Antonie Brentano, and Julie Guicciardi.

Related Works, People, and Context

• cadenzas — A cadenza is a virtuosic solo passage, often improvised, that appears in concertos near a cadence or fermata. Composers from Bach to Rachmaninoff wrote famous cadenzas that let soloists display technique before the orchestra reenters.

• Classical era — The Classical era of music ran from the mid-18th to the early 19th century, bridging the Baroque and Romantic eras. It is associated with the First Viennese School and composers such as Haydn, Mozart, C.P.E. Bach, J.C. Bach, Clementi, and Salieri. In music it is also linked with the galant style and the Mannheim school; in art history, the term can also refer to the Greek Classical age and its later revival in neoclassicism.

Colonial American Sacred Song and Community Music

Follow Billings and early American choral traditions alongside the late eighteenth-century European repertoire.

• William Billings — William Billings was the leading Colonial American composer of choral music. A tanner by trade, he wrote collections such as The New-England Psalm-Singer and The Singing Master’s Assistant, which include tunes like “Africa” and “David’s Lamentation.”

Romantic and National Traditions

Follow Romantic and national traditions through composers and works.

Early and Middle Romantic (c. 1820–1870)

• Romantic period — The Romantic period of music emphasized emotion, individual expression, and freer forms after the Classical era. It is associated with nineteenth-century composers such as Berlioz, Chopin, Clara Schumann, Bruckner, and Wagner, and with forms such as the tone poem. The word Romantic is also used as the title of symphonies by Howard Hanson, Anton Bruckner, and Carlos Chávez.

• German Song, Piano, and Orchestral Romanticism

  • Schumann — The Schumanns were a musical family centered on Clara Wieck Schumann and her composer husband Robert Schumann. Robert Schumann wrote the Romantic piano cycle Kinderszenen and the Rhenish Symphony, while Clara Schumann was a celebrated pianist and composer who also performed and wrote for violinist Joseph Joachim.

  • Franz Schubert (1797–1828) — Austrian; over 600 Lieder (art songs) including Erlkönig, Der Erlkönig, Ave Maria, Die Forelle (“The Trout”); song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise; Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished” (B minor, D. 759; two movements); Symphony No. 9 “The Great” (C major); Trout Quintet (D. 667); String Quintet in C major.

    • Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage — Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage is Goethe’s maritime poem title used by both Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn’s overture is often cited, and Elgar later quoted it in the Enigma Variations.

    • Death and the Maiden or Der Tod und das Madchen or D810 or — Death and the Maiden is Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D810. Its second movement is based on his earlier lied and the quartet is famous for its dramatic opening and tarantella finale.

    • Death and the Maiden quartet — Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D810, is known as the Death and the Maiden quartet because its second movement adapts his song of that name, which in turn sets a Matthias Claudius poem. It is a major late quartet and was later expanded into symphonic arrangements by other composers.

    • Die Forelle — Franz Schubert’s lied “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”) later supplied the melody for the variations movement in his Piano Quintet in A major, the “Trout Quintet.” Its text uses the image of fishing for the title fish as a metaphor for seduction and assault.

    • Die Schone Mullerin — Die schöne Müllerin is Schubert’s song cycle of twenty songs on poems by Wilhelm Müller. Its story follows a miller’s apprentice who falls for the miller’s daughter, loses her to a huntsman, and drowns himself in the brook. The accompaniment repeatedly evokes wandering and flowing water.

    • Die Winterreise — Franz Schubert’s song cycle of twenty-four songs on poems by Wilhelm Müller. It follows a lovesick, desolate wanderer through winter landscapes and broken love, descending into alienation and hallucination. It opens with “Gute Nacht” and ends with “Der Leiermann,” and includes songs such as “Frühlingstraum” and “Der stürmische Morgen.”

    • Erlkönig — Schubert’s “Erlkönig” is a dramatic Lied based on Goethe’s poem about a father riding through the night with his sick child. Its pounding triplets or galloping piano accompaniment depict the ride, while the title figure, a sinister forest spirit or elf-king, tries to lure the child away and the father insists the apparition is unreal; the child dies at the end. It is one of the best-known Romantic art songs.

    • Gretchen am Spinnrade — Schubert’s lied sets a scene from Goethe’s Faust in D minor. Its running piano accompaniment evokes the spinning wheel and Gretchen’s agitated heart, and the song famously pauses at the words “und ach, sein Kuss!” / “sein Kuß!” It was one of Schubert’s early publications, often identified as Op. 2, and is considered one of his signature lieder.

    • lieder

      • Lieder by Franz Schubert — Franz Schubert’s lieder are art songs for voice and piano, including pieces such as “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” “Der Erlkönig,” and “Die Forelle.” These songs often feature memorable piano figures and settings of Goethe poetry.

      • Schubert’s lieder — Schubert’s lieder are German art songs set to poetry by writers such as Goethe, Shakespeare, and Schlegel. Examples include Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel, To Sylvia, The Rose, and On the Bridge.

    • Rosamunde — Rosamunde is Schubert’s incidental music for the play Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus by Helmina von Chézy. Its Entr’acte and other movements are often performed on their own, and the set is also connected to Schubert’s Rosamunde Quartet.

    • Schwanengesang
      • Der Doppelgänger — “Der Doppelgänger” is the Heine setting in Schwanengesang where a man sees the pale image of his lost love outside her abandoned house. Its accompaniment is built from stark block chords and a haunting descending figure.
    • Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished”
      • Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony — Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759, is nicknamed the Unfinished Symphony. It survives in only two complete movements, with a fragmentary third movement in sketches; the first movement is marked by a famous opening melody in the cellos and basses, and the second is the lyrical Andante con moto. It was probably composed largely in 1824 and was not publicly performed until 1865, long after Schubert’s death. The unfinished finale has often been linked to the Rosamunde incidental music, and later editorial completions and reconstructions attempted to supply the missing scherzo and finale.
    • Symphony No. 9
      • Schubert’s 9th Symphony — Schubert’s Ninth Symphony in C major is nicknamed “The Great” and is often treated as the composer’s large-scale mature symphony. Its finale is marked by the famous horn-call and “heavenly length” associated with the work.
    • Trout Quintet — Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667, nicknamed the Trout Quintet, is a chamber work with unusual scoring that substitutes a double bass for the second violin. It was commissioned by Sylvester Paumgartner and is especially known for its fifth-movement variations on the song “Die Forelle,” from which it takes its nickname. The piece is one of Schubert’s best-known chamber works.

      • Sylvester Paumgartner — Sylvester Paumgartner was the Salzburg patron who commissioned Schubert’s Trout Quintet, a chamber work for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. He is the clue-point for questions about the work’s unusual instrumentation and its connection to Schubert’s song “Die Forelle.”

      • Trout Quintet D. 667 — Schubert’s Trout Quintet, D. 667, is the piano quintet in A major whose fourth movement varies his song “Die Forelle.” Scored for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass, it is one of Schubert’s most famous chamber works.

    • Wanderer Fantasy — Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy, D. 760, is a virtuosic C-major piano work built from a lied theme and played without breaks between movements. Schubert reportedly said that only the devil could play it, and Liszt later arranged it for piano and orchestra.
      • the Wanderer Fantasy — Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy is a demanding C major piano work built from material from his lied “Der Wanderer.” Its four linked movements and virtuoso finale made it a favorite of later pianists such as Liszt.
    • Winterreise — Franz Schubert’s 24-song cycle on poems by Wilhelm Müller, following a jilted wanderer through winter landscapes after the collapse of a love affair. It opens with “Gute Nacht” and ends with “Der Leiermann” (“The Hurdy-Gurdy Man”); among its best-known songs are “Der Lindenbaum” and “Die Post,” and recurring images include footsteps, inscriptions, and the lone hurdy-gurdy player in the finale.

      • Der Lindenbaum — “Der Lindenbaum” is the famous fifth song in Schubert’s Winterreise. The singer hears the tree’s branches and imagines them inviting him to rest, making the song one of the cycle’s most memorable evocations of longing and death.

      • the wanderer from Winterreise — The wanderer of Winterreise is the rejected lover who sings the 24 lieder of Schubert’s song cycle based on poems by Wilhelm Müller. He bids farewell in “Gute Nacht,” wanders through bleak winter imagery, and ends by singing to a hurdy-gurdy man in the final song.

    • Winterreise (Schubert) (D. 911, 1827) — song cycle of 24 songs to poems by Wilhelm Müller; depicts a young man’s desolate winter journey after a failed love; among the most profound song cycles in the repertoire; songs include “Der Leiermann” (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man) and “Der Lindenbaum.”

    • String Quintet in C major (Schubert) (D. 956, 1828) — scored for two cellos instead of the traditional two violas; composed in the last weeks of Schubert’s life; slow movement Adagio in E major widely considered one of the most beautiful in the chamber repertoire.
  • Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) — German; Symphony No. 4 “Italian” and No. 3 “Scottish”; overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream (composed at 17); Wedding March from the later incidental music; Violin Concerto in E minor (Op. 64); Elijah (oratorio); Songs Without Words for piano; revived Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 1829. He also wrote the Hebrides Overture, the Reformation Symphony, the String Octet in E-flat major, and the oratorio St. Paul and A Midsummer Night’s Dream incidental music beyond the overture and Wedding March. Mendelssohn was an influential conductor and helped revive interest in Bach through the 1829 Berlin performance of the St. Matthew Passion.

    • Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 106 — Mendelssohn’s piano sonata shares a key and opus number with Beethoven’s Sonata No. 29. Beethoven’s distinct work is the one nicknamed Hammerklavier.

    • A Midsummer Night’s Dream

      • incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream — Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream includes the famous Wedding March and fairy music for Shakespeare’s comedy. The suite grew from an overture written when Mendelssohn was a teenager, and its movements evoke Bottom, Oberon, Puck, and the play’s magical world.

      • Mendelssohn’s incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream — Mendelssohn’s incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream includes the famous Wedding March. Its overture and other numbers are often identified through references to the play’s fairy comedy and wedding scenes.

      • the Wedding March — Mendelssohn’s Wedding March is the famous excerpt from A Midsummer Night’s Dream often played at weddings. It is one of the most recognizable pieces of incidental music in the concert repertory.

    • Choral works
      • First Walpurgis Night — This Mendelssohn cantata takes its title from Goethe and depicts a pagan spring ritual. Its chorus disguises itself as demons to outwit authorities who ban the celebration.
    • Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor — Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor is a Romantic concerto famous for its seamless transition into the recapitulation and its soloist-friendly writing. It was written for Ferdinand David and opens with one of Mendelssohn’s best-known violin themes.
      • Felix Mendelssohn’s violin concerto — Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor is unusual for bringing in the soloist almost immediately and for writing out its own cadenza. Its three movements play without pause, making it one of the best-known Romantic violin concertos.

    • Hebrides Overture — Mendelssohn’s Op. 26 orchestral overture inspired by a visit to Fingal’s Cave in the Scottish Hebrides. It is known for its brooding opening in B minor and imagery of waves, basalt columns, and the cave interior; the work was originally titled The Lonely Island.

    • Scottish Symphony — The Scottish Symphony is Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor, inspired by his visit to Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh. Its movements evoke Scottish atmosphere through stormy strings, a snap-rhythm scherzo, and a martial finale.

    • Songs Without Words — Felix Mendelssohn’s set of short piano pieces published in eight books of six. The collection includes the well-known “Spring Song,” “Spinning Song,” and several Venetian Boat Songs; the title reflects their lyrical, songlike character despite having no sung text. They are among Mendelssohn’s best-known solo piano works.

    • String Octet in E-flat major — Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat major is an early chamber work written when he was a teenager. Its third movement scherzo draws on Goethe’s Faust, and the piece is notable for its lush scoring for eight strings.

    • Symphonies

      • Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 — Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, is nicknamed the Italian Symphony. It was inspired by his travels in Italy, especially scenes from Naples and Rome. The work is noted for a bright outer movement, a chant-like slow movement, middle movements including the “Pilgrim’s March” Andante con moto, and a finale that uses saltarello and tarantella rhythms.

      • symphonies by Felix Mendelssohn — These are the numbered orchestral symphonies of Felix Mendelssohn, including the Italian, Scottish, and Reformation works. Quizbowl clues often mention the “Dresden Amen,” “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” and the saltarello finale that closes the Italian in A minor.

      • symphonies of Felix Mendelssohn — Felix Mendelssohn’s symphonies include the Reformation, Scottish, Italian, and Lobgesang. They are known for features such as the Dresden Amen, churchlike themes, and the travel inspiration that also produced the Hebrides Overture.

    • Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op. 107
      • Symphony No. 5 in D major/D minor, Op. 107 — Mendelssohn’s Fifth Symphony, written to commemorate the Augsburg Confession, is known as the Reformation Symphony. Its finale quotes Martin Luther’s hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” and its opening movement features the Dresden Amen.
    • Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
      • Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 — Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 is the Romantic concerto that begins with the soloist entering almost immediately and features a written-out cadenza. Its linked movements and famous first-movement melody make it one of the standard repertory pieces for violin and orchestra.

    • Symphony No. 4 “Italian” (Mendelssohn) (A major, Op. 90, 1833) — inspired by travels in Italy; finale is a saltarello; premiered in London; Mendelssohn never finalized revisions and it was published posthumously.

    • Symphony No. 3 “Scottish” (Mendelssohn) (A minor, Op. 56, 1842) — inspired by visit to Holyrood Palace; four movements played without pause; dedicated to Queen Victoria.

    • Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn) (E minor, Op. 64, 1844) — cadenza in first movement unusually placed before the recapitulation rather than near the end; three movements linked without pause; one of the most-performed violin concertos.

    • Mendelssohn — Mendelssohn is the surname of the Romantic composers Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, whose works include Songs without Words, The Hebrides Overture, and The Year. The family name also points to several other musicians and artists, but the most famous clue set centers on Felix’s symphonies and Fanny’s piano music.

  • Fanny Hensel (1805–1847) — German composer, also known as Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Her String Quartet in E-flat major (1834) and Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 11 (1847) are central chamber works. Distinguish her trio from Clara Schumann’s G-minor Op. 17, and her quartet from Felix Mendelssohn’s Op. 44, No. 3.¹² She composed more than 400 works, including Das Jahr and the unpublished Easter Sonata, and was discouraged from calling herself a composer; some works were published under her brother Felix Mendelssohn’s name.

  • Mendelssohn family — The Mendelssohn family included Moses Mendelssohn, the Enlightenment philosopher, and Felix Mendelssohn, the composer. The family is especially associated with Felix’s Scottish and Reformation symphonies, Songs Without Words, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream overture.

  • Robert Schumann (1810–1856) — German; Dichterliebe and Frauenliebe und -leben (song cycles); Carnaval and Kinderszenen for piano; Piano Concerto in A minor; four symphonies; suffered severe mental illness in later life. Other works include Papillons and Kreisleriana, and the Spring and Rhenish symphonies. He edited the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik and married Clara Wieck.

    • Album for the Young — Album for the Young is Robert Schumann’s set of 43 short piano pieces for student players. It includes miniatures such as “The Happy Farmer,” “Spring Song,” and “First Loss,” and is often divided into sections for younger and older performers.

    • Carnaval, Op. 9 — Robert Schumann’s piano suite of 22 miniatures, subtitled “Little Scenes on Four Notes,” built from the A-S-C-H cryptogram. It is a masked-festival cycle with portraits of Schumann’s alter egos and Commedia dell’arte figures, tributes to Chopin and Paganini, and a finale in which Florestan and Eusebius march with David’s Band before a quotation of the Grossvater Tanz.

    • Davidsbündler — The Davidsbündler, or League of David, was Robert Schumann’s fictional society of musicians and critics created to champion new music. It appears in Carnaval and in the Davidsbündlertänze, works that frame artistic combat against the musical Philistines.

    • Dichterliebe — Robert Schumann’s 1840 song cycle on poems by Heinrich Heine. It begins with “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” and ends with “Die alten, bösen Lieder,” where the closing songs turn from romantic longing to bitter resignation, consigning old songs and pain to a coffin and the sea. Its haunting piano postlude and volatile harmonic writing make it one of the central Romantic song cycles.

    • Florestan — Florestan is Robert Schumann’s fiery alter ego, contrasted with the dreamy Eusebius. The name appears in Carnaval and in other Schumann works as a mask for his passionate, extroverted side.

    • Florestan and Eusebius — Florestan and Eusebius are Robert Schumann’s paired alter egos, representing his fiery and dreamy sides. They appear in Carnaval and in the critic fiction attached to Schumann’s literary persona.

    • Kinderszenen or Scenes from Childhood — Robert Schumann’s set of thirteen short piano pieces, originally titled Easy Pieces. The cycle’s best-known movement is “Träumerei” (“Dreaming”), and it also includes “Of Foreign Lands and Peoples,” “Blind Man’s Bluff,” “At the Fireside,” “Knight of the Hobbyhorse,” and “The Poet Speaks.” It is a sequence of brief character pieces evoking remembered childhood scenes rather than a single narrative.
      • Träumerei — “Träumerei” is the seventh movement of Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood), a short, gentle piano piece and the collection’s most famous movement. It is one of Schumann’s best-known miniatures and is often translated as “Dreaming” or “Reverie.”

    • Kreisleriana — Kreisleriana is Schumann’s eight-movement piano cycle inspired by E. T. A. Hoffmann’s character Johannes Kreisler. The work is famous for its abrupt shifts of mood and for its dedication to Chopin.

    • New Paths — “New Paths” is Robert Schumann’s 1853 article in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik announcing a young Johannes Brahms as a musical savior. The piece is famous for its praise of Brahms after Schumann described him with mythic language and named musical allies such as Joachim and Gade among its twelve apostles.

    • Papillons — Papillons is Robert Schumann’s set of twelve piano pieces inspired by a masked ball and by scenes from Jean Paul. The suite ends with the folk tune “Grandfather’s Dance,” and its title refers to artistic metamorphosis rather than literal insects.

    • Piano Quintet in E-flat major — Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat major was a landmark chamber work from his ‘Chamber Music Year’ of 1842.

    • symphonies
      • symphonies of Robert Schumann — Robert Schumann wrote four symphonies, including the Spring, the Rhenish, and the revised Fourth in D minor. Clues often mention the C-major Second, the Cologne procession in the Third, and the work’s shifting orchestral colors and formal revisions.

  • Clara Schumann (1819–1896) — German pianist and composer. Her Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7 was premiered in Leipzig in 1835, with Clara as soloist and Mendelssohn conducting. The Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1846) and the Rückert song Liebst du um Schönheit (1841) connect her work to Romantic chamber music and the Lied. Compare her concerto with Robert Schumann’s distinct A-minor concerto, Op. 54.¹³ Born Clara Wieck, she married Robert Schumann and became celebrated as a virtuoso concert pianist. She helped popularize performing from memory and also composed the Three Romances for Violin and Piano. She also premiered Robert Schumann’s piano concerto and became a major performer of Brahms’s music.

  • Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) — German; “conservative” Romantic; four symphonies; Academic Festival Overture, Tragic Overture; two piano concertos; Violin Concerto in D major; Double Concerto (violin and cello); A German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem); Variations on a Theme of Paganini; chamber music including the Clarinet Quintet. He was one of Hans von Bülow’s “three Bs.” Other works associated with him include the first symphony, nicknamed “Beethoven’s Tenth,” the Variations on a Theme of Haydn, Hungarian Dances, and the lullaby “Wiegenlied.” He was closely associated with Clara and Robert Schumann and with violinist Joseph Joachim.
    • Academic Festival Overture — Johannes Brahms’s celebratory orchestral work was written as a festive thank-you for the University of Breslau’s honorary degree. He described it as a boisterous potpourri of student drinking songs, and it weaves together student songs including “Gaudeamus Igitur,” “Wir haben gebauet ein stattliches Haus,” and the comic fox song. It ends with a triumphant quotation of “Gaudeamus igitur” and is often paired with his Tragic Overture.
      • Academic Festival Overture, Opus 80 — Johannes Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80, is a celebratory orchestral work built from student drinking songs. He wrote it as thanks for the honorary doctorate he received from the University of Breslau.

    • Alto Rhapsody — A choral-orchestral work by Brahms setting Goethe’s Harzreise im Winter. It is written for alto soloist, male chorus, and orchestra, and is one of his striking late-1860s vocal pieces.

    • Brahms’ Lullaby — Brahms’ Lullaby is Johannes Brahms’s famous cradle song, known in German as Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht. Its first verse draws on Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and it was written to celebrate the birth of Bertha Faber’s son.

    • Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 102 — Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 102 was his final concerto and his last orchestral work. He wrote it in 1887 for Robert Hausmann and Joseph Joachim, and famous performances pair violinists and cellists such as Oistrakh, Rostropovich, Perlman, and Yo-Yo Ma.

    • Ein deutsches Requiem — Johannes Brahms’s large-scale choral work for chorus, orchestra, soprano, and baritone, set to German biblical texts from Luther’s Bible rather than the Latin Mass for the Dead. Brahms began it after his mother’s death and also commemorated Robert Schumann. It was first performed in Bremen on Good Friday in 1868 in a six-movement version, then expanded to seven movements the next year; the seventh movement and soprano solo were added after the premiere.
      • A German Requiem, To Words of the Holy Scripture — A German Requiem is Brahms’s large-scale sacred work for chorus and orchestra, setting German Bible passages rather than the Latin Mass. It is often linked to the death of his mother and to the human, consolatory tone that distinguishes it from a traditional liturgical requiem.

    • Hungarian Dances — A set of 21 short piano pieces by Johannes Brahms, originally for piano duet and later arranged for solo piano and orchestra. They are based on Hungarian folk idioms and Romani-style melodies, including a csárdás by Béla Kéler, and the best-known dance is the fifth in F-sharp minor, which opens with a distinctive dotted rhythm. Later orchestrations were also made by Dvořák, and the set helped inspire later composers such as him.

    • Symphonies

      • Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 — Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 is his first large orchestral symphony in C minor, famous for its stern opening and a finale whose horn theme was likened to Beethoven’s Ninth. Hans von Bülow nicknamed it Beethoven’s Tenth, and the work took Brahms years to complete under the shadow of Beethoven’s legacy.

      • symphonies by Johannes Brahms — Johannes Brahms composed four symphonies, including the first, dubbed ‘Beethoven’s Tenth,’ and the third, marked by an F-A-F motto. The set ends with a passacaglia in the fourth symphony and includes the famous Alphorn theme in the first.

      • symphonies of Johannes Brahms — Johannes Brahms wrote four symphonies, including the first often called Beethoven’s Tenth and the fourth with its famous chaconne finale. The third is especially known for its F-A-F motto and the fourth for its use of piccolo and triangle.

    • Symphony No. 4 in E minor — Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 in E minor ends with a passacaglia or chaconne based on Bach’s cantata “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich.” The finale is built from thirty-two variations on that Bach theme.

    • Symphony No. 4, Op. 98
      • Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 by Johannes Brahms — Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 ends with a passacaglia and is admired for its tightly worked motivic writing. Its second movement opens with horn figures, and Hanslick famously likened hearing it to being beaten by two intelligent people.

    • Tragic Overture — Brahms’s Tragic Overture is a D minor concert overture written as a darker companion to the Academic Festival Overture. Brahms disliked the title and preferred to call it Dramatic Overture.

    • Tragic Overture, Op. 81 — Brahms’s Tragic Overture, Op. 81 is the dark D minor counterpart to the Academic Festival Overture. It is a concert overture rather than a programmatic drama, and Brahms gave it the more straightforward label “Dramatic” in preference to the published title.

    • Variations
      • Variations and Fugue on a Theme By Handel — Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel is his Opus 24. It is based on Handel’s Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B-flat major.

    • Variations on a Theme by Haydn — Variations on a Theme by Haydn is Brahms’s first major orchestral work and an early standalone set of orchestral variations. It opens with winds stating the theme over pizzicato cellos and double basses before moving through eight variations.

    • Violin Concerto

      • Brahms Violin Concerto — Brahms’s Violin Concerto is the major violin concerto in D major associated with Joseph Joachim and famous for its gypsy-flavored finale. It is notoriously difficult for violinists, and its Adagio is especially known for its memorable oboe line.

      • his Violin Concerto — Brahms’s Violin Concerto is his only concerto for that instrument and was written with Joseph Joachim in mind. Joachim supplied the cadenza and helped shape the work’s famously virtuosic solo line.

    • Symphony No. 1 (Brahms) (C minor, Op. 68, 1855–76) — took over twenty years to complete; sometimes called “Beethoven’s Tenth” by von Bülow; finale theme bears a resemblance to the “Ode to Joy.”

    • Symphony No. 4 (Brahms) (E minor, Op. 98, 1884–85) — finale is a passacaglia (chaconne) on an eight-bar theme derived from Bach’s Cantata BWV 150; Brahms’s last symphony.

    • Violin Concerto (Brahms) (D major, Op. 77, 1878) — dedicated to and premiered by Joseph Joachim; three movements; Brahms’s only violin concerto; the solo part was reportedly so difficult that players joked it was a concerto “against” the violin.

    • Piano Concerto No. 2 (Brahms) (B-flat major, Op. 83, 1881) — unusually has four movements (including a scherzo); sometimes called the “biggest” concerto in the repertoire; premiered by Brahms himself.

    • A German Requiem (Brahms) (Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, 1865–68) — seven movements for soprano, baritone, chorus, and orchestra; sets Old Testament texts (in Luther’s German Bible, not the Latin Mass); composed after the death of his mother; premiered in full at Bremen Cathedral, 1868.
  • Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) — German; Romantic opera pioneer; Der Freischütz (1821), Euryanthe, Oberon; established German Romantic opera as a distinct tradition ahead of Wagner. He also wrote incidental music to Turandot, later used in Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis, as well as Invitation to the Dance and the Konzertstück in F minor. He served as Kapellmeister of the Dresden opera and wrote the Mass in E-flat, the Second Symphony, and the unfinished Die drei Pintos. He also wrote important concertos for clarinet and bassoon.
    • Invitation to the Dance — Carl Maria von Weber’s piano rondo brillant opens with a graceful introduction and then a waltz-like ballroom scene of a couple beginning a waltz. It was later orchestrated by Hector Berlioz and became famous enough to inspire major paraphrases and arrangements.
• Piano, Guitar, and Violin Virtuosity
  • Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) — Polish; worked almost exclusively for piano; nocturnes, études (Opp. 10 and 25, including the “Revolutionary” and “Black Key”), preludes (Raindrop Prelude in D-flat), ballades, mazurkas, polonaises (“Heroic” in A-flat), waltzes, two piano sonatas (No. 2 in B-flat minor with the Funeral March), two piano concertos. Also known by the Polish forms Fryderyk Chopin and Fryderyk Franciszek Szopyn, and the French forms Frédérick Chopin and Frédéric François Chopin. He is especially associated with the Minute Waltz, Fantaisie-Impromptu, and the late cello sonata. Another familiar work is the Military Polonaise.

    • Fantaisie-Impromptu — Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu is a virtuosic solo piano work in C-sharp minor known for its persistent four-against-three rhythm. It was published after his death and begins with a striking held left-hand G-sharp. The piece’s manuscript was later bought by Arthur Rubinstein, helping resolve questions about its publication history.

    • Fantasie-Impromptu — Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu, Op. 66, is a piano work marked by the famous right-hand-versus-left-hand cross-rhythm. It was published after his death and is sometimes known by the later song title “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.”

    • Heroic Polonaise — Chopin’s Heroic Polonaise, Op. 53 in A-flat major, begins with a bold octave opening and rushing chromatic figures. The piece is famous for its martial middle section of pounding left-hand octaves and for the patriotic nickname it received from George Sand.

    • Minute Waltz — The Minute Waltz is Chopin’s famous short waltz in D-flat major, nicknamed for its smallness rather than its actual running time. It is often associated with a dog chasing its tail and with light, fast passagework in 3/4 time. Quizbowl clues commonly note that it takes more than a minute to perform and is one of Chopin’s best-known piano miniatures. The piece’s French title and playful style make it a frequent tossup answer.

    • Revolutionary Etude — Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude is Opus 10, No. 12, written in response to the November Uprising and the Russian attack on Warsaw. It is famous for its rapid left-hand descents and dramatic, martial character.
      • Revolutionary — Revolutionary is the title associated with works honoring the 1831 Polish uprising, including Chopin’s etude in C minor, Op. 10 No. 12. The name also recalls Liszt’s attempted symphony and refers to the political upheaval in Warsaw.
    • Étude Op. 10, No. 3
      • Tristesse — “Tristesse” is a common name for Chopin’s Étude Op. 10, No. 3 in E major, admired for its lyrical cantabile melody and legato texture. It is one of the études that acquired a broader cultural life beyond the piano, including wartime performances and later arrangements.
    • Étude Op. 10, No. 5
      • Black Key Étude — Chopin’s Étude Op. 10, No. 5 is the Black Key Étude. It is named for the right hand’s use of only the black keys except for one note.
    • Études

      • Frédéric Chopin’s etudes — Chopin’s etudes are virtuosic piano studies that became concert repertoire rather than mere exercises. Famous examples include the ‘Revolutionary,’ ‘Winter Wind,’ ‘Tristesse,’ and ‘Wrong Note’ etudes, many collected in Opp. 10 and 25.

      • piano études by Frédéric Chopin — Chopin’s piano études are the technical studies published in Op. 10 and Op. 25, including “Winter Wind,” “Revolutionary,” and “Aeolian Harp.” They are among his most famous virtuosic solo piano pieces and are often identified by nicknames rather than opus numbers.

      • études by Frédéric Chopin — Chopin’s études are virtuosic piano studies and showpieces, collected largely in Op. 10 and Op. 25 and standard Romantic piano repertoire. They include nicknamed pieces such as “Winter Wind,” “Wrong Note,” the “Revolutionary” étude, and the “Black Key” étude.

    • Études, Op. 10
      • the Revolutionary Etude — The Revolutionary Etude is Chopin’s Op. 10, No. 12 in C minor, nicknamed for the 1831 November Uprising and Russian invasion of Poland. It is famous for its fast left-hand descending passages and dramatic opening chords.
    • Frederic Chopin’s ballades — Frederic Chopin’s Ballades are a set of four solo piano works named after the old French poetic form. The first is in G minor and ends with a furious presto con fuoco section, while the second is associated with Robert Schumann and the fourth may have been inspired by Adam Mickiewicz’s poem The Three Budrys. The set includes some of Chopin’s most famous Romantic piano writing, including the first ballade’s striking opening and the fourth ballade’s poetic reputation. These pieces are often singled out as especially difficult and narratively charged.
  • Franz Liszt (1811–1886) — Hungarian; virtuoso pianist; Hungarian Rhapsodies (19 for piano); Piano Sonata in B minor; symphonic poems including Les Préludes; Transcendental Études; invented the symphonic poem form; late works anticipated atonality. He also wrote Liebestraum and Consolations, the Faust Symphony, the Dante Symphony, the Mephisto Waltzes, Totentanz, and the piano cycle Years of Pilgrimage. Liszt made major transcriptions of Beethoven and Schubert, helped popularize the modern recital, and inspired “Lisztomania”; later in life he took minor orders in the Catholic Church.

    • Dante Symphony — Liszt’s Dante Symphony is a programmatic orchestral work with women’s chorus inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy. It is often remembered for its Inferno and Purgatorio movements, and for the choral ending added after Wagner suggested replacing a planned third movement with a Magnificat.

    • Faust Symphony — Liszt’s Faust Symphony is a three-movement orchestral work inspired by Goethe’s Faust. Its sections portray Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles, and the finale adds a male chorus singing about the “Eternal Feminine.”

    • Franz Ritter von Liszt — Franz Liszt was a towering Romantic pianist and composer known for the Transcendental Etudes, Hungarian Rhapsodies, and the symphonic poem. His music includes the Faust Symphony, Totentanz, and the Années de pèlerinage, and he was also famous for astonishing virtuosity at the keyboard.

    • Hungarian Rhapsodies — Liszt’s set of 19 virtuosic piano pieces, inspired by Hungarian folk idioms and Gypsy themes, especially verbunkos and csárdás styles. They are known for famous individual numbers such as the second, twelfth, and fifteenth, and several are structured in contrasting slow lassan and fast friska sections.
      • Hungarian Rhapsodies (19), for piano, S. 244 (LW A132) — Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies are a famous set of nineteenth-century solo piano pieces, later adapted in various versions. The best known is the seventh, “The Carnival of Pest,” and the collection includes nineteenth-century additions made after the first releases.

    • Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 — Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is Franz Liszt’s best-known rhapsody, written in C-sharp minor and dedicated to László Teleki. Its dramatic piano writing made it a favorite in cartoons such as Rhapsody Rabbit and The Cat Concerto.

    • Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor — Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor is Franz Liszt’s most famous rhapsody, the second of his nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies. Its familiar structure pairs a slow lassan with a brilliant friska, and it is known for dazzling piano virtuosity and many arrangements.

    • La Campanella — La campanella is Liszt’s famous Paganini étude in G-sharp minor, built from a theme from Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Its title means “the little bell,” and the piece is known for extreme jumps, trills, and technical difficulty. It is the third of Liszt’s Grandes Études de Paganini and one of his most frequently performed piano showpieces. The melody imitates a bell by repeatedly striking a very high note.

    • Les Preludes — Liszt’s Les préludes is a symphonic poem inspired by an ode by Alphonse de Lamartine. It grew out of earlier choral and piano material and is associated with his idea of life as an unknown song whose opening notes are intoned by Death.

    • Liebestraume — Liebestraume is Franz Liszt’s set of three piano pieces, commonly translated as Dreams of Love. The cycle explores different kinds of love, and the best-known piece is the third, based on a poem by Ferdinand Freiligrath.

    • Lisztomania — Lisztomania is the nineteenth-century frenzy surrounding pianist Franz Liszt, a term coined by Heinrich Heine after concerts in Paris and Berlin. The clue also points to the Phoenix song of the same name and to the 1975 Ken Russell film starring Roger Daltrey as Liszt.

    • Mephisto Waltz — Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz is a piano work tied to the Faust legend and the devilish figure of Mephistopheles. It is also known as the first piano waltz and is sometimes subtitled “The Dance at the Village Inn.”

    • Mephisto Waltzes — Liszt’s set of virtuosic piano pieces inspired by Nikolaus Lenau’s Faust and the Faustian devil Mephistopheles. The best-known number is “The Dance at the Village Inn,” and the first waltz is noted for its eerie violin-tuning opening. The set is often linked to Liszt’s programmatic style, a companion Mephisto Polka, and later pieces are sometimes associated with Bagatelle without Tonality.

    • Piano Sonata in B minor — Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor is a one-movement sonata that nevertheless suggests a large-scale multi-movement design.
      • The Piano Sonata in B minor — Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor is a single large-scale work often discussed as an early example of double-function form. It was dedicated to Robert Schumann and later famously drew reports of Brahms falling asleep during a performance.

    • Totentanz — Franz Liszt’s Totentanz is a piano-and-orchestra work built on the Dies Irae and known in Busoni’s De Profundis edition. The title means “dance of death,” and it is one of several later works that echo the same macabre theme.

    • Totentanz (Dance of Death) for piano and orchestra, and five Consolations — These are Franz Liszt’s Totentanz for piano and orchestra and his set of five Consolations for solo piano. The paired works identify Liszt as a Romantic composer known for virtuosic keyboard music.

    • Transcendental Etudes — Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes are a set of twelve notoriously difficult piano pieces, including “Mazeppa,” “Feux Follets,” and “Chasse-Neige.” They are central to the virtuoso piano repertoire and were revised by Liszt from an earlier, even more difficult version.
  • Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) — Italian; violin virtuoso of near-mythical technique; 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Op. 1; Caprice No. 24 in A minor became a theme for variations by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and others); two violin concertos; his showmanship spawned the “virtuoso cult” of the Romantic era. He was also famous for legends that he had made a pact with the devil. His playing and showmanship inspired later composers and works, including Berlioz’s Harold in Italy and Liszt’s La campanella, and he is associated with techniques such as harmonics, double stops, scordatura, and left-hand pizzicato.
    • 24 Caprices for Solo Violin — The 24 Caprices for Solo Violin are Niccolò Paganini’s famous set of virtuosic solo violin études. The final caprice is especially famous for inspiring major variation works by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and others.
      • Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin — Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin are virtuosic short violin pieces that became a standard showcase for extreme technical difficulty. Individual caprices are often identified by nicknames such as ‘The Trill’ and ‘The Devil’s Laughter,’ and the set famously inspired later composers like Brahms and Rachmaninoff.

    • 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1 — The 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1 are Niccolò Paganini’s virtuoso set of solo violin pieces, each designed to showcase a different technique. They include the famous Caprice No. 24, which later inspired works by Franz Liszt and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

    • Caprice no. 24 in A minor — Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A minor is the virtuoso violin caprice that became a favorite source for later variation sets. Brahms and Rachmaninoff both built major works on its theme, and Lutosławski even transcribed it for two pianos.

  • Field, John (1782–1837) — Field developed the Romantic piano nocturne, a lyrical melody over an accompanying texture later cultivated by Chopin. Collected editions differ in which nocturnes and related pieces they include.¹⁴ He studied with Muzio Clementi and influenced later Russian piano music.

  • Carl Czerny — Carl Czerny was the Beethoven student who became Liszt’s teacher and a famous composer of piano studies and finger-exercise books. He also premiered Beethoven’s Emperor concerto and is remembered for didactic collections such as The School of Velocity and The Art of Finger Dexterity.
    • The School of Velocity — Carl Czerny’s School of Velocity, Op. 299, is a collection of technical piano exercises arranged in four books. Its studies are written as complete miniature compositions that train rapid passagework and attention to detail.

  • Carl Czerny (“CHAIR-nee”) — Carl Czerny was Beethoven’s pupil who became Franz Liszt’s main piano teacher. He is remembered especially for his virtuosic piano etudes, including The School of Velocity.

  • Fernando Sor — Fernando Sor was a Spanish Romantic guitarist and composer famous for his guitar method and concert variations on Mozart and other themes. He avoided fingernails while playing and helped define nineteenth-century classical guitar technique.

  • Francisco Tárrega — Francisco Tárrega was a Spanish Romantic guitarist and composer, best known for pieces like Recuerdos de la Alhambra and Capricho Árabe. His Gran Vals contains the fragment later used as the Nokia ringtone, and he also transcribed many piano works by Albéniz and Granados.

  • Louis Moreau Gottschalk — Louis Moreau Gottschalk was a Louisiana-born pianist and composer known for Creole-inflected works like Bamboula and The Banjo. His larger works include A Night in the Tropics and Grand Tarantelle, and he toured widely in the Americas.
    • Bamboula — Bamboula is one of the best-known piano pieces by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the Louisiana-born Creole virtuoso and composer. He also wrote colorful concert works such as The Dying Poet and The Last Hope, and he traveled widely in the Americas before his early death.
  • Charles-Valentin Alkan — Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French pianist-composer known for extreme virtuosity and for writing large-scale sets of études in all major and minor keys. His works include the Concerto for Solo Piano, the Symphony for Solo Piano, The Four Ages, and the set Le chemin de fer.
    • Charles Alkan — Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French pianist-composer known for extremely demanding keyboard writing. His best-known works include the Twelve Studies in All the Minor Keys and the Grande Sonate, or Les Quatre Âges.

  • Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst — Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was a Moravian-Jewish violin virtuoso and composer known for dazzling transcriptions and caprices. His showpieces include polyphonic studies and the Grand Caprice on Schubert’s “Erlkönig,” a favorite of 19th-century violin fireworks.

  • Henri Vieuxtemps — Henri Vieuxtemps was a Belgian violinist-composer known for his seven violin concerti and for pieces such as Le Grétry. Clues may also mention his adaptation of Yankee Doodle and his later appointment as Court Violinist at St. Petersburg.

  • Henryk Wieniawski — Henryk Wieniawski was the Polish violin virtuoso known for L’École Moderne, the 10 Etudes-Caprices, and his violin concertos in F-sharp minor and D minor. He is also remembered for works like Légende and Scherzo-Tarantelle.

  • Rodolphe Kreutzer — Rodolphe Kreutzer was a French violinist and composer whose etudes remain standard student repertoire. Beethoven dedicated his Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, the Kreutzer Sonata, to him.
    • Works
      • Rodolphe Kreutzer (“KROYT-sir”) — Rodolphe Kreutzer was a French violinist and composer remembered for his 42 Études or Caprices and for Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9, dedicated to him. The sonata later inspired Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata and remains associated with virtuosic violin technique.
  • Anton Rubinstein — Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein was a Russian pianist and composer who founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He was a major 19th-century virtuoso and teacher, and wrote works such as the symphony The Ocean. His brother Nikolai founded the Moscow Conservatory.
• Opera, Ballet, and Public Musical Life
  • Richard Wagner (1813–1883) — German; revolutionary opera composer; advocated Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork); operas: Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde (famous opening “Tristan chord”), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung); Parsifal; Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre. He helped define Bayreuth as a performance center and advanced the ideas of leitmotif and the “total work of art.” He also wrote anti-Semitic essays such as “Jewishness in Music.”

    • American Centennial March — Wagner’s American Centennial March was written in 1876 for a payment of $5,000 and was first performed in Philadelphia. It is tied to the U.S. centennial celebrations rather than his better-known operatic works.

    • Jewishness in Music — “Jewishness in Music” is Richard Wagner’s notorious anti-Semitic essay, first published under the pseudonym K. Freigedank. It attacks composers such as Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn and argues for a supposed cultural redemption through self-effacement.

    • Siegfried Idyll — Siegfried Idyll is Richard Wagner’s chamber work written as a birthday gift for Cosima and named for their son Siegfried. Its intimate opening includes the lullaby “Sleep, Little Child, Sleep,” and one of its themes later reappears in the Ring Cycle.

  • Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) — Italian; master of opera; Nabucco (“Va, pensiero” chorus), Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, Aida, Otello, Falstaff; Requiem (Messa da Requiem). His operas also include Macbeth and Don Carlo. He was a leading figure of nineteenth-century Italian opera and a nationalist symbol during the Risorgimento; his name was used in the slogan “Viva VERDI,” standing for Vittorio Emanuele Re D’Italia.
    • Requiem
      • Verdi’s Requiem — Verdi’s Requiem is Giuseppe Verdi’s Latin mass for the dead, written in memory of Alessandro Manzoni. Its famous sections include the Dies irae and Libera me, and the Libera me was revised from Verdi’s earlier tribute to Rossini.
        • Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem — Giuseppe Verdi’s large-scale funeral mass, written in memory of Alessandro Manzoni. It is a dramatic choral and orchestral work best known for the Dies Irae, Tuba mirum, and Sanctus movements.
  • Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) — Italian; opera seria and buffa; Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville, 1816), La Cenerentola, Guillaume Tell (1829; overture widely known); retired from opera at 37 and composed little for the rest of his life. Other works include La gazza ladra and Petite messe solennelle.

    • Giacchimo Rossini — Gioachino Rossini is the Italian composer whose overture to The Thieving Magpie is one of his best-known orchestral excerpts. His music also appears in A Clockwork Orange and he is associated with The Barber of Seville and William Tell.

    • William Tell Overture — The William Tell Overture is Rossini’s famous overture to his opera William Tell, and its finale became the theme from The Lone Ranger. Its pastoral third section and familiar opening make it one of the most recognizable works in the repertory.

  • Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) — Italian; bel canto opera; prolific; Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), L’elisir d’amore (1832), Don Pasquale (1843). He was a leading bel canto composer, and his operas also include The Daughter of the Regiment, Anna Bolena, and Roberto Devereux. His works are known for high-tenor writing, mad scenes, and arias such as “Una furtiva lagrima” and “Il dolce suono.”

  • Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) — Italian; bel canto; long-breathed vocal lines; Norma (1831; “Casta diva”), La sonnambula, I Puritani; died age 33. His full name was Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini. Other operas include Il pirata (The Pirate) and I Capuleti e i Montecchi; his music is especially noted for long melodic lines and arias such as “Ah! non credea mirarti.” He was sometimes called the “Swan of Catania.”

  • Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864) — German-French; dominated French grand opera in the mid-nineteenth century; Robert le diable (1831), Les Huguenots (1836), L’Africaine (1865); spectacular stagings influenced later opera composers including Verdi. Born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; a major nineteenth-century composer and a founder of French grand opera. His operas are known for spectacular staging, ballets, and historical spectacle, and he helped shape nineteenth-century Parisian opera. He was later attacked by Wagner in “Jewishness in Music.”

  • Charles Gounod (1818–1893) — French; opera Faust; Ave Maria (adapted from Bach’s Prelude No. 1). He won the Prix de Rome in 1839, later worked as an organist in Paris, and composed the operas Sapho and Roméo et Juliette. His operatic music includes “Le veau d’or est toujours debout” and the Jewel Song from Faust. Other works include Mireille, La Nonne sanglante, Le Médecin malgré lui, and the Pontifical March.
    • Funeral March of a Marionette — Charles Gounod’s short, witty Funeral March of a Marionette is a character piece originally written as a musical caricature in D minor. It was first for piano before being orchestrated later, and became widely known as the theme for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, noted for its mock-funereal, slightly jaunty character.
  • Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) — French; pioneered programmatic orchestration; Symphonie fantastique (Op. 14; five-movement “episode in the life of an artist”; introduced the idée fixe); Harold in Italy; Roméo et Juliette (dramatic symphony); Grande Messe des morts (Requiem); opera Les Troyens. His music is noted for vivid orchestration, offstage brass, and dramatic programmatic effects. He also composed La damnation de Faust and wrote influential music criticism and a treatise on instrumentation.

    • Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale — Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale is a Berlioz work written to commemorate the July Revolution and originally scored for wind band. Its later version added strings and chorus, and its middle movement reworks music from Les francs-juges.

    • Harold in Italy — Hector Berlioz’s symphony for solo viola and orchestra, inspired by Byron’s Childe Harold and written for Paganini. The solo viola represents a wandering, Byron-like Harold, and Berlioz also drew on his own Italian experience. Its four movements include “March of the Pilgrims” and end with “Orgy of Brigands,” with the final movement set in the Abruzzi.
      • Harold in Italy, Symphony in Four Parts with Viola Obbligato — Harold in Italy is Hector Berlioz’s symphony inspired by Byron’s Harold the Pilgrim, with a solo viola representing the title figure. Its movements include a pilgrims’ march and a final “Orgy of the Brigands,” and Paganini reportedly refused to premiere it because the viola part was too sparse.

    • Requiem — Berlioz’s Grande messe des morts, or Requiem, is the monumental Mass for the Dead written for a commemoration of the 1830 Revolution. It is famous for huge forces, including multiple brass choirs, abundant percussion, and an immense chorus.

    • Roman Carnival Overture — Berlioz’s concert overture, drawn from material in Benvenuto Cellini, reworks the opera into a brilliant standalone orchestral showpiece set in Rome. It is especially known for its English horn solo and for turning the opera’s festive dance music into a saltarello-like close.

    • Symphonie fantastique — Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14, is a five-movement Romantic program symphony premiered in 1830. Berlioz framed it as an “Episode in the life of the artist,” and it depicts an artist’s opium-fueled hallucinations and doomed obsession with Harriet Smithson. Its defining device is the idée fixe, a recurring theme associated with the beloved figure, and its movements include “Un bal,” a pastoral scene with offstage oboe and English horn, “March to the Scaffold,” and “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath.”

      • March to the Scaffold — “March to the Scaffold” is the fourth movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, depicting the artist’s execution by guillotine. A solo clarinet recalls the idée fixe before the final beheading chord, and the movement leads into the dreamlike final section of the symphony.

      • Scène aux champs — “Scène aux champs” is the third movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, the pastoral scene before the march to the scaffold. Its famous effects include a cor anglais and offstage oboe echoing shepherd calls and four timpanists imitating thunder.

      • Symphonie fantastique: Episode de la vie d’un artiste…en cinq parties, Op. 14 — Berlioz’s full title for Symphonie fantastique is Symphonie fantastique: Episode de la vie d’un artiste…en cinq parties, Op. 14. The piece follows an artist’s opium dream through scenes including a ball, a shepherds’ duet, the march to the scaffold, and a witches’ sabbath.

      • Symphonie fantastique: Épisode de la vie d’un artiste … en cinq parties — Symphonie fantastique is Hector Berlioz’s five-movement program symphony about an artist’s opium-fueled obsession with Harriet Smithson. It is famous for the idée fixe, the March to the Scaffold, the Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath, and its colorful use of bells, tubas, and offstage shepherd calls.

      • “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” — “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” is the final movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, where the grotesque dance is joined by the Dies irae. The movement depicts a demonic gathering and concludes the composer’s opium-inspired program symphony.

    • The Damnation of Faust — The Damnation of Faust is Hector Berlioz’s dramatic legend about Faust, Marguerite, and Mephistopheles. It is known for sections such as the Hungarian March, the Dance of the Sylphs, and Faust’s final descent into Hell.

      • Rakoczy March — The Rakoczy March is the famous Hungarian tune associated with Berlioz and Liszt. It often appears as a separate orchestral extract or as the martial theme closing Part I of The Damnation of Faust.

      • The Damnation of Faust or Le Damnation de Faust — Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust is a dramatic legend based on Goethe’s Faust, organized in four parts and ending with Faust’s damnation. Its well-known sections include the Hungarian or Rákóczi March, the Minuet of the Will-o’-the-Wisps, and the “Song of the Flea.”

    • Works
      • Le Carnaval Romain — Le Carnaval Romain is Hector Berlioz’s 1844 overture built from themes associated with Benvenuto Cellini. The piece evokes the energy of Mardi Gras in Rome.
    • Berlioz — Symphonie fantastique (Op. 14, 1830) — five-movement program symphony depicting an artist’s opium dream; introduced the idée fixe (recurring theme representing the beloved); movements include “March to the Scaffold” and “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”; premiered at the Paris Conservatoire.

  • Adolphe Adam — Adolphe Adam was a French composer especially known for the ballets Giselle and Le Corsaire and for the Christmas carol “O Holy Night.” His stage works helped define nineteenth-century French ballet and opera-comique repertoire, and Giselle remains his most famous score.

  • Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) — German-French; master of French operetta; Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld, 1858; “Infernal Galop,” known as the can-can), La belle Hélène, La Vie parisienne; posthumous opera Les contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann, 1881). He also wrote La Périchole and is noted for witty libretti and satirical treatment of myth and modern society; he helped define French comic opera on the Paris stage.

  • Johann Strauss II (1825–1899) — Austrian; “The Waltz King”; The Blue Danube waltz (Op. 314), Tales from the Vienna Woods; operetta Die Fledermaus (1874); Emperor Waltz; dominated Viennese dance music for decades. He also wrote the Pizzicato Polka, Tritsch-Tratsch Polka, Kaiser-Walzer, and the unfinished ballet Aschenbroedel. He was the son of Johann Strauss I, who wrote the Radetzky March.

    • Emperor Waltz — Johann Strauss II’s Emperor Waltz was written in honor of Franz Joseph I of Austria. The waltz is a celebratory piece associated with imperial pageantry and late-nineteenth-century Viennese dance music.

    • Tales from the Vienna Woods — Tales from the Vienna Woods is a Johann Strauss II waltz famous for its zither part and folk-inspired style. The piece evokes Viennese countryside life and became especially successful in orchestral arrangement.

    • The Beautiful Blue Danube — The Beautiful Blue Danube is Johann Strauss II’s best-known waltz, a celebration of the Danube River. It became especially famous in orchestral form and is often associated with Vienna and later film use.

    • The Blue Danube — Johann Strauss II’s famous waltz, also known as The Blue Danube, By the Beautiful Blue Danube, Blue Danube Waltz, and An der schönen blauen Donau. It is associated with Vienna, the Danube River, and the New Year’s Concert, and is often treated as an unofficial Austrian anthem. The piece was first composed with choral accompaniment and later arranged for string orchestra; it became a major publishing success and a concert staple, with a famous orchestral introduction before the main waltz theme. It is also remembered for its use in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Brahms famously wrote its opening bars in a fan autograph with the remark that it was not by him.

  • Johann Strauss — Johann Strauss refers to the famous Viennese father-and-son composers associated with waltzes and operettas. The younger Strauss, Johann Strauss II, wrote The Blue Danube and Die Fledermaus and earned the nickname “Waltz King.” The elder Johann Strauss composed the Radetzky March, while the family also produced polkas such as Tritsch-Tratsch. Questions often distinguish the father from the son by linking the son to light, danceable orchestral music and operetta.

  • Johann Strauss Sr.
    • Radetzky March — The Radetzky March, Op. 228, is Johann Strauss Sr.’s best-known march, named for Austrian field marshal Joseph Radetzky. It is traditionally performed as the final encore at the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert, where the audience claps along. It also gave its later title to Joseph Roth’s novel about the decline of the Habsburg Empire.

  • Johann Strauss the Elder — Johann Strauss the Elder was the Austrian composer of the Radetzky March and the Viennese Carnival Waltz. He is the father of the more famous Johann Strauss II, the “Waltz King.”

  • Emil Waldteufel — Emil Waldteufel was a French composer and pianist known for elegant waltzes such as the Skater’s Waltz and Estudiantina. His waltzes became popular in England, and one was inspired by a rink at the Bois de Boulogne. Golden Rain is another familiar waltz.

  • Franz von Suppé — Franz von Suppé was an Austrian composer best known for light operas and overtures such as Light Cavalry, Poet and Peasant, and Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna. His music is especially associated with brisk, catchy orchestral writing that later appeared in popular concert and film arrangements.

  • Luigi Cherubini — Italian Classical composer remembered for dramatic operas such as Médée, Lodoïska, and Les Deux Journées, and for his Requiem in C minor. Beethoven admired him highly. He later became an influential teacher and director at the Paris Conservatoire; he also wrote a D minor requiem for his own funeral and, in one proposal, the C minor Requiem is said to have been written for Louis XVI. Maria Callas helped revive Médée.

  • Louis Spohr — Louis Spohr was a German violinist-composer noted for pioneering the chin rest and baton conducting. He wrote operas such as Jessonda and Faust, along with numerous violin concertos and clarinet concerti. Clues may also mention his treatise Violinschule and his status as a late classical and early romantic composer. He is sometimes called the “Forgotten Master” despite his influence on performance practice.
• Other Romantic Orchestral and Chamber Traditions
  • César Franck (1822–1890) — Belgian-French; Symphony in D minor; Violin Sonata in A major; organ works. He is also associated with the organ piece Grande Pièce Symphonique, the sacred work Panis angelicus, the symphonic poems Le Chasseur maudit and Psyché, the oratorio Les Béatitudes, the Messe à trois voix, and the Three Chorals. His Violin Sonata in A major was written for Eugène Ysaÿe, and he is linked with cyclic form and teaching at Sainte-Clotilde and the Paris Conservatoire.

    • Symphonic Variations — César Franck’s Symphonic Variations is a long, continuous work for piano and orchestra. It is one of his best-known orchestral compositions and blends concerto-like display with symphonic writing.

    • Symphony in D minor — Franck’s only symphony is his Symphony in D minor, Op. 48. It is especially known for its English horn melody over plucked strings and harp in the second movement.
      • César Franck’s Symphony in D minor — This is César Franck’s Symphony in D minor, a cyclic symphony premiered after rejection by the Paris Conservatory concert series. Its opening motto returns across the work and links it to Franck’s idea of unifying themes.
    • Violin Sonata in A major
      • César Franck’s Violin Sonata in A major — This is César Franck’s Violin Sonata in A major, a cyclic work written for Eugène Ysaÿe. Its famous premiere was reportedly performed from memory in the dark, and its first movement was marked allegretto ben moderato after the premiere.

    • Violin Sonata in A major (Franck) (1886) — four movements; famous finale is a strict canon at the unison; dedicated to Joseph Ysaÿe and premiered by Eugène Ysaÿe; considered one of the masterpieces of the violin sonata repertoire.

    • Symphony in D minor (Franck) (1888) — the only symphony Franck completed; three movements in a cyclic form (themes recur across movements); unusual second-movement English horn solo.
  • Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) — Czech; nationalist; Má vlast (My Homeland), a cycle of six symphonic poems, including Vltava (The Moldau); opera The Bartered Bride. He went deaf from syphilis in the 1870s but still completed later operas and symphonic poems, and he also wrote the string quartet From My Life. Other operas include Dalibor and The Devil’s Wall.
    • Má vlast — Má vlast, or My Country, is Bedřich Smetana’s cycle of six symphonic poems celebrating Czech history, landscape, and national identity. The six movements are “Vyšehrad,” “Vltava” (“The Moldau”), “Šárka,” “From Bohemia’s Fields and Woods,” “Tábor,” and “Blaník.” It includes Hussite themes, and later movements use recurring motifs; one melody is later associated with Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah.”
      • Sarka — Sarka is the third symphonic poem in Bedřich Smetana’s Má vlast, drawing on the Czech legend of the Maidens’ War. The title figure is an Amazonian warrior who lures men to their deaths by pretending to be a captive of rebels.

    • The Moldau — Smetana’s famous tone poem and the second symphonic poem in Má vlast, depicting the course of the Vltava (Moldau) river through Bohemia and Prague. Its main theme comes from the melody of La Mantovana, and the work includes the two-flute opening, scenes of a wedding on the riverbank and moonlit water nymphs, St. John’s Rapids, and a closing passage as the river passes Vyšehrad.

    • Smetana — Má vlast (My Homeland) (1874–79) — cycle of six symphonic poems; Vltava (The Moldau) is most famous, depicting the river from its source to Prague; also includes Vyšehrad (the legendary castle) and Šárka (a Bohemian Amazon).

  • Niels Gade — Niels Gade was a nineteenth-century Danish composer often associated with the emergence of modern Scandinavian music. His works include eight symphonies, the overture Echoes of Ossian, and a string octet frequently paired with Mendelssohn’s. Mendelssohn also conducted the first of his symphonies.

  • Louise Farrenc — Louise Farrenc was a French pianist and composer who wrote a Nonet in E-flat and a third symphony. She taught at the Paris Conservatoire for decades and was the only woman to serve as a professor there in the nineteenth century.

  • Ernest Chausson — Ernest Chausson was a French composer associated with the late Romantic style and a student of César Franck. He is known for the Poème for violin and orchestra and the opera Le roi Arthus, and his death came in a bicycle accident.

  • Ernst von Dohnanyi — Ernst von Dohnanyi was a Hungarian pianist and composer known especially for Variations on a Nursery Song and the Suite in F-sharp minor. He was exiled from Hungary in 1948, and another clue names his opera The Tower of Voivode.

Late Romantic (c. 1870–1910)

• Opera, Ballet, and French Romantic Traditions

  • Jules Massenet (1842–1912) — French; prolific opera composer; Manon (1884), Werther (1892), Thaïs (1894; Méditation for violin and orchestra); dominated the Paris Opéra in the late nineteenth century. Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet won the Prix de Rome for David Rizzio and also wrote stage music such as the popular “Élégie.” His operas include Cendrillon and Le Cid, and many of them adapt literary sources.

  • Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) — French; Carnival of the Animals (satirical suite, withheld until after his death); Symphony No. 3 “Organ”; Danse macabre; opera Samson et Dalila; Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for violin.

    • Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso — Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso is a virtuoso violin-and-orchestra showpiece by Saint-Saëns dedicated to Pablo de Sarasate. Its slow introduction leads into a fast rondo with a lively, syncopated theme.

    • Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, “Organ Symphony” — Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 in C minor is the “Organ Symphony,” a work in an unbroken two-part design whose finale erupts into a famous fortissimo climax. Its Adagio is especially noted for the organ’s pedal tones, and the score was dedicated to Franz Liszt.

    • The Carnival of the Animals — Camille Saint-Saëns’s humorous fourteen-movement zoological suite for chamber ensemble and two pianos. He intended it as a private entertainment rather than a public concert work and withheld most of it from publication during his lifetime because he feared its lighthearted style would hurt his reputation. The suite includes “Introduction and Royal March,” “Aquarium,” “Fossils,” “Pianists,” “The Swan,” and “Aviary,” and it uses musical jokes such as quotations from other composers, bird calls, xylophone effects, playful piano writing, and even a glass harmonica.

      • Aquarium — “Aquarium” is a movement from Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals. Its delicate melody is typically played by flute, strings, and a glass-harmonica effect, with rippling accompaniment suggesting water.

      • Le Cygne — “Le Cygne” is the famous cello solo from The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. The poem of the same name appears in Les Fleurs du Mal, where Baudelaire evokes a swan displaced in Paris.

      • The Carnival of Animals — The Carnival of Animals is Camille Saint-Saëns’s humorous suite of short pieces for two pianos and chamber ensemble. Its best-known movements include “Aquarium,” “Fossils,” and the playful finale with imitative animal and instrument effects.

    • Danse macabre — Camille Saint-Saëns’s tone poem depicting the dance of death, originally derived from his song setting of Henri Cazalis’s poem. It opens with midnight’s twelve tolls, features a scordatura violin as Death’s fiddle, includes xylophone passages imitating rattling skeletons, and quotes the Dies irae. It is one of Saint-Saëns’s best-known orchestral works.

    • Carnival of the Animals (Saint-Saëns) (Le carnaval des animaux, 1886) — fourteen-movement “grand zoological fantasy” for two pianos and chamber ensemble; Saint-Saëns withheld it from publication (except “The Swan”) fearing it would damage his serious reputation; premiered publicly only after his death; “The Swan” features a solo cello.

    • Symphony No. 3 “Organ” (Saint-Saëns) (C minor, Op. 78, 1886) — two movements each divided into two parts; organ and piano (four hands) join the orchestra; dedicated to Liszt; finale’s main theme was used in the film Babe (1995).
  • Georges Bizet (1838–1875) — French; opera Carmen (premiered 1875, initially poorly received); L’Arlésienne suites. His full name was Alexandre César Léopold Bizet. Other works include The Pearl Fishers and Djamileh, and he won the Prix de Rome early in his career.

    • Jeux d’enfants — Jeux d’enfants, or Children’s Games, is a set of 12 piano duets by Bizet. Several of its movements were later orchestrated and incorporated into his Petite Suite.

    • L’Arlésienne — Alphonse Daudet’s play, with incidental music by Georges Bizet. Bizet’s music was later arranged into two suites by Ernest Guiraud; the second suite is especially known for the Carillon and Farandole movements. The title means “The Girl from Arles.”

  • Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) — French; Requiem (Op. 48, notable for its serene character); Pavane; piano nocturnes and barcarolles; Pelléas et Mélisande suite. He studied under Louis Niedermeyer and Camille Saint-Saëns, and at the Church of St. Sulpice he gained a reputation for organ improvisations. He also wrote the opera Pénélope and songs such as “Après un rêve” and “The Roses of Isphahan.”

    • Dolly Suite — Gabriel Fauré’s Dolly Suite is a piano-four-hands cycle written for Hélène Bardac, the young daughter of his mistress Emma Bardac. It is best known for its Berceuse and for movement titles such as “Mi-a-ou,” “Kitty Valse,” and “Le Pas Espagnol.”

    • La bonne chanson — La bonne chanson is Gabriel Fauré’s nine-song cycle on poems by Paul Verlaine. Written for Emma Bardac, it is prized for its recurring motifs and intimate late-Romantic style.

    • Requiem
      • Gabriel Faure‟s Requiem — Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem is the late nineteenth-century mass for the dead famous for its peaceful tone and its seven-movement structure ending with “In paradisum.” It is especially known for the soprano solo in “Pie Jesu,” the harp-and-violin color of the Sanctus, and the omission of the traditional Dies irae sequence.
    • Fauré — Requiem (Op. 48, c. 1887–1900) — seven movements; noted for its serene, consolatory character; omits the “Dies Irae”; Fauré called it “a lullaby of death.”

  • Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) — Italian; verismo operas La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Turandot (unfinished; “Nessun dorma”). He was the dominant figure in Italian opera after Verdi, noted for long lyric melodic arches, sophisticated orchestration, and affecting soprano heroines. Born in Lucca, he first gained notice with Le Villi and Manon Lescaut and became one of the most popular late Romantic opera composers.

  • Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919) — Italian; verismo; Pagliacci (1892; “Vesti la giubba”), typically paired with Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana; the two together form the standard “Cav and Pag” double bill. He also wrote other stage works, including an opera based on La bohème and the title piece Zazà.

  • Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945) — Italian; verismo; Cavalleria rusticana (1890; won the Sonzogno competition; “Intermezzo” widely known); never replicated that early success. He also wrote L’amico Fritz, Iris, and Guglielmo Ratcliff.

  • Cécile Chaminade — French late-19th-century composer known for salon piano pieces, songs, and the Concertino in D major for flute, a standard work in the flute repertoire. Her piano miniatures include La lisonjera and Scarf Dance, and her name is also attached to a women’s music club. Her full name is Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade; she received the Légion d’Honneur.

  • Léo Delibes
    • Lakmé
      • Flower Duet — The Flower Duet is the famous soprano-and-mezzo duet from Léo Delibes’s Lakmé, sung by Lakmé and Mallika by a river. It is often remembered through its lush opening melody and through later commercial use that made it widely recognizable.
  • Édouard Lalo — Édouard Lalo was a French composer best known for Symphonie espagnole, his violin concerto in five movements. He also wrote the opera Le Roi d’Ys, the Cello Concerto in D minor, Norwegian Fantasy, Namouna, and Fiesque, and his music often shows Spanish influence.
    • Symphonie espagnole — Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole is a five-movement work for violin and orchestra, often described as a violin concerto despite its symphonic title. Written for Pablo de Sarasate, it helped popularize Spanish-themed color in French concert music. Its Spanish-flavored movements include a habanera opening and an often omitted Intermezzo.

  • Emmanuel Chabrier — French 19th-century composer best known for the orchestral pieces España and Joyeuse marche. He also wrote the operetta L’étoile, the comic opera Gwendoline, and other operas including Le roi malgré lui; his piano suite Pièces pittoresques is among his best-known collections. His music influenced later French composers, and performers such as Ravel and Vincent d’Indy admired his work. His style often combines elegance, wit, and bright rhythmic color. España was inspired by a visit to Spain; his music influenced Les Six.

  • Ludwig Minkus — Ludwig Minkus was an Austrian ballet composer closely associated with Marius Petipa and the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre. He wrote the music for Don Quixote and La Bayadère, two of the best-known ballets in the Russian repertory.

  • Reynaldo Hahn — Reynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan-born composer associated with French mélodies and with Marcel Proust. He wrote songs such as “Si mes vers avaient des ailes” and the cycle Chansons grises.

  • Luigi Denza
    • Funiculi, Funicula — “Funiculi, Funicula” is Luigi Denza’s 1880 song with lyrics by Peppino Turco, celebrating the opening of the first inclined railway up Mount Vesuvius. It later became famous through orchestral quotation and recordings, including use by the Three Tenors and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Neapolitan sketch.

  • Riccardo Drigo — Riccardo Drigo was an Italian composer associated with Marius Petipa’s ballets and with major revisions of Swan Lake. He also composed works such as The Awakening of Flora and The Talisman, and his music is heard in many standard ballet excerpts.

  • Joseph Canteloube — Joseph Canteloube was a French composer best known for Chants d’Auvergne, an arrangement of traditional Occitan songs for soprano and orchestra. His operas include Le Mas and a work about Vercingétorix, and he is also linked to folk-song settings from the Auvergne region.
• Symphony, Song, and Late Romantic Orchestral Writing
  • Anton Bruckner (1824–1896) — Austrian; organist and devout Catholic; nine numbered symphonies (plus an unfinished No. 9) of vast scale; Symphony No. 4 “Romantic,” No. 7 in E major, No. 8 in C minor; Te Deum; revised his works repeatedly, creating multiple versions. His symphonies were championed by Wagner, and his music often features the “Bruckner rhythm,” along with characteristic touches such as a cymbal crash and Wagner tubas.

    • Joseph Anton Bruckner — Joseph Anton Bruckner was an Austrian symphonist deeply associated with Wagnerian influence and formal revision. He wrote the “Romantic” Fourth Symphony, as well as smaller works like Os Justi and the Study Symphony.

    • Symphonies
      • symphonies of Anton Bruckner — Anton Bruckner’s symphonies are large-scale Romantic works famous for multiple revisions and nicknames such as the Romantic, the Pizzicato, and the Apocalyptic. They often feature massive brass writing, slow movements, and the unfinished Ninth with its proposed Te Deum ending.
    • Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major
      • Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major — Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major is his best-known and one of his most frequently performed symphonies. It is often called the Romantic Symphony and is associated with hunting and festival themes; later revised versions include the famous horn-laced “Hunt” scherzo and an expansive finale, with the “Jagdthema” scherzo added in later versions.

    • Symphony No. 8, in C minor — Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 in C minor is a massive late-romantic symphony nicknamed the “Apocalyptic.” Its reception was troubled by Hermann Levi’s initial rejection, leading to years of revision.

    • Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 — Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 is his penultimate symphony and one of his largest works in C minor. Its vast Adagio, Wagner-tuba sonorities, and monumental finale are among its best-known identifying features.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) — Russian; ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker; Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique” (in B minor; premiered days before his death); Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor; Violin Concerto in D major; 1812 Overture; operas Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades; Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture.
    • 1812 Overture — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s celebratory orchestral work commemorates Russia’s defense against Napoleon, especially the French retreat from Borodino during the 1812 campaign. It is in E-flat major, Op. 49, opens with the Orthodox hymn “O Lord, Save Thy People,” and uses folk material such as “At the Gate.” The score quotes “La Marseillaise” against “God Save the Tsar” and the Russian imperial anthem, and is famous for its bells, live cannon fire, and patriotic finale; it is also often associated with Fourth of July performances by the Boston Pops. Tchaikovsky reportedly doubted its artistic value, and it has become a frequent target for parody, including Peter Schickele’s comic version.
      • God Save the Tsar! — God Save the Tsar! was the imperial Russian anthem, famously quoted in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. It is heard as the triumphant counterweight to La Marseillaise in the overture’s finale, alongside cannon shots and bell effects.

    • Capriccio Italien — Capriccio Italien is a concert piece and orchestral fantasy by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, inspired by his time in Rome and by Roman carnival music. It opens with a bugle call and ends with a lively tarantella.

    • Manfred Symphony — Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony is his unnumbered programmatic symphony based on Byron’s Manfred. It is known for its brooding first movement, Alpine scenes, and a finale depicting an infernal orgy with the theme of Astarte.

    • Manfred Symphony in B minor — Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony in B minor is an unnumbered symphony based on Byron’s dramatic poem about the tormented title character. Its movements depict the Alpine Fairy, a hunt scene, and an infernal bacchanal in the caves of Arimanes before Manfred’s death and recollection of Astarte.

    • Marche Slav — Marche Slav is Tchaikovsky’s patriotic orchestral march, opus 31, built around Russian national themes. It is often paired in clues with the Russian hymn ‘God Save the Tsar’ and the 1812 Overture, where Tchaikovsky also uses related material.

    • Marche Slave — Marche Slave, also called Slavonic March, is Tchaikovsky’s orchestral work in B-flat minor written for Serbian war relief after the Serbo-Turkish War. It quotes Serbian folk songs and the Russian imperial anthem “God Save the Tsar,” and is often paired with the 1812 Overture.

    • Piano Concerto No. 1

      • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 — It is Tchaikovsky’s best-known concerto, opening with a grand orchestral introduction before the soloist enters. Nikolai Rubinstein rejected it, but Hans von Bülow gave the premiere, and it later became famous through Van Cliburn’s performances.

      • Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 — Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is the B-flat minor concerto whose opening horn call and sweeping first movement are among its best-known passages. It was originally dedicated to Nikolai Rubinstein, who called it unplayable, and Hans von Bülow gave the first premiere performance instead.

    • Piano Trio in A minor — Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, dedicated to Nikolai Rubinstein, is best known for its large variations movement and final dance-like movement.

    • Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture — Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture was his first major success, and it is a programmatic work based on Shakespeare’s tragedy. It was encouraged by Balakirev and later revised into a fantasy overture whose famous love theme represents the title lovers.

    • Symphonies

      • symphonies by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Tchaikovsky’s symphonies are a set of orchestral works that includes the nicknamed “Winter Daydreams,” “Little Russian,” “Polish,” and “Pathétique.” The cycle also includes symphonies with distinctive motto themes, folk-song quotations, and unusually shaped slow movements, showing the composer’s range in large-scale orchestral writing.

      • Symphonies of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s symphonies include the Fifth, with its famous fate motif, and the Pathétique, his final completed symphony with the eerie waltz in 5/4. The set also includes the unnumbered Manfred Symphony and the early works often nicknamed Winter Daydreams and Little Russian.

      • The symphonies of Peter Ilitch Tchaikovsky — Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies include the familiar Fourth, Fifth, and the B minor Sixth, the “Pathétique.” The set is often identified by the nicknames attached to the first three symphonies and by their lush, dramatic orchestral style.

    • Symphony No. 1 in G minor
      • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1 in G Minor — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1 in G minor is nicknamed Winter Dreams. Its second movement is marked by a plaintive oboe melody and its finale reworks earlier material, showing the composer’s early orchestral style.

    • Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique — Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, is the Pathétique, his final completed symphony and one of his best-known orchestral works. It opens with an extremely soft bassoon solo, includes a limping second movement in 5/4 time, a march-like third movement, and ends unusually with a slow, tragic Adagio lamentoso rather than a triumphant finale.

    • The Nutcracker

      • Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy — Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is a celebrated number from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, written for celesta and pizzicato strings. Its delicate melody is one of the ballet’s best-known leitmotifs.

      • Herr Drosselmeyer — Herr Drosselmeyer is Clara’s godfather in The Nutcracker, and he is the one who gives her the Nutcracker.

      • The Nutcracker Suite — The Nutcracker Suite is Tchaikovsky’s Christmas-season orchestral suite drawn from the ballet The Nutcracker. Quiz clues often mention numbers like the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Waltz of the Flowers, the Arabian Dance, and the miniature overture. It also includes vivid character pieces such as the trepak and the Chinese Dance, and later became famous through performances and arrangements beyond the stage ballet.

        • Nutcracker Suite — The Nutcracker Suite is Tchaikovsky’s orchestral suite drawn from his ballet The Nutcracker. Its best-known numbers include the Waltz of the Snowflakes and the Waltz of the Flowers.

    • Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique” (Tchaikovsky) (B minor, Op. 74, 1893) — premiered nine days before Tchaikovsky’s death; finale is an unusual Adagio lamentoso that ends the symphony quietly; Tchaikovsky himself gave it the subtitle.

    • Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky) (B-flat minor, Op. 23, 1875) — famously rejected and criticized by Nikolai Rubinstein before its triumphant premiere by Hans von Bülow in Boston; opening theme in the introduction does not return in the main movement.

    • Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky) (D major, Op. 35, 1878) — initially rejected by Leopold Auer as “unplayable”; first performed by Adolf Brodsky in Vienna (1881); Eduard Hanslick’s hostile review is one of the most quoted in music criticism.
  • Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) — Czech; Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” (in E minor, composed in America 1893); Cello Concerto in B minor; American String Quartet (Op. 96); Slavonic Dances; oratorio Stabat Mater. He also drew on Bohemian folk idioms while in the United States he served as director of the National Conservatory in New York in the 1890s, especially influencing works associated with his time in Spillville, Iowa. Other commonly cited pieces include the opera Rusalka, the Dumky Trio, and tone poems such as The Water Goblin and The Golden Spinning Wheel.

    • American String Quartet — Dvořák’s American String Quartet is his String Quartet No. 12 in F major, written during his time in Spillville, Iowa. It is famous for its pentatonic melodies, folk-like character, and the “Largo” movement later adapted into “Goin’ Home.”

    • Anton Dvorak — Antonín Dvořák was the Czech composer of the New World Symphony and Rusalka. He is also associated with the Slavonic Dances and other nationalistic Romantic works.

    • Antonin Dvorak’s stay in United States of America — Antonin Dvořák’s stay in the United States was the period when he worked in New York under Jeanette Thurber’s sponsorship. During that time he wrote the Cello Concerto in B minor, the ‘American’ String Quartet, and music associated with his visit to Spillville, Iowa.

    • Carnival Overture — Dvořák’s Carnival Overture is a bright orchestral work from the Nature, Life, and Love trilogy. Its central lyric episode features flute and English horn as a pair of lovers, contrasting with the otherwise festive mood.

    • Cello Concerto in B minor
      • Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor — Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor is his late concerto that was inspired by Victor Herbert’s work in the same genre. It is also known for Hanus Wihan’s rejected cadenza, a quotation of the song “Leave Me Alone,” and its association with Dvořák’s American period.

    • Dumky Trio — Dvořák’s Dumky Trio is his Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, a six-movement chamber work whose name comes from the dumka form. The piece is famous for its slow, elegiac episodes, attacca connections, and folk-inflected alternation of melancholy and brightness.

    • Holoubek — Holoubek, or The Wood Dove, is a symphonic poem by Antonín Dvořák.

    • Humoresques — Dvořák’s Humoresques are a set of short character pieces, best known for the seventh in G-flat major. The cycle has both piano and orchestral versions, and the title also appears in other Dvořák works.

    • Slavonic Dances — Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances are a pair of nationalistic sets of piano pieces and orchestrations inspired by Bohemian dance rhythms. They include forms such as dumkas, furiants, sousedskas, and mazurkas, and were famously published by Fritz Simrock. Although modeled on Brahms’s Hungarian Dances, the pieces use original melodies rather than direct folk arrangements.

    • String Quartet No. 12
      • the American Quartet — The American Quartet is the nickname of Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F major. Written in Spillville, Iowa, it is one of his most famous chamber works and is notable for its American folk inflections.
    • Symphonies
      • Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World — Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, popularly known as the New World Symphony or From the New World, was written during his American stay, including time in New York City and Spillville, Iowa. It is associated with African-American spirituals and Native American themes; Dvořák said it drew on impressions of American and Native American music, though its idiom also retains Bohemian elements. The best-known Largo features an English horn melody later adapted into “Goin’ Home,” and the finale is marked Allegro con fuoco. The scherzo has also been linked to The Song of Hiawatha.

    • the Water Goblin — The Water Goblin is a symphonic poem by Dvořák, based on Karel Erben’s collection Kytice. Its story involves a water spirit who abducts a girl, fathers a child, and later kills the child in a grim folk-tale ending.

    • Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” (Dvořák) (E minor, Op. 95, 1893) — composed while Dvořák directed the National Conservatory in New York; slow movement (Largo) inspired “Goin’ Home” by William Arms Fisher; premiered at Carnegie Hall.

    • Cello Concerto (Dvořák) (B minor, Op. 104, 1895) — often called the greatest cello concerto; Brahms reportedly said he would have written one himself if he had known such a thing was possible; Dvořák revised the finale to incorporate a theme from his song Lasst mich allein in memory of his sister-in-law Josefina Čermáková.
  • Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) — Norwegian; nationalist; incidental music for Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (suites include “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and “Morning Mood”); Piano Concerto in A minor; Lyric Pieces for piano. His works often feature folk rhythms and miniature character pieces, and include “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen.”

    • Holberg Suite — Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Op. 40, is a five-movement work written in the style of the Baroque and based on eighteenth-century dance forms. It was composed for the bicentennial of the playwright Ludvig Holberg and is often performed in a string-orchestra version. Its movements include a Sarabande and Air, and it ends with a Rigaudon after the contrasting Air.

    • Peer Gynt

      • Anitra’s Dance — Anitra’s Dance is a movement from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, written as a mazurka with a light, string-and-triangle texture. It accompanies the scene of Peer Gynt’s encounter with the Arabian princess Anitra.

      • In the Hall of the Mountain King — Edvard Grieg’s famous incidental-music piece from Peer Gynt depicts Peer Gynt’s tense encounter with the trolls in the mountain king’s hall. It is best known for its steadily accelerating theme, beginning quietly in low strings and bassoons before building to a frantic orchestral climax. It is a movement from Grieg’s Peer Gynt incidental music, famous for its accelerating, increasingly loud chase theme built from repeated motifs rather than a broad lyric melody.

      • Incidental music to Peer Gynt — Edvard Grieg’s incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, Op. 23, accompanies the drama about the Norwegian wanderer Peer Gynt. The music is often performed in suites and includes some of Grieg’s best-known concert pieces: “Morning Mood,” “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” “Aase’s Death,” “Anitra’s Dance,” and “Solveig’s Song.”

      • Peer Gynt Suite — Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite is the concert suite drawn from incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. Its most familiar movements include “Morning Mood,” “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” “Anitra’s Dance,” and “Solveig’s Song.”

      • Peer Gynt Suite(s) — Peer Gynt is Edvard Grieg’s incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s play, best known in suite form for pieces like “Morning Mood,” “Anitra’s Dance,” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” Other movements include “Aase’s Death” and “Solveig’s Song,” both of which are recurring clues to the work.

      • Solveig’s Song — “Solveig’s Song” is Grieg’s lyrical vocal piece from Peer Gynt, associated with the character Solveig waiting faithfully for her lover. It belongs to the second Peer Gynt Suite and is one of Grieg’s most recognizable melodies.

    • Peer Gynt Suite no. 1 — Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 is Edvard Grieg’s orchestral suite drawn from incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. Its best-known movements include Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King, along with Anitra’s Dance and Ase’s Death.
      • Morning Mood — The opening movement of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, written to suggest sunrise in the desert and often recognized by its lilting, repeating pastoral flute melody accompanying Peer Gynt’s awakening. It gradually builds to a full-orchestra climax and is one of the suite’s most recognizable selections.
    • Piano Concerto in A minor
      • Edvard Grieg’s piano concerto in A minor — Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor is his only concerto and one of the best-known Romantic concertos in the repertory. Its opening cadenza, dramatic timpani roll, and finale based on a halling melody are characteristic identifying clues.
    • Grieg — Piano Concerto (A minor, Op. 16, 1868) — opens with a famous downward cascading motif on the piano; composed when Grieg was 25; the only concerto he completed; revised throughout his life. Also known as Grieg’s Piano Concerto and regarded as a standard Romantic showpiece. Its key was inspired by Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, and the finale includes halling-inspired rhythms.
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) — Russian; one of “The Five” (Moguchaya Kuchka); orchestral showpieces Scheherazade (Op. 35) and Capriccio Espagnol; The Flight of the Bumblebee (from opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan); operas Sadko and The Golden Cockerel; master orchestrator. Also romanized as Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; he was also a naval officer and taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where his students included Stravinsky and Glazunov. He revised works by Borodin and Mussorgsky, including Boris Godunov and Night on Bald Mountain.

    • Capriccio Espagnol — Rimsky-Korsakov’s five-movement orchestral suite based on Spanish themes and folk idioms. Its sections include “Alborada,” “Scene and Gypsy Song,” and a concluding “Fandango asturiano,” and it is noted for vivid orchestral color and cadenzas.

    • Russian Easter Festival Overture — Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s concert overture based on Russian Orthodox liturgical chant material. It contrasts major and minor modes, uses striking meter changes such as 5/2, 2/1, and 3/1, and opens with an Andante lugubre featuring the melody “An Angel Cried Out” before bells signal the Easter celebration. The work also draws on themes such as “Let God Arise.”

    • Scheherazade — Scheherazade is Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, also called The Arabian Nights. The work is known for its sinuous solo violin line and movement titles such as “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship,” “The Kalender Prince,” and “The Young Prince and Princess.”

      • Scheherazade Suite — Scheherazade is Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestral suite inspired by Arabian Nights, written in 1888. Its four movements include ‘The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship’ and ‘The Story of the Kalandar Prince,’ and the title figure is represented by a recurring violin melody.

      • the Kalendar Prince — The Kalendar Prince is the title nobleman in one of the tales framed within Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. In that story, he leaves his palace disguised as a fakir to wander the city. The second movement of Scheherazade is identified with a bassoon melody portraying him.

    • The Tale of Tsar Saltan

      • The Flight of the Bumblebee — “The Flight of the Bumblebee” is Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous orchestral interlude from The Tale of Tsar Saltan. It is best known for its rapid chromatic runs that imitate the buzzing flight of the title insect.

      • Flight of the Bumblebee — “Flight of the Bumblebee” is Rimsky-Korsakov’s fast orchestral interlude from The Tale of Tsar Saltan, famous for its rapid chromatic sixteenth notes. It accompanies Prince Gvidon’s transformation into a bumblebee and is often performed in virtuosic arrangements for piano or orchestra.

    • Rimsky-Korsakov — Scheherazade (Op. 35, 1888) — four-movement symphonic suite based on One Thousand and One Nights; solo violin represents Scheherazade; movements titled “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship,” “The Tale of the Kalender Prince,” “The Young Prince and the Young Princess,” and “The Festival at Baghdad — The Sea.”
  • Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) — Russian; one of “The Five”; Pictures at an Exhibition (piano suite, famously orchestrated by Ravel); opera Boris Godunov; song cycle Songs and Dances of Death. Associated with the Mighty Five. His music also includes the tone poem Night on Bald Mountain. Pictures at an Exhibition was inspired by Viktor Hartmann and includes movements such as “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs” and “The Great Gate of Kiev.” He left operas unfinished at his death, including Khovanshchina and works based on Gogol and Flaubert.

    • Modeste Mussorgsky — Modest Mussorgsky was the Russian composer of Boris Godunov and the unfinished opera Khovanshchina. He also wrote Pictures at an Exhibition after the work of his friend Viktor Hartmann and belonged to the Mighty Handful.

    • Songs and Dances of Death — Songs and Dances of Death is Mussorgsky’s final song cycle, set to poems by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov. Its bleak songs include “Lullaby,” “Serenade,” “Trepak,” and “The Field Marshal.”

    • Works
      • Pictures at an Exhibition — Modest Mussorgsky’s piano suite is inspired by the paintings and drawings of his friend Viktor Hartmann and linked by recurring Promenade passages as the listener moves between exhibits. Its famous movements include “The Old Castle,” “The Gnome,” “Bydlo,” “Tuileries,” “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs” or “The Hut on Hen’s Legs,” “Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks,” “Baba Yaga,” and the finale “The Great Gate of Kiev.” Maurice Ravel later orchestrated the work, and his version became the best-known.

        • Gnomus — “Gnomus” is the eerie E-flat minor movement from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Ravel’s orchestration gives it a whipcrack, celesta, and eerie string glissandi.

        • Promenade — “Promenade” is the recurring theme in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, representing the composer walking between the paintings. Ravel’s orchestration gives the melody different instrumental colors as it returns throughout the suite.

        • Promenades — Promenades are the walking interludes in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, where they separate the paintings in the suite. The title also appears in other piano and chamber works, including pieces by Schumann and Elgar.

        • The Great Gate of Kiev — The closing movement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a grand E-flat major tableau inspired by Hartmann’s design for a monumental gateway honoring Tsar Alexander II. It follows “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs” and is known for its hymnlike opening, brass fanfares, heavy percussion, and majestic return theme; it was famously orchestrated by Ravel, and its theme is drawn from a Russian baptismal hymn.

        • The Hut on Fowl’s Legs — “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs” is the eerie Baba Yaga movement from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. It is the penultimate C minor scherzo, and it is usually identified by the witch’s house on chicken legs or by similar translations of the title.

        • The Old Castle — The Old Castle is a movement from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and in Ravel’s orchestration it features a prominent saxophone solo. Clues often describe it as the second non-promenade movement and connect it with a troubadour or minstrel singing before a ruined castle.

    • Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky) (1874; orch. Ravel 1922) — piano suite depicting an imaginary walk through an art exhibition of Mussorgsky’s friend Viktor Hartmann; connected by a recurring “Promenade” theme; finale “The Great Gate of Kyiv” (Kiev); Ravel’s orchestration is far more often performed than the original.

    • Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky) (St. John’s Night on the Bare Mountain, 1867; rev. Rimsky-Korsakov 1886) — tone poem depicting a witches’ sabbath; Rimsky-Korsakov’s revision is the standard concert version; used in Disney’s Fantasia.

    • Night on Bald Mountain — This is Mily Balakirev’s arrangement of a work by Modest Mussorgsky, whose dark, demonic scene is often heard in concert programs and Halloween collections.
      • St. John’s Night on Bald Mountain — Mussorgsky’s tone poem, originally titled St. John’s Night on Bald Mountain, depicts a witches’ sabbath on St. John’s Eve near Kiev and a demonic night gathering that gives way to dawn. It became widely known through Rimsky-Korsakov’s revision and later orchestrations by Rimsky-Korsakov and Stokowski, and through its use in Disney’s Fantasia, where Chernobog appears in the climactic scene.
  • Hugo Wolf (1860–1903) — Austrian; known primarily for Lieder; Mörike-Lieder, Eichendorff-Lieder, Spanisches Liederbuch.
    • Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf — Hugo Wolf was an Austrian late-Romantic composer known especially for his art songs. He also wrote works such as the Italian Serenade, Penthesilea, and the opera Der Corregidor.
  • Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) — Austrian; nine completed symphonies (plus unfinished No. 10); Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”; No. 5 in C-sharp minor (Adagietto famously used in Visconti’s Death in Venice); No. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand”; Das Lied von der Erde (song-symphony); song cycles Kindertotenlieder and Des Knaben Wunderhorn. He was also a notable conductor, and his symphonies include the Seventh and Ninth. Another important song cycle is Songs of a Wayfarer.
    • Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 — Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor is nicknamed the Resurrection Symphony. It opens with the funeral-march movement Totenfeier, includes the slow movement Urlicht, and ends with a massive choral finale for chorus, soloists, and large orchestra, using Klopstock’s Aufersteh’n and Mahler’s own text to evoke rebirth after death. The work is a five-movement symphonic setting with a pause before the second movement and a wide emotional range, including the scherzo and the dramatic “death-shriek.”

      • Little Russian — Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony is known as the Little Russian. The nickname comes from its use of Ukrainian folk material and is one of the standard labels by which the symphony is identified.

      • Little Russian Symphony — Tchaikovsky’s Little Russian Symphony is his Second Symphony, written in C minor while he was visiting his sister in Ukraine. It draws heavily on Ukrainian folk material, including “Down by Mother Volga” and “The Crane.”

      • Urlicht — Urlicht is the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the Resurrection Symphony. It is a mezzo-soprano or alto solo that bridges the symphony’s scherzo and its choral finale, making the title a common clue for Mahler’s work.

    • Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen — Gustav Mahler’s early four-song song cycle about a lovesick wanderer. Its second song, “Ging heut Morgen übers Feld,” was later reused in the First Symphony. The best-known song, “Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer,” compares heartbreak to a knife in the chest. The work reflects Mahler’s personal love troubles and his later symphonic recycling of its themes.

    • symphonies

      • symphonies by Gustav Mahler — Gustav Mahler’s symphonies are monumental late-Romantic orchestral works with nicknames such as Titan, Resurrection, Tragic, and Symphony of a Thousand. They often mix march rhythms, folk-like dances, voices, bells, and expansive slow movements in highly personal symphonic forms.

      • symphonies of Mahler — Mahler’s symphonies are the large-scale orchestral works that include the First, Second, Fifth, and unfinished Tenth symphonies. They are famous for autobiographical gestures, monumental scoring, and nicknames such as Titan, Resurrection, and Tragic.

    • Symphony No. 1

      • Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D major, “Titan” — Gustav Mahler’s first symphony is a programmatic early symphony in D major, nicknamed Titan. It was originally conceived as a tone poem, opens with nature imagery including distant trumpet fanfares, cuckoo-like calls, and a long sustained drone, and quotes material from his Songs of a Wayfarer. Its third movement is a funeral march built on “Frère Jacques” in a minor-key bass line, and the early version included the later-cut movement “Blumine”; the finale is horn-heavy, and the players stand at the end.

      • Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony — Mahler’s First Symphony was originally titled The Titan and later revised after its early performances. One revision removed the second-movement subtitle “Flowers,” reflecting Mahler’s changing conception of the work.

    • Symphony No. 1 in D major
      • The Titan Symphony — Mahler’s Titan Symphony is his First Symphony in D major, nicknamed for the Jean Paul novel Titan. It is famous for the funeral-march third movement that quotes “Frère Jacques” and for the omitted movement “Blumine” in early versions.
    • Symphony No. 10
      • Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 — Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 is the unfinished F-sharp major symphony completed in performing versions by Deryck Cooke and others. Its surviving manuscript includes the Adagio and references the composer’s personal turmoil, including the Purgatorio movement and the inscription “To live for you! To die for you!”
    • Symphony No. 6
      • Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 — Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony in A minor is nicknamed the Tragic Symphony. It is a bleak work associated with cowbells, an “Alma” theme, an “old-fashioned” scherzo, and the debated order of its inner movements; the first movement is linked to a wife-related anecdote. Its march motif returns at the end, and the final movement famously ends with three hammer blows symbolizing fate.
    • Symphony No. 6 in A Minor — Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 in A minor is often called the Tragic Symphony. It is known for its hammer blows in the finale, which have been read as ominous autobiographical symbols.
      • Cowbells — Cowbells are the unpitched percussion instruments Gustav Mahler used for pastoral effect in his Sixth Symphony and elsewhere. He described them as distant, “last earthly sounds” heard by a departing spirit on a mountain top.

    • Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major — Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major is a two-part choral work nicknamed the Symphony of a Thousand for the huge forces it requires. The first part sets the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, and the second part sets the final scene of Goethe’s Faust Part II, ending with the Chorus Mysticus and the idea of the eternal feminine. It calls for orchestra, soloists, boys’ choir, and mixed chorus; its 1910 Munich premiere used enormous performing forces, and it was the best-received of Mahler’s works in his lifetime.

    • Symphony No. 9

      • Mahler’s 9th Symphony — Mahler’s Ninth Symphony was completed in 1910 and became his last symphony, following the Symphony of a Thousand. Its long, fading close and uneasy opening have often been heard as a meditation on death and farewell.

      • Mahler’s Ninth Symphony — Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is Gustav Mahler’s final completed symphony, ending with a vast Adagio in D-flat major. Its final movements and recurring falling motives are often linked to farewell and death, and the work is commonly discussed alongside Das Lied von der Erde.

    • The Song of the Earth — Gustav Mahler’s six-part song-symphony for tenor and alto or mezzo-soprano, or tenor and baritone, with orchestra, based on Hans Bethge’s German versions of Tang-dynasty Chinese poems. It was conceived as a kind of symphony but left unnumbered in connection with the supposed “curse of the ninth.” Its movements include “The Drinking Song of Earth’s Misery,” “The Lonely One in Autumn,” “Of Youth,” “Of Beauty,” and the long farewell movement “Der Abschied” (“The Farewell”), which ends with repeated ewig. The work was premiered by Bruno Walter after Mahler’s death.

    • Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” (Mahler) (C minor, 1888–94) — five movements; finale uses Klopstock’s Aufersteh’n poem supplemented by Mahler’s own text; soprano, contralto, and chorus join in the finale; over 80 minutes in performance.

    • Symphony No. 5 (Mahler) (C-sharp minor, 1901–02) — Adagietto (fourth movement) for strings and harp became iconic after Visconti’s film Death in Venice (1971); Mahler played it privately as a love letter to Alma.

    • Symphony No. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand” (Mahler) (E-flat major, 1906) — requires eight vocal soloists, two large choruses, boys’ choir, and enlarged orchestra; Part I sets the Veni Creator Spiritus hymn; Part II sets the final scene of Goethe’s Faust; premiered in Munich, 1910.

    • Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler) (1908–09) — song-symphony in six movements for tenor (or baritone), contralto (or mezzo), and orchestra; sets German translations of Tang-dynasty Chinese poetry; finale “Der Abschied” (The Farewell) lasts over 30 minutes.

    • Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (Mahler) — 1901; a setting of Friedrich Rückert for voice and piano or orchestra, included in the Rückert-Lieder. Its quiet withdrawal from the world provides a listening counterpart to Mahler’s large symphonic movements and an example of the orchestral Lied.¹⁵

    • Kindertotenlieder — Gustav Mahler’s orchestral song cycle on poems by Friedrich Rückert, meditating on the death of children. It is an elegy in five songs and includes “Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n” and “In diesem Wetter.” Its sparse orchestration and dark mood make it one of Mahler’s most haunting vocal works, and it is often associated with his own experience of family loss.
  • Richard Strauss (1864–1949) — German; tone poems Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, Also sprach Zarathustra (opening used in 2001: A Space Odyssey), Don Quixote, Ein Heldenleben; operas Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Arabella; Four Last Songs (late career). He collaborated with Hugo von Hofmannsthal; orchestral works also include An Alpine Symphony and Death and Transfiguration.

    • Also sprach Zarathustra — Richard Strauss’s 1896 tone poem, inspired by Nietzsche’s philosophical work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. It is especially famous for its opening “Sunrise” fanfare, the trumpet C–G–C motif associated with 2001: A Space Odyssey and later popular culture. The work includes sections such as “Of the Backworldsmen,” “Of the Great Longing,” “Of Joys and Passions,” “Of Science,” “The Dance Song,” and “Song of the Night Wanderer,” and it ends without a full tonal resolution, famously hovering between C major and B major.

    • An Alpine Symphony — Richard Strauss’s large-scale tone poem depicting a day in the mountains, including a climb up and descent from a mountain. It is famous for its huge orchestra and vivid effects such as offstage horns, wind machine, thunder machine, organ, and even sheep bleating, with scenes including the ascent, sunrise, the summit, and a storm. The program also depicts a waterfall.

    • Death and Transfiguration — Richard Strauss’s tone poem depicts an artist/man on his deathbed during a final illness, then a vision of spiritual release or transfiguration. It is one of his early orchestral works, associated with a program poem by Alexander Ritter, and its score ends in a radiant C major vision of redemption.

    • Ein Heldenleben — Richard Strauss’s tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) is a large-scale orchestral work in six sections, often read as a heroic self-portrait. Its movements depict the hero’s adversaries or hostile critics, companion or love episode, works of peace, battlefield, and withdrawal from the world, and it incorporates quotations from Strauss’s earlier works. It was dedicated to Willem Mengelberg.

    • Four Last Songs — Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs are a late set of orchestral songs for soprano and orchestra, set to poems by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff. Their lush horn writing and the closing quotation of Death and Transfiguration make them one of Strauss’s most famous final works.

    • Metamorphosen — Metamorphosen is Richard Strauss’s elegy for 23 solo strings, written after the destruction of German opera houses in World War II. The work is marked by memorial writing and quotes the funeral march from Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.

    • Richard Strauss: orchestral and operatic works — Richard Strauss was a German late-Romantic composer of operas such as Salome, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Der Rosenkavalier. His orchestral works and tone poems include Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Quixote, An Alpine Symphony, and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.

    • Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks — Richard Strauss’s tone poem based on the legend of the German trickster Till Eulenspiegel, often described as a mischievous peasant. Written in rondo form, it is one of Strauss’s best-known orchestral depictions of German folklore. Distinctive horn and clarinet motifs portray his antics, from marketplace mischief through his execution and the final return of his motif.

  • Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) — Finnish; nationalist; seven symphonies; Finlandia (Op. 26); Violin Concerto in D minor; tone poem Tapiola; The Swan of Tuonela. He was born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius in Hämeenlinna (Tavastehus). His Seventh Symphony in C major was originally titled Fantasia Sinfonica, and works such as Finlandia, En Saga, and The Swan of Tuonela became associated with Finnish nationalism and resistance to Russian rule.
    • Finlandia — Finlandia is Jean Sibelius’s nationalist tone poem, originally part of a set of incidental music and later associated with the Finlandia Hymn. It was written under Russian censorship and often appeared under alternate titles to avoid suppression.
      • Finlandia, Op. 26 — Finlandia, Op. 26 is Jean Sibelius’s nationalist tone poem, later associated with the hymn “Be Still My Soul.” It was once circulated under alternative titles to avoid Russian censorship and originated in the Press Celebration Music suite.

    • Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor — Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor is his only concerto and became famous for its virtuosic solo writing and unusually placed cadenza in the first movement. Its finale is often called a ‘polonaise for polar bears,’ and the piece is associated with the violinist Willy Burmester and conductor Richard Strauss.

    • Karelia Suite — Sibelius’s Karelia Suite is a three-movement orchestral suite with an Intermezzo, Ballade, and Alla marcia. It was written for a student historical tableau and is often remembered for its march-like opening and folk-like regional color.

    • Karelia Suite, Op. 11 — The Karelia Suite, Op. 11, is Sibelius’s orchestral set inspired by Finnish Karelia and associated with patriotic scenes and marches. The title suite includes movement names such as Intermezzo and Alla Marcia.

    • Symphonies

      • symphonies of Jean Sibelius — Jean Sibelius wrote seven completed symphonies that range from Romantic expansiveness to concentrated, single-movement forms. The set includes works associated with Finlandia, the Swan of Tuonela-like mood, and famously the bold one-movement Seventh in C major.

      • the symphonies of Jean Sibelius — Jean Sibelius wrote seven symphonies, including the famous Second and the one-movement Seventh. His symphonies are noted for details such as the swan theme in the Fifth and the bleak nickname of the Fourth.

    • Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43
      • Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 — Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 is one of his most frequently performed works and is strongly associated with Finnish nationalism. Its finale expands a recurring motif through a broad, triumphant symphonic arc. Clues often mention the slow second movement, the dedicatory support of Axel Carpelan, and the symphony’s popularity as a patriotic emblem in Finland.
    • Symphony No. 7 — Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105, is a single-movement symphony and his last completed symphony. Its title figure is often identified by the trombone-led heroic theme associated with his wife Aino, and it is commonly grouped with Sibelius’s late symphonic style.

      • Beethoven’s 7th Symphony — Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is in A major and is especially known for the powerful allegretto second movement. Its premiere was a benefit for wounded soldiers, and the finale is marked by a relentless dance-like energy.

      • Leningrad Symphony — Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60, is better known as the Leningrad Symphony. Written in 1941 during the Siege of Leningrad, it became a wartime symbol of Soviet resistance and one of his best-known works. It is especially famous for the long invasion-theme march in the first movement, its ominous invasion theme, march textures, and large-scale orchestration; it also has an anti-totalitarian reputation.

      • Symphony No. 7 in C major — Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 in C major is a one-movement symphony that evolved from a symphonic fantasy. It features an Aino theme and has become one of his most distinctive late orchestral works.

    • Tapiola — Tapiola is the title of Jean Sibelius’s last orchestral work, a symphonic poem evoking a Finnish forest spirit. The name also refers to a district of Espoo associated with planned urban design.

    • Valse Triste — Valse Triste is Jean Sibelius’s famous “sad waltz,” originally written as incidental music for Arvid Järnefelt’s play Death. Its haunting, funeral-like atmosphere has made it a frequent concert piece and arrangement target.

    • Works
      • Lemminkäinen Suite — Jean Sibelius’s four-movement orchestral Lemminkäinen Suite is based on the Kalevala and on the adventures of the hero Lemminkäinen. Its best-known movement is “The Swan of Tuonela,” which features a famous cor anglais solo. The suite was later revised into a shorter form.
        • Swan of Tuonela — Sibelius’s tone poem from the Lemminkäinen suite, originally conceived as a prelude to The Building of the Boat, with a mournful English horn melody depicting the black swan gliding on the river surrounding the Finnish land of the dead in the Kalevala and the Finnish underworld.

    • Symphony No. 2 (Sibelius) (D major, Op. 43, 1902) — most popular of his seven; often read as a work of national resistance to Russian rule; premiered in Helsinki.

    • Symphony No. 5 (Sibelius) (E-flat major, Op. 82, 1915, rev. 1919) — swans flying in formation inspired the famous horn motif of the finale; Sibelius saw the swans on the same day he was working on the symphony.

    • Symphony No. 7 (Sibelius) (C major, Op. 105, 1924) — single-movement symphony; his last completed symphony; followed by the tone poem Tapiola.

    • Violin Concerto (Sibelius) (D minor, Op. 47, 1904, rev. 1905) — the only concerto Sibelius completed; revised substantially after an unsuccessful premiere; extremely virtuosic solo part; slow movement has one of the most lyrical themes in the violin repertoire.

    • Finlandia (Sibelius) (Op. 26, 1899, rev. 1900) — orchestral tone poem; composed as part of a pageant protesting Russian censorship in Finland; the “Finlandia Hymn” section became a de facto patriotic anthem; the tsarist government banned performances under that title.

  • Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936) — Russian; Violin Concerto in A minor; eight symphonies. He composed the ballets Raymonda and The Seasons, and an alto saxophone concerto. He also served as a conservatory director in St. Petersburg and was noted for his remarkable memory and orchestration skills. He helped complete Borodin’s Prince Igor; Les Sylphides draws on his Chopin orchestrations.

  • Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) — Danish; six symphonies including “Inextinguishable” (No. 4) and “Simple” (No. 6); Wind Quintet. Other well-known works include The Four Temperaments, the Helios Overture, the opera Maskarade, and concertos for flute and clarinet; his symphonies are noted for contrasting timpani or wordless vocal solos. He is often regarded as Denmark’s greatest symphonist.

    • Sinfonia Espansiva — Sinfonia espansiva is the third symphony by Carl Nielsen, a work known for its broad, expanding character. Its second movement includes wordless soprano and baritone lines.

    • Nielsen — Symphony No. 4 “Inextinguishable” (Op. 29, 1916) — two sets of timpani placed on opposite sides of the stage “battle” each other in the finale; composed during World War I; the title expresses the indestructibility of the life force.

  • Max Bruch — Max Bruch was a late-Romantic German composer best known for the G minor Violin Concerto, Kol Nidrei, and the Scottish Fantasy. His other works include three violin concertos and chamber pieces such as his Clarinet, Viola, and Piano works.

    • Max Christian Friedrich Bruch — Max Christian Friedrich Bruch was a German Romantic composer best known for his Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor. He also wrote Scottish Fantasy and Kol Nidrei, and his music often features lush orchestration and solo violin writing.

    • Scottish Fantasy — Scottish Fantasy is Max Bruch’s violin-and-orchestra work that draws on Scottish folk material and is often grouped with his better-known concertos. It belongs to the same late-Romantic world as Bruch’s G minor Violin Concerto and Kol Nidrei.

    • Bruch — Violin Concerto No. 1 (G minor, Op. 26, 1866) — one of the most-performed violin concertos; despite writing three, Bruch reportedly found it frustrating that No. 1 so overshadowed his other work; slow movement (Adagio) is especially beloved.

• British and American Concert Traditions
  • John Philip Sousa (1854–1932) — American; “The March King”; conductor of the U.S. Marine Band and later his own touring band; Stars and Stripes Forever (1896; designated the official national march of the United States in 1987), Semper Fidelis, The Washington Post march; also invented the sousaphone.

    • Liberty Bell March — John Philip Sousa’s Liberty Bell March is a bright march whose famous trio-like section is marked by the tolling of tubular bells. Sousa originally planned it for his operetta The Devil’s Deputy before it became one of his best-known marches. It takes its name from the cracked Liberty Bell, and it is best known as the theme for Monty Python’s Flying Circus; it was also performed at presidential inaugurations.

    • The Stars and Stripes Forever — The Stars and Stripes Forever is John Philip Sousa’s famous patriotic march, often used as a national march of the United States. Its best-known feature is the piccolo solo in the trio section, and it is frequently performed on July Fourth.

    • Washington Post March — The Washington Post March is a John Philip Sousa march written for a newspaper-sponsored essay contest. It became especially famous in the two-step form and opens with a brief chromatic introduction.

    • “The Washington Post” March — John Philip Sousa’s “The Washington Post” March was written for a newspaper-sponsored awards ceremony and became closely associated with the two-step dance. The piece helped spark the 1890s two-step craze and is a standard Sousa march in 6/8 time.

  • Amy Beach (1867–1944) — American; first major American female symphonist; Gaelic Symphony in E minor (1896; first symphony composed and published by an American woman); Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor; Mass in E-flat major. She was also associated with the Boston Six and the Second New England School. The Gaelic Symphony was inspired by Scottish folk music and Dvořák’s New World Symphony. Her other best-known larger works include the Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, dedicated to Teresa Carreño, and the Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor. She also wrote many songs and piano pieces, including Woodland Sketches with “To a Wild Rose,” as well as songs such as “Empress of Night” and “Twilight.”

    • Gaelic Symphony — Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony is her Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 32, and it was inspired by Irish music. It was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman.

    • Amy Marcy Beach — Amy Marcy Beach was an American composer and pianist who became the first prominent female American symphonist. Her works include the Gaelic Symphony and a Piano Concerto, and she once performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

  • Edward Elgar (1857–1934) — English; Enigma Variations (Op. 36, 1899; Variation 9, Nimrod, portrays his friend A. J. Jaeger), Cello Concerto in E minor (Op. 85), Pomp and Circumstance Marches (No. 1’s trio theme used as “Land of Hope and Glory”); The Dream of Gerontius (oratorio); Violin Concerto.¹⁶ His other notable works include the Cockaigne Overture and the Second Symphony. He was also known as Sir Edward William Elgar.
    • Cello Concerto in E minor — Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor is a late Romantic concerto famous for Jacqueline du Pré’s interpretation and for its opening recitative and cadenza. Its first movement has a mournful, personal character, and the work became one of the composer’s best-known pieces after World War I.
      • Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor — Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor is a late Romantic concerto popularized by Jacqueline du Pré. Its opening recitative, slow viola theme, and famously troubled premiere are the standard clues.

    • Cockaigne Overture — Cockaigne Overture is an orchestral work by Edward Elgar, also known as In London Town. It humorously depicts contemporary London and is the first Elgar work to use the marking nobilmente.

    • Enigma Variations — Edward Elgar’s orchestral set of fourteen variations, each a portrait of one of his friends and acquaintances, built around a hidden central theme that he never revealed. The best-known variation is “Nimrod”; other named movements include “C.A.E.” and “Dorabella,” and the finale, marked “E.D.U.,” serves as Elgar’s self-portrait. The work was premiered by Hans Richter in 1899, helped establish Elgar’s reputation, and remains one of his signature orchestral works.

      • August Jaeger — August Jaeger is the dedicatee behind Elgar’s “Nimrod” variation in the Enigma Variations. The work is built from musical portraits of the composer’s friends and is one of the best-known orchestral sets of variations in the British repertoire.

      • Dorabella — “Dorabella” is the tenth variation in Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and it is sometimes labeled “Intermezzo: Allegretto.” It features a solo viola melody and takes its name from Dora Penny, whose nickname also appears in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Dryden’s All for Love.

    • Lux Christi — Lux Christi, also called The Light of Life, is Elgar’s first oratorio and a work in his religious trilogy with The Apostles and The Kingdom. It sets text from the Gospel of John and centers on Jesus restoring sight to a blind beggar.

    • Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D — Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D is the ceremonial march most often heard at commencements. Written for the coronation of Edward VII, its trio was later adapted into the patriotic song “Land of Hope and Glory,” and it has also turned up in films and sports entrances.

    • Pomp and Circumstance Marches — Edward Elgar’s set of six military marches, best known for the first march’s use at graduation ceremonies. The first march’s Trio was later fitted with the patriotic song “Land of Hope and Glory,” and the title comes from Shakespeare’s Othello. The marches were originally written for ceremonial use.

      • Pomp and Circumstance Military Marches — Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Military Marches are a series of orchestral marches whose first is commonly played at graduations and contains “Land of Hope and Glory.” The set was associated with Samuel Sanford’s Yale honorary doctorate visit and with ceremonial national pride in Edward VII’s coronation ode.

      • Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 — Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 is the famous Edward Elgar march associated with graduations. Its title comes from Othello, and its popularity was boosted by an early performance at Yale.

    • Sir Edward Elgar — English composer whose major works include the Enigma Variations, Pomp and Circumstance, the Cello Concerto in E minor, The Dream of Gerontius, and Introduction and Allegro. He is also associated with the march tune “Land of Hope and Glory”; the Enigma Variations’ hidden tune is linked with “Nimrod.”

    • The Dream of Gerontius — The Dream of Gerontius is Edward Elgar’s oratorio setting John Henry Newman’s poem about a dying man’s soul and its journey after death. Its most famous scenes include Gerontius’s plea ‘Jesu, Maria’ and the climactic judgment before the soul is sent onward toward Purgatory. “Praise to the Holiest in the Height” is another notable passage.
  • Arthur Sullivan — English composer best known for his collaboration with W. S. Gilbert on comic opera and the Savoy operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, and The Gondoliers. He also wrote the hymn tune ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’, the song ‘The Lost Chord’, an ‘Irish’ Symphony, the overture to Iolanthe, and the opera Ivanhoe, and composed hymn tunes and choral works that made him a central figure in Victorian British music.
    • Arthur S. Sullivan — Arthur Sullivan was a British composer known for his operettas with W. S. Gilbert. He also wrote the opera Ivanhoe, incidental music for The Tempest, a symphony, ballets, and songs such as ‘The Lost Chord’ and ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’.
  • Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
    • Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry — Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry was a late Victorian and Edwardian composer known for large choral and sacred works. He also wrote symphonies and taught Ralph Vaughan Williams.

  • Charles Villiers Stanford — Charles Villiers Stanford was an Anglo-Irish composer who taught at the Royal College of Music and Cambridge and helped shape late-Romantic British music. He wrote Irish Rhapsodies, seven symphonies, and the widely used setting of “Beati quorum via.”

  • Edward MacDowell — Edward MacDowell was an American Romantic composer best known for Woodland Sketches and its miniature “To a Wild Rose.” After his death, his wife founded the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, which became a major artists’ retreat.

  • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor — Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a Black British composer best known for The Song of Hiawatha, especially Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. His music was championed by Edward Elgar, and he was nicknamed the African Mahler.

  • Victor Herbert — Victor Herbert was an Irish-German American composer famous for operettas such as Babes in Toyland, Naughty Marietta, and The Red Mill. He also wrote The Fortune Teller and Orange Blossoms, and his Second Cello Concerto influenced later concert repertoire.

  • Frederick Delius — English composer of atmospheric late-Romantic works, including Florida Suite, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Sea Drift, Brigg Fair, Koanga, A Mass of Life, and A Village Romeo and Juliet. His music often uses impressionistic nature imagery, and his later work was assisted by Eric Fenby and promoted with help from Thomas Beecham. Koanga draws on George Washington Cable’s fiction. After becoming blind and paralyzed, Delius dictated music to Eric Fenby.

    • Brigg Fair — Brigg Fair is Frederick Delius’s English rhapsody based on a Lincolnshire folk song. The song was rediscovered by Percy Grainger and the rhapsody premiered in Liverpool in 1908.

    • Florida Suite — Florida Suite is a Frederick Delius orchestral suite inspired by his time in Florida, including work at a Solano Grove orange farm. Its movements include “Daybreak,” “By the River,” “Sunset – Near the Plantation,” and “At Night.”

    • On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring — On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is a tone poem by Frederick Delius that evokes the arrival of spring through birdcall-like motifs and a quoted folk tune. It is often paired with Summer Night on the River and belongs to Delius’s impressionistic orchestral output.

    • Works

      • A Mass of Life — A Mass of Life is a choral work by Frederick Delius, setting Nietzsche and standing among his best-known large-scale pieces. Delius is also tied to Sea Drift, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, and the assistance of Eric Fenby in his later years.

  • Granville Bantock — Granville Bantock was a British composer and editor of the New Quarterly Musical Review. He wrote orchestral and choral works such as the Celtic Symphony, the Hebridean Symphony, and Omar Khayyám.

  • Rebecca Clarke — Rebecca Clarke was a British-American composer and violist best known for her viola sonata in F minor. Her music also includes song settings such as The Tyger and chamber works like Morpheus.

  • Frank Bridge — Frank Bridge was an English composer whose music includes The Christmas Rose, Three Idylls for String Quartet, and Oration. He is also remembered as the subject of Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.
• Claude Debussy (1862–1918) — French; Impressionist (though he rejected the label); Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, 1894); La mer (three orchestral sketches); Images for orchestra (including Ibéria); piano works Suite bergamasque (including “Clair de lune”), Préludes (two books), Children’s Corner; opera Pelléas et Mélisande; String Quartet in G minor. He also won the Prix de Rome for The Prodigal Son and is associated with Symbolist literary influences, whole-tone harmony, and coloristic orchestration. Other works named in connection with him include Estampes, the Arabesques, and the “Pagodes” movement from Estampes, alongside his frequent use of gamelan-like sonorities and influence from Wagner and Russian composers.
  • Children’s Corner — Claude Debussy’s six-movement piano suite Children’s Corner was written for and dedicated to his daughter Chouchou (Chou-Chou). Its movements include “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum,” “Jimbo’s Lullaby,” “Serenade for the Doll,” “The Snow Is Dancing,” and “Golliwogg’s Cakewalk,” the last of which quotes Wagner’s Tristan prelude. The work mixes parody and childlike whimsy.
    • Golliwogg’s Cakewalk — “Golliwogg’s Cakewalk” is the final movement of Debussy’s Children’s Corner. It imitates ragtime and minstrel music while parodying Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.

  • Clair de Lune — Claude Debussy’s famous piano piece from Suite bergamasque, the third movement, with a title meaning “moonlight.” It is a lyrical work often noted for its flowing arpeggios and 9/8 opening, and it was inspired by Paul Verlaine’s poem of the same name.

  • Estampes — Estampes is Debussy’s three-movement piano suite inspired by exotic and impressionistic scenes. Its movements include “Pagodes,” “La soirée dans Grenade,” and “Jardins sous la pluie,” with “Pagodes” drawing on Javanese gamelan sonorities.

  • Images pour orchestre — Images pour orchestre is Debussy’s orchestral triptych whose middle movement is Iberia. The first movement is Gigues, and the set is known for its vivid evocation of different places and scenes.

  • Jeux — Jeux is Debussy’s final ballet, written for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and centered on a lost tennis ball. Its shifting meters, dense tempo changes, and lack of repeated themes made it a favorite of modernists despite critics’ dislike of its sound.

  • La Mer — Claude Debussy’s three-movement orchestral work subtitled “Three Symphonic Sketches.” Its movements are “From Dawn to Noon on the Sea,” “Play of the Waves,” and “Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea.” The score is often associated with shimmering depictions of the sea and with Hokusai’s Great Wave, and it is one of Debussy’s best-known impressionist works.

  • Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun — Claude Debussy’s symphonic poem based on Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem about a languid faun. It opens with a famous chromatic flute solo, uses unusual orchestration, and later inspired Vaslav Nijinsky’s scandalous ballet adaptation; it became an important early modern work.

  • préludes — Préludes are short piano pieces by Debussy, including the two books that contain works such as ‘Voiles,’ ‘The Sunken Cathedral,’ and ‘The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.’ The title also fits the famous ‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,’ another Debussy piece inspired by Symbolist poetry.

    • Claude Debussy’s Préludes — Debussy’s Préludes are two books of piano pieces, with titles placed at the end rather than the beginning. Famous pieces from the set include ‘The Sunken Cathedral,’ ‘The Girl with the Flaxen Hair,’ ‘Voiles,’ and ‘Feux d’artifice.’

    • preludes by Claude Debussy — Claude Debussy’s Preludes are a set of piano miniatures known for atmospheric titles such as “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” and “What the West Wind Has Seen.” They belong to his late French impressionist piano output.

    • Preludes by Frédéric Chopin — Chopin’s Preludes are the set of short piano pieces collected as his Opus 28. They include the famous E minor “Raindrop” Prelude and other pieces associated with keys from the full circle of major and minor tonalities.

    • preludes by Sergei Rachmaninoff — Sergei Rachmaninoff’s preludes are a set of solo piano works, including the famous C-sharp minor prelude from Morceaux de fantaisie. He also wrote sets in Op. 23 and Op. 32, which are staples of the Romantic virtuoso repertoire.

    • Raindrop Prelude — Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude is the nickname for Prelude in D-flat major, Op. 28, No. 15. It is associated with the repeated A-flat figure that suggests falling rain.

  • Préludes, Book I
    • The Sunken Cathedral — The Sunken Cathedral is Claude Debussy’s piano prelude inspired by the Breton legend of the lost city of Ys. Its shimmering parallel chords and foggy rising sonorities evoke the cathedral slowly emerging from the sea.

  • Suite bergamasque — Debussy’s four-movement piano suite, best known for its third movement, “Clair de lune.” The suite also includes a prelude, menuet, and passepied, and its title evokes a dance style associated with Bergamo. The movement was originally titled “Promenade sentimentale” and reflects a dreamy, impressionistic style.

  • Three Nocturnes — Claude Debussy’s Three Nocturnes is an orchestral triptych with movements titled “Clouds,” “Festivals,” and “Sirens.” The work draws inspiration from Henri de Régnier and James Whistler, and its final movement uses a women’s chorus.

  • Works
    • Jimbo’s Lullaby — “Jimbo’s Lullaby” is the second piece in Debussy’s Children’s Corner suite. The piece depicts an elephant and uses prominent major seconds.

  • Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Debussy) (1894) — inspired by Mallarmé’s poem; opens with an unaccompanied flute solo; Nijinsky’s 1912 choreography caused a scandal; often cited as the beginning of musical Modernism.

  • La Mer (Debussy) (1905) — three “symphonic sketches” for orchestra; movements titled “From Dawn to Noon on the Sea,” “Play of the Waves,” and “Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea.”
• Paul Dukas (1865–1935) — French; meticulous self-critic who destroyed most of his manuscripts; The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1897; famous from Disney’s Fantasia); opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (1907); La Péri (ballet).

  • Paul Abraham Dukas — Paul Dukas was a French composer best known for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the ballet La Péri. Though he wrote in several genres, he is often remembered for a small but polished output and for orchestral music with brilliant color.

  • The Sorcerer’s Apprentice — Paul Dukas’s symphonic poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, or L’apprenti sorcier, is based on Goethe’s poem Der Zauberlehrling about an apprentice who loses control of enchanted labor. It is especially famous for the animated broom sequence in Disney’s Fantasia and is one of the best-known works of French orchestral music. Its colorful orchestration includes a specially keyed glockenspiel and three bassoons.

• Erik Satie (1866–1925) — French; eccentric iconoclast; Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes for piano; influenced Les Six. He also wrote Parade, Socrate, Vexations, Sonatine bureaucratique, and Jack in the Box, and his cabaret songs include “Je te veux” and “La Diva de l’Empire.” He was associated with Rosicrucian and early modernist circles and collaborated with Jean Cocteau on Parade.

  • Furniture Music — Furniture Music, or musique d’ameublement, is Erik Satie’s idea for background music meant to function like sonic décor rather than as something listeners would actively attend to. These short works were intended for entr’actes rather than concert listening, and included pieces with titles like Phonic Tiles and Tapestry of Wrought Iron; audiences nevertheless listened anyway.

  • Gymnopedies — Satie’s Gymnopédies are three slow piano pieces in 3/4 time with a spare, melancholy sound. Their title alludes to an ancient Spartan dance festival, and Debussy famously orchestrated the first and third pieces.

  • Socrate — Socrate is Erik Satie’s symphonic drama setting translated Plato texts, a stark, restrained work he wanted to sound “white and pure like antiquity.” It is often associated with the death of Socrates, and John Cage later made a two-piano arrangement of it.

  • Trois Gymnopedies — Trois Gymnopédies is Erik Satie’s famous three-piece piano cycle, later arranged in part by Debussy. Its slow, modal harmonies helped make it one of the best-known works associated with early musical minimalism and atmospheric piano writing.

  • Vexations — Vexations is Erik Satie’s notorious solo piano piece built from a short theme repeated 840 times. The work is associated with extreme duration, conceptual-music performance, and later revival by performers including a John Cage-led relay team.

• Erich Wolfgang Korngold — Erich Wolfgang Korngold was the Austrian composer of Die tote Stadt, the left-hand Piano Concerto for Paul Wittgenstein, and a famous Violin Concerto in D major. After fleeing Nazi Europe, he became a major Hollywood film composer, writing scores that later fed back into his concert works. Korngold’s music bridges opera, concert hall, and cinema, especially in scores such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Kings Row. His lush late-Romantic style made him one of the most recognizable composers to move from Europe to Hollywood.

• Hans von Bülow — Hans von Bülow was a German pianist and conductor who premiered Liszt’s B minor Sonata and led major Wagner premieres even after Cosima Liszt left him for Wagner. He also served as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and premiered Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, later introducing pedal timpani in Meiningen.

• Charles-Marie Widor — Charles-Marie Widor was a French organist and composer best known for his organ symphonies. His Fifth Organ Symphony contains the famous Toccata, and he spent decades as organist at Saint-Sulpice in Paris.

• Hubert Parry — Hubert Parry was an English composer and educator at the Royal College of Music who helped shape late Victorian British music. He set Blake’s “Jerusalem” and wrote the coronation anthem “I was glad.”

• Pablo de Sarasate
  • Pablo de Sarasate (“sah-rah-SAH-tay”) — Pablo de Sarasate was a Spanish violin virtuoso and composer famous for showpieces such as Zigeunerweisen and the Carmen Fantasy. He inspired works by Saint-Saëns and Lalo, including the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and the Symphonie espagnole.
• William Arms Fisher
  • Goin’ Home — “Goin’ Home” is a song by William Arms Fisher set to the Largo theme from Dvořák’s New World Symphony. Its lyrics evoke returning to a home where one’s parents are waiting, and some clues note controversy over whether Fisher adapted the spiritual from Dvořák or vice versa.

• Des Knaben Wunderhorn — Des Knaben Wunderhorn is the German folk-song and poetry collection edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. Mahler drew on it extensively for lieder and for symphonic settings, including material used in his Second, Third, and Fourth Symphonies.

• Alma Mahler — Alma Mahler, born Alma Schindler, was an Austrian composer and socialite associated with the artistic circle around Vienna. She studied painting and composition before becoming a celebrated figure in early twentieth-century Central European cultural life. She married Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel, and was also known for her connection to Oskar Kokoschka and for inspiring several works of art and music.

Nationalist and Post-Romantic

• Russian National Traditions
  • Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) — Russian; regarded as the father of Russian classical music; A Life for the Tsar (1836; first major Russian-language opera), Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842); Kamarinskaya (orchestral fantasy on folk tunes) influenced later Russian composers. He also wrote the Spanish Overtures and the Overture-Symphony on Russian Themes, and his music helped establish a distinctly Russian national style; pieces such as “The Lark” were influential for later composers.

    • Kamarinskaya — Kamarinskaya is a Mikhail Glinka orchestral work built from Russian folk material, often treated as a foundation for later Russian symphonic writing. Tchaikovsky admired it as a model of how a whole oak tree can grow from an acorn.

    • Ruslan and Lyudmila
      • Mikhail Glinka and Aleksandr Pushkin — Mikhail Glinka composed Ruslan and Lyudmila, the opera based on a tale by Aleksandr Pushkin. Pushkin supplied the literary source for the work and remains the classic Russian poet most often paired with Glinka in this context.
    • State Hymn of the Russian Federation — Mikhail Glinka composed the music for the State Hymn of the Russian Federation. The modern Russian anthem reuses Glinka’s earlier Soviet-era melody with new lyrics.
  • Mily Balakirev (1837–1910) — Russian; founder and leader of “The Five” (Moguchaya Kuchka); Islamey (1869; oriental fantasy for piano, notoriously difficult); Symphony No. 1 in C major; taught Borodin and others. He also wrote the symphonic poem Tamara and incidental music for King Lear. Other works include the Overture on Russian Themes.

    • Islamey — Islamey is Mily Balakirev’s famously difficult piano fantasy, built from Caucasian and Crimean Tatar material. Its virtuoso writing and oriental color made it a showpiece later arranged by composers such as Alfredo Casella.

    • Islamey: An Oriental Fantasy — Islamey: An Oriental Fantasy is Mily Balakirev’s notoriously difficult piano piece, famous for its brilliant ossias and virtuosic finale. Its themes draw on Caucasian and Tatar dance materials, and the work became a benchmark of extreme technical difficulty for later pianists and arrangers.

    • Tamara — Tamara is the Georgian princess who appears in Mikhail Lermontov’s poetry and in Mily Balakirev’s tone poem of the same name. In the tone poem, the title figure is linked to the Terek River and to an oriental melody that evokes the dangerous seductress of Lermontov’s poem.

  • Alexander Borodin (1833–1887) — Russian; one of “The Five”; chemist by profession; Prince Igor (opera, completed posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov; Polovtsian Dances); In the Steppes of Central Asia; Symphony No. 2 in B minor. He also wrote two string quartets, and the slow movement of the D-major quartet is often excerpted as the Notturno, later adapted into Kismet’s “And This Is My Beloved.” Some of his symphonies and chamber works remained unfinished, including his Third Symphony.

    • In the Steppes of Central Asia — In the Steppes of Central Asia is Alexander Borodin’s symphonic poem about a Russian theme, an Eastern theme, and the slow movement of a caravan across the title landscape. The piece was written for Alexander II’s silver jubilee and is remembered for its English horn solo and delicate orchestration.

    • Prince Igor
      • Polovtsian Dances — The Polovtsian Dances are the famous orchestral excerpt from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor. They are often performed independently and include the melody later adapted into the song “Stranger in Paradise.”

    • Second Symphony — Borodin’s Second Symphony in B minor is his best-known symphony and incorporates material also used in Prince Igor. He later revised it to soften the military-band style writing heard in the first version.

    • Symphony No. 2 in B minor — Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 in B minor opens with material adapted from an abandoned chorus from Prince Igor. Its opening alternates held B-naturals with unison eighth-note figures in the strings.
  • Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915) — Russian; early piano works in Chopin’s vein, later developed idiosyncratic “mystic chord” harmonic language; Prometheus: The Poem of Fire; ten piano sonatas. He was born in Moscow and studied under Taneev and Arensky. Other works include The Divine Poem, The Poem of Ecstasy, and the unfinished Mysterium, an apocalyptic work conceived as a world-ending ritual for performance in the Himalayas. His music was often linked to synesthesia and, in Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, to a color organ; he also wrote piano sonatas such as the White Mass and Black Mass. Other familiar clues include the D-sharp minor étude and the luce part in Prometheus.

    • Aleksandr Nikolayevich Scriabin — Aleksandr Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer known for harmonic experiments, mysticism, and synesthetic ideas about linking music to color. His works include The Divine Poem, Prometheus: A Poem of Fire, Satanic Poem, and the unfinished Mysterium.

    • Alexander Scriabin (“skree-AH-bin”) — Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer whose mystical late style is associated with the mystic chord, synesthesia, and works such as The Poem of Ecstasy and Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. He also wrote the apocalyptic piano sonatas often nicknamed the White Mass and Black Mass.

    • Mysterium — Mysterium is the Latin word for mystery, and it titles Alexander Scriabin’s unfinished apocalyptic project, intended as a seven-day sensory ritual in the Himalayas. The word also appears in sacred music such as Palestrina’s motet O magnum mysterium and in John Zorn’s compositions.

    • Prometheus: The Poem of Fire — Prometheus: The Poem of Fire is Alexander Scriabin’s one-movement orchestral work built around the mystic chord and tied to his synesthetic color ideas. It is often discussed alongside his tastiera per luce, or color organ, and his unrealized ambitions for combining music with light.

  • Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) — Russian; late Romantic; Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor and No. 3 in D minor; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini; Symphony No. 2 in E minor; Vespers (All-Night Vigil, Op. 37). Also transliterated as Rachmaninov or Rakhmaninov; his full name appears as Sergei Vassilyevich/Vassilievich Rachmaninoff. Other works include The Bells, Isle of the Dead, the C-sharp minor Prelude, Variations on a Theme of Corelli, and Symphonic Dances. The failure of his First Symphony preceded a period of depression.

    • All-Night Vigil — All-Night Vigil is Sergei Rachmaninoff’s choral setting of Russian Orthodox vespers, famous for its low bass writing and chant-inspired textures. Its fifth-movement Nunc Dimittis and the closing material make it one of his best-known sacred works.

    • Isle of the Dead — Isle of the Dead is best known as Rachmaninoff’s symphonic poem inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s painting of the same name. Its rolling 5/8 pulse is often described as evoking the oarsman carrying souls to the title island.

    • Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 — Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 is Rachmaninoff’s symphonic poem inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s painting of the same name. Its rowing rhythm and repeated Dies Irae theme evoke Charon’s approach to the island of the dead.

    • Orchestral works
      • Symphonic Dances — Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances is his final completed orchestral work and a three-movement suite that includes a prominent alto saxophone solo. Its finale quotes the Dies Irae and the work is often noted for its waltz-like middle movement.

    • Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor — Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor is famous for its formidable first movement cadenza and its triumph at the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition.

    • Prelude in C-sharp Minor — Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp Minor is the famous piano piece from the Morceaux de fantaisie set. It begins with a stark opening of fortissimo chords and became nicknamed the “Bells of Moscow.”

    • Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini — Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is a set of 24 variations for piano and orchestra based on Paganini’s 24th caprice. Its most famous variation is the eighteenth, where the theme is inverted into a lush melody, and the work also incorporates the Dies Irae motif and a dazzling left-hand pizzicato variation. It is sometimes treated as a piano concerto in disguise.

    • Sergei Vasilevich Rachmaninoff — Sergei Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer and pianist known for lush late-Romantic works. His major pieces include The Bells, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and the All-Night Vigil, also called Vespers.

    • Symphony No. 2 in E minor — Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E minor is his most popular symphony and a return to the genre after the failure of his First Symphony. Its expansive first movement opens with a motto theme, and the slow movement prominently cites the Dies irae.

    • Études-tableaux — Études-tableaux are piano pieces that combine the virtuoso study with a pictorial or tableau-like character. Rachmaninoff’s two major sets in this genre are his Op. 33 and Op. 39.

    • Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff) (C minor, Op. 18, 1901) — composed after the failure of his First Symphony caused a nervous breakdown; psychotherapy with Nikolai Dahl helped him regain confidence; dedicated to Dahl; opening movement begins with solo piano chords building from silence.

    • Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff) (D minor, Op. 30, 1909) — arguably the most technically demanding standard concerto; composed for Rachmaninoff’s American tour; later famously depicted in the film Shine (1996).
  • Russian composers’ groups
    • Belyayev circle — The Belyayev circle was a Russian composers’ group centered on the publisher Mitrofan Belyayev and known for its ‘Quartet Fridays.’ Unlike The Five, it favored a more Westernized style and included figures such as Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov.

  • The Five — A circle of nineteenth-century Russian nationalist composers centered on Mily Balakirev and associated with Vladimir Stasov. Its members were César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Balakirev, and it sought a distinctly Russian art music free from academic cosmopolitanism and Western European models. The group is associated with works such as Boris Godunov and In the Steppes of Central Asia.

  • Vasily (Sergeyevich) Kalinnikov — Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov was a Russian composer best known for his Symphony No. 1 in G minor. His music was admired by Tchaikovsky, and it often features folk-song style writing and late-Romantic orchestral color.

  • Nikolai Karlovich Medtner — Nikolai Karlovich Medtner was a Russian composer and pianist admired for his piano sonatas, Forgotten Melodies, and Skazki or Fairy Tales. His works include the Night Wind sonata, and he was closely associated with the late-Romantic Russian piano tradition. His Second Piano Concerto is in C minor; he was a close friend of Rachmaninoff.

  • Reinhold Glière — Reinhold Glière was a Russian composer known for large Romantic works such as Symphony No. 3 “Ilya Muromets” and the ballet The Red Poppy. He also wrote concertos for harp, horn, coloratura soprano, and cello, and taught Prokofiev and Myaskovsky in Kiev.

  • Cesar Cui — Cesar Cui was a member of the Russian nationalist group The Five, or the Mighty Handful. He wrote operas such as Puss in Boots, The Prisoner of the Caucasus, and William Ratcliff, while also having a side career in chemistry.

    • Cesar Antonovich Cui — Cesar Cui was a Russian composer and critic associated with the Mighty Five, known for operas such as The Prisoner of the Caucasus and William Ratcliff. He also wrote children’s pieces and fairy-tale operas including Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, Ivan the Fool, and The Snow-Bogatyr.

    • César Cui (“KYOO-ee”) — César Cui was a Russian composer, military engineer, and influential music critic associated with the Mighty Handful. He wrote the opera Mademoiselle Fifi and was known for sharp criticism of other composers, including Rachmaninoff.

• British and Northern European Traditions
  • Gustav Holst (1874–1934) — English; The Planets (Op. 32, 1916; seven-movement orchestral suite, each movement named for a planet’s astrological character); St. Paul’s Suite; The Hymn of Jesus. He is also known as Gustav Theodore von Holst. Other works include Hymns from the Rig Veda, the hymn tune “Thaxted,” Hammersmith, The Perfect Fool, A Moorside Suite, and two military-band suites; his music also includes settings drawn from Indian texts such as the Rig Veda and Kalidasa. Other works include The Wandering Scholar, Sāvitri, and Egdon Heath.

    • St. Paul’s Suite — St. Paul’s Suite is a four-movement work for strings by Gustav Holst, written for St. Paul’s Girls’ School. Its opening movement is a jig that alternates 6/8 and 9/8, and its finale combines the Dargason with Greensleeves.

    • The Planets — Gustav Holst’s seven-movement orchestral suite of astrological portraits, including “Mars, the Bringer of War,” “Jupiter,” and “Neptune, the Mystic.” It is known for its asymmetrical 5/4 opening in “Mars,” the offstage women’s chorus that fades away in the final movement, and its link to the hymn tune “Thaxted.” The ending chorus was not included at the 1918 premiere.

      • Gustav Holst and the Planets — Gustav Holst is the British composer best known for The Planets, the orchestral suite written during the First World War. Its movements include ‘The Mystic,’ ‘The Bringer of Jollity,’ and ‘The Bringer of War,’ and the work made Holst a rare one-hit wonder.

      • Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity — “Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity” is the fourth movement of Holst’s suite The Planets. It is one of the suite’s best-known movements and later inspired the hymn tune used for “I Vow to Thee, My Country.”

      • Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity — “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity” is the fourth movement of Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Its main melody was later adapted into the hymn tune “Thaxted,” which underlies “I Vow to Thee, My Country.”

      • Mars, Bringer of War — Mars, the opening movement of Holst’s The Planets, is cast in 5/4 time and drives forward with a menacing ostinato. It is identified as the Bringer of War and is often singled out by its brutal brass fanfare and col legno string writing.

      • Mercury, the Winged Messenger — “Mercury, the Winged Messenger” is the scherzo-like third movement of Holst’s The Planets. It is the suite’s shortest movement and is marked by quick rhythmic interplay and shifting meters.

      • Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age — “Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age” is a movement from Holst’s The Planets. Its ominous climax uses clanging bells and a driving ostinato to suggest the anxiety of aging.

      • Thaxted — Thaxted is the hymn tune adapted from the “Jupiter” movement in Holst’s The Planets. It is best known for setting Cecil Spring Rice’s patriotic poem “I Vow to Thee, My Country.”

      • The Planets Suite — Gustav Holst’s The Planets is an orchestral suite of seven movements inspired by astrology, with titles such as “Mars, the Bringer of War” and “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.” Its best-known later movement is “Neptune, the Mystic,” which uses an offstage women’s chorus for a fading close and was later expanded with an extra movement by Colin Matthews.

      • “Mars, the Bringer of War” — “Mars, the Bringer of War” is the opening movement of Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Its relentless 5/4 rhythm and col legno string figure make it one of Holst’s most famous orchestral passages.

    • The Planets, Op. 32 — The Planets, Op. 32 is Gustav Holst’s seven-movement orchestral suite, with movements such as Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune. Its Jupiter melody was adapted into “I Vow to Thee, My Country,” and Neptune ends with an off-stage women’s chorus fading into silence.
      • The Planets, Opus 32 — The Planets, Op. 32 is Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite whose movements portray Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune, among others. The work is especially recognized for the aggressive 5/4 “Bringer of War” and the serene, wordless ending of “Neptune, the Mystic.”

    • The Planets (Holst) (Op. 32, 1914–16) — seven-movement suite; movements named for astrological characters of the planets (Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune); Earth and Pluto absent (Pluto not yet discovered, Earth not an astrological planet); Neptune movement ends with a wordless women’s chorus fading to silence; first complete public performance 1920.

    • St. Paul’s Suite (Holst) (1913) — for string orchestra; written for the girls of St. Paul’s Girls’ School where Holst taught; finale combines the folk tune “Dargason” with “Greensleeves.”
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) — English; drew on English folk song and Tudor polyphony; Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910), The Lark Ascending (1914; violin and orchestra), Symphony No. 2 “A London Symphony,” Symphony No. 5 in D major; nine symphonies total. Other works include Fantasia on Greensleeves, A Sea Symphony, the English Folk Song Suite, the Norfolk Rhapsodies, Toccata marziale, Flourish for Wind Band, Sinfonia antartica, and the Tuba Concerto.

    • A London Symphony — A London Symphony is Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 2, a work that evokes the city through musical allusions such as Westminster chimes and London street tunes. Its later version is famous for a large cut from the original score and for an epilogue inspired by H. G. Wells’s Tono-Bungay.

    • A Sea Symphony — Ralph Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony is a choral symphony based on Walt Whitman poems from Leaves of Grass. Its movements include a opening brass fanfare on “Behold,” a setting of “On the Beach at Night, Alone,” and “The Explorers,” which features baritone and chorus.

    • Dona nobis pacem — Dona nobis pacem is the Latin phrase meaning “grant us peace,” familiar from the Agnus Dei and from Bach and Vaughan Williams settings. It titles Vaughan Williams’s 1936 cantata, which sets Whitman poems and a speech by John Bright.

    • English Folk Song Suite — Vaughan Williams’s English Folk Song Suite is a wind band work built from traditional melodies such as “Seventeen Come Sunday” and “My Bonny Boy.” Its second-movement Intermezzo opens with an oboe solo in F Dorian.

    • Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
      • Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis — A 1910 orchestral work by Ralph Vaughan Williams based on the hymn tune “Why Fumeth in Fight” from The English Hymnal. Written for string quartet and two antiphonal string orchestras, it is a single-span, rhapsodic piece that evokes Renaissance polyphony and uses divided strings to create a spacious, organ-like sonority.

    • Fantasia on Greensleeves — Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Greensleeves is an orchestral setting based on the English folk song “Greensleeves” and related material from Sir John in Love. Its texture features strings and flute, and it also quotes the folk song “Lovely Joan.”

    • Festival Te Deum — The Festival Te Deum is a celebratory setting of the traditional Latin hymn of praise and thanksgiving. Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote a festival version that uses an English text rather than Latin.

    • Job: A Masque for Dancing — Job: A Masque for Dancing is a Ralph Vaughan Williams work inspired by William Blake’s illustrations of the Book of Job. Its scenes include Satan’s Dance of Triumph and other character dances built around the Old Testament story.

    • Ralph (“rafe”) Vaughan Williams — Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer known for The Lark Ascending, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, A Sea Symphony, and his symphonies and pastoral scores. Quizbowl questions often reference his Whitman settings, his use of folk tunes, and the Englishly pastoral character of works like the Fifth and Third Symphonies.

    • Sinfonia Antartica — Sinfonia Antartica is Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Seventh Symphony, adapted from music for a film about Robert Falcon Scott’s South Pole expedition. Its eerie orchestration includes wordless women’s chorus, wind machine, organ, and spoken literary quotations between movements.

    • symphonies
      • symphonies of Ralph Vaughan Williams — Ralph Vaughan Williams’s symphonies form a cycle of nine works that includes the London, Sea, Pastoral, and Antarctic-associated symphonies. The set ranges from expansive choral writing to stark orchestral landscapes and often draws on English literary and national imagery.
    • The Lark Ascending — The 1914 work for violin and orchestra by Ralph Vaughan Williams, inspired by a George Meredith poem, depicts a lark in flight with a flowing, rhapsodic solo violin line and an almost pastoral atmosphere. The solo writing uses pentatonic figures, cadenzas, and flowing arpeggios to suggest the bird’s flight and song, and the piece is among Vaughan Williams’s best-known works, associated with English lyricism and gentle radiance.
  • William Walton (1902–1983) — English; Façade (entertainment for reciter and chamber ensemble, with Edith Sitwell’s poetry, 1922); Violin Concerto (1939); Belshazzar’s Feast (cantata, 1931); Symphony No. 1 in B-flat minor; film scores for Olivier’s Shakespeare films. He was knighted and also wrote Crown Imperial, the Viola Concerto, the Cello Concerto, and stage music for The Bear and Troilus and Cressida.

    • Façade — Façade is a recitation-and-music piece associated with William Walton, whose output also includes Belshazzar’s Feast and a viola concerto. Walton also wrote film music and maintained a long artistic relationship with Edith Sitwell’s verse recitations.

    • Portsmouth Point — Portsmouth Point is a Walton overture named for a bustling Portsmouth waterfront associated with sailors, trade, and prostitution. Walton based the work on a Thomas Rowlandson print and dedicated it to Siegfried Sassoon.

    • William Turner Walton — William Walton was a twentieth-century English composer known for Façade, Belshazzar’s Feast, and the coronation marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre. He also wrote the violin concerto, the First Symphony, and the operas The Bear and Troilus and Cressida.

    • Belshazzar’s Feast — Belshazzar’s Feast names both William Walton’s oratorio and an earlier Sibelius incidental score, alluding to the biblical banquet where the writing on the wall appears. The Walton piece is famous for its Psalm and Daniel text, huge brass forces, and the climactic cry of “Slain!”

  • Percy Grainger (1882–1961) — Australian; Country Gardens; collected and arranged folk songs. Full name Percy Aldridge Grainger; also issued as George Percy Aldridge Grainger. Other notable pieces include Lincolnshire Posy, Molly on the Shore, Shepherd’s Hey, Irish Tune from County Derry, and the choral arrangement that later inspired Delius’s orchestral setting of Brigg Fair. He was also associated with “free music,” elastic scoring, unusual notation, and mechanical devices designed to produce gliding tones.
    • Lincolnshire Posy — Lincolnshire Posy is Percy Grainger’s concert-band suite of folk-song arrangements drawn from the English county of Lincolnshire. Its movements include “Horkstow Grange” and “Rufford Park Poachers,” and the piece is one of Grainger’s best-known works for wind band.

  • Hugo Alfvén — Hugo Alfvén was a Swedish composer best known for the First Swedish Rhapsody, also called Midsummer Vigil. He also wrote symphonies and works such as The Prodigal Son and the Gustavus Adolphus II suite.

  • Gerald Finzi — Gerald Finzi was an English composer known for choral works such as For St. Cecilia and Dies Natalis, as well as the Clarinet Concerto in C minor. He also set Thomas Hardy poems in song cycles like Earth and Air and Rain and By Footpath and Stile.
• Central and Eastern European Traditions
  • Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) — Czech (Moravian); late-blooming; developed “speech-melody” notation; operas Jenůfa (1904), The Cunning Little Vixen, Katya Kabanova, The Makropulos Case, From the House of the Dead; Glagolitic Mass; Sinfonietta. He is also associated with Moravian folk music, speech-inflected writing, and the speech-melody sketches called nápěvky mluvy. Other works include Taras Bulba, The Adventures of Mr. Brouček, and the Intimate Letters string quartet inspired by Kamila Stösslová.

    • Glagolitic Mass — Janáček’s sacred choral and orchestral work set in Old Church Slavonic. Its title refers to the Glagolitic script; it is especially known for its repeated motives, striking organ writing, and movements such as Svet and Veruju.

    • Leos (Eugen) Janacek — Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer whose works include the Glagolitic Mass, the Sinfonietta, and the String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters.” His music often draws on Moravian folk idioms, brass-band color, and sharp speech-like rhythms.

    • Leoš Janáček (“yah-NAH-check”) — Leoš Janáček was a Czech nationalist composer who drew on Moravian folk melodies in operas such as Jenůfa. He is also known for the Glagolitic Mass and the brass-bright orchestral fanfares of the Sinfonietta.

    • Sinfonietta — Leoš Janáček’s Sinfonietta is a five-movement orchestral work whose opening brass fanfare and civic movement titles evoke Brno and the Sokol festival. Despite its title, the piece is a large-scale patriotic composition dedicated to the Czechoslovak Armed Forces.

  • George Enescu (1881–1955) — Romanian; Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 in A major (Op. 11 No. 1, 1901–1902); opera Oedipe (1936); also a celebrated violin teacher (taught Yehudi Menuhin). Other works include the Dixtuor and Légende.

  • Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941) — Polish; world-famous pianist and statesman; Piano Concerto in A minor (Op. 17); Minuet in G (Op. 14 No. 1); served as Prime Minister of Poland in 1919. He also wrote the opera Manru and the choral song “Hey, White Eagle.” His B minor symphony is sometimes nicknamed Polonia, and he spent years touring the United States with the support of Steinway. He also helped popularize John Field’s piano nocturnes. He also worked for Polish independence during World War I.

    • Ignace J. Paderewski — Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a pianist who later became a Polish statesman and led Poland after World War I. He is also remembered for his dedication to practice and for a long concert career that included a Steinway tour.

    • Ignace Jan Paderewski — Ignacy Jan Paderewski was the celebrated Polish pianist and composer whose fame rivaled Liszt’s and who wrote the Minuet in G and the opera Manru. He later became a statesman, serving as a Polish leader and premier during the upheavals after World War I. Quiz clues often mention his Beethoven reverence, his work at the Warsaw Conservatory, and his role at the Paris Peace Conference.

  • Béla Bartók (1881–1945) — Hungarian; synthesized folk music with twentieth-century techniques; Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Concerto for Orchestra; Bluebeard’s Castle (opera); six string quartets; Mikrokosmos (piano pedagogy); Piano Concerto No. 2; Violin Concerto No. 2. He was also an ethnomusicologist who, with Zoltán Kodály, collected folk music from Hungary and neighboring regions and incorporated it into concert works. His music is associated with night music, cluster chords, and Bartók pizzicato, and other major works include The Miraculous Mandarin, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, For Children, and Out of Doors.

    • Bela Viktor Janos Bartok — Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist famous for collecting folk music and for works such as Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Concerto for Orchestra. His other well-known pieces include The Miraculous Mandarin, Cantata Profana, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, and the unfinished third piano concerto and viola concerto completed by Tibor Serly.

    • Cantata Profana — Cantata Profana is Bartók’s large-scale choral work based on a Romanian folk tale about nine sons transformed into stags after crossing a haunted bridge. The father later tries to shoot the stags with his bow, only to be ashamed when he realizes they were his sons. Its text draws on Romanian Christmas carols and folk songs, and the opening scales are noted for using the Fibonacci series.

    • Concerto for Orchestra — Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123, is a 1943 five-movement orchestral work that gives concerto-like prominence to different sections of the orchestra rather than a single soloist. Its best-known movements include the “Game of Pairs” and the “Intermezzo interrotto,” which parodies a Shostakovich march tune from the Leningrad Symphony. Bartók wrote it while ill and impoverished in the United States, and it is often regarded as his last completed major work.
      • Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123 — Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is a five-movement orchestral work famous for its “Game of Pairs,” “Elegia,” and “Intermezzo interrotto.” It is one of Bartók’s late masterpieces and often appears in clues about his “Night music” style.

    • Kossuth — Kossuth is a symphonic poem by Béla Bartók that honors Lajos Kossuth, the Hungarian revolutionary leader. Its program includes a parody of the Austrian national anthem and a set of opening unison melodies.

    • Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta — Béla Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is a four-movement orchestral work scored for divided strings, percussion, and celesta. Its first movement is a fugue on A, and its third movement includes night-music effects, timpani glissandos, and the Fibonacci-based xylophone passage heard in The Shining.

    • The Miraculous Mandarin — The Miraculous Mandarin is Béla Bartók’s one-act ballet about a seductive girl, robbers, and a mysterious Chinese man who cannot be killed easily. Its score opens with a vivid urban scene and was initially banned for moral reasons after its Cologne premiere.

    • Concerto for Orchestra (Bartók) (1943) — five movements; unusual form where each orchestral section is featured concerto-style; commissioned by Koussevitzky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra; composed while Bartók was ill and impoverished in the United States; second movement “Game of Pairs” presents five pairs of wind instruments.

    • Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (Bartók) (1936) — four movements commissioned by Paul Sacher for the Basel Chamber Orchestra; first movement fugue on a chromatic subject; used in Kubrick’s The Shining.
  • Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) — Hungarian; Háry János suite; Dances of Galánta; developed the Kodály method of music education. He was also a Hungarian folk-music collector, ethnomusicologist, and music educator. Other notable works include Peacock Variations, Psalmus Hungaricus, and a B minor cello sonata; his cello writing used scordatura and later influenced György Ligeti. The Kodály method emphasizes solfege, hand signs, and broad musical literacy.
    • Hary Janos Suite — Kodály’s Háry János Suite is an orchestral suite derived from his comic opera about a boastful old soldier. Its movements include a famous opening sneeze, a cimbalom solo in the “Song,” and a section called “Viennese Musical Clock.”
  • Karol Szymanowski — Karol Szymanowski was a Polish modernist composer associated with the Tatra mountains, the Góral highlanders, and the Young Poland movement. His music ranges from early Scriabinesque piano writing to later impressionistic and nationalist styles. His works include the opera King Roger, Harnasie, the violin work Mythes, the choral Stabat Mater, the Love Songs of Hafiz, and the third symphony nicknamed Song of the Night.
• Iberian and Latin American Traditions
  • Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) — Spanish; pianist-composer; Iberia (1906–1909; twelve piano pieces evoking Andalusian landscapes and dances); Suite española; helped define a distinctly Spanish nationalist style. Also known for guitar-transcribed pieces such as Asturias, and for works including the opera Merlin, Concierto fantástico, and the stage work Pepita Jiménez. His music was widely transcribed for guitar, and he studied with Felipe Pedrell and Franz Liszt.
    • Albéniz — Albéniz is the surname of several Spanish composers, most famously Isaac Albéniz, whose piano works include Iberia and España. The name also appears on earlier keyboard composers such as Mateo Albéniz, linking the surname to Spanish instrumental music across different periods.
  • Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) — Brazilian; most prolific and influential Latin American composer; Bachianas Brasileiras (nine suites blending Bach counterpoint with Brazilian folk idioms, 1930–1945); Choros series; Guitar Concerto. He also wrote works such as Uirapuru, Rudepoêma, and The Little Train of the Caipira, plus film and orchestral music including the score for The Green Mansions.

    • Bachianas Brasileiras — A cycle of nine works by Heitor Villa-Lobos that blends Brazilian folk materials and contrapuntal writing associated with Bach as a tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach. Its best-known installment is the fifth suite, scored for soprano and eight cellos, and the second suite includes the movement “The Little Train of the Caipira.”

    • Chôros — Chôros is Heitor Villa-Lobos’s set of works inspired by Brazilian street music and urban popular song. The cycle includes pieces such as the woodpecker-titled third work and the seventh work for septet.

  • Carlos Chávez (1899–1978) — Mexican; conductor and composer; founded the Orquesta Sinfónica de México; Sinfonía India (1936; uses pre-Columbian melodic material); Toccata for Percussion. He was a twentieth-century Mexican composer associated with nationalist and indigenous themes. His works include the Sinfonía india, the Second Symphony, ballets such as The Four Suns and The New Fire, and the Sinfonia de Antigona and Horsepower Suite. He also wrote six symphonies with strikingly different structures and developed a compositional theory built around recurring motifs.
    • Sinfonía india — Sinfonía india is a symphony by Carlos Chávez built from indigenous melodies of northern Mexico. Its colorful percussion and dance rhythms make it one of Chávez’s best-known orchestral works.
  • Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) — Spanish; nationalist; ballet El amor brujo (including “Ritual Fire Dance”); Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Other works include The Three-Cornered Hat, the harpsichord concerto written for Wanda Landowska, and Master Peter’s Puppet Show.

    • Nights in the Gardens of Spain — Manuel de Falla’s impressionistic work for piano and orchestra, subtitled a set of symphonic impressions. Its movements evoke the Generalife, a distant dance, and the Corpus Christi festival in Sierra Córdoba.

    • Ritual Fire Dance — “Ritual Fire Dance” is a famous movement from Manuel de Falla’s El amor brujo. Its driving trills and flamenco-inflected energy accompany Candela’s attempt to banish her dead husband’s ghost.

    • Seven Spanish Folksongs — Manuel de Falla’s Seven Spanish Folksongs is a set of short Spanish songs drawn from regional traditions such as Murcia, Aragon, and Asturias. It is often identified by its movements like “Jota,” “Nana,” and “Polo,” and later inspired arrangements for guitar, violin, and cello.

    • The Three-Cornered Hat — Manuel de Falla’s 1919 ballet based on Pedro de Alarcón’s story about a miller, his wife, and the Corregidor/magistrate. Its score was expanded from an earlier work, and major productions involved Picasso. The ballet includes dances such as the fandango and the “Neighbors” section, and is noted for a famous orchestral opening and for drawing on Spanish folk idioms.

  • Joaquín Turina — Joaquín Turina was a Spanish composer who combined nationalist color with late-Romantic harmony and French-influenced forms. He wrote the Danzas gitanas, Fandanguillo, and Homenaje a Tárrega, and his Op. 1 piano quintet opens with a slow fugue. Other works include Danzas fantásticas and La procesión del rocío; his piano quintet also reflects Franck’s influence.

  • Enrique Granados Campiña — Spanish composer and pianist best known for Goyescas and the 12 Spanish Dances (Danzas españolas). He drowned in 1916 after the liner Sussex was torpedoed while returning from the United States, reportedly while trying to save his wife.

    • Goyescas — Goyescas is Enrique Granados’s piano suite subtitled The Gallants in Love, built from scenes inspired by Goya. Its best-known movements include “The Maiden and the Nightingale,” “Love and Death,” and “El pelele,” and the suite became the basis for an opera.

    • Granados, Enrique (1867–1916) — Spanish; Goyescas (piano suite, 1911; inspired by Goya’s paintings; later adapted into an opera of the same name); Danzas españolas; Granados died after the passenger ship Sussex was torpedoed in the English Channel on 24 March 1916, during his return from the American premiere of Goyescas.¹⁷

  • Ernesto Lecuona — Ernesto Lecuona was a Cuban pianist and composer who wrote the piano suite Andalucía and the zarzuela María la O. He is especially famous for the song “Malagueña” and for works that blend European classical styles with Cuban folk and African rhythms.

  • Ernesto Lecuona y Casado — Ernesto Lecuona was a Cuban composer and pianist whose works include ‘Malagueña’ and ‘Siboney’. He also wrote zarzuela and popular piano music that blended Spanish folk influence with African rhythms.

  • Felipe Pedrell — Felipe Pedrell was a Spanish composer and musicologist who collected folk songs and promoted a national Spanish style. He taught both Albéniz and de Falla and composed the opera Los Pirineos.

  • Joaquín Rodrigo — Spanish composer best known for Concierto de Aranjuez, one of the most famous guitar concertos ever written. His output also includes Concierto Serenata and the flute concerto Concierto pastoral, along with works for harp, violin, piano, and voice; his music is often noted for bright Spanish colors and elegant orchestration.
    • Concierto de Aranjuez — Concierto de Aranjuez is Joaquín Rodrigo’s famous guitar concerto, dedicated to Regino Sáinz de la Maza. Its Adagio is especially famous and the work is closely associated with Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain.
      • Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre — Joaquín Rodrigo was a Spanish composer whose Concierto de Aranjuez became especially famous through Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain. Though blind and not a guitarist himself, he wrote one of the standard concertos in the guitar repertoire.
    • Guitar concertos
      • Fantasía para un gentilhombre — Joaquín Rodrigo’s Fantasía para un gentilhombre is a guitar concerto written for Andrés Segovia. Its movements draw on Gaspar Sanz and include titles such as ‘Canario’ and the ‘Dance of the Axes.’
  • Alberto Ginastera — Argentine composer known for the ballet Estancia, the operas Don Rodrigo and Bomarzo, the orchestral Variaciones concertantes, the Pampeanas, Danzas Argentinas, and 12 American Preludes. His music ranges from nationalist works based on Argentine folk idioms to later, more experimental compositions, including the unfinished symphonic poem Popol Vuh. His style is often divided into phases such as objective nationalism and subjective nationalism, and he is regarded as a major 20th-century Latin American composer.
• Charles Ives (1874–1954) — American; pioneered polytonality, polyrhythm, and quotation; Symphony No. 4; Three Places in New England; Concord Sonata for piano. American modernist who also wrote The Unanswered Question and densely allusive pieces that invoke hymns, marches, and folk tunes.

  • Central Park in the Dark — Charles Ives’s “Central Park in the Dark” is a programmatic orchestral piece with a street band, ragtime pianos, and quotations of tunes like “The Washington Post” march. It is one of his “Two Contemplations” and was paired with “The Unanswered Question” in early presentations.

  • Concord Sonata — Charles Ives’s transcendentalist piano sonata is inspired by Concord, Massachusetts and its writers. It is organized into four sections named for Emerson, Hawthorne, The Alcotts, and Thoreau, uses dense tone clusters, and includes an optional flute to evoke Concord’s literary world and Thoreau’s wish to hear flute music over Walden Pond. It also features allusions to Beethoven, Debussy, and American tunes, and is described as quoting Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in every movement.

  • symphonies
    • symphonies of Charles Ives — Charles Ives’s symphonies include works such as The Camp Meeting, New England Holidays, and the Pulitzer-winning Third Symphony. They are notorious for dense textures, multiple musical layers, and experimental scoring that can require multiple conductors or unusual instruments.

  • The Unanswered Question — The Unanswered Question is Charles Ives’s short orchestral work built around a repeated trumpet call and increasingly agitated woodwind responses. Its title also names Leonard Bernstein’s Norton Lectures, and the piece is often paired with Central Park in the Dark.

  • Three Places in New England — Charles Ives’s Three Places in New England is the orchestral set whose movements include “Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut,” “The Housatonic at Stockbridge,” and “The Saint-Gaudens in Boston Common.” It weaves patriotic tunes, hymns, and march fragments into musical scenes of New England landscapes and Revolutionary memories.
    • Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut — “Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut” is the middle movement of Charles Ives’s Three Places in New England. It evokes the sound of competing marching bands playing different tunes at once.

  • Universe Symphony — Universe Symphony is Charles Ives’s unfinished symphony, planned in movements such as “Past,” “Present,” and “Future.” It is famous for its spatial conception, with multiple orchestras imagined on different mountaintops around a valley.

  • New England Holidays — New England Holidays is a 1909 symphony made of five movements named for American holidays and commemorations. Its movements are Washington’s Birthday, Decoration Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Forefather’s Day.
• Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936) — Italian; orchestral tone poems Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, Roman Festivals. He studied in St. Petersburg under Rimsky-Korsakov, later wrote the opera The Sunken Bell, and composed other orchestral works such as Ancient Airs and Dances and the Botticelli Triptych. His music is noted for vivid orchestral color and occasional unusual effects, including a recorded nightingale in Pines of Rome.

  • Ancient Airs and Dances — Ancient Airs and Dances is a three-suite orchestral collection by Ottorino Respighi based on Renaissance lute, viol, and guitar music. The work is known for its old Italian melodies and for movements arranged from earlier composers such as Simone Molinaro and Vincenzo Galilei.

  • Brazilian Impressions — Brazilian Impressions is a work by Respighi set in Brazil and organized into scenes such as Tropical Night, Song and Dance, and Butantan. It evokes a snake garden near São Paulo in the titular country.

  • Pines of Rome — Ottorino Respighi’s symphonic poem The Pines of Rome (I Pini di Roma) is part of his Roman trilogy, alongside Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals. It portrays pine trees in different Roman settings: the Villa Borghese, the Catacombs, the Janiculum, and the Appian Way. The Janiculum movement features a nightingale and a clarinet solo, while the finale depicts a marching army with huge brass forces, offstage buccine, a large organ pedal, and other vivid orchestral effects. The work is also often used in film and television scoring.
    • Pines of Rome or Pini di Roma — Pines of Rome is Ottorino Respighi’s symphonic poem about the trees of the Italian capital. Its movements depict places such as the Villa Borghese, the catacombs, the Janiculum, and the Appian Way, and the third movement famously ends with a recorded nightingale.
  • Roman trilogy
    • Roman Festivals — Respighi’s Roman Festivals is the last work in his Roman trilogy, following the more famous Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome. Its movements depict scenes such as circuses, the harvest of October, and an exuberant festival with brass fanfares and exotic orchestration.

  • The Fountains of Rome — Ottorino Respighi’s symphonic/orchestral tone poem evoking famous Roman fountains and depicting them at different times of day. Its sections include the Fountain of the Triton, the Trevi Fountain, and the Villa Medici fountain; the second movement features the dancing of Naiads and Tritons near the Piazza Barberini.

  • Respighi — Fountains of Rome / Pines of Rome (Fontane di Roma, 1916; Pini di Roma, 1924) — both tone poems depicting Rome at different times of day or in different moods; Pines famously includes a recorded nightingale; together with Roman Festivals they form the “Roman Trilogy.”¹⁸

• Engelbert Humperdinck (1854–1921) — German; Hänsel und Gretel (1893; Wagnerian fairy-tale opera; premiere conducted by Richard Strauss); Königskinder. He was closely associated with Wagner’s operatic tradition and also wrote choral ballads including Die Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar and Das Glück von Edenhall.

• Dresden Amen — The Dresden Amen is a short church-music motif associated with Saxon worship and later quoted in Romantic concert music. Mendelssohn, Wagner, and Bruckner all use it, and clues often mention its six-note shape and its role in the Reformation Symphony and Parsifal.

• Ernest Bloch — Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer best known for works such as Schelomo and the Baal Shem Suite. His music often draws on Jewish themes, and he also wrote the symphonic poem Helvetia and works like America, an Epic Rhapsody. He taught at institutions including the Cleveland Institute of Music and later settled in Oregon.
  • Schelomo — Schelomo is Ernest Bloch’s “Hebraic rhapsody” for cello and orchestra, dedicated to Alexandre Barjansky. It was originally conceived as a vocal setting of Ecclesiastes before Bloch rewrote it as an orchestral work.
• Vincent d’Indy — French composer and teacher associated with César Franck’s circle and the Schola Cantorum. His works include Fervaal, Istar, and Symphony on a French Mountain Air, and he wrote on composition in Cours de Composition. He also promoted older church-music traditions in his writings and taught composers such as Cole Porter, Isaac Albéniz, and Erik Satie.

  • Paul Marie Theodore Vincent d’Indy — Vincent d’Indy was a French composer associated with César Franck, whose works include the opera Fervaal, the Wallenstein Overture, and the Symphony on a French Mountain Air. He also wrote about music and incorporated train sounds into one of his orchestral pieces.

  • Symphony on a French Mountain Air — Vincent d’Indy’s Symphony on a French Mountain Air is a work for piano and orchestra also known as the Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français. It began as a fantasy and uses an English horn melody that recalls a folk tune the composer heard in the French countryside.

• Hungarian patriotic marches
  • Rakoczi March — The Rakoczi March is a Hungarian patriotic tune associated with Janos Bihari and the Prince Rákóczi legend. It appears in later concert music, including Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, and Liszt adapted it as the fifteenth Hungarian Rhapsody.

• Leopold Godowsky — Leopold Godowsky was a Polish-American pianist and composer best known for the extremely difficult 53 Studies on Chopin’s Études. His other piano works include the Java Suite and Trikontameron, and he was nicknamed the Buddha of the Piano.

• Arnold Bax — Arnold Bax was an English composer associated with the symphonic poem Tintagel and with symphonies that sometimes include organ. His music was shaped by Celtic and Irish influences, and he is also known for chamber works such as the Elegiac Trio.

• Ferenc Erkel — Ferenc Erkel composed the Hungarian national anthem, Himnusz, and helped found Hungarian national opera. He is also known for the opera Hunyadi László, which appeared in 1844.

• Ferruccio Busoni — Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer and pianist known for his Bach transcriptions, Fantasia contrappuntistica, and large-scale Piano Concerto. His music bridges late Romantic virtuosity and neoclassical counterpoint, and he also wrote on the need for new approaches to musical aesthetics. Other works include the Turandot Suite and the unfinished opera Doktor Faust; his essays develop the idea of a young classicism.
  • Fantasia Contrappuntistica — Ferruccio Busoni’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica is a large-scale work for solo piano that develops Bach’s contrapuntal material, including a completion of Contrapunctus XIV from The Art of Fugue. It opens with a chorale prelude and was later arranged for two pianos because of its difficulty.

Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Music

Compare twentieth-century and contemporary approaches to composition.

Twentieth Century

Early Twentieth Century

• Lili Boulanger (1893–1918) — French; first woman to win the Prix de Rome (1913); short life (died age 24); D’un matin de printemps and D’un soir triste for orchestra; Faust et Hélène (cantata, Prix de Rome winning work); Psalm 130 (“Du fond de l’abîme”). She was the younger sister of Nadia Boulanger, the influential teacher of Aaron Copland and many others.

• Kurt Weill (1900–1950) — German-American; collaborated with Bertolt Brecht on Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera, 1928; “Mack the Knife”), Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny; later Broadway work including Lady in the Dark and Lost in the Stars; spans the classical/popular divide. He later wrote Broadway works including Lady in the Dark, Street Scene, One Touch of Venus, and Lost in the Stars, and songs such as “September Song” and “Pirate Jenny.”

• Gian Carlo Menotti (1911–2007) — Italian-American; wrote operas in Italian verismo tradition but largely in English; The Medium (1946), The Consul (1950; Pulitzer Prize), Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951; first opera commissioned for US television); founded the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto.

• Boulanger — The Boulanger family produced two famous French composers and teachers, Nadia and Lili. Lili Boulanger won the Prix de Rome, while Nadia became one of the most influential composition teachers of the twentieth century. Nadia is remembered for teaching figures such as Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, and Philip Glass, while Lili is known for works like Faust et Hélène and D’un matin de printemps. Quizbowl clues often highlight Nadia’s memorization of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

• Boulanger family — The Boulanger family produced important French musicians, especially the sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger. Lili wrote works including settings of psalms and Faust et Hélène, while Nadia taught composers such as Virgil Thomson and Aaron Copland.

• Nadia Boulanger — French composition teacher, conductor, and organist. Among her students were Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Philip Glass, Quincy Jones, and Daniel Barenboim. She conducted the premiere of Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks Concerto and was the first woman to lead the BBC Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. She is closely associated with her sister Lili Boulanger, Fontainebleau, and her insistence that composers master Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier; she also famously told Gershwin that she could teach him nothing and declined to teach Xenakis.
  • Boulanger — Boulanger is the surname of the French musical family headed by pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, who taught many American composers at Fontainebleau. The name also appears in twentieth-century composition, violin showpieces, and the conducting career of her relatives and students.
• Sigmund Romberg — Sigmund Romberg was a composer of operettas such as The Student Prince and The New Moon. Songs like “Drink, Drink, Drink,” “Lover Come Back to Me,” and “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” became standards beyond the stage.

Second Viennese School and Serialism

• Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) — Austrian-American; developed the twelve-tone (dodecaphonic) technique; late Romantic early works (Verklärte Nacht, Gurrelieder) gave way to free atonality (Pierrot lunaire) and then serialism (Piano Suite Op. 25, Variations for Orchestra); opera Moses und Aron. He was also associated with expressionism and Sprechstimme, and later works such as A Survivor from Warsaw reflect Jewish themes and the Holocaust. He was a notable theorist, including Theory of Harmony, and his Chamber Symphony is another cited work. His Second String Quartet adds a soprano in its later movements.

  • A Survivor from Warsaw — Arnold Schoenberg’s short cantata about a Jewish man rounded up by Nazi soldiers during the wartime Warsaw ghetto roundups. It is narrated in English and German and ends with a male chorus singing the Shema Yisrael in Hebrew.

  • Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg — Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg was the composer who helped develop atonality and twelve-tone serialism. His major works include Pierrot Lunaire, Gurrelieder, Transfigured Night, and Moses und Aron, and he is strongly associated with Sprechstimme.

  • Arnold Schoenburg — Arnold Schoenburg is a misspelled reference to Arnold Schoenberg, the Second Viennese School composer who developed the twelve-tone method. He is strongly associated with early atonal works and the move away from traditional tonality.

  • Gurre-Lieder — Gurre-Lieder is Arnold Schoenberg’s large-scale cantata or oratorio based on poems by Jens Peter Jacobsen. It includes the Wood Dove’s Song and the Wild Hunt of the Summer Wind, and it marks an important step in Schoenberg’s move away from tonality.

  • Gurrelieder — Gurrelieder is Arnold Schoenberg’s large-scale cantata-oratorio based on poems by Jens Peter Jacobsen and centered on King Waldemar. Its massive forces and late-Romantic size made it an early landmark in Schoenberg’s move toward atonality.

  • Pierrot lunaire — Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 expressionist melodrama/song cycle based on 21 poems by Albert Giraud, with full title Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds Pierrot lunaire. It is written for voice or speaker with chamber ensemble in Sprechstimme, using flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano; the title character is the commedia dell’arte clown Pierrot. The work is a landmark of early twentieth-century modernism, is especially associated with the eerie “Mondestrunken,” and helped establish the standard Pierrot ensemble.

  • The Book of Hanging Gardens — The Book of Hanging Gardens is an Arnold Schoenberg song cycle whose title refers to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Its title alludes to the Hanging Gardens, and the source notes the work in a clue-format prompt.

  • Verklärte Nacht — Arnold Schoenberg’s 1899 one-movement string sextet for two violins, two violas, and two cellos, based on Richard Dehmel’s poem. It portrays a woman confessing that she is carrying another man’s child, after which her lover forgives her and the music moves from tension and confession toward reconciliation. It was later arranged for string orchestra and used in the ballet Pillar of Fire.

• Alban Berg (1885–1935) — Austrian; Schoenberg student; expressionist twelve-tone works with lyrical quality; operas Wozzeck and Lulu; Violin Concerto (“To the Memory of an Angel”). He also wrote the Lyric Suite and Chamber Concerto, and the Violin Concerto quotes Bach’s chorale “Es ist genug.” His full name was Alban Maria Johannes Berg.

  • Lyric Suite — Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite is a six-movement string quartet with a secret program tied to his affair with Hanna Fuchs-Robettin. It marks his move toward twelve-tone writing and hides the names of the lovers in its A-B-flat-B-F motif.

  • Violin Concerto

    • Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto — Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, dedicated “To the memory of an angel,” is his best-known concert work and one of the classic twelve-tone pieces that still sounds tonal. It was commissioned by Louis Krasner, inspired by the death of Manon Gropius, and includes the Bach chorale “Es ist genug” and a Carinthian folk-song quotation.

• Anton Webern (1883–1945) — Austrian; Schoenberg student; extremely concentrated, aphoristic works; Five Pieces for Orchestra (Op. 10); Symphony Op. 21; influenced postwar serialists. Also known as Anton von Webern and Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern. His compact, pointillistic twelve-tone pieces include Six Pieces for Orchestra, Kinderstück, Passacaglia, Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, and Concerto for Nine Instruments. He was killed by an American soldier during the Allied occupation of Austria.

• 20th-century classical music
  • Darmstadt School
    • Darmstadt — Darmstadt refers to the German city whose International Summer Courses for New Music became a center for postwar serialism. Composers such as Stockhausen and Boulez were associated with the Darmstadt school and its experimental musical modernism.

• Luigi Dallapiccola — Luigi Dallapiccola was an Italian serialist composer associated with twelve-tone technique and with works on imprisonment and exile. His music includes Canti di prigionia, The Prisoner, Partita, and other orchestral and vocal works.

• Viennese schools
  • Second Viennese School — The Second Viennese School was an early 20th-century circle of composers centered on Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna, with Alban Berg and Anton Webern as its other best-known members. It is closely associated with atonality and twelve-tone/serial composition, and its music was later condemned by the Nazis as degenerate art. The name marks it as the successor to the First Viennese School of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.

• Ernst Krenek — Ernst Krenek was an Austrian composer associated with Weimar-era opera, including the jazz-inflected Jonny spielt auf and the twelve-tone opera Karl V. His work became a target of Nazi attacks on so-called degenerate music.

• Alexander von Zemlinsky — Alexander von Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer and Schoenberg teacher whose works include the tone poem The Mermaid and the opera The Dwarf. He also wrote the Lyric Symphony, which later composers quoted, and his name appears in connection with the scandalous Skandalkonzert in Vienna.

Stravinsky and Neoclassicism

• Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) — Russian-American; three stylistic periods; early Russian: ballets for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes — The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), The Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps, 1913; premiere near-riot); neoclassical: Pulcinella, The Rake’s Progress (opera), Symphony of Psalms; serial late works. Other notable works include Apollon Musagete, Agon, The Soldier’s Tale, and the serial song setting of The Owl and the Pussycat; he is also associated with rhythmic modernism.

  • Agon — Agon is a Balanchine-Stravinsky ballet whose title comes from the Greek word for contest. It is a serialist work built from a sequence of dances and interludes, and the broader term agon also means struggle or competition in Greek literature.

  • Choral symphonies
    • Symphony of Psalms — Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms is a neoclassical choral symphony for chorus and orchestra that sets Latin texts from the Book of Psalms. It is famous for its unusual scoring, including the absence of violins and violas, and for its double fugue in the second movement. Serge Koussevitzky commissioned it for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s anniversary. The work has three movements.
  • Collaborators
    • Robert Craft — Robert Craft was the American conductor and writer who became Stravinsky’s close collaborator, ghostwriter, and amanuensis during the composer’s serial period. He premiered works such as Agon and The Flood and later wrote memoirs about their friendship.

  • Concerto for Chamber Orchestra in E-flat major — Stravinsky’s Concerto for Chamber Orchestra in E-flat major is nicknamed Dumbarton Oaks after the Washington, D.C. estate that commissioned it. The work dates to 1938 and was written for Robert Woods Bliss and his wife Mildred.

  • Dumbarton Oaks Concerto — Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks Concerto is a three-movement chamber-orchestral work in E-flat major. It was written for the owner of the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, D.C., and it reworks Baroque concerto textures with modern orchestration.

  • Igor — Igor Stravinsky was the Russian composer of The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Symphony of Psalms. His neoclassical and early Russian works made him one of the central composers of twentieth-century ballet and orchestral music.

  • Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky — Igor Stravinsky was a major 20th-century composer associated with ballets such as Petrushka and The Soldier’s Tale. His only opera is The Rake’s Progress.

  • Les Noces — Les Noces is Stravinsky’s ballet-cantata about a Russian peasant wedding. It is scored for singers, percussion, and multiple pianos, and opens with “The Blessing of the Bride.”

  • Pulcinella — Pulcinella is the Stravinsky ballet based on commedia dell’arte material and music spuriously attributed to Pergolesi. The title character is a stock comic figure who also appears in art-music clues such as the Cat Fugue and Suite italienne.

  • The Rite of Spring
    • the premiere of the Rite of Spring — The premiere of The Rite of Spring in 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées caused a notorious audience riot. Stravinsky’s score and Nijinsky’s staging of pagan dances made the performance infamous.

  • The Soldier’s Tale — The Soldier’s Tale is Stravinsky’s theatrical work for seven instruments about a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil for a book that predicts the future. It is also associated with C. F. Ramuz’s text and later with Kurt Vonnegut’s reworked libretto about Eddie Slovik.

  • The Firebird (Stravinsky) (L’Oiseau de feu, 1910) — commissioned by Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes; Stravinsky’s breakthrough work; Firebird suite (in two versions, 1911 and 1919) is frequently performed; “Infernal Dance” and “Lullaby” are signature moments.

  • Petrushka (Stravinsky) (1911; rev. 1947) — three-tableau ballet for Ballets Russes; depicts a puppet (Petrushka) with human feelings who loves a ballerina; “Petrushka chord” is a bitonality of C major and F-sharp major simultaneously.

  • The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky) (Le sacre du printemps, 1913) — premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on May 29, 1913, reportedly caused a near-riot due to Nijinsky’s unconventional choreography and the radical music; dedicated to pagan Russia and the ritual sacrifice of a young girl.
• Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) — Russian; Peter and the Wolf (Op. 67, orchestral fairy tale); ballet Romeo and Juliet (“Dance of the Knights”); Symphony No. 1 “Classical”; Symphony No. 5; Piano Concerto No. 3; opera War and Peace; Lieutenant Kijé suite. Other major works include The Love for Three Oranges and the film score for Alexander Nevsky; he began composing as a child and studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Other works include Cinderella, The Fiery Angel, Chout, The Story of a Real Man, and the Scythian Suite.

  • Alexander Nevsky cantata — Alexander Nevsky is Sergei Prokofiev’s cantata drawn from his film music about the medieval Russian prince. Its movements include “The Battle on the Ice” and “The Field of the Dead,” and it celebrates Russia’s defense against the Teutonic Knights.

  • film scores
    • film scores by Sergei Prokofiev — These are film scores by Sergei Prokofiev, including music for Alexander Nevsky, Lieutenant Kijé, and Ivan the Terrible. The set is marked by well-known movements like the Troika, the Battle on the Ice, and the Romance from Lieutenant Kijé.

  • Lieutenant Kije — Sergei Prokofiev’s orchestral suite and film score, adapted from a film about a nonexistent officer created by a clerical or bureaucratic error in Tsarist Russia. Its best-known movement is the Troika, and it ends with a mock or ironic funeral march for the imaginary lieutenant.

  • Lieutenant Kije Suite — Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije Suite is orchestral music based on an imaginary officer accidentally created by a misheard military report. The suite is known for its “Troika” movement and the mock-funeral ending.
    • Troika — “Troika” is the famous sleigh-ride movement from Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé suite, marked by bells, pizzicato strings, and a brisk, wintry rhythm. The word also refers more generally to a trio or three-person ruling group, which is the root of its political usage.

  • Lieutenant Kijé — Lieutenant Kijé is the fictional officer at the center of Prokofiev’s Soviet film score and orchestral suite. The suite is known for movements such as the Troika, and for turning a nonexistent bureaucratic mistake into a comic military portrait.

  • Romeo and Juliet
    • Dance of the Knights — This is Prokofiev’s “Dance of the Knights,” also known as “Montagues and Capulets,” from Romeo and Juliet. It is a dark orchestral passage often used for the ball scene and the fatal rival-family drama in the ballet.

  • Scythian Suite — The Scythian Suite is a tone-poem-like orchestral work by Sergei Prokofiev based on a planned ballet from his Opus 20 material. Its movements depict pagan monsters, a kidnapped wood nymph, and the triumph over an evil god at sunrise.

  • Symphony No. 1
    • Symphony No.1 or The Classical — Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, is known as the Classical Symphony. He wrote it as an imitation of Haydn while studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

  • Visions Fugitives — Visions fugitives is Prokofiev’s set of twenty brief piano pieces from his Soviet-period output. Their title comes from Konstantin Balmont, and the set is known for its compact, dissonant character.

  • war sonatas — Prokofiev’s war sonatas are his piano sonatas Nos. 6, 7, and 8, written during World War II. They are among his most famous large-scale solo piano works, with the Seventh often nicknamed the Leningrad Sonata and the group associated with wartime intensity.

  • Works
    • Peter and the Wolf — Prokofiev’s narrated symphonic fairy tale written to introduce children to orchestral instruments. Each character is represented by a different instrument: Peter by strings, the bird by flute, the duck by oboe, the cat by clarinet, the grandfather by bassoon, and the wolf by French horns. It was commissioned by Natalya Sats, completed in only a few days, and ends with Peter’s capture of the wolf and a triumphant parade. It remains one of Prokofiev’s best-known and most frequently performed works.
      • The Wolf — The Wolf is the predatory character in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, represented by French horns. He swallows the duck before being captured and taken to the zoo.

  • Symphony No. 1 “Classical” (Prokofiev) (D major, Op. 25, 1917) — consciously modeled on Haydn; one of the first neo-classical works; Prokofiev composed it away from the piano to test his inner ear.

  • Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev) (Op. 67, 1936) — symphonic fairy tale for narrator and orchestra; each character represented by a specific instrument and theme (Peter = strings, Wolf = horns, Bird = flute, Duck = oboe, Cat = clarinet, Grandfather = bassoon, Hunters = woodwinds and timpani); composed in under a week.

  • Symphony No. 1 in D major
    • Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 — Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Op. 25, is Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D major and his best-known symphony. Nicknamed the “Classical” Symphony, it imitates the symphonic style of Haydn and Mozart in a familiar four-movement form, while using modern tonal techniques. Its finale features repeated high D’s, and its gavotte was later reused in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.
• Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) — French; member of Les Six; Gloria; opera Dialogues of the Carmelites; Stabat Mater; piano works and song cycles. His music is often described as witty and lyrical, balancing worldly wit with devotional writing. Notable works also include Concert champêtre, Les biches, the flute sonata written for Jean-Pierre Rampal, a concerto for two pianos, a sextet for piano and winds, and Litanies à la vierge noire. Other works include Les Mamelles de Tirésias, La Voix humaine, Banalités, and Tel jour telle nuit. Dialogues des Carmélites draws on Georges Bernanos.
  • Works
    • Francois Poulenc — Francis Poulenc was a member of Les Six whose music ranges from witty neoclassicism to serious operatic drama. He wrote Les Biches, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and the incidental music for Babar the Elephant.
• Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) — German; Mathis der Maler (symphony drawn from his opera); Symphonic Metamorphosis; Ludus Tonalis for piano. He was associated with Gebrauchsmusik (“utility music”) and also wrote Ragtime, Trauermusik, chamber concerti, and Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber; he composed an opera based on the painter Matthias Grünewald.

  • Der Schwanendreher — Paul Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher is a viola concerto built from German folk songs. It is one of his best-known works for viola and is also associated with the subtitle “Concerto from Old Folk Songs.”

  • Ludus Tonalis — Paul Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis is a piano cycle he treated as a modern counterpart to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. It opens with a praeludium and then moves through twelve fugues separated by interludes.

  • Mathis der Maler Symphony — Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler Symphony is a three-movement orchestral work based on panels from the Isenheim Altarpiece. Its movements evoke the Concert of Angels, the Entombment, and the Temptation of Saint Anthony, and the symphony is tied to Hindemith’s opera of the same name.

  • Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber — Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber is a Paul Hindemith orchestral work based on material by Weber, especially from Turandot and other piano-duet sources. Its familiar movements include the march-like finale and the lyrical Andantino.

  • Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber — Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber is an orchestral work by Paul Hindemith based on music by Weber. It reworks material from Weber’s piano duets and the Overture to Turandot into a four-movement score.

  • Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Weber — Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Weber is a four-movement orchestral work based on material by Carl Maria von Weber. It was first intended for ballet, but Hindemith continued it as a concert piece after the scenic plan fell through.

French Interwar (Les Six and Contemporaries)

• Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) — French; member of Les Six; polytonalist; prolific; La Création du monde (1923; jazz-inflected ballet); Le Bœuf sur le toit (1920); Suite provençale; eighteen string quartets. His music often absorbed Brazilian rhythm and other modernist influences, especially after his travels with Paul Claudel.

  • La Création du monde — Darius Milhaud’s 1923 jazz ballet, inspired by African mythology and the creation of humanity. Its score is especially noted for its jazz-inflected writing and prominent saxophone, with instrumentation including saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, trombone, and percussion, and for blending classical dance with syncopated modern idioms.

  • Le boeuf sur le toit — Le boeuf sur le toit is a ballet by Darius Milhaud inspired by Brazilian popular music. Its title was later used for a Paris cabaret associated with Jean Cocteau’s circle and members of Les Six.

• Arthur Honegger (1892–1955) — Swiss-French; member of Les Six; Pacific 231 (1923; orchestral piece evoking a steam locomotive); Antigone (opera); Symphony No. 3 “Liturgique.” He also composed Le Roi David (King David), the Christmas Cantata, and film scores; his music often combines neoclassical color with dramatic, motoric energy.

  • Pacific 231 — Pacific 231 is Arthur Honegger’s orchestral portrait of an accelerating steam locomotive. Its repeated rhythms and changing orchestration imitate the sound of a train gathering speed, and it was one of his Symphonic Movements. The title refers to a locomotive number rather than a place.

  • Works

    • Arthur Honneger — Arthur Honegger was a Swiss-French composer associated with Les Six. He is best known for Pacific 231, a tone poem that imitates a steam locomotive, and for works such as King David and the Symphonie Liturgique.
• Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) — French; meticulous orchestrator; Boléro (1928; single theme with 18 repetitions building in dynamics and instrumentation); La valse; Pavane pour une infante défunte; Daphnis et Chloé (ballet); orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition; String Quartet in F major; piano works Gaspard de la nuit and Miroirs. He also wrote Le Tombeau de Couperin, Tzigane, Introduction and Allegro, the Piano Concerto in G major, and the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand; his music is often noted for crystalline orchestration, dance rhythms, and vivid color.

  • Bolero — Bolero is Maurice Ravel’s famous orchestral work built on a repeated snare-drum ostinato and a single long crescendo. Commissioned by Ida Rubinstein, it is known for its gradual orchestration and for passing the theme through the winds and saxophones before a dramatic climax.

  • Daphnis et Chloé — Maurice Ravel’s longest work, a lush ballet based on Longus’s pastoral romance about the shepherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloé. It is known for its orchestral suites, especially the second suite, the sunrise music in “Lever du jour,” the wordless chorus, the “Danse générale,” choruses of bacchantes, the magical grotto scene from the story of Pan and Syrinx, and its exuberant bacchanal ending.
    • Daphnis et Chloe or Daphnis and Chloe — Daphnis et Chloé is Maurice Ravel’s ballet based on Longus’s pastoral romance about the title lovers. Its most famous sections include the “Danse Générale,” the “Daybreak” music, and the suites Ravel later extracted from it.
  • Gaspard de la nuit — Maurice Ravel’s notoriously difficult piano suite, inspired by Aloysius Bertrand’s prose poems. It is a three-movement work: “Ondine,” “Le Gibet,” and “Scarbo,” evoking a water nymph, a hanged man, and a goblin; the last movement is especially famous for its virtuosity. It is also titled Trois poèmes pour piano d’après Aloysius Bertrand.
    • Scarbo — “Scarbo” is the final movement of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, a notorious solo piano piece written to be more difficult than Balakirev’s Islamey. It portrays a malicious dwarf-like goblin darting about in jagged, violent music.

  • La Valse — La Valse is Maurice Ravel’s orchestral work that begins as a glittering waltz and collapses into a nightmarish danse macabre. It was originally conceived for Diaghilev and evokes the Viennese waltz tradition while ending in violent dissolution.

  • Le tombeau de Couperin — Maurice Ravel’s six-movement piano suite, written as an homage to François Couperin, the Baroque harpsichordist and composer. It was dedicated to friends and soldiers killed in World War I, and its movements use Baroque dance forms such as the forlane and rigaudon, including pieces especially known as the Rigaudon and Forlane.
    • forlane / rigaudon — Forlane and rigaudon are the middle two movements of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin. The forlane is a gentle 6/8 dance, while the rigaudon is a livelier paired dance.

  • Miroirs — Miroirs is Maurice Ravel’s five-movement piano suite, with movements such as “Oiseaux tristes,” “Une barque sur l’océan,” and “La vallée des cloches.” The set was dedicated to members of Les Apaches and is one of Ravel’s best-known solo piano works.

  • Mother Goose Suite — Mother Goose Suite is Maurice Ravel’s children’s suite, originally written for Mimi and Jean Godebski. Its movements draw on fairy-tale imagery, including the famous “Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty.”

  • Pavane for a Dead Princess — Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess is a slow, elegant piece originally for piano and later orchestrated with a famous horn melody. The title evokes a stately court dance rather than a literal funeral, and the work is one of his best-known early successes.

  • Piano Concerto for the Left Hand — Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand was written for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I.
    • Piano Concerto in D for the Left Hand — Ravel’s Piano Concerto in D for the Left Hand is a one-movement work written for Paul Wittgenstein after he lost his right arm in World War I.

  • Rapsodie espagnole — Rapsodie espagnole is Maurice Ravel’s orchestral suite in four movements. Its Spanish color comes through pieces such as ‘Prelude à la nuit,’ ‘Malagueña,’ ‘Habanera,’ and a final feria.

  • Tzigane — Maurice Ravel’s virtuosic rhapsody for violin, first written for violin and piano and later arranged for violin and orchestra. It was dedicated to the Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi after she played him Roma-themed music in London. The title means “Gypsy,” and the work draws on gypsy-flavored idioms; some versions also include a part for the luthéal.

  • Valses nobles et sentimentales — Valses nobles et sentimentales is a piano suite by Maurice Ravel, inspired by Schubert’s waltzes and later orchestrated into Adelaide: The Language of Flowers. Its title points to the contrast between noble and sentimental waltz collections.

  • Works
    • Boléro — Maurice Ravel’s Boléro is a one-movement orchestral work built on a relentless snare-drum ostinato and a single melody repeated through shifting orchestration. Written for Ida Rubinstein, it famously swells to a huge crescendo before a brief modulation near the end.

  • Daphnis et Chloé (Ravel) (1912) — full ballet in three parts commissioned by Diaghilev; famous “Daybreak” passage opens Suite No. 2; wordless chorus used throughout; among the most ambitious orchestrations in the repertoire.

  • Boléro (Ravel) (1928) — single melody in C major repeated 18 times over 15–17 minutes with no development, only changes in orchestration and a single modulation to E major just before the ending; composed for dancer Ida Rubinstein; Ravel considered it an orchestral experiment rather than a “real” composition.

• Albert Roussel — Albert Roussel was a French composer known for the ballet The Spider’s Feast and the symphony No. 3, works shaped by neoclassicism and by impressions of Asia from his naval service. He also wrote Padmâvatî and taught Bohuslav Martinů.

• Les Six — Les Six was a group of early 20th-century French composers named by critic Henri Collet in a 1923 article, in reference to their number. The group was centered in Montparnasse and associated with Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, and the salon of the Princesse de Polignac. Its members were Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, and Germaine Tailleferre, the only woman in the group. They reacted against the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel.

• Louis Durey — Louis Durey was a French composer associated with Les Six, though he later became known for leftist political works as much as for chamber music. His output includes settings of Apollinaire, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao, as well as pieces such as Les soirées de Vellère and La longue marche.

• Georges Auric — Georges Auric was a French composer associated with the Resistance and the Communist press, and he received the Grand Prix de la Musique in 1961. He is especially remembered for film music such as the scores for Rififi and the 1952 Moulin Rouge, along with ballet and orchestral works.

• Germaine Tailleferre — French composer and the only woman associated with Les Six. A neoclassical composer of ballets, chamber music, piano works, and orchestral pieces, she wrote Sonate champêtre, the Toccata for Two Pianos, Pastorale, Enjoué, Marchand des oiseaux, Le maître, and La Valse des Dépêches, as well as concertos and sonatas commissioned by patrons such as Winnaretta Singer. Her light, elegant style was shaped by Satie and Ravel.
  • Germaine Taillefaire — Germaine Tailleferre was the only woman in Les Six, a French modernist group. She wrote works including the Harp Concertino and music for film and ballet, even though quizbowl clues often misgender her by accident.
• Jacques Ibert — Jacques Ibert was a French composer known for the orchestral suite Escales, the Concertino da camera for alto saxophone, and the Divertissement. He also wrote works such as the Little White Donkey and won the Prix de Rome in 1919.

American Modernism

• Aaron Copland (1900–1990) — American; “Dean of American Music”; ballets Appalachian Spring (contains the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts”), Rodeo, Billy the Kid; Fanfare for the Common Man; Lincoln Portrait; Symphony No. 3. Other works include the Piano Variations and Clarinet Concerto, and film scores for Our Town and The Red Pony. He was born in Brooklyn.

  • A Lincoln Portrait — A Lincoln Portrait is Aaron Copland’s narrated orchestral work devoted to Abraham Lincoln, with quotations from Lincoln’s speeches and writings. It quotes folk tunes such as “Camptown Races” and “Springfield Mountain,” and it was commissioned by Andre Kostelanetz during World War II.

  • Appalachian Spring — Aaron Copland’s 1944 ballet and orchestral suite, originally written for Martha Graham’s company and known to him as Ballet for Martha. It depicts a wedding in rural Pennsylvania, is famous for its variations on the Shaker tune “Simple Gifts,” and won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Its open, American pastoral style made it one of Copland’s best-known works.

  • El Salón México — Aaron Copland’s 1930s orchestral tone poem inspired by a popular dance hall in Mexico City. It is based on Mexican popular songs and the atmosphere of the hall, and Copland drew on Mexican folk tunes such as “La Jesúsita” and “El Palo Verde.” Carlos Chávez conducted its 1937 premiere. It became one of Copland’s best-known concert works for American audiences interested in folk-inflected modernism.

  • Fanfare for the Common Man — Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man is a brass-and-percussion work commissioned by Eugene Goossens during World War II. Its stark timpani opening and broad brass statements made it one of Copland’s most famous patriotic pieces, and he later reused its material in his Third Symphony.

  • Quiet City — Quiet City is Aaron Copland’s work for trumpet, English horn, and string orchestra, adapted from incidental music for an unfinished Irwin Shaw play. Its lonely solos create a nocturnal, urban mood rather than a conventional concert overture.

  • Rodeo — Rodeo is Aaron Copland’s cowboy ballet, subtitled The Courting at Burnt Ranch, and one of his best-known stage works. Its familiar dance episodes include Buckaroo Holiday, Saturday Night Waltz, and Hoe-Down, with the finale built around the folk tune Bonaparte’s Retreat.

    • Hoe-Down — “Hoe-Down” is the final movement of Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo, a bright square-dance-like piece based in part on “Bonaparte’s Retreat.” It is the section that became widely familiar through beef commercials and other popular uses.

    • Hoedown — “Hoedown” is a movement from Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, where it follows “Saturday Night Waltz.” The title also names a recurring comedy-game prompt on Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

  • Variations on a Shaker Melody — Copland’s Variations on a Shaker Melody is a 1956 work for symphonic band based on the Shaker tune Simple Gifts. The tune had earlier appeared in Appalachian Spring and is associated with Joseph Brackett.

  • Appalachian Spring (Copland) (1944) — originally composed for Martha Graham’s dance company; variations on the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts” is the suite’s climax; Pulitzer Prize for Music 1945; orchestral suite more commonly performed than the original 13-instrument version.

  • Fanfare for the Common Man (Copland) (1942) — composed for brass and percussion at the request of Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony, who asked for wartime fanfares; became the basis of the finale of Copland’s Symphony No. 3.

  • Rodeo (Copland) (1942) — four-movement ballet for Agnes de Mille; “Hoe-Down” is the famous finale, based on the fiddle tune “Bonaparte’s Retreat.”
• Samuel Barber (1910–1981) — American; Adagio for Strings (from String Quartet Op. 11; frequently played at state funerals); opera Vanessa; Violin Concerto. He was also the composer of Vanessa, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958, won the Pulitzer Prize, and had a libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti. Other works associated with him include Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Sure on This Shining Night, Capricorn Concerto, the School for Scandal overture, Hermit Songs, and Prayers for Kierkegaard.

  • Adagio for Strings — Adagio for Strings is Samuel Barber’s famous slow orchestral work, adapted from the second movement of his String Quartet No. 1. Its funeral and memorial associations include FDR, JFK, Albert Einstein, and public performances such as the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

  • Hermit Songs — Hermit Songs is Samuel Barber’s 1953 song cycle for voice and piano. It sets anonymous poems by Irish monks and scholars, including texts such as ‘At St. Patrick’s Purgatory’ and ‘The Heavenly Banquet’.

  • Knoxville: Summer of 1915 — Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is Samuel Barber’s orchestral song cycle on a James Agee text about an imagined childhood summer evening in Tennessee. It is often identified by its opening portrait of porch life and by its commission for Eleanor Steber.

  • Prayers of Kierkegaard — Prayers of Kierkegaard is a Samuel Barber choral work built from writings by Søren Kierkegaard, including his Journals, The Unchangeableness of God, and The Christian Discourses. It is divided into four movements, each shaped around a single prayer, and one movement is titled “O Thou Who Art Unchangeable.”

• Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) — American; conductor and composer; West Side Story (musical but classically significant); Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Chichester Psalms; Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety”; Candide overture. He made his professional debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1943 and later became its first American-born conductor. He was also widely known for the televised Young People’s Concerts and wrote Mass, Kaddish, Symphony No. 3 “Kaddish,” and the Jeremiah Symphony; he is additionally described as a composer, conductor, and educator.

  • Chichester Psalms — Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms is a choral work setting Hebrew psalm texts, including “The Lord is My Shepherd,” and was commissioned by Walter Hussey for Chichester Cathedral. It was written for boy soprano or countertenor, premiered by Bernstein at Philharmonic Hall, and later appeared in a reduced accompaniment for organ, harp, and percussion at the Three Choirs Festival.

  • Bernstein — Bernstein is the surname shared by Leonard Bernstein and Elmer Bernstein, two major American composers often contrasted in quizbowl. Leonard wrote West Side Story, Candide, and the Kaddish Symphony, while Elmer was a prolific film composer for works such as The Magnificent Seven and To Kill a Mockingbird.

• Florence Price (1887–1953) — American composer whose Symphony No. 1 in E minor (1931–1932) was premiered by Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933. Its third movement draws on juba, an African American dance tradition. Study its themes, orchestration, and dance movement alongside the institutional barriers that shaped the performance and later recovery of her music.¹⁹ She was the first Black female composer to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra. The premiere of her Symphony No. 1 helped establish her national reputation, and her surviving symphonies often incorporate juba dance rhythms.

• William Grant Still (1895–1978) — American composer whose Symphony No. 1, Afro-American (1930) brings blues idioms into symphonic writing. The Rochester Philharmonic premiered it in 1931. Compare its treatment of rhythm, melody, and orchestral color with Price’s First Symphony; both works belong within the study of American concert music.²⁰ William Grant Still was an American composer often called the Dean of Afro-American Composers. He is best known for the Afro-American Symphony, which blends blues and jazz idioms into symphonic writing. Still also became the first Black musician to conduct a major American orchestra.

• George Gershwin

  • An American in Paris — An American in Paris is George Gershwin’s symphonic jazz tone poem about an American expatriate in the French capital, famous for its taxi horns and homesick blues section. The title also belongs to Vincente Minnelli’s 1951 film with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, which ends in an extended ballet sequence set to Gershwin’s music.

  • Concerto in F — Gershwin’s Concerto in F is a jazz-influenced three-movement work for piano and orchestra premiered by Walter Damrosch’s New York Symphony Orchestra in 1925. Its first movement ends with a Charleston rhythm, and later clues may reference the named themes used by David Schiff.

  • Cuban Overture — Cuban Overture is Gershwin’s 1932 concert piece originally titled Rumba. It prominently uses Latin percussion such as maracas, claves, gourds, and bongos, and was inspired by a trip to Cuba.

  • George Jacob Gershwin — George Gershwin was an American composer known for bridging classical and jazz idioms. He wrote Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and the opera Porgy and Bess.

  • Rhapsody in Blue — George Gershwin’s 1924 Rhapsody in Blue is a work for piano and jazz band/orchestra, commissioned by Paul Whiteman and orchestrated by Ferde Grofé. It was quickly assembled for a jazz concert program and premiered in 1924. The piece is known for its opening clarinet glissando, said to echo an improvised joke by Ross Gorman, and for blending classical form, piano concerto textures, and symphonic jazz with improvised-sounding cadenzas. It became a landmark of American concert music.

  • Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin) (1924) — composed in three weeks for Paul Whiteman’s “Experiment in Modern Music” concert at Aeolian Hall, New York; orchestrated by Ferde Grofé; opening clarinet glissando (improvised by Ross Gorman at rehearsal) became iconic; blends jazz idioms with classical form.

  • An American in Paris (Gershwin) (1928) — tone poem for orchestra including actual Parisian taxi horns; commissioned for the New York Philharmonic; used in the 1951 film of the same name.

  • Porgy and Bess (Gershwin) (1935) — “folk opera” set on Catfish Row, a poor Black community in Charleston, South Carolina; based on DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy (with libretto by Heyward and lyrics by Ira Gershwin); Gershwin lived near Folly Beach to absorb the music of the Gullah people; signature numbers include “Summertime” (a lullaby sung by Clara), “It Ain’t Necessarily So” (sung by the drug dealer Sportin’ Life), “My Man’s Gone Now” (Serena, mourning her husband Robbins, who is killed in a craps-game fight by the stevedore Crown), “A Woman Is a Sometime Thing” (Jake), and “I Loves You, Porgy”; the crippled beggar Porgy loves Bess; ends with Porgy setting out for New York to find Bess after Sportin’ Life lures her away.

• Elliott Carter (1908–2012) — American; complex polyrhythmic language; five string quartets; Concerto for Orchestra. He was known for metric modulation and difficult modernist writing; major works include the Double Concerto for Harpsichord, Piano, and Two Chamber Orchestras, the Symphony of Three Orchestras, and chamber works written into his centenarian years.

• Virgil Thomson (1896–1989) — American; clear, tonal, often hymn-like style; Four Saints in Three Acts (1934; opera with Gertrude Stein libretto), The Mother of Us All (1947; also Stein libretto); influential music critic for the New York Herald Tribune. He also wrote film scores including The Plow That Broke the Plains and The River, as well as Symphony on a Hymn Tune, the ballet Filling Station, Synthetic Waltzes, and Portraits for piano; his style also appears in chamber works such as his string quartets and in references to hymnlike or folk materials.
  • Virgil Thompson — Virgil Thomson was an American composer known for his collaborations with Gertrude Stein, especially Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All. He also wrote film scores such as The Plow That Broke the Plains and The River, and the opera Lord Byron.
• Ferde Grofe — Ferde Grofe was an American composer and orchestrator best known for the Grand Canyon Suite and for orchestrating Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. His other works include the Mississippi Suite and Niagara Falls Suite, and clue sets often highlight his colorful programmatic orchestral style.

  • Grand Canyon Suite — Grand Canyon Suite is Ferde Grofé’s orchestral tribute to the Arizona landmark, best known for movements such as “Sunrise,” “On the Trail,” and “Cloudburst.” It is often remembered for colorful orchestration, including sounds meant to suggest a burro’s gait and other vivid desert images.

  • The Grand Canyon Suite — The Grand Canyon Suite is Ferde Grofe’s best-known work, introduced by Paul Whiteman in 1931. Its movements include depictions such as Sunrise, On the Trail, Sunset, The Painted Desert, and a cloudburst.

• George Antheil — George Antheil was an American composer whose most famous works include Ballet Mécanique and the film score-associated Piano Concerto No. 2, The Airplane. He also wrote Bad Boy of Music and collaborated with Hedy Lamarr on a frequency-hopping radio guidance invention.
  • Ballet Mécanique — Ballet Mécanique is George Antheil’s Dadaist score for a Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy film. The work is famous for its mechanical sound world, including player pianos, sirens, propellers, and long stretches of silence.

• Gunther Schuller — Gunther Schuller was a composer, horn player, and musicologist associated with the idea of third stream. He wrote Early Jazz and helped orchestrate Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha.

• Leroy Anderson — Leroy Anderson was an American composer of light orchestral music best known for pieces like Sleigh Ride, The Typewriter, and The Syncopated Clock. His music often uses novel orchestral effects and programmatic humor, as in The Waltzing Cat and the Irish Suite.
  • Sleigh Ride — “Sleigh Ride” is the Leroy Anderson orchestral novelty that later became a Christmas standard with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. Its bright imitation of horse sounds and winter travel made it one of the best-known light orchestral pieces of the mid-twentieth century.

• Roy Harris — Roy Harris was an American symphonist known for expansive, nationalist orchestral works. His best-known pieces include Symphony No. 3, along with programmatic symphonies nicknamed “San Francisco,” “West Point,” and “Folksong.”

• Samuel A. Ward
  • Materna — Materna is the original title of a composition by Samuel A. Ward whose tune was later borrowed. The work is remembered primarily through its reused melody rather than as a standalone concert piece.

• Samuel Augustus Ward — Samuel Augustus Ward was an American composer best known for writing the tune that became “America the Beautiful.” He is often identified by quizbowl clues through a pre-existing melody later adapted for patriotic use.

• Scott Joplin
  • rags
    • the rags of Scott Joplin — Scott Joplin’s rags are syncopated piano pieces that became central to the ragtime repertoire. They include famous works such as “The Entertainer,” “The Maple Leaf Rag,” and “The Strenuous Life.”

• Silvestre Revueltas — Silvestre Revueltas was a Mexican composer known for the orchestral poem Sensemayá, based on a poem by Nicolás Guillén. His other works include the string quartet Música de Feria and the three-movement Homage to Federico García Lorca.

• William Schuman — William Schuman was an American composer whose works include the New England Triptych, Mail Order Madrigals, and several symphonies. His music often draws on American hymnody and historical tunes, and he also wrote concert works such as A Song of Orpheus and a violin concerto.

• John Corigliano — John Corigliano is a contemporary American composer whose music includes The Ghosts of Versailles, Symphony No. 1, and The Red Violin. His Clarinet Concerto helped establish him as a major late-20th-century composer. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his Second Symphony, and several of his works, including the Oboe Concerto and First Symphony, are often cited in quizbowl.

• Alan Hovhaness — Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer known for Mysterious Mountain, The Prayer of Saint Gregory, and And God Created Great Whales. His style often uses spiritual atmosphere and exotic color, and he wrote a large number of symphonies.

• Dominick Argento — Dominick Argento was an American composer known for the song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf. He also wrote operas including Miss Havisham’s Fire, Casanova’s Homecoming, and Postcard from Morocco.

• Duke Ellington
  • Black, Brown and Beige — Black, Brown and Beige is Duke Ellington’s 1943 Carnegie Hall suite, a jazz work that presents African-American history as a kind of symphonic narrative. Its best-known movement is “Come Sunday,” and the suite was later expanded and recorded in live and studio versions by Ellington.

• Harry Burleigh — Harry Burleigh was an American baritone, composer, and vocal coach known for arranging spirituals such as “Deep River.” He introduced Dvořák to spirituals at the National Conservatory and was associated with performances of Fauré’s “The Palms” and works like Six Plantation Melodies for Violin and Piano.

• Howard Hanson — Howard Hanson was an American composer and longtime director of the Eastman School of Music, known for the Romantic, Nordic, and Requiem symphonies. He also wrote Merry Mount and Harmonic Materials of Modern Music, an influential early text in twentieth-century music theory.

• Roger Sessions — Roger Sessions was an American composer associated with twelve-tone writing later in his career. He wrote eight symphonies, the Violin Concerto, and the opera Montezuma, and his Concerto for Orchestra won the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

• Vincent Persichetti — Vincent Persichetti was an American composer and Juilliard professor noted for his many Parables, as well as works like Symphony for Band and A Lincoln Address. His music is often associated with concert band repertory and with instrumental miniatures for unusual ensembles such as carillon and tuba.

• William Bolcom — William Bolcom is an American composer known for blending classical writing with ragtime and vernacular styles. His music includes Songs of Innocence and of Experience, the Three Ghost Rags, and a Lyric Concerto for flute.

• Coleridge-Taylor family
  • Coleridge-Taylor — Coleridge-Taylor is the surname of the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, known for works such as the Negro Melodies and the Song of Hiawatha cantatas. It is also shared by his daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor, who became a composer and conductor.

• Douglas Moore — Douglas Moore was an American composer best known for operas such as The Devil and Daniel Webster and Giants in the Earth. He taught at Columbia for decades and also wrote chamber music, symphonies, and other works that drew on American vernacular style.

• Henry Cowell — An American modernist composer associated with the American Five, known for tone clusters and extended piano techniques, including plucking the strings in The Aeolian Harp. His works include The Tides of Manaunaun and The Banshee. He also promoted new music, collaborated with Leon Theremin, and coauthored an influential study on Charles Ives with his wife Sidney.

• Walter Piston — American composer and theorist who studied with Nadia Boulanger and was a Harvard professor of composition. He wrote influential textbooks on harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration; his music includes eight symphonies, Lincoln Center Festival Overture, the ballet The Incredible Flutist, Fugue on a Victory Tune, and Chromatic Study on the Name of BACH.

• Leo Ornstein — Leo Ornstein was an avant-garde composer and pianist known for tone clusters and vivid early modernist piano writing. His works include Wild Men’s Dance, Suicide in an Airplane, and Impressions of the Thames.

Mid-Century European

• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) — Russian/Soviet; 15 symphonies; Symphony No. 5 (Op. 47, a calculated “creative reply” to Stalin-era criticism; finale ambiguously triumphant or ironic); No. 7 “Leningrad”; No. 10 in E minor; 15 string quartets; Piano Quintet; opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (suppressed by Stalin). His First Symphony brought him early fame, and his music often combines official Soviet pressure with ironic or coded expression, including the DSCH motif and political allusion. Other notable works mentioned here include the First Violin Concerto, First Cello Concerto, Festive Overture, The Nose, The Golden Age, Katerina Ismailova, Symphony No. 7’s “invasion theme,” Symphony No. 13 “Babi Yar,” and The Gadfly.

  • Dmitry Dmitriyevich Shostakovich — Dmitry Dmitriyevich Shostakovich composed major Soviet works including the Leningrad Symphony, the Babi Yar symphony, and The Nose. He also wrote the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and a violin concerto whose second movement is marked Burlesque.

  • DSCH motif — The DSCH motif is Dmitri Shostakovich’s musical signature, built from the German note names D, E-flat, C, and B. He used it in works such as his First Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 10, and it appears memorably in the opening of his Seventh Symphony.

  • symphonies

    • symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich — Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies are large orchestral works that include the “Leningrad,” the “Babi Yar,” and the Fifth Symphony. The Fifth is especially famous for its “invasion” theme and its finale’s forced rejoicing effect.

    • symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich — Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies range from wartime protest to coded satire and official celebration. They include the “Leningrad,” the “Babi Yar” symphonic outcry, and the Fifth, which he framed as a response to criticism.

  • Symphony No. 11 — Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905, reflects the Bloody Sunday massacre through movements such as “January 9th” and “Eternal Memory.” It is one of his politically charged symphonies and uses a dramatic, commemorative style to depict revolutionary violence.

  • Symphony No. 11 in G Minor
    • Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony in G Minor — Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 in G minor is subtitled The Year 1905 and depicts the events of Bloody Sunday and the 1905 Russian Revolution. It is known for using revolutionary songs such as “The Prisoner,” “Listen!,” and “Tocsin” to build its atmosphere. The work was linked by listeners and the composer’s family to political protest in the Soviet era, and it ends with a harsh, public-world sonic violence rather than a private symphonic resolution.
  • Symphony No. 13
    • Symphony No. 13 in B flat Minor — Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 in B-flat minor is subtitled Babi Yar. It sets poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and includes movements such as “Humour,” “In the Store,” and “Career.”
  • Symphony No. 13 “Babi Yar”
    • Babi Yar Symphony — Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13, the “Babi Yar” Symphony, sets Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poems about the massacre of Jews at Babi Yar. The work is a large-scale choral symphony, and its movements include sections such as “Humor” and “Fears.”
  • Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43
    • Dmitri Shostakovitch’s Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Opus 43 — Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43 is a massive, politically fraught symphony whose premiere was withdrawn in the 1930s. Its huge first and third movements and satirical edge made it infamous during the period of Soviet attacks on formalism.
  • Symphony No. 5 in D minor

    • Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor — Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor was described by its composer as a “creative response to justified criticism.” It was written after public criticism in Pravda and became one of his most famous symphonies.

    • Symphony No. 5 in D minor by Dmitri Shostakovich — Presented as a response to the backlash against Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and to “justified criticism,” it became one of Shostakovich’s most frequently performed symphonies. The work’s finale has often been heard as forced rejoicing or a triumphant ending, and its tense scherzo contributes to its reputation as one of his most famous and politically charged symphonies.

  • Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 — Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47 was written after Pravda attacked his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. He presented it as a Soviet artist’s response to justified criticism, and it became one of his most famous symphonies.

  • Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77
    • Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77 — Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77, is a four-movement concerto whose unusual layout includes a nocturne, scherzo, passacaglia, and burlesque. Its dark opening, cadenza, and attacca structure make it one of Shostakovich’s most distinctive violin concertos.

  • “Hypothetically Murdered” Suite — The “Hypothetically Murdered” Suite is a Shostakovich suite associated with Leonid Utyosov and theatrical revue-style entertainment. It is linked to circus and variety-stage material rather than one of his numbered symphonies.

  • Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad” (Shostakovich) (C major, Op. 60, 1941) — composed partly during the Siege of Leningrad; first movement’s “invasion episode” (long crescendo on a repeated march theme) became a symbol of wartime resistance; microfilmed score was flown out of the USSR to reach Toscanini for an American premiere.

  • Symphony No. 10 (Shostakovich) (E minor, Op. 93, 1953) — composed after Stalin’s death; second movement Scherzo is widely interpreted as a portrait of Stalin; the monogram D-S-C-H (D–E♭–C–B♮ in German notation) appears in the third movement.

  • String Quartet No. 8 (Shostakovich) (C minor, Op. 110, 1960) — five movements composed in three days in Dresden; Shostakovich said it was his musical testament; uses the D-S-C-H monogram extensively; quotes from his earlier works and revolutionary songs; dedicated “to the memory of the victims of fascism and war.”

  • Symphony No. 10
    • Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 — Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 is a Soviet-era symphony famous for its coded musical references, including the DSCH motif and a movement often linked to Stalin. Its slow first movement quotes Mahler and Shostakovich songs, while the finale and scherzo echo earlier works and helped mark his escape from the supposed curse of the ninth symphony.
• Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) — French; synaesthete; bird-song transcriptions; Quartet for the End of Time (composed in a German POW camp, 1941); Turangalîla-Symphonie; Catalogue d’oiseaux for piano. French Catholic composer and organist associated with the modes of limited transposition, vivid coloristic harmony, and the ondes Martenot. Other major works include Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus and the opera Saint-François d’Assise, which contributed to later works such as Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin.
  • Quartet for the End of Time — Olivier Messiaen’s eight-movement chamber work for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano was composed and premiered in a German POW camp in Silesia in 1940, with its unusual scoring reflecting the instruments available there. Its title evokes the Apocalypse, and the music includes birdcall-inspired writing, especially in the opening “Liturgy of Crystal”; other well-known movements include “Dance of Fury,” the slow “Abyss of the Birds,” and the closing “Praise to the Immortality of Jesus.”
    • Abyss of the Birds — Abyss of the Birds is the third movement of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. The quartet was written in a German POW camp and is famous for its birdcall-inspired opening and unusual chamber scoring.

  • Turangalîla-Symphonie — Olivier Messiaen’s large ten-movement symphony, the second part of his Tristan trilogy. He described it as a love song. It is notable for its prominent ondes Martenot and piano parts, with recurring love-, flower-, statue-, and star-themed motifs inspired by Tristan and Isolde.

  • Messiaen — Quartet for the End of Time (Quatuor pour la fin du temps, 1941) — eight movements for violin, clarinet, cello, and piano; composed and premiered in Stalag VIII-A prisoner-of-war camp; inspired by the Book of Revelation (specifically the angel who says “there shall be time no longer”); performed for some 5,000 prisoners.
• Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) — English; operas Peter Grimes, The Turn of the Screw, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Death in Venice; War Requiem (juxtaposes the Latin Mass with Wilfred Owen’s WWI poetry); The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell); Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. He was the dominant figure in 20th-century English opera. He was the partner of tenor Peter Pears, collaborated with W. H. Auden, founded the Aldeburgh Festival, and studied with Frank Bridge.
  • A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra — Benjamin Britten’s educational orchestral work is built on a theme from Purcell’s Abdelazar (Abdelazer), presenting the orchestra section by section through a set of variations before ending with a fugue that reintroduces the instruments one by one. It was originally written for an educational film commissioned by England’s Ministry of Education and is often associated with Eric Crozier’s narration.
    • The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell — Benjamin Britten’s didactic orchestral work is a set of variations and a fugue on a theme from Purcell’s Abdelazar. It was written to introduce children to the orchestra’s instruments and originally accompanied the educational documentary Instruments of the Orchestra. It features narration explaining the sections of the orchestra and belongs to the same family of pedagogical works as Peter and the Wolf and The Carnival of the Animals.

  • Baron Edward Benjamin Britten of Aldeburgh — Benjamin Britten was an English composer of major works including Peter Grimes, War Requiem, and A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. He also wrote orchestral and chamber variations such as the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.

  • Benjamin Britten (the opera is The Turn of the Screw) — Benjamin Britten was the English composer of The Turn of the Screw and A Ceremony of Carols. His music often appears in clue sets through chamber opera, boy soprano writing, and the eerie tension of works based on literary sources.

  • Orchestral works
    • A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 — Benjamin Britten’s orchestral introduction to the instruments of the ensemble, written as variations and a fugue on a theme by Purcell. It adapts music from Purcell’s Abdelazer and is one of Britten’s most familiar orchestral pieces, widely used in music education.
  • Peter Grimes
    • Four Sea Interludes — Four Sea Interludes is Benjamin Britten’s orchestral suite from Peter Grimes, usually heard between the opera’s acts. Its four sections are “Dawn,” “Sunday Morning,” “Moonlight,” and “Storm,” and the music is among Britten’s best-known concert excerpts.
  • Simple Symphony — Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony is an early string orchestra work built from themes he wrote as a child. Its movement titles include “Playful Pizzicato,” “Boisterous Bourrée,” and “Frolicsome Finale.”
    • Playful Pizzicato — “Playful Pizzicato” is the second movement of Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony. It is a string piece built around a light pizzicato texture and a long-short rhythmic figure.
  • War Requiem — Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem combines the Latin Mass for the Dead with poems by Wilfred Owen. Written for the opening/reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral, it is one of Britten’s most famous large-scale works and is noted for its tritone motif, children’s chorus, and tenor-baritone dialogue ending in “Let us sleep now.”
    • War Requiem, op. 66 — War Requiem, Op. 66 is Benjamin Britten’s choral work written for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral. It sets Wilfred Owen poems alongside the Latin Requiem text and is famous for its tritone motif and large-scale antiwar tone.
• Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994) — Polish; Symphony No. 3; Cello Concerto; developed “aleatory counterpoint.” He also wrote Mi-parti and the Concerto for Orchestra, and his later symphonies and concertos often use limited aleatoricism.
  • Witold Lutoslawski — Witold Lutosławski was a major twentieth-century Polish composer best known for works such as Concerto for Orchestra, Mi-parti, and his symphonies. He often used controlled or “limited” aleatoricism in the textures of his later music.
• György Ligeti (1923–2006) — Hungarian-Austrian; Atmosphères (used in 2001: A Space Odyssey); Lontano; Études for piano; opera Le Grand Macabre; Lux Aeterna. Associated with micropolyphony and densely layered sonorities; other works include Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes and Musica ricercata.
  • Atmosphères — György Ligeti’s 1961 orchestral piece for a huge, largely static sound mass, and one of the best-known examples of micropolyphony. It opens with a dense sound mass and became especially famous through its use in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) — German; leading postwar avant-gardist; electronic works Gesang der Jünglinge, Kontakte; total serialist Gruppen; seven-opera Licht cycle. Other works include Helicopter String Quartet, Klavierstücke, and process- or chance-driven pieces such as Zyklus and Refrain.
  • Helicopter String Quartet — Stockhausen’s Helicopter String Quartet is a movement from the opera cycle Licht, famous for requiring each string player to perform from a separate helicopter. The resulting performance sends audio and video back to the concert hall and is one of Stockhausen’s best-known works.
• Pierre Boulez (1925–2016) — French; serialist and conductor; Le Marteau sans maître; Pli selon pli. Associated with postwar avant-garde music and the Darmstadt School; he also wrote Polyphonie X, Le Soleil des eaux, Répons, and the polemical essay “Schoenberg is Dead.” He founded IRCAM at the Centre Pompidou and later led the New York Philharmonic.
  • Le Marteau sans Maitre — Le Marteau sans Maitre is Pierre Boulez’s serial composition based on poems by René Char. It is best known for its unusual chamber ensemble, its movement titles such as “The Furious Craftsmanship,” and its use of controlled indeterminacy.

• Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931) — Russian; Offertorium (violin concerto); In croce. She is known for spiritually inflected works such as The Canticle of the Sun, Music for Flute, Strings, and Percussion, Stimmen… Verstummen…, and St. John Passion, often combining sacred or Orthodox material with modern compositional techniques and unusual instrumental colors.

• Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) — Estonian; developed tintinnabuli style; Spiegel im Spiegel; Tabula Rasa; Fratres; St. John Passion. He is associated with sacred minimalism. Other widely cited works include Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten and The Deer’s Cry.

  • Arvo Pärt (“pairt”) — Arvo Pärt is an Estonian composer associated with tintinnabuli and holy minimalism. His best-known works include Spiegel im Spiegel and Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, both often used as clues for his minimalist style.

  • Spiegel im Spiegel — Spiegel im Spiegel is a 1978 work by Arvo Pärt, originally for violin and piano and associated with his tintinnabuli style. It is among his best-known pieces, alongside works such as Fratres, Summa, and Tabula Rasa.

  • Pärt — Spiegel im Spiegel (1978) — for piano and violin (or cello); the title means “mirror in the mirror”; uses the tintinnabuli technique (one voice traces arpeggios of a tonic triad, another stepwise melodic lines); serene, contemplative character.

• Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978) — Armenian-Soviet; colorful, folk-inflected orchestral works; Gayane ballet (1942; includes the “Sabre Dance”), Spartacus ballet (1954; Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia widely known); Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto. He was born in Tbilisi and studied in Moscow. His other notable works include the Masquerade Suite, and his Violin Concerto was premiered by David Oistrakh. Some records also note that he began composing in the 1920s after first studying the cello, and that his music often blends Armenian and oriental folk idioms.
  • Gayane
    • Sabre Dance — Aram Khachaturian’s fast-paced orchestral piece from the ballet Gayane, especially associated with the frantic wedding-scene energy of the work’s famous finale. It is one of the best-known concert excerpts from the ballet, with a driving xylophone line and trombone slides, and has seen later pop-culture use.
• Philip Glass (b. 1937) — American; leading figure of minimalism; Einstein on the Beach (1976; landmark opera co-created with Robert Wilson); Satyagraha (1980), Akhnaten (1984); Glassworks; film scores for Koyaanisqatsi (1982) and The Hours (2002). His works often use repetitive structures; notable stage works include the chamber opera The Photographer and the trilogy often called the Portrait Trilogy. He also wrote piano concertos and frequently collaborated with Robert Wilson, and his music may feature chanting and Knee Plays.

  • Glassworks — Glassworks is a Philip Glass chamber-music album featuring pieces such as “Opening,” “Rubric,” and “Island.” Its title is partly taken from the composer’s surname, and the opening piano track repeats four-bar patterns in a minimalist style.

  • Phillip Glass — Philip Glass is an American minimalist composer known for operas and symphonies such as Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, and Akhnaten. His music often uses repetitive patterns, additive rhythms, and collaborations with major directors like Robert Wilson.

• John Adams (b. 1947) — American; minimalist and post-minimalist; operas Nixon in China and Doctor Atomic; Harmonielehre; Short Ride in a Fast Machine. John Coolidge Adams is also known for Harmonium, Shaker Loops, On the Transmigration of Souls, The Death of Klinghoffer, and A Flowering Tree.

  • Shaker Loops — Shaker Loops is a string-orchestra work by John Adams whose title refers to the Shakers. Its movement titles and wave-like writing reflect the composer’s interest in rippling motion and Shaker dancing.

  • Short Ride in a Fast Machine — Short Ride in a Fast Machine is John Adams’s brief orchestral fanfare driven by a woodblock pulse. Adams described it as the thrill of riding in a fast sports car, and it is often treated as a postminimalist showpiece.

  • The Chairman Dances — The Chairman Dances is John Adams’s foxtrot for orchestra drawn from Nixon in China. Its nostalgic, gramophone-like ending and banquet scene music recall Mao and Jiang Qing from the opera’s third act.

  • On the Transmigration of Souls — On the Transmigration of Souls is a Pulitzer-winning orchestral memorial for the September 11 attacks, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers. It combines orchestra, chorus, children’s chorus, prerecorded tape, and a soundscape of names, voices, and missing-person text.

  • Harmonielehre — Harmonielehre is the title of John Adams’s orchestral work inspired by a dream and named for Arnold Schoenberg’s music-theory text. The title itself is German for the theory of harmony.

• Carl Orff (1895–1982) — German; Carmina Burana (1937; scenic cantata setting medieval Latin and Middle High German poems; “O Fortuna” is ubiquitous); developed the Orff Schulwerk music education approach. He also wrote other stage works including Trionfo di Afrodite, Antigonae, and The Play of the End of Time.
  • Carmina Burana — Carl Orff’s 1936 scenic cantata based on a medieval collection of goliard songs and Latin poems. It is organized into sections such as Springtime, In the Tavern (In Taberna), and The Court of Love (The Courts of Love), and is especially known for the opening and closing chorus “O Fortuna.” Individual movements such as “Olim lacus colueram” and “Dulcissime” are also well known. The work is noted for its dramatic choral and orchestral writing.

    • Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra — Carmina Burana is Carl Orff’s scenic cantata built from medieval goliard songs, including O Fortuna. It is structured in sections such as Springtime, In the Tavern, and The Court of Love.

    • Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis — Carmina Burana is Carl Orff’s cantata based on medieval goliard poems and known for the opening and closing chorus “O Fortuna.” Its sections include “In Spring,” “In the Tavern,” and “Court of Love,” with pieces like “Olim lacus colueram” and “Ave Formosissima.”

    • O Fortuna — “O Fortuna” is the opening and closing movement of Carl Orff’s cantata Carmina Burana, setting a medieval Latin poem that personifies Fortune as a changing ruler of the world. Its stark choral opening builds into a dramatic crescendo, and the text laments fate’s whirling wheel and humanity’s helplessness before it.

  • Trionfi
    • The Triumph of Aphrodite — The Triumph of Aphrodite is the third part of Carl Orff’s dramatic triptych beginning with Carmina Burana and Catulli Carmina. It ends with the goddess Aphrodite appearing in a celebration of conjugal love.
  • Orff — Carmina Burana (1937) — Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata for soloists, choruses, and orchestra; it was first staged in Frankfurt in 1937 and is also performed in concert.²¹
• Dmitri Kabalevsky — Dmitri Kabalevsky was a Soviet 20th-century Russian composer known for accessible concert works, children’s songs, pedagogical writings, and popular student repertoire. His music includes piano concertos, symphonies, The Comedians, the Taras Family, Colas Breugnon, and a set of 24 preludes for piano.
  • Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky — Dmitri Kabalevsky was a Soviet composer and music educator associated with socialist realism. His style stressed clear tonality and energetic rhythm. He wrote works for piano, orchestra, and stage, including The Comedians suite, Colas Breugnon, The Taras Family, a first piano sonata, and a second piano concerto.

• Maurice Duruflé — Maurice Duruflé was a French composer and organist known for his refined modal style and careful reworking of Gregorian chant. His best-known works include the Requiem, which draws on Gregorian chant and notably omits the Dies Irae, the motet Ubi Caritas, and the Messe cum jubilo; his Requiem is often compared with Fauré’s.

• Nikolai Myaskovsky — Nikolai Myaskovsky was a Soviet composer known for 27 symphonies and for teaching Aram Khachaturian at the Moscow Conservatory. His Tenth Symphony, inspired by The Bronze Horseman, and his use of the DSCH-style note motif are recurring clues.

• Bohuslav Martinu — Bohuslav Martinů was the Czech neoclassical composer of six symphonies, Memorial to Lidice, and The Epic of Gilgamesh. His music often combines lyrical melody with rhythmic bite, and he also wrote works such as La Revue de Cuisine and Symphonic Fantasias.

• Michael Tippett — Sir Michael Tippett was a twentieth-century British composer of operas and orchestral works, best known for A Child of Our Time, an oratorio shaped by Kristallnacht and American spirituals. Other major works include King Priam, The Midsummer Marriage, The Knot Garden, The Rose Lake, and the Concerto for Double String Orchestra. His music is often noted for modernist harmony and dramatic, symbolic subjects; King Priam premiered at Coventry Cathedral. He also wrote four symphonies.
  • A Child of Our Time — A Child of Our Time is Michael Tippett’s oratorio inspired by the story of Herschel Grynszpan and the Nazi killing that followed Kristallnacht. Its libretto incorporates Negro spirituals such as “Steal Away” and “Go Down, Moses,” and its finale includes the line about knowing one’s shadow and light.

Post-War and Contemporary

• Postwar Experiment: Sound, Electronics, and Notation
  • Edgard Varèse (1883–1965) — French-American; pioneer of electronic and noise-based music; Ionisation (1931; first major Western work for percussion ensemble alone); Amériques; Poème électronique (1958; composed for the Philips Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair); influenced Zappa and later rock musicians. His music also includes Density 21.5, Octandre, Deserts, and Equatorial, and it is often associated with organized sound, striking percussion writing, and unusual instrumental color such as flute and theremin.

    • Density 21.5 — Density 21.5 is an atonal solo flute work by Edgar Varèse. Its title refers to the density of the platinum flute for which it was written.

    • Poème électronique — Poème électronique is Edgard Varèse’s sound collage for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. It mixes prerecorded sirens, bells, chimes, voices, and other sounds over hundreds of loudspeakers.

    • Arcana — Arcana are hidden or secret things, a name also used for the major and minor divisions of a tarot deck. Varèse’s orchestral work Arcana takes its title from Paracelsus and is built around a repeated note pattern.

  • Luciano Berio (1925–2003) — Italian; Sinfonia (1968–69; third movement superimposes a vast collage on the Scherzo of Mahler’s Second Symphony); Sequenza series for solo instruments; electronic works at Studio di Fonologia. He was an Italian avant-garde composer whose music often blends collage, quotation, and extended techniques. Other works include Folk Songs, Opus Number Zoo, and A King Listens.

  • Milton Babbitt (1916–2011) — American; total serialist; Three Compositions for Piano (1947; among the earliest total serial works); Philomel (1964; soprano and electronic tape); associated with Princeton; extended Schoenberg’s row technique to all parameters. He was also a theorist whose writings and music helped define American serialism, and he wrote intellectually demanding electronic and chamber works. Other notable pieces include Semi-Simple Variations. He is closely associated with the controversial essay “Who Cares If You Listen?”

  • John Cage (1912–1992) — American; 4’33” (1952; three movements of notated silence, any instrument, any duration; reframes environmental sound as music); invented the prepared piano technique (Sonatas and Interludes, 1946–48); Music of Changes; Imaginary Landscape series; central figure of the New York School and Fluxus. Also known as John Milton Cage Jr.; associated with chance operations, aleatoric methods, the I Ching, collaborations with Merce Cunningham, and broad influence on 20th-century experimental music.

    • 4’33” — John Cage’s three-movement silent composition in which the performer does not play for the title duration, making the ambient sounds of the performance space part of the work. Its title refers to the premiere’s length; Cage originally associated it with the working title Silent Prayer. David Tudor gave the first performance in 1952 at Maverick Concert Hall, using the piano lid’s opening and closing to mark the movements. The piece is often linked to Cage’s interest in chance, silence, the anechoic chamber, and Zen aesthetics.

    • As Slow as Possible — As Slow as Possible is John Cage’s famously open-ended work, often discussed through the 639-year organ performance in Halberstadt. The piece is a landmark of indeterminate music and is associated with Cage’s experimental approach to time and performance length.

    • Imaginary Landscape — Imaginary Landscape is John Cage’s title for a series of experimental pieces using radios, buzzers, turntables, and other found sounds. The fourth piece in the series is scored for 12 radios.

    • Imaginary Landscapes — Imaginary Landscapes is John Cage’s set of five aleatoric works. Its famous entries include a first piece for turntables and a fourth piece for twelve radios.

    • Sonatas and Interludes — Sonatas and Interludes is John Cage’s cycle of twenty prepared-piano pieces inspired by Indian philosophy. The set mixes binary and ternary movements and is one of Cage’s best-known explorations of prepared-piano timbre.

    • Works
      • Imaginary Landscape No. 4 — Imaginary Landscape No. 4 is a 1951 work by John Cage for twelve radios, with musicians manipulating tuning, tone, and volume rather than traditional instruments. It is one of his experimental pieces built from structured chance and indeterminate sound. The score specifies how performers should adjust the dials.
    • Cage — 4’33” (1952) — three movements of notated silence (or more precisely, no intentional sounds) in any instrumentation; premiered by David Tudor; Cage’s intention was to frame ambient sounds as music and challenge the definition of performance; the title refers to the total duration of the premiere, though the work specifies only relative proportions.

  • Iannis Xenakis — Iannis Xenakis was a Greek modernist composer and architect whose works often combine mathematics, sound masses, and experimental notation. His pieces include Metastaseis, Pleiades, and the percussion work Psappha.

  • Harry Partch — Harry Partch was an American microtonal composer who built his own instruments and wrote in a 43-tone tuning system. His works include Genesis of a Music, The Wayward cycle, and pieces such as Delusion of the Fury and Barstow.

  • Morton Feldman — Morton Feldman was a member of the New York School of composers and is especially known for extremely long, quiet works such as String Quartet No. 2. He also wrote Rothko Chapel and the opera Neither with Samuel Beckett.

  • Pauline Oliveros — Pauline Oliveros was an American composer and electronic-music pioneer who co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center. She is especially associated with deep listening, Sonic Meditations, and experimental works built around prolonged sound and attention.

  • Luigi Nono — Luigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer associated with the Darmstadt school and the political left. His works include Intolleranza, The Suspended Song, and later pieces such as Fragmente-Stille, An Diotima and the Hay que Caminar series.

  • George Crumb — George Crumb was an American avant-garde composer known for striking, coloristic works such as Black Angels, Ancient Voices of Children, and Makrokosmos. His music often uses extended techniques, unusual instrumentation, unusual timbres, and amplified instruments, with dark, atmospheric titles such as Threnody, Star-Child, Vox Balaenae, Echoes of Time and the River, and A Haunted Landscape.
    • Chamber works
      • Black Angels — Black Angels is George Crumb’s eerie Vietnam-era chamber work subtitled Thirteen Images from the Dark Land. Written for electric string quartet, it is known for effects like “Night of the Electric Insects” and its apocalyptic sound world.
    • Makrokosmos — Makrokosmos is George Crumb’s four-volume set of amplified-piano works, named after Bartók’s Mikrokosmos. Its first two volumes are based on the zodiac, and the third adds a second piano and percussion in Music for a Summer Evening.
  • Conlon Nancarrow — Conlon Nancarrow was an American expatriate composer best known for Studies for Player Piano, a series of works of extreme rhythmic complexity written for player piano and often unplayable by human performers. He also wrote jazz-influenced pieces such as the Boogie-Woogie Suite. He lived in Mexico after fighting for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and later after being barred from the United States for communist sympathies. His unusual output later brought him wider recognition, a MacArthur award, and attention for composing for conventional instruments.
• Minimalism and Repetition
  • Steve Reich (b. 1936) — American; leading figure of minimalism; pioneered phasing technique; It’s Gonna Rain (1965; tape phasing); Drumming (1971); Music for 18 Musicians (1976); Different Trains; Tehillim. His music often uses small instrumental ensembles, recorded speech, and tightly controlled rhythmic patterns; later works include Six Pianos and speech-derived pieces built from gradual process music.

    • Clapping Music — Clapping Music is Steve Reich’s two-performer percussion piece built from a repeating African bell pattern. One player gradually shifts the pattern by phase, creating the composer’s signature minimalist effect.

    • Different Trains — Different Trains is Steve Reich’s 1988 work for string quartet and tape, divided into “America-Before the War,” “Europe-During the War,” and “After the War.” It famously uses sampled speech from Holocaust survivors and Pullman porters to shape its musical material. The piece reflects on train travel and the wartime separation of Europe and America.

    • drumming — Drumming is Steve Reich’s 1971 minimalist work, built from shifting patterns for voices and percussion. The title also points to percussion technique more generally, including rudiments and stick control.

    • Music for 18 Musicians — Music for 18 Musicians is a landmark Steve Reich composition built from a repeating cycle of eleven chords. Its scoring uses voices, pianos, marimbas, and other percussion instruments, with a metallophone signaling changes between sections.

    • Reich — Music for 18 Musicians (1974–76) — minimalist work for voices and an acoustic ensemble of clarinets, pianos, percussion, violin, and cello; its opening cycle of eleven chords supplies the harmonic material for the work’s sections.²²

  • Terry Riley — Terry Riley is an American minimalist composer best known for In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air. His music helped define minimalism through repetition, phasing, and improvisatory performance, and he also composed works such as The Harp of New Albion.

    • A Rainbow in Curved Air — Terry Riley is an American minimalist composer associated with In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air. His music also includes electronics-driven works such as Persian Surgery Dervishes and other improvisatory pieces built from repeating patterns.

    • In C — Terry Riley’s In C is a landmark early minimalist composition built from 53 short patterns that performers repeat at their own pace. It is usually accompanied by a steady eighth-note pulse, and its open instrumentation lets musicians drop out and re-enter as the piece gradually shifts.

  • La Monte Young — La Monte Young is an avant-garde composer associated with minimalism, drone music, and just intonation. His experimental works include The Well-Tuned Piano and the instruction-based Compositions 1960.

  • John Luther Adams
    • become — Become is the verb title of a work by John Luther Adams in his trilogy that includes River, Desert, and Ocean. The title also appears in other contemporary compositions, including pieces associated with Octavio Paz, John Cage, and the Seattle Symphony.

  • Julia Wolfe — Julia Wolfe is an American composer associated with Bang on a Can and the Pulitzer-winning oratorio Anthracite Fields. Her works often draw on labor history or hard-driving postminimalist textures, as in Steel Hammer, Fire in my mouth, and Dark Full Ride.

  • David Lang
    • The Little Match Girl Passion — David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion is a choral work that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music. It combines Hans Christian Andersen’s story with textures modeled on Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion.
  • Julius Eastman — Julius Eastman was an African-American minimalist composer associated with indeterminate notation and pieces such as Gay Guerrilla, Stay On It, and The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc. His music has been revived through recordings like Unjust Malaise and modern performances by ensembles such as Wild Up.
• Timbre, Spectral Writing, and New Orchestral Languages

  • Gérard Grisey (1946–1998) — French; co-founder of spectral music with Murail; Partiels (1975); Les Espaces acoustiques (1974–1985; six-work cycle).

  • Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023) — Finnish; spectral-influenced orchestration; opera L’Amour de loin (2000; premiered at Salzburg); Lichtbogen; Sept papillons for cello. Her music often combines electronics with finely graded vocal and orchestral color. Other works include Petals, Orion, Adriana Mater, Lonh, and a staged oratorio on Simone Weil and the Stations of the Cross. L’Amour de loin was the first opera by a woman staged at the Met in over a century.

  • Henri Dutilleux — Henri Dutilleux was a 20th-century French composer known for Tout un monde lointain, the cello concerto written for Mstislav Rostropovich. His output also includes the string quartet Ainsi la nuit, the song cycle Correspondances, and orchestral works such as Timbres, espace, mouvement and L’arbre des songes.

  • Krzysztof Penderecki (1933–2020) — Polish; Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960; for 52 strings; clusters and novel notation); St. Luke Passion; Polish Requiem; Symphony No. 3. An avant-garde composer whose music is noted for dense tone clusters, unusual string techniques, and striking sonorities; other works include The Devils of Loudun. Other works include Polymorphia, Stabat Mater, and the Christmas Symphony.

    • Polish Requiem — Krzysztof Penderecki’s large-scale sacred choral work, premiered in 1984 and associated with Solidarity and Polish national mourning. Its movements include the Lacrimosa, Kyrie, Agnus Dei, and Dies Irae, and it incorporates the hymn “Holy God” or “Święty Boże.” The work commemorates figures including Maximilian Kolbe and Cardinal Wyszynski, and Penderecki later added a section after the death of John Paul II.

    • Polymorphia — Polymorphia is a Penderecki work for 48 string instruments that uses graphic notation and sound clusters instead of traditional melody. It is divided into sections contrasting timbres such as metal and wood.

    • St. Luke Passion — Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion is a major twentieth-century choral work that uses the Stabat Mater text and the B-A-C-H motif. Written in a stark, modern style, it helped establish Penderecki’s reputation through its massive choral forces and intense sonorities.

    • Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima — Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima is a string composition by Krzysztof Penderecki for fifty-two strings. Originally titled 8’37’’, it became famous for its tone clusters, graphic notation, and later dedication to the victims of Hiroshima.

  • Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) — Russian; polystylist blending tonal and atonal languages; Concerto Grosso No. 1 (1977); four symphonies; Viola Concerto. He was a Soviet composer known for polystylism, blending parody, pastiche, and older forms in works such as his concerti grossi and symphonies. He also wrote concertos and ballets including Peer Gynt, and his music often appears in questions about postmodern Soviet composition.

  • Górecki, Henryk (1933–2010) — Polish; Symphony No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” (Op. 36, 1976; for soprano and orchestra; became a surprise bestseller in 1992 recording with Dawn Upshaw); Beatus Vir. Other works include Miserere, Totus Tuus, and a harpsichord concerto.
    • Symphony No. 3, Op. 36, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
      • the second movement of Symphony of Sorrowful Songs — This slow central movement of Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs sets a prayer to the Virgin Mary written on a prison wall by Helena Wanda Błażusiakówna. Its closing words are an Ave Maria sung on a repeated pitch.
    • Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
      • Symphony of Sorrowful Songs — Henryk Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is his Third Symphony, a late twentieth-century work for soprano and orchestra. It is a deeply mournful, slow, meditative choral symphony that set lament texts and Marian texts, including a mother’s plea written on a Gestapo jail wall and a Polish folk song. Its three movements draw on Polish sources and sacred text, and the opening movement builds from a low-string canon. The work became unexpectedly famous after a 1991 recording with Dawn Upshaw, especially the London Sinfonietta performance.

  • Hans Werner Henze — Hans Werner Henze was a German composer associated with left-wing politics and operas such as The Bassarids and Elegy for Young Lovers. He also wrote The Raft of the Medusa and Boulevard Solitude, and was known for controversial premieres and public political gestures.

  • Einojuhani Rautavaara — Einojuhani Rautavaara was a Finnish composer known for blending twelve-tone writing with lush romanticism, as in his third symphony and his work A Requiem in Our Time. He first became widely known for Symphony No. 7, subtitled Angel of Light, and his best-known orchestral work, Cantus Arcticus, uses recorded birdsong.

    • Cantus Arcticus — Cantus Arcticus is Einojuhani Rautavaara’s “Concerto for Birds and Orchestra,” a concert work using recorded bird calls. It is especially associated with recordings of whooper swans and shore larks from the Arctic Circle.

    • Angel of Light — Angel of Light is the subtitle of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Symphony No. 7, one of the Finnish composer’s best-known works. Rautavaara is also associated with Cantus Arcticus and lush, often mystical orchestral writing that blends modern and Romantic colors.

  • Esa-Pekka Salonen — Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish composer and conductor known for his violin concerto for Leila Josefowicz, whose movements are titled Mirage, Pulse I, Pulse II, and Adieu. His music often appears alongside his work as a conductor of major orchestras. He has led the San Francisco Symphony and previously served as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Other works and projects include Wing on Wing, Floof, and collaborations tied to the Philharmonia and other modern orchestral festivals.
• Global Encounters and Contemporary Concert Music

  • Tōru Takemitsu (1930–1996) — Japanese composer. November Steps (1967), for biwa, shakuhachi, and orchestra, places Japanese instrumental traditions in dialogue with a Western orchestra. Listen for contrasting timbres and approaches to musical time, rather than assuming the solo instruments simply adopt concerto roles.²³ He was widely known in the West for works such as Requiem and also scored Kurosawa’s Ran. His music ranges from orchestral and chamber writing to taped and atmospheric works such as Water Music and Rain Coming. Stravinsky praised his Requiem, and Debussy was a major influence on his style.

  • Lou Harrison — Lou Harrison was an American composer whose work drew heavily on the music of the Pacific Rim. He studied with Schoenberg, worked with John Cage, and helped bring gamelan music into the United States.

  • Tan Dun — Tan Dun is a Chinese composer known for blending film music, opera, and “organic music” with unusual instruments such as water gongs and soda bottles. He wrote the scores for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, as well as works like Marco Polo and the Water Concerto.

  • Unsuk Chin — Unsuk Chin is a Korean-born composer based in Germany, known for orchestral and operatic works that blend modernist techniques with vivid color. Her works include the opera Alice in Wonderland, the sheng concerto Šu, and pieces influenced by pansori and electronics.

  • Thomas Adès (b. 1971) — British; opera The Tempest (2004, after Shakespeare); Asyla; Polaris; conductor and pianist as well as composer. He is also known for the operas Powder Her Face and The Exterminating Angel, and for concert works such as the Violin Concerto Concentric Paths.

  • Judith Weir — Judith Weir is a British composer who became the first woman Master of the Queen’s Music. Her works include A Night at the Chinese Opera, King Harald’s Saga, and music associated with royal and ceremonial occasions.

  • Ellen Taaffe Zwilich — American composer; Concerto Grosso 1985, for chamber orchestra, responds to Handel’s Sonata in D for violin and continuo. Its five movements offer a concise example of a contemporary composer reworking a historical model; compare the handling of recurring material with a Baroque concerto grosso.²⁴ Known for concertos, symphonic writing, and works such as Peanuts Gallery. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

  • Caroline Shaw — Caroline Shaw is an American composer and vocalist known for writing Partita for 8 Voices for Roomful of Teeth, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her style often mixes vocal writing, historical allusion, and tight harmonic patterns, as in The Isle.
    • Partita for 8 Voices — Partita for 8 Voices is Caroline Shaw’s a cappella work that won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Its four movements are named for Baroque dances.
  • Jennifer Higdon — Contemporary American composer known for blue cathedral, City Scape, and Concertos 4-3. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning Violin Concerto was written for Hilary Hahn, and her percussion, viola, and harp concertos won Grammy Awards. Her concertos often use vivid programmatic movement titles such as “Fly Forward,” “Peachtree Street,” and “1726,” and her work has references to the Curtis Institute.
    • Violin Concerto
      • Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto — Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto was written for Hilary Hahn and named its movements “1726,” “Chaconni,” and “Fly Forward.” Its premiere famously had to be restarted after Hahn misremembered a passage in the finale.

  • Jessie Montgomery — Jessie Montgomery is an American composer whose works include Strum, Starburst, and Banner. She became composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has written orchestral music that blends classical writing with folk and protest material.

  • Joan Tower — Joan Tower is an American composer associated with the Da Capo Chamber Players and with the Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman series. Her music includes Petroushskates, Concerto for Orchestra, and Made in America, and she dedicated works to Marin Alsop.

  • John Harbison — John Harbison is an American composer whose output includes choral and chamber works such as The Great Gatsby, The Flight into Egypt, and the Milosz Songs. He is also known for contemporary ensemble writing and for setting texts by modern poets, including Montale.

  • Osvaldo Golijov — Osvaldo Golijov is an Argentine composer known for Ainadamar and the song cycle Ayre. He also took part in the Passion 2000 project with a Mark-based work for large percussion forces and a dancer.

  • Thea Musgrave — Thea Musgrave is a Scottish composer known especially for her operas. Her most frequently performed work is Mary, Queen of Scots, and she is noted as the only woman on the Cambridge Factfinder’s list of significant composers.

  • Colin Matthews — Colin Matthews is a British composer best known for his extra movement “Pluto, the Renewer” for Holst’s The Planets. He also wrote works such as Broken Symmetry, Suns Dance, and Tanglewood Fanfare.
• Electronic music
  • musique concrète — Musique concrète is a style of electroacoustic or experimental composition built from recorded sounds used as raw material rather than traditional notation alone. Pierre Schaeffer pioneered it, and early examples used tape splicing, looping, speed changes, and reversal in mid-century studio techniques. Later composers such as Delia Derbyshire and Karlheinz Stockhausen used its sampling-like methods in experimental works.
• electronic music studios
  • San Francisco Tape Music Center — The San Francisco Tape Music Center was an experimental music studio founded by Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnick. It later moved to Mills College and was closely tied to early Buchla synthesizer work and Terry Riley’s In C.
• Tape music
  • magnetic tape — Magnetic tape is the recording medium behind tape loops, cassette music, and early electronic composition. Quizbowl clues often mention Steve Reich, William Basinski, Alvin Lucier, and works like It’s Gonna Rain, Different Trains, and I Am Sitting in a Room.

• Andre Previn — Andre Previn was an American pianist, conductor, and composer known for work in jazz, classical music, and film scores. He conducted major orchestras and wrote operas including A Streetcar Named Desire and Brief Encounter.

• Johan de Meij — Johan de Meij is a Dutch composer known for his first symphony, The Lord of the Rings. The work was written for wind band and later transcribed for orchestra.

• Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji — English-Parsi composer known for extremely long, densely textured, technically extreme piano works, especially Opus Clavicembalisticum, a notorious marathon composition often used to identify him. Other notable works include Sequentia Cyclica. His music and criticism made him a cult figure among admirers of late Romantic and modernist virtuosity.

• Karl Jenkins — Karl Jenkins is a Welsh composer known for Adiemus, Palladio, and The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. The clues also reference his Stabat Mater and the use of the duduk in his sacred music.

• Rodion Shchedrin — Rodion Shchedrin is a Russian composer known for the ballet Carmen Suite, created for Maya Plisetskaya. He also wrote ballet adaptations of Anna Karenina and Lady with a Small Dog.

• Moondog — Moondog was the stage name of Louis Thomas Hardin, a blind New York street composer and percussionist known for his Viking helmet and unusual homemade instruments. His music mixed minimalist, jazz, and classical elements and influenced later composers such as Philip Glass.

• Peter Maxwell Davies — Peter Maxwell Davies was a British composer associated with works such as Eight Songs for a Mad King, An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise, and the Strathclyde Concertos. He also helped found the St. Magnus Festival and co-founded the Pierrot Players with Harrison Birtwistle.

• Peter Schickele — Peter Schickele was a composer, bassoonist, and musical satirist who created the fictional P.D.Q. Bach. He studied at Swarthmore, hosted radio programs, and narrated Peter and the Wolf. His work also includes arrangements used in Fantasia 2000 and Where the Wild Things Are.

  • PDQ Bach — PDQ Bach is the comic alter ego of Peter Schickele, presented as a fictional and hopelessly inept son of Johann Sebastian Bach. The character’s catalog includes parody works such as The Seasonings, The Abduction of Figaro, and the 1712 Overture.

  • P.D.Q. Bach — P. D. Q. Bach is the comic fictional composer created by Peter Schickele as a parody of the Bach family. The persona is associated with absurd works and instruments such as the tromboon, as well as spoof titles like The Abduction of Figaro.

• Wendy Carlos — Wendy Carlos is the electronic-music composer who popularized the Moog synthesizer with Switched-On Bach and later scored films such as A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. She also wrote experimental tuning pieces and albums like Sonic Seasonings and The Well-Tempered Synthesizer.

• spectral music — Spectral music, or spectralism, is a compositional style that bases harmony and structure on the acoustic properties of sound, especially timbre and overtones. Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail are major names associated with the style.

• John Tavener — John Tavener was a British composer of sacred and Orthodox-influenced works such as The Protecting Veil and Song for Athene. His music often draws on religious texts and chant-like sonorities, and Song for Athene became especially famous after Princess Diana’s funeral. The Lamb is another familiar choral work.

• Arturo Márquez — Arturo Márquez is a Mexican composer best known for Danzón No. 2, a work often called Mexico’s second national anthem. His music often draws on Mexican popular styles such as mariachi and Veracruz-inspired danzón.

• Eric Whitacre — American contemporary composer known for lush choral works such as Lux Aurumque, Cloudburst, Sleep, and Water Night. His style features dense divisi writing, pandiatonic harmony, and sonorities built from fourths and fifths. He also organized the Virtual Choir projects, which brought together singers from around the world online. Later works such as Deep Field show his interest in large-scale choral color and visual inspiration.

• Frederic Rzewski
  • The People United Will Never Be Defeated — The People United Will Never Be Defeated is Frederic Rzewski’s set of thirty-six piano variations on Sergio Ortega’s Chilean protest song. The piece is famous for its extended virtuoso demands and for quoting a politically charged anthem of solidarity.

• Morten Lauridsen — Morten Lauridsen is an American composer especially known for lush choral works such as O Magnum Mysterium, Lux Aeterna, and Les Chansons des Roses. He has long been associated with the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

• Ludovico Einaudi — Ludovico Einaudi is an Italian pianist and composer known for minimalist, film-friendly pieces such as “Nuvole Bianche.” His albums include Nightbook and Seven Days Walking, the latter performed in 2019 at the Barbican Center.

• Max Richter — Max Richter is a post-minimalist composer known for On the Nature of Daylight, The Blue Notebooks, and Sleep. His music has appeared in film and television, and he is also known for recomposing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and for collaborations involving spoken text and ambient textures.

• Michael Nyman — Michael Nyman is a British minimalist composer known for film scores such as The Piano, Gattaca, and works for Peter Greenaway films. His music includes “The Heart Asks Pleasure First,” “Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds,” and other widely used concert and soundtrack pieces.

• Yellow River Cantata — The Yellow River Cantata is a patriotic Chinese choral work associated with Guo Moruo’s wartime nationalism and later orchestral arrangements. Its movements praise the river, boatmen, and resistance, and it has been performed in major state spectacles.

• John Zorn — John Zorn is an avant-garde saxophonist and composer who founded Tzadik Records and leads projects such as Masada and Naked City. His work ranges from klezmer-inspired “Books” and the Big Gundown tribute to Morricone to experimental albums like Spillane and Tractatus Musico-Philosphicus.

• John Mackey — John Mackey is a contemporary composer known for energetic wind-band works such as Kingfishers Catch Fire, Wine-Dark Sea, and Aurora Awakes. He has also been associated with Pixar-style clue confusions in other contexts, but the evidence here points to the composer rather than the football player.
  • Wine-Dark Sea — Wine-Dark Sea is a symphony for wind band by John Mackey, taking its title from the Homeric epithet for the sea. Its movements include titles such as “Immortal thread, so weak,” “The attentions of souls,” and “Hubris,” and it uses striking orchestral effects like a spoon dragged across strings.
• Bang on a Can — Bang on a Can is the New York contemporary music collective founded by David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe. It is known for marathon concerts, commissioning new works, and festivals at Mass MoCA.

Film, Television, and Crossover Concert Music

Connect composers of screen scores and crossover works to the concert traditions they draw on.

• Hildur Guðnadóttir — Hildur Guðnadóttir is an Icelandic composer known for film and television scores including Chernobyl, Joker, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and Tár.

• Yann Tiersen — Yann Tiersen is a contemporary French composer best known for film scores, especially Amélie and Good Bye, Lenin! His music often mixes chamber textures, accordion, and a minimalist, nostalgic style.

• John Williams
  • Duel of the Fates — “Duel of the Fates” is John Williams’s choral battle theme from The Phantom Menace. Its vocal lines draw on fragments of the Welsh poem Cad Goddeu, sung in Sanskrit, and it is associated with the duel between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul.

• Jóhann Jóhannsson — Jóhann Jóhannsson was the Icelandic composer behind scores for The Theory of Everything, Sicario, Arrival, and Mandy. He also made experimental solo works and died in 2018 before the release of some later projects.

• Michel Legrand — Michel Legrand was a French composer who scored films such as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Yentl, Lola, and The Thomas Crown Affair. He is also known for the song cycle “The Windmills of Your Mind.”

• Nino Rota — Nino Rota was an Italian composer best known for film scores, especially for The Godfather and for several Federico Fellini films. He also wrote concert music and the opera Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, showing that his career extended beyond cinema. His style made him one of the best-known Italian film composers of the twentieth century.

• Miklós Rózsa — Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian film composer known for major Hollywood scores. His work includes Spellbound, Ben-Hur, El Cid, and the score for The Green Berets.

• Lalo Schifrin — Lalo Schifrin is the Argentine-American composer best known for the Mission: Impossible theme, as well as scores for Dirty Harry, Cool Hand Luke, and Mannix. He also arranged jazz projects and orchestral works that move easily between film, television, and concert music.

• Paul McCartney
  • Works
    • Standing Stone — Standing Stone is Paul McCartney’s orchestral composition, written with help from computer MIDI tools. It reached the top of the Billboard classical chart and is one of his later forays into serious classical music.

Works by Musical Form

Recognize works through their formal organization and musical features.

Musical Forms and Comparisons

The historical chapters place named works with their composers. Here, compare the forms and conventions shared by different works.

Symphonies

• symphonies

  • first symphonies — A composer’s first symphony is often used to mark an initial major work in the genre. Examples include Mahler’s Titan, Bernstein’s Jeremiah, Brahms’s First, and Schumann’s Spring.

  • fourth symphony — The fourth symphony is a common music clue because composers such as Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Prokofiev all wrote notable works with that number. Mahler’s Fourth includes a soprano in its final movement, while Brahms’s Fourth is famous for its passacaglia finale and Prokofiev revised his Fourth after an earlier version under a different opus number.

  • Ninth symphonies — Ninth symphonies are a famous musical touchstone because composers from Beethoven to Dvořák, Bruckner, Mahler, and others are linked with the so-called curse of the ninth. Beethoven’s Ninth, with its “Ode to Joy” finale, is the best-known example.

  • second symphonies — Second symphonies are a common focus for clues because many major composers wrote famous works in that number, including Mahler’s “Resurrection.” The set also includes Borodin’s B minor symphony, Elgar’s E-flat major symphony, and other second symphonies by composers such as Brahms, Ives, and Prokofiev.

  • Symphony in C — Symphony in C is the title used for several orchestral works, including the well-known symphonies by Stravinsky, Dukas, and Bizet. These works are often identified by their simple key signature and by details such as unusual movement counts or later ballet adaptations.

  • Symphony No. 8 — Symphony No. 8 can refer to famous works by composers such as Mahler, Beethoven, Schubert, and Dvořák. Clues may mention Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand,” Beethoven’s dance-like Eighth, or Schubert’s unfinished symphony.

  • Third Symphony — A third symphony is a composer’s Symphony No. 3, such as Beethoven’s Eroica, Mendelssohn’s Scottish, or Schumann’s Rhenish. Other numbered third symphonies include works by Bernstein, Saint-Saëns, Schubert, Brahms, and Gorecki.

  • unfinished symphonies — Unfinished symphonies are works left incomplete, with famous examples including Schubert’s Eighth and Beethoven’s Tenth. Other composers often mentioned are Bruckner, Borodin, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and Sibelius.

• Symphony No. 3 — Symphony No. 3 is a common symphonic benchmark, with famous examples by Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Górecki. The best-known clues include Beethoven’s Eroica, Brahms’s F-A-F symphony, and Copland’s finale based on “Fanfare for the Common Man.”

  • Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, is the Eroica Symphony and marks the start of his middle period. It was originally dedicated to Napoleon and includes a famous second-movement funeral march.

  • Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 — Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 is his longest symphony and is famous for its vast, programmatic structure. Key clues include the alto solo in the fourth movement, the setting of Nietzsche, and the fifth-movement song “Es sungen drei Engel”.

  • Organ Symphony — Camille Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 in C minor, known as the Organ Symphony, was dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt. It is notable for its prominent organ writing in the finale and for using both pipe organ and piano as orchestral colors, compressing the usual four-movement symphonic design into two large parts. Its grand closing movement and massive organ chords make it one of the most recognizable symphonies in the repertoire.

  • Rhenish — Schumann’s third symphony is nicknamed the “Rhenish” Symphony because it was inspired by the Rhine region and its riverine character. The work is a five-movement symphony in E-flat major associated with Schumann’s stay in the Rhineland with Clara.

  • Rhenish Symphony — Robert Schumann’s Third Symphony in E-flat major, nicknamed the Rhenish Symphony, was written after his move to Düsseldorf and was inspired in part by a visit to Cologne Cathedral. It has five movements, with energetic outer sections, a slow Ländler-like scherzo, and a solemn fourth movement originally written for the elevation of the Archbishop of Cologne, noted for its cathedral-like atmosphere.

  • Symphony #3 — Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 3, The Camp Meeting, won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1947. Its sections such as “Old Folks Gatherin’,” “Children’s Day,” and “Communion” evoke an American revival service.

• Symphony No. 4 — Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is his shortest symphony and ends with a soprano singing about a child’s vision of heaven. It also opens with sleigh bells and includes a notable solo violin in its scherzo. Other symphonies numbered four include Nielsen’s work with its duel of timpani and Ives’s famously complex Fourth Symphony. The number is also shared by Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, which is often identified by its E minor finale passacaglia.

  • Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 — Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is the symphony whose finale sets “Das himmlische Leben” for soprano. Its clues include sleigh bells in the opening movement and the Ruhevoll slow movement.

  • Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 — Mahler’s Fourth Symphony is the last of his symphonies to set texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Its final movement features the soprano song “Das himmlische Leben,” which describes a heavenly feast and childlike innocence.

  • Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony — Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony opens with the famous Fate motif in the brass and is marked by a melancholy second movement. The symphony’s slow movement begins with an oboe solo in B-flat minor and is one of Tchaikovsky’s best-known orchestral works.

  • Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler — Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G major is the composer’s final symphony to use a song from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Its last movement features a soprano solo and ends with “Das himmlische Leben,” while the scherzo gives the solo violin scordatura tuning.

  • Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 — Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 is the B-flat minor symphony famous for its Fate motif and dramatic brass fanfare opening. Its scherzo is largely pizzicato, and the finale quotes the Russian folk song “In the Field a Birch Tree Stood.”

  • The Inextinguishable Symphony — Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4 is The Inextinguishable Symphony, a four-movement work played attacca and known for its timpani duel finale. Its progressive tonality moves from D minor toward an E major ending, reflecting Nielsen’s belief that music is life.

• symphony
  • 6th symphony
    • 6th symphonies — These are sixth symphonies, a number associated with Haydn’s Le Matin, Mahler’s hammer-blow symphony, and Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique. Beethoven’s Pastoral and several other programmatic works are also numbered six.

  • Ninth Symphony — The Ninth Symphony is the famous “cursed” symphony number associated with Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, Schubert’s Great C Major, and Mahler’s late symphonies. It is a standard clue for the number nine rather than a single composer’s work.

  • seventh symphonies — The seventh symphony is a recurring form in classical music, including major examples by Beethoven, Mahler, Sibelius, Shostakovich, and others. These works are often identified by distinctive nicknames such as the Song of the Night, the Leningrad, and the Seventh by Sibelius.

  • seventh symphony — The seventh symphony is a common quizbowl target because it can refer either to Beethoven’s A major Seventh Symphony or Bruckner’s E major Seventh Symphony. Beethoven’s work is famous for the movement Wagner called the “apotheosis of dance,” while Bruckner’s uses a grander late-Romantic orchestral palette.

  • sixth symphonies — Sixth symphonies include especially famous examples by Beethoven, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, and Nielsen. These works are often identified by nicknames such as the Pastoral, Tragic, Pathétique, and Hammerklavier-associated if not actually named that way.

  • sixth symphony — The sixth symphony is a favored quizbowl number because it links Beethoven’s Pastoral with Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique and Mahler’s Tragic. Clues often mention Beethoven’s “Scene by the Brook,” the bassoon opening of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, and the limping 5/4 waltz in Tchaikovsky’s sixth.

Concertos

• clarinet concertos — Clarinet concertos are works for solo clarinet and orchestra, and standard examples include Mozart’s A major concerto for Anton Stadler and Copland’s concerto for Benny Goodman. Other well-known examples include concertos by Weber, Carl Nielsen, John Adams, and John Corigliano.

• concerto

  • clarinet concerto — A clarinet concerto is a concerto for solo clarinet and orchestra, with famous examples by Mozart, Weber, Copland, Nielsen, Spohr, and John Adams. Clues may mention unusual soloists such as Aage Oxenvad or Anton Stadler and movements titled in response to historical events or nicknames.

  • Concerto grosso — The concerto grosso is a Baroque instrumental genre that contrasts a small concertino of soloists with the larger ripieno ensemble. Corelli’s Opus 6, including the Christmas Concerto, is the best-known model, and later examples were written by Handel, Vaughan Williams, and Schnittke.
    • sinfonia concertante — A sinfonia concertante is a Classical-era hybrid that features multiple soloists and orchestra, descended from the concerto grosso. Mozart’s E-flat major work for violin and viola is the best-known example, and questions often mention the disputed K. 297b orchestration.
  • piano concertos — Multi-movement works for solo piano and orchestra. The piano concerto genre often features a cadenza and orchestral introductions or transitions that highlight the keyboard soloist, and the soloist may enter early in large-scale virtuoso dialogue with the orchestra. Major examples include Mozart’s 27 numbered concertos, Beethoven’s five concertos, Brahms’s two concertos, Grieg’s only concerto, Prokofiev’s concertos, Bartók’s concertos, and Rachmaninoff’s concertos, especially the bell-opening Second Piano Concerto. Famous individual works include Mozart’s “Jeunehomme,” Beethoven’s “Emperor,” and Grieg’s concerto, which imitates Schumann’s A minor concerto.

    • Beethoven’s piano concertos — Beethoven’s piano concertos are the five major concertos for solo piano and orchestra, including the Emperor Concerto and the work paired with the Choral Fantasia at its premiere. They are central repertory pieces for virtuoso soloists and are often discussed through Beethoven’s own cadenzas.

    • Emperor Concerto — Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto is his Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, and the last piano concerto he composed. It is famous for its grand opening orchestral chords and quasi-cadenzas, with a striking solo entrance often linked to his worsening deafness. The concerto was dedicated to Archduke Rudolph, and the nickname reportedly came from a French soldier’s exclamation at a performance.

    • Piano Concerto No. 1 by Johannes Brahms — Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor is the composer’s first keyboard concerto and a famously massive Romantic concerto. Its slow movement has often been linked to Clara Schumann, and the work is associated with Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein, and the nickname “Emperor” by comparison to Beethoven’s concerto.

    • Piano Concerto No. 2 — Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor begins with the solo piano alone, sounding like tolling bells. Saint-Saëns also wrote a Piano Concerto No. 2, an unusual three-movement work whose finale is a tarantella.

      • Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor — Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, opens with bell-like chords and a low F in the solo part. Written after his recovery from the failure of his First Symphony and dedicated to Nikolai Dahl, it became one of his best-known works. Its lyrical second movement is especially famous, and its melody was later used in “All by Myself”; the concerto was also made especially well known through Brief Encounter.

      • Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 — Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor is the famous keyboard concerto associated with its opening tolling chords and low F ostinato. The work was dedicated to Nikolai Dahl after treatment for depression, and its second movement draws on a romance written for the Skalon sisters.

    • piano concertos by Johannes Brahms — Johannes Brahms’s piano concertos are the two large works for piano and orchestra in D minor and B-flat major. They include the concerto with the famous horn opening and the one associated with Glenn Gould’s controversial performance of the first concerto.

    • piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven — These Beethoven works include the “Emperor” Concerto in E-flat major, the Fourth Concerto in G major, and the early concertos for piano and orchestra. Clues point to the piano concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven, especially the dramatic openings and contrasting slow movements of the later concertos.

    • piano concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven — Beethoven’s piano concertos are the five works for keyboard and orchestra that include the Emperor Concerto and the concerto that begins with solo piano unaccompanied. They are central repertoire pieces associated with Clara Schumann, Glenn Gould, and the composer’s mature orchestral style.

    • piano concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Mozart’s piano concertos are the 27 works for keyboard and orchestra that include the “Jeunehomme,” “Coronation,” and D minor concertos. They range from elegant early pieces based on Johann Christian Bach to later works that became staples of the Classical repertoire.

    • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s piano concertos — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s piano concertos are the set of 27 concertos for solo keyboard and orchestra. They include the famous “Jeunehomme” and “Coronation” concertos; the 21st concerto became especially famous through Elvira Madigan. The set often features double-exposition first movements, and notable individual movements include unusual slow movements, cadenzas, and finales such as the eighteenth concerto’s changing meter. Arthur Hutchings wrote an influential companion volume on the set.

  • solo concerto — A concerto grosso is a Baroque concerto form that contrasts a small concertino group with a larger ripieno ensemble. Corelli, Handel, and later Schnittke are standard names attached to the genre, especially in questions about Christmas Concertos and other orchestral works.

  • tuba concerto — A tuba concerto is a concerto that features the tuba as solo instrument against orchestra. Examples include Vaughan Williams’s concerto for tuba and newer works by composers such as Michael Daugherty, John Williams, and Jennifer Higdon.

  • viola concerto — A viola concerto is a concerto for solo viola and orchestra, and clues often point to composers like Walton, Hindemith, and Bartók. The genre also includes Joseph Martin Kraus’s lost concertos, showing how Swedish and German composers helped define the repertory.
• horn concertos — Horn concertos are concertos for solo horn and orchestra, often associated with the natural horn of the Baroque era. Mozart’s four horn concertos and Haydn’s and Strauss’s contributions are common clues for this genre.
  • French Horn Concerto — A French horn concerto is a concerto for orchestra and solo horn, a brass instrument with a famously curved tube. Mozart wrote several famous examples for Joseph Leutgeb, and earlier horn concertos were also written by Haydn and Leopold Mozart.

• cello concertos — Cello concertos are orchestral works featuring a solo cello, with famous examples by Elgar, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Shostakovich, and others. Quizbowl clues often mention virtuosic opening double stops, dedications to Rostropovich, or the Rococo Variations as a related concerto-like piece.

• cello concerto — A cello concerto is a concerto for solo cello and orchestra, and the genre includes famous works by Haydn, Dvořák, and Elgar. Quizbowl clues often center on Boccherini, Bréval, Saint-Saëns, and the rediscovered C major concerto associated with Mstislav Rostropovich or Yo-Yo Ma.

• trumpet concerto — A trumpet concerto is a work for solo trumpet and orchestra, often associated with Haydn, Hummel, and Arutiunian. Clues may mention Anton Weidinger, the keyed trumpet, or a bright virtuoso showpiece in a major key.

• violin concerto — Concertos written for solo violin and orchestra. Famous examples include works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Berg, Barber, Ligeti, Higdon, Shostakovich, and Adès. Commonly referenced works include Mendelssohn’s E minor concerto, the D major concertos by Beethoven and Brahms, Berg’s concerto dedicated to the memory of Manon Gropius, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Joachim’s advocacy is also a frequent point of reference. Other familiar violin concertos include those by Bruch and Paganini.

  • Mozart’s violin concertos — Mozart wrote five violin concertos, including K. 207 and K. 219, which are staples of the repertoire. The set includes concertos in D major and an A major finale nicknamed the Turkish concerto.

  • Violin Concerto in D major — Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major opens with the timpani striking D five times and was later revived by Joseph Joachim. The title also fits Tchaikovsky’s famous 1878 concerto, premiered in Vienna in 1881 and admired for its Russian-flavored finale.

    • Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto — Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major is a solo violin concerto with a well-known Canzonetta second movement. Leopold Auer originally found the work unplayable and declined to premiere it before later editing passages for ease.

Orchestral and Programmatic Works

• orchestral works
  • The Planets, Rhapsody in Blue, and Carmina Burana — The works listed are Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Holst’s The Planets, and Orff’s Carmina Burana.
• Insects
  • bumblebee — The bumblebee is the insect evoked by Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous “Flight of the Bumblebee.” The same insect also appears in other virtuoso character pieces, including a violin showpiece by François Schubert.
• Orchestral effects
  • car horns — Car horns are the unusual instruments used in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre and in Gershwin’s An American in Paris. They are used for comic or urban effects rather than standard orchestral timbre.
    • taxi horns — Taxi horns are the blaring car horns Gershwin used in An American in Paris to suggest the sounds of a Paris street. The unusual effect became one of the piece’s most famous orchestral coloristic touches.
• Programmatic music
  • Symphonic poem
    • symphonic poems — Single-movement orchestral works that depict or portray a poem, painting, landscape, story, scene, or other extra-musical literary or programmatic subject. The genre is especially associated with Franz Liszt, who developed it with works like Les préludes; later composers such as Smetana, Saint-Saëns, Richard Strauss, and Respighi also wrote notable examples.

Chamber Music, Keyboard Music, and Art Song

• Suite forms
  • partitas — Partitas are suites, especially in the Baroque keyboard and violin repertoire, and Bach’s six keyboard partitas and three solo-violin partitas are standard references. The name also appears in modern works by Caroline Shaw and Luigi Dallapiccola.
    • partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach — Johann Sebastian Bach’s partitas are dance-suitelike instrumental works for keyboard and solo violin. They include the violin partita ending with the famous Chaconne and the keyboard set published in Clavier-Übung.
• Art song
  • song cycles — Song cycles are collections of linked songs, often settings of poetry by a single composer. Famous examples include Schubert’s Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin, and Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte is often treated as an early major model of the genre.

• art songs — Art songs, or Lieder, are solo vocal works typically accompanied by piano and often set as cycles. Schubert’s “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” “Erlkönig,” and Winterreise are classic examples of the genre.

• F-A-E Sonata — The F-A-E Sonata is a collaborative violin sonata by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Albert Dietrich. Its title comes from Joseph Joachim’s motto, “free but lonely,” and each composer contributed a movement.

• the end of time — The end of time is a title phrase used for works such as Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time and Crumb’s Vox Balaenae. It also appears in Carl Orff’s final major work and other apocalyptic compositions.

Images, Shared Titles, and Musical Contexts

These images and shared titles connect different works. They are comparisons to make after learning the composers and repertory, rather than introductory definitions of a historical era.

• night music — Night music is a musical style associated especially with Bartók’s eerie, nocturnal sound world and with the slow movements in Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. The phrase also appears in titles by Mozart and Sondheim, including Eine kleine Nachtmusik and A Little Night Music. Nachtmusik is the German title meaning “night music.”

• Motifs
  • spinning wheels — Spinning wheels are the textile devices evoked by songs, tone poems, and paintings that use the image of a wheel for spinning thread. They appear in clues about Gretchen at the wheel, Dvorak’s Golden Spinning Wheel, and Gandhi-themed photography.
• Musical depictions of nature
  • Sunrise
    • a sunrise — A sunrise is the subject of several famous musical depictions, including Grieg’s Morning Mood and the opening of Also sprach Zarathustra. Other clues may point to Sibelius tone poems and ballet or quartet movements that portray daybreak.
• Program music

  • Mazeppa — Mazeppa is the Cossack leader associated with Peter the Great, famous in literature and music through Byron, Hugo, Pushkin, and Tchaikovsky. The name appears both as a historical figure and as the title of a symphonic poem and opera based on that legend.

  • seasons — Seasons are a common musical title, especially in Vivaldi’s concertos and Haydn’s oratorio, both of which depict the changing year. Clues may point to spring, summer, autumn, and winter as natural or allegorical cycles, or to later works such as Les Saisons and Die Jahreszeiten.

• weather imagery
  • a storm — A storm is a common dramatic and musical image, appearing in works such as the William Tell Overture, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, and operatic scenes of violent weather. It can also function as a literary symbol of disruption, danger, or shipwreck in poetry and prose.
• Carnival — The pre-Lenten festival of masquerade, revelry, street celebration, masquerades, parades, and musical pageantry, associated with the season before Lent and sometimes with the Feast of Fools. It is especially celebrated in places such as Rio de Janeiro, Ivrea, Cologne (where the season begins in November), and Trinidad, where chanté mas is part of the tradition; it is also linked to Roman customs. In literature and cultural theory, it appears in works by Wilson Harris, Earl Lovelace, and Jorge Amado, and provided Bakhtin with the idea of the carnivalesque, the unruly, inverted spirit of Rabelais’s world. Schumann’s Carnaval is a set of solo piano pieces built around A-S-C-H cryptograms and character pieces such as “Chopin” and “Pantalon et Colombine.”
  • carnivals — Carnivals are festival settings that title works such as Schumann’s Carnaval and Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals. They also appear in film and visual-art clues as noisy public entertainments linked to sideshows, masquerade, and spectacle.

• composers — Composers are artists who write music, and quizbowl clues often center on operatic or symphonic figures. Prompts may mention Schubert, Beethoven, Palestrina, or Ariadne auf Naxos as works involving composers as characters. Other clues invoke portraits and depictions by Repin, Klimt, or Salieri’s rivalry with Mozart.

• Shared musical titles
  • Nuages — Nuages is an atmospheric title shared by the first movement of Debussy’s Nocturnes and a Django Reinhardt standard. The name also appears in Liszt’s Nuages gris, making it a recurring title in both piano and orchestral repertoire.
• composers named Franz
  • Franz — Franz Schubert was the early Romantic composer of songs, chamber music, and symphonies including the “Unfinished” and the “Great C Major.” Franz Liszt was the virtuoso pianist and composer associated with Hungarian Rhapsodies, symphonic poems, and the Transcendental Etudes.
• coronation ceremonies
  • coronation of the British monarch — The coronation of the British monarch is the ceremonial anointing and consecration of a new ruler, as in Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation at Westminster Abbey. Handel wrote music for this occasion, including Zadok the Priest, and later coronation music also includes Walton’s Crown Imperial March.
• orchestration
  • multiple orchestras
    • three orchestras — Elliott Carter wrote a symphony for three orchestras, an unusual ensemble also called for in Stockhausen’s Gruppen. The work highlights Carter’s fascination with independent tempi and large-scale rhythmic complexity.
• Dance
  • sicilienne — A sicilienne is a pastoral musical genre, usually in compound meter such as 6/8 or 12/8, with a lilting, gently moving character. Composers from Scarlatti to Fauré and Duruflé used it for expressive slow movements and operatic arias.

• Strauss — Strauss is the shared surname of both Richard Strauss and the Viennese waltz composers Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II, and their family. Quizbowl clues often point to Also sprach Zarathustra, The Blue Danube, and the Radetzky March.

• Independent title
  • Pathetique — Pathetique is the name shared by Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6. The title points to the works’ tragic, emotional character and is especially associated with Beethoven’s grave opening and Tchaikovsky’s final symphony.
• Guillaume — Guillaume is the given name shared by important medieval composers such as Guillaume de Machaut and Guillaume Du Fay. Machaut is known both as a poet-composer and for preserving many of his own works in manuscript.

Keyboard Forms and Character Pieces

Distinguish the purpose and sound of each form before studying individual compositions. Named works remain with their composers in the historical sequence.

• Ballade — A ballade is an instrumental narrative composition, especially associated with Chopin’s pioneering examples for piano. Later composers such as Brahms, Grieg, Liszt, Fauré, Franck, and Vieuxtemps also wrote works in this form. Ysaÿe also used the title.

• Musical form
  • Fantasia — A fantasy is a free-form musical piece that often emphasizes imaginative, improvisatory writing. Composers such as Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, and Chopin wrote famous fantasies or works labeled fantasia, including the Wanderer Fantasy and the Fantaisie-Impromptu. The genre often blurs the line between structured sonata writing and rhapsodic invention. Other examples include Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
• études
  • piano études — Piano études are technical study pieces for solo piano, especially associated with Chopin and Liszt. Famous examples include Chopin’s Black Key and Revolutionary études, Liszt’s Transcendental Études, and the Paganini set, plus later virtuoso studies by composers like Ligeti and Unsuk Chin.
• Character piece
  • humoresque — A humoresque is a Romantic character piece marked by wit, whimsy, and short-form expressive contrast. Dvořák’s most famous example is his G-flat major Humoresque, part of a set of eight pieces, and Schumann also wrote a large B-flat major work in the genre.
• Character pieces
  • nocturnes — Nocturnes are night-inspired character pieces, especially for piano, associated first with John Field and later with Frédéric Chopin. The term also applies to orchestral and chamber works, including Debussy’s orchestral Nocturnes, and appears in works by Barber, Poulenc, Britten, and Shostakovich. In visual art, Whistler’s nocturnal paintings are also associated with the title, including works such as Clouds and Sirens.
    • Chopin’s nocturnes — Chopin’s nocturnes are lyrical solo piano pieces, many of them collected in sets such as Op. 48. They often feature elaborate rubato writing and elegant melodic ornament, with well-known examples dedicated to Madame Camille Pleyel.
  • the nocturne — A nocturne is a musical piece inspired by night, especially associated with the piano works of Chopin. The form was earlier developed by John Field and later used by composers such as Debussy and Poulenc.

• impromptus — Impromptus are short, free-form solo piano pieces associated especially with Schubert and Chopin. A famous example is Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu, while Schubert wrote two sets of four impromptus.

• Piano improvisatory forms
  • impromptu — An impromptu is a piano piece meant to sound free and spontaneous, even when carefully composed. Chopin, Schubert, Liszt, and Schumann all wrote notable pieces or sets with this title, including Fantaisie-Impromptu.
• polonaise — A polonaise is a Polish dance form that became a showy piano genre in the hands of Chopin. Famous examples include his Heroic and Military polonaises, and the term also appears in musical descriptions of Sibelius.
  • polonaises — Polonaises are stately Polish dances in triple meter, and Chopin made them a major part of his piano output. The genre includes the Op. 53 “Heroic,” the “Military,” and the Grand Polonaise Brillante. They are often identified by their characteristic rhythm and by references to national pride or cavalry imagery. Questions may also mention the Fantaisie polonaise or Chopin’s Op. 44 “Tragic” work.
• Rhapsody
  • rhapsodies — Rhapsodies are free-form, often flashy one-movement works with contrasting moods and national or folk-inspired material. Examples include Liszt’s Hungarian rhapsodies and Rachmaninoff’s rhapsody based on Paganini’s theme.
• Waltz
  • landler — The Landler is an Austrian rustic dance in triple meter and an ancestor of the waltz. Mahler used it in several symphonies, including the second movement of his Fifth and Ninth.
• Organ music
  • chorale preludes — Chorale preludes are short organ settings of Lutheran hymns, especially associated with Johann Sebastian Bach. They appear prominently in works such as the Orgelbüchlein and the Schübler Chorales.
• Piano miniatures
  • Lyric Pieces — Lyric Pieces are Edvard Grieg’s collection of short piano miniatures, issued in ten books over his career. Famous pieces in the set include “Arietta,” “March of the Trolls,” “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen,” and “To Spring.”
    • Wedding Day at Troldhaugen — “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen” is an Edvard Grieg Lyric Piece, Op. 65 no. 6, and one of his best-known piano miniatures. It commemorates Grieg’s silver anniversary with his wife Nina and was originally titled “The Well-Wishers Are Coming.”
• piano sonatas — Piano sonatas are solo keyboard works associated with Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, and other composers. Common clues include Beethoven’s Moonlight, Pathétique, and Appassionata, Mozart’s “for beginners” K. 545, and the form’s frequent three- or four-movement structure. They are a standard genre for virtuoso keyboard writing.

  • Beethoven piano sonatas — Beethoven wrote 32 solo keyboard sonatas. Famous examples include the “Moonlight” sonata in C-sharp minor, the “Pathétique,” “Appassionata,” “Waldstein,” “Les Adieux,” and “Hammerklavier” sonatas. The set is often identified by the lunar nickname of the C-sharp minor sonata, the funeral-like slow movement of the Pathétique, the farewell-themed movements of Les Adieux, and the “quasi una fantasia” designation associated with the Moonlight sonata.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano sonatas — Beethoven’s piano sonatas are a cycle of 32 solo keyboard works that includes the Moonlight, Waldstein, Appassionata, Pathétique, Tempest, Hammerklavier, and Les Adieux sonatas. They are a core part of the pianist’s repertory and are often identified by nicknames taken from individual works.

  • Mozart piano sonatas — A set of solo keyboard works by Mozart, including the Sonata in C major, K. 545; the A major sonata with the “alla turca” rondo; the D major “Hunt” sonata; and the Dürnitz sonata. The set is also associated with frequently performed works paired with a Fantasia in C minor.

  • piano sonatas by Franz Schubert — Franz Schubert’s piano sonatas include the late trilogy in C minor, A major, and B-flat major, often performed together. Other clues include the unfinished C major sonata nicknamed “Reliquie” and the famous D-flat major work with the “Trill of Doom.”

  • piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven — Beethoven’s piano sonatas are the set of thirty-two keyboard sonatas that includes the Moonlight, Waldstein, Appassionata, and Les Adieux. They span his early, middle, and late periods and include the two easy Op. 49 sonatas as well as the Hammerklavier and Tempest.

  • Sergei Prokofiev’s piano sonatas — Sergei Prokofiev’s piano sonatas are a major twentieth-century cycle, including the War Sonatas. The set is associated with premieres by pianists such as Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter.

  • violin sonata — A violin sonata is a chamber work for violin and piano, and quizbowl clues often point to Beethoven’s Kreutzer and Spring sonatas, Tartini’s Devil’s Trill, and Franck’s A-major sonata. The genre also includes works by Brahms, Grieg, Strauss, Debussy, and Ysaÿe.

• Short piano pieces
  • Bagatelle
    • bagatelles — Bagatelles are short, often witty piano pieces whose best-known example is Beethoven’s Für Elise. Composers from Liszt to Bartók and Ligeti wrote sets of them, and Liszt’s Bagatelle sans tonalité is a famous chromatic example.
• toccata — A toccata is a virtuosic, often improvisatory keyboard piece, especially prominent in the Baroque era. Quizbowl clues usually point to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, along with works by Frescobaldi, Pachelbel, Froberger, Widor, and Ravel.

Counterpoint and Instrumental Forms

• Fugue — A fugue is a contrapuntal composition built around a subject that is answered by another voice and imitated across multiple voices. Bach wrote many fugues, including pieces in The Well-Tempered Clavier and The Art of Fugue; fugue examples are also associated with his use of prelude or toccata pairings, and with works such as Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge and fugue-like movements in Mozart, Bartók, and Bruckner.

• Canon
  • canons — Canons are contrapuntal works in which a melody is imitated by another voice, sometimes as a round. Common clues include Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Bach’s Musical Offering, crab canon, mirror canon, and the Goldberg Variations.
• Virtuoso instrumental forms
  • caprice — A caprice or capriccio is a free, whimsical musical form, usually brisk and often virtuosic or showpiece-like, especially for violin or orchestra. Examples associated with the form include Paganini’s 24 Caprices, works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms, Locatelli, Sarasate, Tchaikovsky, Janáček, Walton, Bach, and Strauss, and Goya’s etching series Los Caprichos.
• Dance forms

  • mazurkas — Mazurkas are Polish dances in triple meter, especially associated with Chopin, who wrote dozens of them for solo piano. Their characteristic rhythm and accents make them a standard quizbowl answer when clues mention Polish folk style or Chopin’s Op. 17 and Op. 50 collections. Earlier Polish composers such as Maria Szymanowska helped popularize the form, and Karol Szymanowski also wrote mazurkas. The dance’s distinctive lilt often appears alongside rubato, church modes, and other Chopinian markers.

  • minuet — A minuet is a lively triple-meter court dance that became a standard movement in Classical symphonies and string quartets. It was often paired with a trio, and in many Romantic works it was later replaced by the scherzo. Famous examples are found in works by Mozart, Bach, and Haydn.

• dance music
  • dances — Dances are rhythmic pieces or movements that appear in orchestral suites, national-style piano sets, and folk-inspired concert works. Brahms’s Hungarian Dances and Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances are classic examples of the form.
• Dance suite movement
  • gavottes — A gavotte is a dance in duple time with a characteristic upbeat, often appearing as an optional movement between the sarabande and gigue in Baroque suites. Rameau and Prokofiev both used gavottes in major works, and one appears in the Holberg Suite.
• Drinking song
  • drinking songs — Drinking songs are convivial songs for toasts, taverns, and celebration, including the brindisi in La Traviata and the song type invoked by “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” They also appear in works by Schubert, Charpentier, Brahms, and Carmina Burana.
• keyboard forms
  • Toccatas — Toccatas are virtuosic, free-form instrumental pieces, especially for keyboard and organ, named from the Italian for “to touch.” They are strongly associated with Bach’s D minor organ work, as well as organ finales by Widor and pieces by Debussy, Prokofiev, and Pachelbel.

• lament — A lament, or lamento, is an expressive musical piece of grief often built over a descending bass pattern. Baroque operas use it for scenes of mourning, such as Dido’s “When I am Laid in Earth” in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

• lullaby — A lullaby is a soothing song or composition used to put children to sleep. In art music, these pieces appear under names like berceuse or wiegenlied, with famous examples by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Debussy, and Elgar.

• march
  • funeral march — A funeral march is a somber musical genre associated with funeral processions and mourning. Clues often point to Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2, Beethoven’s Eroica, Mahler’s symphonies, and other slow, processional pieces written in this style.
    • funeral marches — A funeral march is a slow march, usually in a minor key, associated with mourning and with death scenes in works like Götterdämmerung. Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 includes one of the most famous examples, and Beethoven and Mahler also wrote well-known ones. Quizbowl clues often point to the second movement of Beethoven’s Eroica or the third movement of Chopin’s second piano sonata. The genre can appear in orchestral, chamber, and piano repertoire.
  • military march — A military march is a march written for processions or band performance, often with a strong duple pulse and a trio section in ternary form. Sousa’s marches and Holst’s orchestral transcriptions helped make the genre familiar in both concert and parade settings.

• marches — A march is a musical genre associated with military bands and steady, processional rhythm, written to keep people in step while walking. Common examples include John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance, the Radetzky March, and the dogfight or breakstrain section.

• Orchestral forms
  • overtures — An overture is an orchestral piece that traditionally introduces an opera, though the genre also produced concert works and symphonic poems. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, and Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture are classic examples. Earlier Italian overtures helped develop the symphony.
    • concert overture — A concert overture is a single-movement orchestral work, often written to stand alone rather than accompany a stage work. Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture are famous examples of the form. The genre also includes pieces like Mendelssohn’s Hebrides and Fingal’s Cave overtures, and other independent overtures by Elgar.

• piano four hands — A duet for two performers sharing one keyboard at a single piano. The form appears in works by Schubert, Brahms, Dvořák, Ravel, Bizet, and Fauré, including Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor, Brahms’s Op. 39 waltzes, and Fauré’s Dolly Suite, and was often written as domestic or pedagogical music.

• polka
  • polkas — Polkas are lively dance pieces in two beats, and Johann Strauss Jr. composed many famous examples, including the “Tritsch-Tratsch” and “Pizzicato” polkas. The name points to the Central European dance tradition rather than the more famous waltzes.

• quintet — A quintet is a musical composition for five voices or instruments. Quizbowl clues may point to Boccherini, Mozart’s arrangements for piano and strings, or Schubert’s Trout Quintet.

• serenade — A serenade is a light multi-movement instrumental genre related to the divertimento, often written for winds or strings and associated with outdoor, evening, courtly, or otherwise non-symphonic performance. Notable examples include Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the Haffner Serenade, and the Posthorn Serenade; other composers who wrote famous serenades include Brahms, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, and Britten, whose Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings is a well-known example. Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music is another major example.
  • serenade for strings — A serenade for strings is a light orchestral work for strings alone, and the clue set points especially to famous examples by Dvořák and Tchaikovsky. The genre includes the Mozartian serenade model and movements such as waltzes and scherzos.
• sonata

  • cello sonata — A cello sonata is a chamber work for cello and piano, and the genre includes major examples by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Schubert, and Shostakovich. Clues often mention scordatura, fugues, and the cello’s role as the featured low string instrument.

  • sonata da camera — A sonata da camera is a Baroque chamber sonata written for solo instrument or instruments with continuo, often organized as a stylized dance suite. Corelli used the form in his opus 2 and 4 sonatas, and its movements commonly include dances such as corrente and sarabanda.

  • sonatina — A sonatina is a short, usually light piano work that sits between a miniature and a full sonata. Classical and later pedagogical collections by composers such as Clementi and Kuhlau made the genre a staple of student repertoire. The term can also appear in titles of modernist or ironic pieces that still follow the same compact form.

  • trio sonata — A trio sonata is a Baroque chamber genre for two upper instruments and basso continuo, popularized by composers such as Corelli and Couperin. Bach also used the form, including in the Musical Offering.

  • viola sonata — A viola sonata is a chamber work for viola and piano, and the genre draws clues from composers such as Rebecca Clarke, Arnold Bax, Paul Hindemith, and Dmitri Shostakovich. The set of works often appears in questions through opening motives, published collections, and adaptations from earlier cello sonatas.

• Song forms

  • barcarole — A barcarole is a musical piece modeled on the songs of Venetian gondoliers, usually in a lilting compound meter such as 6/8. Chopin wrote a famous example in F-sharp major, part of the Romantic piano repertory.

  • barcarolle — A barcarolle is a Venetian boat song, usually in a lilting 6/8 or 12/8 rhythm, imitating the motion of gondolas. Famous examples include Chopin’s Barcarolle in F-sharp major and Offenbach’s “Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour” from The Tales of Hoffmann.

  • barcarolles — Barcarolles are songs or piano pieces modeled on the rowing songs of Venetian gondoliers, often cast in 6/8 or 12/8 meter. Chopin and Saint-Saëns both wrote famous examples, and Offenbach’s “Belle nuit, o nuit d’amour” is another well-known instance.

• Songs
  • Sea songs — Sea songs are songs or song cycles centered on the sea, sailors, or related maritime imagery. Clues may mention Elgar’s song cycle and the Proms fantasia on British sea songs arranged by Sir Henry Wood.
• Suite

  • dance suite — A dance suite is a Baroque instrumental form made of a collection of dances. Its standard sequence includes Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue, and Bach’s partitas and Handel’s Water Music use the form.

  • suites — In Baroque music, suites are collections of dances such as the allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue. Bach’s French and English Suites and Handel’s keyboard sets helped establish the genre, which could also be called a partita, ordre, or French overture.

• Suite (music)
  • partita — A partita is a Baroque suite, especially associated with J. S. Bach’s solo instrumental works and keyboard collections. The title also appears in modern works by Caroline Shaw and Krzysztof Penderecki, and in Bach’s violin partitas with the famous D minor Chaconne.
• Student songs
  • Gaudeamus Igitur — Gaudeamus Igitur is the student song that closes Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture. It is one of the best-known Latin academic hymns and is often associated with university ceremonies and student life.

• Fanfare — A fanfare is a short ceremonial piece usually written for brass and percussion. Famous examples include Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and other concert works by composers such as Elgar, Britten, and John Adams. Joan Tower’s fanfares extend the ceremonial tradition.

• divertimento — A divertimento is a light, entertaining multi-movement instrumental work, often written for a small ensemble and suited to outdoor or social performance. The form is especially associated with Mozart, who used it in works such as A Musical Joke and the Salzburg Symphonies; related pieces often overlap with serenade-like chamber music.

• quodlibet — A quodlibet is a humorous musical piece that combines familiar tunes into one arrangement. In Bach, the form appears in the Goldberg Variations and in lighthearted wedding-themed pieces.

• Variation form
  • La Folia — La Folia is a Renaissance-era dance theme of possible Iberian origin that became a favorite basis for Baroque variations. Composers such as Corelli, Vivaldi, Lully, Handel, Marais, and Salieri all wrote variations on it.
• Baroque suite

  • allemande movement — The allemande is a Baroque dance movement for a line of couples that originated in Germany. It is usually in moderate tempo and duple meter, and commonly opens the core dances of a suite after the prelude. English harpsichord composers developed it into an independent form, making it a standard opening movement of the Baroque suite; Bach used the form in his cello suites, and Couperin treated it as a harpsichord genre as well.

  • sarabande movement — The sarabande is a slow dance movement that became standard in the baroque suite, usually appearing as the third movement. Originally a lively sung dance in Spain and Latin America, it was later associated with courtly processional style in France.

• Baroque dance forms
  • sarabande — The sarabande is a slow, stately Baroque dance in triple meter, often appearing in suites after the courante and before the gigue. Famous examples include Bach’s Cello Suite No. 5, the Goldberg Variations, Handel’s D minor keyboard suite, and the piece used in Barry Lyndon.
• French overture
  • French overtures — A French overture is a Baroque orchestral form that opens with a slow dotted-rhythm section and continues with a faster imitative passage. It appears in works by Lully and Handel, and Bach wrote one in this style for his Clavier-Übung II.

Related Works, People, and Context

• farewell — Farewell titles several famous classical works, including Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 and Beethoven’s “Les Adieux” sonata. The nickname points to parting and departure, especially in pieces where performers leave the stage or music depicts an absence.

• Paganini theme and variations

  • Paganini Variations — Paganini Variations are sets of variations based on themes by Niccolò Paganini, often especially the famous 24th Caprice. Examples include works by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Lutosławski, and Liszt, showing the form’s appeal to virtuosic pianistic writing.

Sacred Music

• Mass — A mass is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic liturgy, built around the Ordinary and usually including the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Well-known settings include Bach’s B-minor Mass, Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass, Ockeghem’s prolation canons, and masses by Josquin, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Leonel Power.

  • masses of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — The masses of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart include the Great C minor Mass and the unfinished Requiem. Mozart also wrote the so-called Sparrow Mass and other liturgical works that feature distinctive sections such as the Et incarnatus est.

  • Renaissance masses — Renaissance masses are polyphonic sacred choral works with texts from the ordinary of the Mass, such as Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Famous examples include Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass and settings based on L’homme armé.

• Mass (music)

  • missa brevis — A missa brevis is a short Mass, suitable for regular liturgical use rather than special occasions. Mozart wrote several of them during his Salzburg years, and the form was also used by composers such as Bach and Palestrina.

  • the REQUIEM — A requiem is a mass for the dead, with well-known settings by Mozart, Verdi, Brahms, and others. Common movements include the Dies Irae, Lacrimosa, Sanctus, and Rex Tremendae. Mozart’s unfinished Requiem is especially famous, later completed by his student Franz Sussmayr. The form is often treated as a large choral work in the Catholic tradition.

• Mass setting
  • Latin masses — Latin masses are choral settings of the Catholic Mass ordinary, usually sung in Latin and beginning with the Kyrie. Famous examples include Mozart’s unfinished Great C minor Mass and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.
• Oratorio
  • Christmas Oratorio — Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is a six-part work built from cantatas and biblical narration for the Christmas season. Saint-Saëns also wrote a Christmas Oratorio, giving the title to another holiday piece in the same tradition.

• Passion — A Passion is a musical setting of the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus, often written as a sacred oratorio with an Evangelist and recitatives. Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions are the best-known examples, and later composers have used the same form for the same subject.

• Sacred vocal music
  • chant — Chant is monophonic sacred vocal music, especially in the Gregorian tradition. It includes Gregorian chant and related Eastern Christian traditions such as sharakans and znamenny music, and is associated with reciting tones and repetitive sung texts. Chant appears in medieval liturgical drama, was studied by Louis Niedermeyer in sacred music, and influenced later composers such as Arvo Pärt.

• Stabat Mater — The medieval Catholic sequence about Mary standing at the foot of the Cross during the Crucifixion, traditionally sung during the Stations of the Cross. It begins with the lament “Stabat mater dolorosa” and includes sections such as “Inflammatus et accensus” and “Quando corpus morietur.” It inspired famous settings by Pergolesi, Rossini, Dvořák, Verdi, Liszt, and Scarlatti; Pergolesi’s setting for soprano, alto, and strings is especially well known. Bach also arranged a different Latin text based on it.

• Eucharistic hymn
  • Ave verum corpus — Ave verum corpus is a short Latin Eucharistic hymn beginning ‘Hail, true body.’ It was set memorably by Mozart and by William Byrd, and Liszt later combined Mozart’s setting with Allegri’s Miserere.
• Christian liturgical music
  • Te Deum — A Christian hymn of praise whose opening words, “Te Deum laudamus,” mean “We praise thee, O God.” It is a common Anglican service piece paired with the Jubilate. Notable settings include works by Charpentier, whose prelude became the Eurovision theme, Handel, Bruckner, who planned his setting as the finale to his unfinished Ninth Symphony, Lully, whose foot injury while conducting it led to his death, Berlioz, and Walton.
• Cantata
  • cantatas — Cantatas are choral works with instrumental accompaniment, especially associated with Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote hundreds of them and more than 200 in all. Bach’s sacred and secular examples include Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben and the Coffee Cantata; famous examples also include Wachet auf and Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. The genre also appears in works by composers such as Stravinsky, Walton, and Berlioz.

    • cantatas by J.S. Bach — J. S. Bach’s cantatas are his large body of church and secular choral works, including Wachet Auf, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, and pieces ending with chorales like “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” They often feature solo arias, chorales, and instrumental openings that are among his most recognizable sacred compositions.

    • cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach — Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas are church and secular vocal works for soloists, chorus, and instruments, commonly identified by BWV numbers. Many were written during his Leipzig years as Thomaskantor. Famous examples include Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, Ich habe genug, Ein feste Burg, and the Coffee Cantata, which features Lieschen and Schlendrian.

    • Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day — Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day is a cantata based on John Dryden’s poem honoring the patron saint of musicians. It includes arias such as “The soft complaining flute” and “Orpheus could lead the savage race.”

    • Sacred Cantatas — Bach’s sacred cantatas are church works written for Lutheran services, especially during his Leipzig years. They were typically performed before the sermon and set texts tied to the day’s Gospel reading.

• Christmas music
  • carols — Carols are festive songs, especially Christmas carols, that have been adapted by composers from Vaughan Williams to Britten. Christina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter” is one famous example of the genre.
    • Christmas carols — Christmas carols are seasonal songs such as “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night,” “Carol of the Bells,” “Away in a Manger,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” They often draw on settings by composers like Praetorius, Britten, Mendelssohn, Holst, and Gruber.

      • Carol of the Bells — “Carol of the Bells” is Mykola Leontovych’s famous Christmas choral piece built on a repeating ostinato figure. Its tune is widely used in seasonal media and commercials, and the lyrics evoke bells or silver bells.

      • Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is a Christmas carol with text by Charles Wesley and music associated with Felix Mendelssohn. It closes A Charlie Brown Christmas and ends with the line about “glory to the newborn king.”

      • Simple Gifts — ‘Simple Gifts’ is the Shaker hymn by Joseph Brackett whose melody is famous from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Its theme praises simplicity and freedom, and it was later adapted into other hymns such as ‘Lord of the Dance.’ The tune appears in the seventh section of Appalachian Spring and is often identified as a classic Shaker melody.

  • Christmas carol — A Christmas carol is a hymn or song associated with the Christmas season. Clues often mention “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “In the Bleak Midwinter,” both adapted from earlier sacred music.
• motets — Motets are sacred polyphonic vocal works, usually set to Latin texts, and in medieval and Renaissance music were often built on cantus firmus textures. Their history runs from medieval pieces through later large-scale works such as Bach’s Jesu, meine Freude. Notable examples and composers associated with the form include Guillaume de Machaut, Guillaume Dufay’s Nuper rosarum flores, Josquin des Prez, Palestrina, Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, Bach, and Lully; they are often contrasted with the secular madrigal.
  • O Magnum Mysterium — O Magnum Mysterium is a Christmas motet setting a text about the mystery of Christ’s Nativity. It was written in famous settings by composers including Tomás Luis de Victoria and Morten Lauridsen.
• Vocal form

  • A cantata — A cantata is a vocal composition, often for chorus and instruments, that is related to an oratorio but usually shorter and tied to a liturgical or concert setting. Bach wrote many famous cantatas, especially in German sacred music.

  • vocalises — Vocalises are wordless vocal exercises or concert pieces sung on vowels, often written for technical display. The form includes famous works by Rachmaninoff and later examples by composers such as Vaughan Williams.

• Requiem — A requiem is the Catholic Mass for the dead, from the Latin for rest; in music, it refers to a musical setting of that mass, often for large choir and orchestra. Famous examples include Mozart’s unfinished D minor Requiem completed by Süssmayr, Verdi’s Manzoni Requiem, Fauré’s Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem, Brahms’s German Requiem, Berlioz’s Requiem, Dvořák’s Requiem, and Duruflé’s Requiem. Commonly mentioned sections include the Dies irae, Lacrimosa, Libera me, Offertory, and In Paradisum, and Fauré’s setting is notable for omitting the Dies irae.

• Requiem Mass

  • Lacrimosa — Lacrimosa is the “weeping” section of the Requiem mass and a line of the Dies irae sequence. It is especially famous from Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, later completed by Franz Süssmayr, and from later settings by composers such as Penderecki.

  • Lux Aeterna — Lux Aeterna is a Latin text from the Requiem Mass that has been set by composers including Verdi and Ligeti. Ligeti’s choral setting became famous as the monolith music in 2001: A Space Odyssey and as the source of the title in Requiem for a Dream.

• Passion settings
  • Passions — Musical settings of the Gospel accounts of Christ’s suffering and crucifixion, often featuring an Evangelist narrator and arias such as Bach’s “Erbarme dich, mein Gott.” Classic examples include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, with earlier settings by Schütz and later works by composers such as Penderecki and Golijov.
• Anglican church music
  • anthems — Anthems are ceremonial sacred vocal works, especially prominent in English Baroque music and often treated as the Anglican counterpart to the Latin motet. Handel wrote famous coronation anthems, including pieces for the coronation of George II and for the Duke of Chandos.
• Magnificat
  • Magnificats — A Magnificat is a Marian canticle from Luke 1, beginning “My soul doth magnify the Lord,” and often sung at Vespers or Evensong. Baroque settings of this text include works by Tallis, Vivaldi, Pachelbel, and Isabella Leonarda.
• Chorale
  • chorales — Chorales are Lutheran hymn settings, usually arranged in four-part harmony for choir or organ. Bach wrote hundreds of them, including famous examples like “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” often called “Sleepers Wake.”

• Doxology — A doxology is a short formula or hymn of praise to God, especially in Christian worship and often addressed to the Trinity. It commonly concludes hymns, psalms, or prayers. Examples include the Gloria Patri, the Gloria, the Trinitarian conclusion of the Catholic eucharistic prayer, and the Protestant hymn “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.”

• Ceremonial music
  • coronations — Coronations are ceremonies in which monarchs are formally crowned or enthroned, often with distinctive religious music written for them. Clues include the Stone of Destiny, Charlemagne’s coronation in 800, Handel’s Zadok the Priest, and Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Coronation Concerto.

Performers, Instruments, and Institutions

Connect performers and institutions to the repertoire they interpret.

Conductors and performers

• Violinists and Cellists

  • Pablo Casals (1876–1973) — Spanish cellist and conductor; largely responsible for the modern revival of Bach’s Cello Suites through his landmark recordings (1936–1939); founded the Prades Festival; refused to perform in Franco’s Spain. He also was a composer, founded the Barcelona orchestra, and formed a chamber trio with Thibaud and Cortot. Later he lived in Puerto Rico and composed El Pesebre as a plea for peace.

  • Cellists

    • Jacqueline du Pré — Jacqueline du Pré was a renowned British cellist whose 1965 recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto made her famous. Her career ended early after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She was married to conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim and also recorded major works by Saint-Saëns; she is closely associated with the Davidov Strad. Her sister Hilary wrote family memoirs about her.

    • Yo-Yo Ma — Chinese-American cellist known for classical performances, crossover projects, and the Silk Road Ensemble. He performs on the Davidov Stradivarius and has a cello nicknamed Petunia. Other associated projects and appearances include the Music Garden project, performances at Barack Obama’s inauguration, and the Qatsi soundtrack.

  • David Oistrakh — David Oistrakh was a Soviet violinist celebrated for his warm tone and major recordings with leading Soviet musicians. He was the dedicatee of concertos by Khachaturian and Shostakovich, and he frequently performed with Sviatoslav Richter and his son Igor.

  • Eugène Ysaÿe — Belgian violin virtuoso and composer nicknamed the “tsar of the violin.” He studied under Henri Vieuxtemps and founded an ensemble that premiered Debussy’s String Quartet. His solo violin writing includes the Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, dedicated to players including George Enescu and Jacques Thibaud, and a single-movement sonata that opens with a recitative-like whole-tone ascent.

  • Ferdinand David — Ferdinand David was a German violin virtuoso and composer. He premiered Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and composed a Concertino for Trombone and Orchestra.

  • Fritz Kreisler — Fritz Kreisler was an Austrian violin virtuoso and composer known for showpieces like Praeludium and Allegro, Tambourin Chinois, and the encore favorites Liebesleid and Liebesfreud. He was also famous for writing pieces in the style of older composers and later revealing many of those attributions were his own.
    • Works
      • Tambourin Chinois — Tambourin Chinois is a showpiece for violin by Fritz Kreisler, one of his most famous virtuoso miniatures. Kreisler also wrote other beloved salon pieces like Liebesleid, Liebesfreud, Caprice Viennois, and Praeludium and Allegro, and became famous for presenting some of his own works as rediscovered older compositions. The piece is often identified by its brisk, flashy opening and its Chinese-style coloration.

  • Hilary Hahn — Hilary Hahn is an American violinist known for her Bach recordings, her child-prodigy training at Curtis, and her collaborations with living composers. She won Grammys, commissioned encores for In 27 Pieces, and inspired Jennifer Higdon’s Pulitzer-winning violin concerto.

  • Isaac Stern — Isaac Stern was a Russian-born violinist and long-time Carnegie Hall figure whose main auditorium was later renamed for him. He is associated with chamber music, visits to China, and collaborations with pianists such as Alexander Zakin.

  • Itzhak Perlman — Itzhak Perlman is the Israeli-American violinist and teacher who overcame childhood polio to become a major soloist and film-music performer. He performed as a child prodigy and later taught at Juilliard. He is associated with the soundtrack of Schindler’s List, Memoirs of a Geisha, and performances such as “Air and Simple Gifts” at the 2009 inauguration, as well as notable recordings and performances including the Kreutzer Sonata.

  • Jascha Heifetz — Lithuanian-born violin virtuoso celebrated for extraordinary technical precision and a famously cool, clean style. His Carnegie Hall debut as a teenager made him famous in America. He transcribed Gershwin works and is associated with showpiece transcriptions such as Hora staccato. He recorded major concertos with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony, including canonical versions of the Brahms and Tchaikovsky concertos, and his performances drew admiration from other violinists.

  • Josef Suk — Josef Suk was a Czech composer and violist associated with the Bohemian Quartet and the son-in-law of Antonín Dvořák. His best-known orchestral work is the Asrael Symphony, written after the deaths of Dvořák and Suk’s wife Otilie. He also composed the cycle of symphonic poems that includes Epilogue, Ripening, and A Summer’s Tale.

  • Mstislav Rostropovich — Mstislav Rostropovich was the towering Soviet cellist associated with major Shostakovich and Prokofiev works. He was married to Galina Vishnevskaya, recorded with Benjamin Britten, and became a symbolic musical figure in late Soviet culture. His name is especially linked to premiere performances and celebrated Stradivarius cellos.
    • Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich — Mstislav Rostropovich was the famed Soviet cellist for whom Prokofiev wrote the Cello Sonata in C and the Sinfonia Concertante. He also became known for his performances of major cello repertory and for his association with Shostakovich’s Babi Yar score.

  • Ruggiero Ricci — Ruggiero Ricci was an Italian-American violinist known for pioneering recordings of Paganini’s 24 Caprices. He also wrote on left-hand violin technique and was noted for his virtuoso approach to the instrument.

  • Sheku Kanneh-Mason — Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a British cellist who won the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. He gained wider fame after performing at the 2018 royal wedding and as part of the musically gifted Kanneh-Mason siblings.

  • violin pedagogues
    • Ivan Galamian — Ivan Galamian was a major violin pedagogue who taught performers such as Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman. He helped define 20th-century violin technique and editing, and his teaching legacy continued through students like Dorothy DeLay.

  • Yehudi Menuhin — Yehudi Menuhin was a New York-born Jewish-American violin prodigy taught by Enescu. At 16, he played Elgar’s Violin Concerto with Elgar conducting. He toured widely, often performed with his sister Hepzibah, later conducted the Bath Festival Orchestra, which was renamed in his honor, and was knighted before becoming a British subject. His later career included celebrated recordings with Wilhelm Furtwängler and collaborations with Stéphane Grappelli and Ravi Shankar.

  • Joseph Joachim — Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist and close Brahms collaborator who premiered the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major. He is also associated with the motto “Frei aber einsam” and with performances and cadenzas for major Romantic violin works.
    • Joachim — The surname Joachim identifies several musicians, including Joseph Joachim, the 19th-century violin virtuoso associated with Brahms and the Hungarian-style D minor concerto. In religious context, Joachim is also the father of Mary, whose family story appears in the Quran and related apocryphal traditions.
  • George Bridgetower — George Bridgetower was a biracial British violinist who premiered Beethoven’s original dedication of the Kreutzer Sonata. He later became a literary subject because Beethoven rescinded the dedication and rededicated the sonata to Rodolphe Kreutzer.

• Eric Yang — Eric Yang is a violinist associated with the WHAM Concerto Festival. He performed the second movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.

• Michael Hammond — Michael Hammond is a composer and conductor who studied at Lawrence, Delhi, and Oxford. He later served as dean of Rice University’s School of Music and as head of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.

• musicians
  • Pianists — Pianists are musicians who play the piano. They may perform repertoire ranging from intricate modernist suites to pieces that treat the instrument in unusual ways, including music by George Crumb, Béla Bartók, and John Cage’s prepared piano works. The profession is also used as a defining trait in fiction, including Sonny in James Baldwin’s fiction.
    • Yuja Wang — Yuja Wang is a Chinese classical pianist celebrated for her showy performances and fashion sense. She has played Rachmaninoff heavily, including all of his piano concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody in a Carnegie Hall marathon recital. Other clues include her Deutsche Grammophon releases, the premiere of John Adams’s Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?, and her 2007 last-minute Boston Symphony appearance.
• Conductors
  • conducting — Conducting is the musical role of directing a musical ensemble by cueing entrances and setting tempo, often with the hands or a baton. Jean-Baptiste Lully famously injured his foot while conducting, and figures associated with the role include Herbert von Karajan, Alfred Deller, and Gustavo Dudamel.
    • conductors — Conductors are people who lead musical ensembles with a baton or hand gestures to control tempo and cues. The same word also names materials that readily transmit electric charge, in contrast to insulators.
      • American conductors
        • Marin Alsop — Marin Alsop is an American conductor associated with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She became the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms and later the first female music director of a major American orchestra.
      • conductor — A conductor leads an orchestra, usually with a baton, and may also be called a music director or kapellmeister. The profession is marked by figures such as Marin Alsop, Gustavo Dudamel, and Hans von Bülow, who all became known for directing ensembles rather than performing as soloists. Some orchestras, like Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, notably do not use one at all.
        • Hans (Guido) von Bülow — Hans Guido von Bülow was a nineteenth-century German pianist and conductor closely associated with Wagner’s operas. He conducted the premieres of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Tristan und Isolde, and was remembered for helping establish the nickname “Beethoven’s Tenth.” His wife, Cosima Liszt, later left him for Wagner.

      • Keith Lockhart — Keith Lockhart is the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra and is associated with its popular concert recordings and PBS appearances. His Boston Pops albums include American Visions, Runnin’ Wild, and The Celtic Album.

      • Leopold Stokowski — Leopold Stokowski was the flamboyant, batonless conductor associated with the Philadelphia Orchestra and with Disney’s Fantasia. He is also known for arranging orchestral versions of Bach and for helping popularize the “Philadelphia Sound.”
        • Leopold (Anthony) Stokowski — Leopold Stokowski was a flamboyant conductor associated with the Philadelphia Orchestra and with Disney’s Fantasia. He was known for conducting without a baton and for arrangements that helped define the Philadelphia sound.
      • Zubin Mehta — Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor who served as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and has been closely associated with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra since 1969. He also conducted the first Three Tenors concert at the 1990 World Cup.

  • Arthur Fiedler — Arthur Fiedler was the longtime conductor of the Boston Pops and helped popularize the orchestra through light, accessible programming. He organized the Esplanade concerts and became one of the best-selling classical conductors of all time.

  • Carlos Kleiber — Carlos Kleiber was a famously reclusive and highly admired conductor, known for landmark performances with the Vienna Philharmonic and for a very small recorded legacy. He was born in Germany, raised in Argentina, and became associated with acclaimed Beethoven and New Year’s Concert recordings.

  • Christopher Hogwood — Christopher Hogwood was an English conductor and keyboard player associated with the historically informed performance movement. He founded the Academy of Ancient Music and recorded Mozart piano concertos with Robert Levin.

  • Claudio Abbado — Claudio Abbado was an Italian conductor who led the Berlin Philharmonic beginning in 1989 after earlier serving at La Scala. He was especially admired for his Mahler interpretations and for founding the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

  • Eugene Ormandy — Eugene Ormandy was the longtime music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, succeeding Leopold Stokowski and leading it for decades. He was born Jeno Blau in Budapest, later worked in Minneapolis and Philadelphia, and conducted notable Rachmaninoff performances and recordings.

  • George Solti — George Solti, born György Stern, was a Hungarian-born conductor who led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He studied under Béla Bartók and long held the record for the most Grammy wins.

  • George Szell — George Szell was the Hungarian-born conductor who transformed the Cleveland Orchestra into one of the leading American ensembles. He led the orchestra from 1946 until his death in 1970 and recorded the Beethoven piano concertos with Leon Fleisher.

  • Gustavo Dudamel — Venezuelan conductor who directs the Los Angeles Philharmonic and is best known for leading the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. He rose to prominence as a youthful star of orchestral conducting and became closely associated with El Sistema, contemporary American and Latin American repertoire, and the popularization of Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2.

  • James Levine — James Levine was a prominent American conductor long associated with the Metropolitan Opera. He served as the Met’s music director from 1976 to 2016 and also led the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

  • John Eliot Gardiner — John Eliot Gardiner is a conductor known for historically informed performance with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists. He is especially associated with recordings of Monteverdi and Bach, including the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor.

  • Leonard Slatkin — Leonard Slatkin is an American conductor who led major orchestras including the St. Louis Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra. He is associated with a major career in orchestral music and later took over the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.

  • Lorin Maazel — Lorin Maazel was a prominent conductor who led major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic. He became music director of the New York Philharmonic in 2002.
    • Sir Georg Solti — Sir Georg Solti was a major conductor associated with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He recorded the first complete Ring Cycle and won an extraordinary number of Grammy Awards.
      • Sir Goerg Solti — Sir Georg Solti was a Hungarian-born conductor who studied piano before turning to conducting. He led major performances of Wagner and Schoenberg, later becoming music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

  • Maxim Shostakovich — Maxim Shostakovich was the son of composer Dmitri Shostakovich and became a conductor and pianist. He later supported Solomon Volkov’s Testimony, the controversial book presenting his father as secretly dissident.

  • Michael Tilson Thomas — Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor closely associated with the San Francisco Symphony and the New World Symphony. He was mentored by Leonard Bernstein, helped launch Keeping Score, and was known for championing Mahler, Sibelius, and Ives.

  • Neville Marriner
    • Sir Neville Marriner — Sir Neville Marriner was a British conductor who founded the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and led it to wide fame. He is also known for his film work on Amadeus and for recordings that helped popularize Tippett’s Fantasia Concertante on a Theme by Corelli.

  • Otto Klemperer — Otto Klemperer was a German conductor who later led the Los Angeles Philharmonic and was admired for his famously slow tempos. He also made a noted recording of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion after fleeing Nazi Germany.

  • Seiji Ozawa — Seiji Ozawa was a Japanese conductor who led the Boston Symphony Orchestra for nearly three decades and later served as music director of the Vienna State Opera. He remained closely identified with major international orchestras even after health problems limited his activity.

  • Serge Koussevitzky — Serge Koussevitzky was the Russian-born conductor and double bassist who led the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949. He championed modern music, commissioned major works, and helped establish Tanglewood as the orchestra’s summer home.
    • Serge Koussevitsky — Serge Koussevitsky was a Russian-born conductor long associated with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He commissioned Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, and his own double-bass concerto remains a standard repertoire piece.

  • Simon Rattle — Simon Rattle is a British conductor who rose to prominence with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He later led the Berlin Philharmonic and became associated with major recordings and performances of Mahler.

  • Thomas Beecham — Thomas Beecham was an English and British conductor and impresario associated with the Royal Philharmonic. He championed the music of Delius, gave first performances of many of Delius’s works, and wrote about Delius. He also worked in opera and orchestral conducting, helped bring the Ballets Russes to Britain, and was famous for his sharp wit.

  • Wilhelm Furtwängler — Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Salzburg performances of Mozart and Beethoven. He was favored by Hitler, and his career remains controversial because he stayed active during the Nazi era while also being admired for flexible tempi and a broad interpretive style. After World War II, he reopened Bayreuth with a celebrated performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

  • Wolfgang Sawallisch — Wolfgang Sawallisch was a German conductor who became music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1990s. He was a prominent interpreter of the German orchestral and operatic repertory.

  • Kurt Masur — Kurt Masur was a German conductor who served as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He also led the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig and previously worked with the Dresden Philharmonic.

  • Herbert von Karajan — Herbert von Karajan was born in Salzburg and studied engineering in Vienna before becoming a major Austrian conductor. He directed opera houses in Ulm and Berlin, led the Berlin Philharmonic from 1955 to 1989, and founded the Salzburg Easter Festival. He became one of the most recorded conductors of all time, was closely associated with major Beethoven recordings, and with the Vienna State Opera and Salzburg Festival. He was known for conducting with his eyes closed and for his rivalry with Wilhelm Furtwängler; his Nazi Party membership remains a defining part of his biography.
• Pianists and Keyboard Performers

  • Artur Rubinstein — Artur Rubinstein was a Polish-American pianist celebrated for championing Spanish and Latin American music. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1906 and toured Spain before helping spread the music of composers such as Villa-Lobos.

  • Claudio Arrau — Claudio Arrau was a Chilean pianist renowned for his complete performances of Beethoven’s sonatas and for major recordings of Chopin. He also gave historical Bach recitals in Berlin and later renounced his Chilean citizenship in protest of Pinochet.

  • Glenn Gould — Canadian pianist renowned for Bach, especially his 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations and a later slower remake. He was known for humming and foot-tapping while playing, studio perfectionism, fictional alter-egos, and the controversial 1962 Brahms concerto performance with Leonard Bernstein. His name also appears on original compositions, including humorous and chamber works that helped launch his career after a Bach recording.

  • Lang Lang — Lang Lang is a Chinese concert pianist known for his virtuosity, expressive stage manner, and international celebrity status. He is associated with the Beijing Olympics, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, and pieces such as Tan Dun’s Piano Concerto: ‘The Fire.’

  • Martha Argerich — Martha Argerich is the Argentine pianist famous for blazing performances of Chopin, Liszt, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff. She won the Chopin Competition in 1965 and is also known for chamber collaborations and for gradually avoiding solo recitals.

  • Nikolai Rubinstein — Nikolai Rubinstein was a Russian pianist and the founder of the Moscow Conservatory, known as a close friend of Tchaikovsky who also supported The Five. He premiered Balakirev’s Islamey, and Tchaikovsky first dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 1 to him before Rubinstein dismissed it as unplayable. Tchaikovsky later commemorated him in the Piano Trio in A minor.

  • Ralph Kirkpatrick — Ralph Kirkpatrick was an American harpsichordist and musicologist best known for cataloguing Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas. His chronological numbering system for the sonatas largely replaced the older Longo numbers.

  • Sviatoslav Richter — Sviatoslav Richter was a major Soviet pianist celebrated for performances of Pictures at an Exhibition and premieres of Prokofiev sonatas. He was also known for a formidable concert presence and for being pressured to play at Stalin’s funeral.

  • Van Cliburn — Van Cliburn was the American pianist who won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 with the Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff concertos. The Fort Worth competition named for him remains one of the most prestigious piano contests in the United States.

  • Victor Borge — Victor Borge was a Danish pianist and comedian known as the Clown Prince of Denmark. He became famous for comic routines such as Phonetic Punctuation and for mixing classical performance with satire.

  • Vladimir Horowitz — Vladimir Horowitz was a Russian-American pianist famed for dazzling octaves, brilliant technique, and showpiece transcriptions. He was celebrated for Romantic repertoire, especially Liszt, Chopin, and Scarlatti, and for his long career of highly individual virtuosity.

  • Wanda Landowska — Wanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist and key early-music revivalist who helped revive interest in the instrument in the early twentieth century. She founded the École de Musique Ancienne in Paris and became a celebrated interpreter of Scarlatti. She made the first harpsichord recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which inspired later performers such as Glenn Gould. She was also the dedicatee of major works by Francis Poulenc and Manuel de Falla.

  • Organists
    • Charles Marie Jean Albert Widor — Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor was a French organist and composer best known for his ten organ symphonies and for the famous Toccata from his Fifth Symphony. He spent decades at Saint-Sulpice and taught Alexandre Guilmant.
  • Pianists and conductors
    • Daniel Barenboim — Daniel Barenboim is an Argentine-Israeli pianist and conductor associated with the Berlin State Opera and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Quizbowl clues often mention his collaborations with Edward Said and Jacqueline du Pré, plus his controversial Wagner encore at Jerusalem.

  • Paul Wittgenstein — Paul Wittgenstein was the Austrian pianist whose right arm was amputated in World War I, leading him to commission many left-hand works. Major composers wrote for him, including Ravel, Britten, Prokofiev, and Korngold, and his brother was the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

  • David Tudor — David Tudor was the American pianist and electronic musician closely associated with John Cage and later experimental sound installations. He premiered Cage’s 4’33” and also created works such as Rain Forest and Reunion.
• Other Instrumentalists and Singers

  • Dennis Brain — Dennis Brain was the celebrated English horn player who died in a 1957 car crash at age 36. He inspired works by composers such as Hindemith and Britten and is often treated as the greatest French horn player of his generation.

  • Evelyn Glennie — Evelyn Glennie is a Scottish percussionist known for performing despite profound deafness. James MacMillan wrote her the percussion concerto Veni, Veni Emmanuel, and she has released major recordings and performed internationally.

  • Jean-Pierre Rampal — Jean-Pierre Rampal was a French flautist who helped restore the flute to prominence on the classical concert stage. He performed Jacques Ibert’s Flute Concerto after the liberation of France and was associated with technical innovations such as the high-C facilitator.

  • Maurice André — Maurice André was a French trumpeter celebrated for solo performance and for mastery of both classical and jazz trumpet. He helped popularize the piccolo trumpet in Baroque repertoire and influenced later trumpeters such as Wynton Marsalis.

  • Nicanor Zabaleta — Nicanor Zabaleta was a celebrated Spanish harpist for whom several harp concertos were dedicated. He is associated with arrangements of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and with major twentieth-century harp repertoire.

  • Opera singer
    • Dame Joan (Alston) Sutherland — Dame Joan (Alston) Sutherland was an Australian coloratura soprano nicknamed La Stupenda for her extraordinary technique. She became famous for reviving bel canto opera, especially in roles such as Lucia di Lammermoor, Alcina, Semiramide, and Esclarmonde, and often performed with Richard Bonynge, her conductor and husband.
  • Wynton Marsalis — Wynton Marsalis is a jazz trumpeter, composer, and artistic director/director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, associated with neo-traditionalism and with bringing jazz into concert-hall and orchestral settings. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Blood on the Fields, a jazz oratorio about Jesse and Leona, and is also associated with Black Codes from the Underground, In This House, On This Morning, All Rise, Swing Symphony, and Blues Symphony. He was the first musician to win Grammy awards for jazz and classical music in the same year, and Branford Marsalis wrote music for his album Black Codes.
    • Blood on the Fields — Blood on the Fields is Wynton Marsalis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz oratorio about slavery and escape. Its narrative centers on Jesse and Leona and includes the song “Follow the Drinking Gourd” as part of its large-scale suite structure.

  • Jenny Lind — Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” was a celebrated 19th-century soprano who became famous in Europe before touring the United States under P.T. Barnum’s promotion. Her performances sparked enormous public enthusiasm and charity fundraising.

  • Andres Segovia — Andres Segovia was the Spanish classical guitarist who helped revive interest in the instrument in the twentieth century. Clues often mention his 1981 marquess title and his influence on modern guitar technique and nylon strings.

  • Celtic Woman — Celtic Woman is the Irish all-female performance group known for polished arrangements of Irish songs, Christmas carols, and crossover touring spectacles. Their concert branding emphasizes large-scale, inspirational presentations rather than a single lead singer.

  • McCoy Tyner — McCoy Tyner was the pianist whose quartal voicings helped define John Coltrane’s classic quartet sound. He is closely associated with A Love Supreme and later solo albums such as The Real McCoy and Sahara, which showcase his powerful modal style.

Instruments and Instrument Families

• bass clarinet — The bass clarinet is a low woodwind instrument often singled out by name in jazz and orchestral questions. It is associated with Eric Dolphy, Bennie Maupin, Janáček, Meyerbeer, and the quiet opening solo in Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique.

• Bell instruments
  • carillon — A carillon is a keyboard-played percussion instrument made of at least 23 bronze bells, often housed in a tower. It is especially associated with church and civic bell towers, and composers such as John Cage wrote for it.
• Clarinet family
  • E-flat clarinet — The E-flat clarinet is a high-pitched member of the clarinet family, sounding a fourth above the B-flat clarinet. It is heard in Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and in Ravel’s Boléro and Daphnis et Chloé.

• classical guitar — The classical guitar is the six-string fretted guitar associated with Spanish art music and flamenco, and it appears in works by Rodrigo, Tárrega, Sor, and Segovia. Clues often mention the Concierto de Aranjuez, Villa-Lobos etudes, and its plucked role in bossa nova and related repertoire.

• French horns — French horns are coiled brass instruments played with the right hand in the bell, and they are common in symphonies, concertos, and orchestral writing. They are strongly associated with hunting calls, stopped notes, and major works by Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Strauss, and Prokofiev.

• horn
  • natural horn — This valveless hunting brass instrument is the natural horn, the ancestor of the modern French horn. Bach uses it in works like the B minor Mass, the Christmas Oratorio, and the Brandenburg Concertos, and Mozart wrote concertos for Joseph Leutgeb on it.
• Oboe
  • The oboe — The oboe is the woodwind instrument associated with the duck in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.
• Percussion instrument

  • glockenspiel — A glockenspiel is a pitched percussion instrument made of tuned metal bars, smaller and higher in pitch than a xylophone. Its name is German for “set of bells,” and orchestral players strike it with mallets or damp it with a pedal.

  • Triangle — The triangle is a small idiophone percussion instrument made from a bent metal rod, usually struck with a beater and left open at one corner. It appears in orchestral music, Liszt’s First Piano Concerto, and folk styles such as Cajun and Brazilian forró.

• Percussion instruments

  • anvils — Anvils are the metallic percussion objects that ring out in works ranging from Wagner and Verdi to Berlioz and Handel. They are especially famous in Das Rheingold and in the gypsy chorus from Il Trovatore.

  • bells — Bells are metal percussion instruments used in ritual and music, including church towers, carillons, Russian Orthodox ceremonies, Japanese shrine and dance traditions, and minimalism. They also appear in literature and poetry, including works by John Donne, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells,” and poems by Emily Dickinson.

  • gongs — Gongs are large, usually suspended metal percussion instruments used in orchestras and gamelan ensembles. They also appear in Buddhist ritual contexts. A tam-tam is the untuned orchestral form of gong, and gongs can mark structural points in works by Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and Coltrane.
    • tam-tam — A tam-tam is a large, untuned gong, often suspended vertically and used in orchestral and gamelan settings. In Indonesian gamelan, gongs mark the colotomic structure of phrases, and the tam-tam is the Western orchestral form most often singled out by name. Quizbowl clues link it to dramatic hits in works like Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration and Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony.

  • timpani — Timpani are tunable orchestral percussion drums, also called kettledrums, that can play pitched passages, rolling solos, rhythmic punctuation, and dramatic crescendos. Modern pedal and tuning systems allow players to change pitch during performance and made them much easier to use in orchestral music. They are especially prominent in works by Beethoven, Haydn, Sibelius, Strauss, Nielsen, Grieg, Britten, and Berlioz.

  • vibraphone — The vibraphone is a tuned percussion instrument with metal bars and resonators fitted with rotating fans or a motor-driven mechanism that creates its characteristic vibrato and sustained tone. It is prominent in jazz, with major players including Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, and Gary Burton; Burton also helped popularize four-mallet technique.

  • woodblock — The woodblock is a percussion instrument often used for a sharp, clipped ostinato in orchestral music. John Adams uses it prominently in Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and it is also known in jazz settings as a clog box or tap box.

  • Xylophone — A wooden-keyed percussion instrument in the mallet family with tuned wooden bars, generally pitched higher than the marimba and often contrasted with the marimba and balafon. It appears in orchestral color pieces such as Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre and the Fossils movement of Carnival of the Animals, and is also used in African and gamelan traditions, as well as in pedagogy and traditional ensemble music.
• plucked string instruments
  • Lute — A plucked string instrument with a rounded back that was central in Renaissance and Baroque music. It is descended from the oud and associated with composers such as John Dowland; related instruments include the vihuela. It often had multiple courses and is linked to Bach transcriptions and the style brisé. Related clues include the theorbo, Bach’s lute suites, and the word luthier.
    • the lute — The lute is a Renaissance plucked string instrument with a short neck and rounded back that was especially popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. John Dowland wrote for it, and Respighi later used lute pieces in Ancient Airs and Dances.
• Vessel flutes
  • ocarina — The ocarina is a small vessel flute, often associated with a sweet potato shape and with transverse or inline forms. It is also identified by its use in video games such as Majora’s Mask and by Giuseppe Donati’s modern design.
• Violin

  • The violin — The violin is the four-stringed bowed instrument central to both classical and folk performance. Sherlock Holmes is famously associated with playing it, and virtuosos such as Heifetz and Perlman are identified with it as well.

  • two violins — Two violins are a standard pairing in chamber music, especially in the trio sonata and string quartet. They also appear as solo partners in concertos and other duet pieces, including works by Bach, Bartók, and Ysaÿe.

• Violoncello — The violoncello, or cello, is a bowed string instrument pitched between the viola and double bass, typically held between the knees and played with an endpin. It is tuned C-G-D-A. Its repertory includes Bach’s six solo suites, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, Saint-Saëns’s The Swan, and concertos by Elgar, Dvořák, Walton, and Shostakovich. Famous cellists include Pablo Casals, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma, and Jacqueline du Pré.

• Wind instruments
  • panpipes — Panpipes, also called a pan flute or syrinx, are a set of differently sized tubes tied together and named for Pan. Quizbowl clues include the nai, siku or zampoña, and other reed- or bamboo-based variants used in the Andes, Romania, and Oceania.

• wind machine — A wind machine, or aeoliphone, is a percussion effect used to imitate the sound of rushing wind. Richard Strauss employed it in works such as An Alpine Symphony and Don Quixote.

• Woodwind instruments

  • Bassoon — A low double-reed woodwind of the orchestra, noted for its broad range and for solos that can sound comic or solemn. Mozart wrote its only bassoon concerto, and it is associated with the opening of The Marriage of Figaro, the grandfather theme in Peter and the Wolf, and the high opening solo of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring; it also appears in solos by Beethoven and Brahms. Its larger, lowest-pitched orchestral cousin is the contrabassoon.

  • clarinet — The clarinet is a single-reed woodwind with a wide range and standard orchestral roles in both classical and jazz settings. Its classical repertoire includes Mozart’s concerto for Anton Stadler, Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie, Brahms’s sonatas for Richard Mühlfeld, and major concertos by Copland and Weber; it is also associated with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Benny Goodman. Other clues include Heinrich Baermann, the basset horn, and Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time.

    • basset horn — The basset horn is a low member of the clarinet family, usually pitched in F and associated with Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music and Requiem. It was the virtuoso instrument of Anton Stadler and inspired notable works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, and others.

    • B-flat clarinet — The B-flat clarinet is the versatile woodwind that opens famous solos in works by Messiaen and Gershwin and appears in The Carnival of the Animals. Its lower register is called the chalumeau, and it is a standard orchestral instrument with a bright, reedy upper sound.

  • Flute — The flute is a woodwind instrument with the piccolo as a smaller relative. Mozart’s The Magic Flute gives Tamino a magical example during his quest involving Pamina and Sarastro. The Queen of the Night and her demanding revenge aria provide additional clues to that opera.

  • piccolo — The piccolo is the tiny woodwind pitched an octave above the flute, often singled out for its piercing high register and its famous solo in Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” It also starts the fugue in Britten’s A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and appears in orchestral passages by Prokofiev and Stockhausen.

  • recorder — The recorder is a straight woodwind with a whistle mouthpiece, making it common in school music education and distinct from the transverse flute. Baroque composers wrote for it frequently, including Telemann, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, and pieces associated with Frans Brüggen and Luciano Berio.

  • recorders — Recorders are fipple flutes with a whistle-shaped mouthpiece, a thumb hole in back, and seven finger holes in front. They come in sizes such as soprano and alto, are commonly taught in school music programs, and were important in Baroque music and repertory by composers such as Vivaldi, Telemann, and Bach. They also appear in Orff-based classroom music traditions.

  • saxophone — A family of transposing metal, single-reed woodwind instruments played in many sizes, including sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone. They are prominent in jazz and orchestral writing alike, associated with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, and appear in works by Bizet, Ravel, Vaughan Williams, and Gershwin.
    • soprano saxophone — The soprano saxophone is the high saxophone most associated with John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things.” It also appears in orchestral and jazz settings where composers and arrangers use its bright upper register.
• electronic instruments
  • ondes Martenot — This early electronic instrument, invented by Maurice Martenot in 1928, is played with a keyboard and a ring attached to a ribbon for continuous glissandi. Its eerie sound made it a favorite in works by Varèse and Messiaen, and Jeanne Loriod was its most famous champion.
• Keyboard instruments

  • fortepiano — The fortepiano is the earlier keyboard instrument associated with Mozart’s era, distinct from the modern piano and often used in historically informed performances. It is also a clue in jazz and avant-garde music questions because of its 88-key layout and its use by composers and performers working before the modern piano became standard.

  • Hammond organ — A famous electric keyboard instrument, often paired with a Leslie speaker for its swirling tone. It became a staple of jazz and soul jazz, with players such as Jimmy Smith and Joe Zawinul helping define its sound. Booker T. and the M.G.’s “Green Onions” opens with the Hammond organ, and the instrument became one of the most recognizable in popular music.

  • Piano — The piano is the 88-key keyboard instrument invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori, with strings struck by hammers and three pedals. It is central to classical, jazz, and popular music: Mozart wrote concertos for keyboard, Beethoven wrote concertos and sonatas for it, Chopin composed études, and later repertoire includes prepared-piano works by John Cage, concertante works by Stravinsky and Ravel, left-hand concertos, and jazz standards and styles associated with Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, stride piano, “Rhapsody in Blue,” “‘Round Midnight,” and “Take Five.”

• Brass instruments

  • cornet — The cornet is a compact brass instrument closely related to the trumpet but with a more conical bore. It was favored by early jazz figures such as Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong.

  • cornetto — The cornetto is a curved or sometimes straight Renaissance brass instrument with a small mouthpiece and a wooden body. It appears in works by Bach, Monteverdi, Caravaggio, and Venetian musicians such as Giovanni Bassano and Girolamo dalla Casa.

  • Fluegelhorn — A fluegelhorn is a valved brass instrument related to the trumpet and cornet, with a wider, more conical bore and a mellower tone. It is especially associated with Chuck Mangione and is often described as being pitched in B-flat.

  • Low brass
    • euphonium — The euphonium is a low, valved brass instrument often used in marching and military bands and sometimes confused with the baritone horn. It is a tenor-range tuba-like instrument that appears in works by Janáček, Holst, and Karl King.

  • sackbut — The sackbut is the Renaissance predecessor of the trombone, using a slide and appearing in early wind ensembles and sacred music. Its name comes from a French phrase meaning “push-pull,” and it was prominent before the modern trombone replaced it.

  • tuba — The tuba is the lowest brass instrument in a typical orchestra or wind band. Quizbowl clues mention the sousaphone, Wagner tuba, euphonium, Ravel’s orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition, and Vaughan Williams’ concerto for the instrument.

  • tubas — The tuba is the lowest-pitched standard brass instrument, known for its deep orchestral and band roles. Related forms include the sousaphone, and composers from Vaughan Williams to Wagner have written for it or for its close relatives.

  • Wagner tuba — The Wagner tuba is Wagner’s hybrid brass instrument for the Ring Cycle, with a conical bore and a horn-like timbre. Horn players often double it, and it was designed to supply a special low sound for the operas. It is described as the largest and lowest brass instrument in the family, distinct from the round marching sousaphone.

• Celesta — The celesta is a small upright keyboard percussion instrument whose keys strike metal plates or bars over resonators, producing a bright, bell-like sound often compared to a glockenspiel. Tchaikovsky uses it in the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” and it also appears in works by Debussy, Bartók, Gershwin, and others.

• Organs
  • Pipe organ — A large keyboard instrument often found in churches and other grand venues, distinguished by its pedalboard, multiple manuals that may be coupled or split, and stops such as a tercet, tibia, and faux-bourdon. Bach, Buxtehude, Saint-Saëns, Handel, and Messiaen wrote major works for it, and its sound is a standard clue in Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

    • pipe organs — A large keyboard wind instrument built from ranks of pipes and played with manuals and pedals. It produces sound from pressurized air passing through pipes, often with stops and foot pedals, and is especially associated with church music. Works for it or featuring it include pieces by Bach, Widor, Dupré, Saint-Saëns, Poulenc, and Liszt.

    • The Organ — The organ is a keyboard wind instrument with pipes, pedals, stops, and manuals, and Bach is its most famous composer. It is central to liturgical music and inspired works such as Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony.

• String ensemble
  • string octet — A string octet is the ensemble of eight string players, often treated as a double string quartet. Mendelssohn, Enescu, Shostakovich, and others wrote notable works for this scoring.
• string ensembles
  • string orchestra — A string orchestra is an ensemble made up only of strings, without winds or percussion. Composers such as Barber, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Dvořák, and Martinů wrote notable works for this type of group.
• string instruments

  • balalaika — The balalaika is a Russian plucked string instrument with a distinctive triangular body and three strings. It was standardized in the nineteenth century by Vasily Andreyev and is often heard in Russian folk ensembles and in music such as the Doctor Zhivago soundtrack.

  • baryton — The baryton is a bowed string instrument favored by Haydn’s patron Nikolaus Esterházy, who played it himself. Haydn wrote many trios and concertos for it, combining bowed and plucked strings in a viola-like body.

  • Double bass — The double bass is the largest and lowest-pitched standard string instrument in the orchestra and is usually played standing up. It anchors the bass line in orchestral and ensemble settings and is a staple of jazz rhythm sections, where it often plays walking bass lines. It is associated with Charles Mingus and Paul Chambers and appears in classic jazz recordings such as A Love Supreme, Giant Steps, and “So What.”

  • Historical string instruments
    • arpeggione — The arpeggione is an obsolete bowed, fretted string instrument remembered chiefly through Schubert’s Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor. It resembles a hybrid of guitar and cello and survives largely through that repertoire.

  • hurdy-gurdy — The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument played by turning a crank that drives a wheel against the strings. It appears in paintings by Georges de la Tour and Watteau, and it is the instrument associated with blind street players and old-world folk music.

  • Stradivarius instruments — Stradivarius instruments are violins, violas, and cellos made by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona. They are prized for their sound, with famous examples including the Lady Blunt and the Axelrod quartet.

  • string sextet — A string sextet is a chamber ensemble of six string players, usually two violins, two violas, and two cellos. Works for this ensemble include Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night and Brahms’s and Tchaikovsky’s sextets.

  • the harp — The harp is a triangular stringed instrument with many strings and pedals used to change pitch. Its orchestral sound includes glissando effects and famous later designs such as the double-action harp developed by Sébastien Érard.

  • the lyre — In Greek myth, Hermes created the lyre by stretching strings over a turtle shell and gave the instrument to Apollo. The lyre became central to Greek epic performance and is the root of the word “lyric.”

  • viol — A viol, or viola da gamba, is a bowed fretted string family from the Baroque era that predates the modern violin and is often associated with consort music. It is usually held between the legs and tuned in fourths. Notable players include Marin Marais and Carl Friedrich Abel, and Christopher Simpson wrote an important division treatise on it; sources also mention John Taverner or John Tavener in connection with the instrument.
• musical instruments
  • idiophones
    • glass harmonica — The glass harmonica is a friction instrument made from spinning glass bowls or goblets and popularized in modern form by Benjamin Franklin. It appears in works by Mozart, Donizetti, and Saint-Saëns, especially the eerie “Aquarium” movement from The Carnival of the Animals.
• Keyboard instrument
  • Harpsichord
    • Spinet — A spinet is a small harpsichord, often associated with Italy in the sixteenth century. It has strings set at an angle to the keyboard and was also used for home practice.
• Medieval string instruments
  • vielle — The vielle is a medieval bowed string instrument, an ancestor of the violin, associated with troubadour music.

Instrument Makers

• Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù — Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù was a Cremonese violin maker whose instruments rank with the finest by Stradivari. Only a small number survive, and the Paganini violin is among the most famous examples.

• Luthiers
  • Antonio Stradivari — Antonio Stradivari was the Cremonese luthier whose violins set the standard for the instrument and are prized for their craftsmanship and tone. His surviving instruments sell for enormous sums and include celebrated named works such as the Messiah. He is associated with the Stradivarius name, the long-pattern model, and famous instruments played by major soloists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell; he is also linked with the classical form of the violin and its bridge.

    • Stradivari — Stradivari was the great Italian violin-making family whose instruments became legendary for their workmanship and sound. The name most often refers to Antonio Stradivari, whose violins are coveted by performers and collectors alike.

    • Stradivarius — A Stradivarius is a violin or other string instrument made by the Cremonese luthier Antonio Stradivari. Quizbowl clues often point to famous named instruments such as the Davidov, Duport, Betts, and Booth, or to virtuosi like Paganini and Heifetz.

• violin makers

  • Guarneri — The Guarneri family were Italian violin makers, famed for instruments used by Paganini and reputed for a rich tone. Andrea Guarneri worked in Nicolo Amati’s workshop, and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù became the most famous member of the family.

  • Nicolo Amati — Nicolo Amati was an Italian violin luthier from the famous Amati family, and he taught Antonio Stradivari. His family helped establish violin making in Cremona, and his grand models remain highly valued.

• Steinway & Sons — Founded in New York in 1853, Steinway & Sons is a renowned high-end piano manufacturer whose concert grands are fixtures in major halls and the professional market. It is especially associated with the model D-274 and with concert performance in the United States; the company name is often seen in references to major concert pianists and the company’s rise in the 1880s.

Ensembles, Festivals, and Musical Institutions

• Orchestras, Bands, and Chamber Ensembles

  • Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra — The Berlin Philharmonic is the major German orchestra that developed after musicians left Benjamin Bilse’s orchestra in 1882. It has been led by conductors such as Hans von Bülow, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Richard Strauss, and Herbert von Karajan.

  • Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra — The Los Angeles Philharmonic is the major American orchestra based at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It has been led by conductors including Otto Klemperer, Zubin Mehta, and Gustavo Dudamel.
    • Los Angeles Philharmonic — The Los Angeles Philharmonic is the major American orchestra now associated with Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. Its recent music directors have included Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel, and earlier figures such as Zubin Mehta and Otto Klemperer also led it.

  • Philadelphia Orchestra — The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of America’s Big Five orchestras and is closely associated with conductors such as Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. It made early electrical recordings and provided the music for Disney’s Fantasia.

  • NBC Symphony Orchestra — The NBC Symphony Orchestra was the radio ensemble created for Arturo Toscanini and later succeeded by the Symphony of the Air. It was a major American concert orchestra and gave the U.S. premiere of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony.

  • Boston Pops Orchestra — The Boston Pops Orchestra is the Boston-based ensemble known for light classical and popular music. It was long directed by Arthur Fiedler and later by John Williams, and it is famous for its Fourth of July concert at the Hatch Shell.
    • the Boston Pops — The Boston Pops is the Boston orchestra founded by Henry Lee Higginson for the Promenade and Esplanade Concerts. Long led by Arthur Fiedler and now associated with Keith Lockhart, it is known for its popular-program format and PBS appearances.
  • Boston Symphony Orchestra — Founded by Henry Lee Higginson, this orchestra performs at Symphony Hall in Boston and summers at Tanglewood. Its long list of conductors includes Serge Koussevitzky, Charles Munch, Seiji Ozawa, and James Levine.
    • Tanglewood — Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. Its Koussevitzky Music Shed and Seiji Ozawa Hall host the Boston Pops and the Festival of Contemporary Music.

  • Chicago Symphony Orchestra — The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is one of the American Big Five orchestras and is based in Illinois. Its summer home is the Ravinia Festival, and its music directors have included Fritz Reiner, Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, and Riccardo Muti. It is closely associated with recordings for Fantasia 2000 and with Mahler performances in Orchestra Hall. Quizbowl clues often point to its long ties to major conductors and to its concert activity at Ravinia.

  • Amadeus Quartet — The Amadeus Quartet was a long-lived string quartet founded in 1948 by Austrian refugees Peter Schidlof, Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel, and Martin Lovett. It settled in the UK after fleeing Austria, and its name combines a reference to Mozart with the idea of being beloved by God.

  • Beethoven Quartet — The Beethoven Quartet was a Soviet string quartet ensemble that became especially associated with Shostakovich’s string quartets. It premiered many of Shostakovich’s quartets and recorded the complete Beethoven quartets for the composer’s bicentennial celebration.

  • brass ensembles
    • The Canadian Brass — This Toronto-based brass ensemble was founded in 1970 and performs with two trumpets, French horn, trombone, and tuba. They are known for arrangements such as “The Saints’ Hallelujah” and were the first chamber ensemble to tour the People’s Republic of China.
  • Chamber ensembles
    • Beaux Arts Trio — The Beaux Arts Trio was a chamber ensemble active from 1955 to 2008, with pianist Menahem Pressler as its long-time constant member. It recorded a large repertory of piano trios, including complete Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart cycles.
  • concert band
    • wind ensemble — A wind ensemble is a concert-band-type group built mainly from woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Repertoire cited for the genre includes works by Grainger, Hindemith, Handel, Ticheli, and John Mackey.
  • ensembles
    • percussion ensemble — A percussion ensemble is a group of struck instruments used as the sole or principal ensemble in modern concert music. Works by Varèse, Xenakis, Chávez, and others helped establish the genre’s prominence.
  • instrumental ensembles
    • Chamber Music — Chamber music is intimate small-ensemble music, such as piano trios, quartets, and other works meant for salons or similarly limited spaces. Robert Schumann’s 1842 burst of writing for these forms was later called his year of chamber music. James Joyce also used the title Chamber Music for an early collection of poems later set to music by Samuel Barber.

      • trio sonatas — The trio sonata is a Baroque chamber genre built from two upper voices and continuo, often heard in music by Corelli, Couperin, and Bach. Its scoring can involve flute, violin, and continuo, and Bach’s Musical Offering includes a famous example.

      • piano quartet — A piano quartet is a chamber ensemble for piano, violin, viola, and cello. Mendelssohn wrote his first work in this genre at age twelve, and Mozart composed some of the earliest major examples.

      • piano quintet — A piano quintet is a chamber work for piano and string quartet, and the genre includes Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet, Schumann’s E-flat major quintet, and Brahms’s F-minor quintet. Clues can also point to later examples by Dvořák, Shostakovich, Medtner, and others.

      • piano trios — Piano trios are chamber works for violin, cello, and piano, and the repertoire includes Beethoven’s Archduke, Dvořák’s Dumky, and Shostakovich’s second trio. The genre often features contrasting movements and strong dialogue among the three instruments, making it a central form of 19th- and 20th-century chamber music.

      • string quartet — A string quartet is a chamber work or ensemble for two violins, viola, and cello. It is central to the classical chamber repertory. Major examples include Haydn’s quartets, Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet, Beethoven’s Razumovsky set, Schubert, Dvorak, Smetana, Borodin, Bartók, and Shostakovich.

        • Kronos Quartet — The Kronos Quartet is a contemporary string quartet founded by David Harrington and famous for experimental collaborations. It has performed and recorded works by Philip Glass and Terry Riley, including music connected to Requiem for a Dream and Different Trains.

        • Violin, viola, cello — The violin, viola, and cello are the standard bowed string instruments associated with the string quartet family. Stradivarius is famous for crafting examples of these instruments.

      • string quartets — A string quartet is the standard chamber ensemble of two violins, viola, and cello, and the genre is one of the core forms of classical chamber music. Clues often point to Haydn as the father of the genre, Mozart’s dedicated quartets to Haydn, Beethoven’s Razumovsky and late quartets, Bartók, Berg, and modern ensembles such as Kronos and Emerson.

        • Bartók string quartets — Bartók’s six string quartets are a landmark cycle of chamber music, written over three decades and often noted for their use of snap pizzicato and other extended techniques. The quartets reflect Bartók’s interest in folk music and inventive formal designs such as palindrome structure.

        • Beethoven’s string quartets — Beethoven’s sixteen string quartets are chamber works for two violins, viola, and cello, spanning his development from the early Op. 18 set through the middle-period Razumovsky quartets, the Harp Quartet, and Serioso Quartet to the late quartets. They include the thirteenth quartet’s Cavatina and the Heiliger Dankgesang from Op. 132; Op. 130 originally ended with the Grosse Fuge, and Op. 135 ends with the finale marked “Must it be? It must be!”.

        • Emerson String Quartet — The Emerson String Quartet is an American chamber ensemble named for Ralph Waldo Emerson. It became one of the most decorated classical ensembles, with acclaimed recordings of Bartók and other repertoire.

        • Ludwig van Beethoven’s string quartets — Beethoven’s string quartets span his career and include works such as the Rasumovsky set, the “Harp,” the “Serioso,” and the late quartets with the Cavatina and Heiliger Dankgesang. The group also includes the Grosse Fuge, originally the finale of Op. 130.

        • String Quartet No. 1 in E minor — Bedřich Smetana’s autobiographical string quartet in E minor, depicting his life and eventual hearing loss. The work opens with a prominent viola solo evoking his youth, includes dance-like and folk-inflected passages such as a polka-like scherzo, and ends with a piercing high E in the first violin that represents the tinnitus and deafness that overtook the composer.

        • string quartets by Béla Bartók — Béla Bartók’s string quartets are a six-work cycle of landmark chamber music for four players. They are known for features such as arch form, the Mesto introduction in the last quartet, and the composer’s “snap pizzicato.”

        • string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich — Dmitri Shostakovich’s string quartets form a major chamber-cycle that includes fifteen works. The eighth quartet is especially famous for its DSCH motif and its dedication to the victims of fascism and war, while other quartets are known for nicknames like The Joke and for allusions to Jewish and wartime themes.

        • string quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn — Franz Joseph Haydn’s string quartets helped define the classical form of the genre. His famous sets include the Erdödy quartets, as well as pieces nicknamed “The Joke,” “The Emperor,” and “The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross.”

        • string quartets by Joseph Haydn — Joseph Haydn is often called the father of the string quartet, and his quartets include famous sets such as the Sun, Russian, and Erdődy collections. His quartets also include nicknamed works like The Joke and The Emperor, along with pieces that imitate gypsy music or use variation movements on familiar melodies.

        • the Kronos Quartet — The Kronos Quartet is a Grammy-winning string quartet known for specializing in twentieth-century music. Its lineup includes David Harrington, John Sherba, Hank Dutt, and Joan Jeanrenaud, and its repertoire ranges from classical works to pieces by Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and even Jimi Hendrix.

        • the string quartets of Joseph Haydn — Joseph Haydn’s string quartets are a foundational chamber-music cycle, with famous nicknames such as the “Joke,” “Frog,” and “Emperor” quartets. They helped move the genre beyond galant divertimento into a more equal dialogue among the four instruments.

      • string quintet — A chamber work for five strings, usually a string quartet plus an extra viola or cello. Notable examples include Boccherini’s many string quintets, Mozart’s works in the genre, Schubert’s late C major quintet, and Vaughan Williams’s contribution.
        • string quintets — These chamber works are usually scored for a string quartet plus an extra viola or cello. Mozart, Boccherini, Bruckner, and Schubert all wrote notable examples, including Boccherini’s many quintets and Schubert’s C-major quintet with two cellos.
          • clarinet quintet — A clarinet quintet is a chamber work for clarinet and string quartet, a format used by Mozart, Brahms, Reger, and others. Clues often point to Mozart’s early A-major quintet, Brahms’s late work for Richard Mühlfeld, or related pieces by Baermann and Coleridge-Taylor.
      • Trio
        • piano trio — A piano trio is a chamber ensemble for violin, cello, and piano. Standard repertoire includes Beethoven’s Ghost and Archduke trios, along with works by Haydn, Mendelssohn, Dvořák, Ravel, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff.
      • wind quintet — A wind quintet is a chamber ensemble for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon. Anton Reicha wrote an important set of 24 quintets for this ensemble, and Carl Nielsen’s Op. 43 most famous chamber work for it replaces the horn with English horn. Later composers such as Ligeti, Coleman, Stockhausen, and Perle also wrote for the form.
  • orchestras — An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble led by a conductor and divided into strings, winds, brass, and percussion. Clues may mention symphony, philharmonic, or the orchestra pit in an opera house.

    • Berlin Philharmonic — The Berlin Philharmonic is the major German orchestra based in Berlin, long associated with conductors such as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Simon Rattle, and Kirill Petrenko. Clues often mention its Digital Concert Hall, its pentagonal hall, and its annual open-air concert at the Waldbühne.

    • Cleveland Orchestra — The Cleveland Orchestra is a major American symphony orchestra based in Severance Hall. It has been praised by the New York Times and is regarded as one of the world’s leading orchestras.

    • London Symphony Orchestra — The London Symphony Orchestra is one of Britain’s leading orchestras and is closely associated with Barbican Hall. It has recorded film scores for composers such as John Williams and Alexandre Desplat and was long led by Colin Davis before Simon Rattle became music director.

    • National Symphony Orchestra — The National Symphony Orchestra is the Washington, D.C. ensemble based at the Kennedy Center. Its founding director was Hans Kindler, and it is especially associated with cellist-conductor Mstislav Rostropovich.

    • New York Philharmonic — The New York Philharmonic is one of the oldest American orchestras and the oldest of the Big Five. Conductors associated with it include Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, and Jaap van Zweden.

    • New York Philharmonic Orchestra — The New York Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest of the Big Five American orchestras. Its history includes Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, and performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

    • Vienna Philharmonic — The Vienna Philharmonic is the orchestra based at the Musikverein in Vienna, famous for its annual New Year’s Concert of Strauss pieces. It has been linked to Mahler, Bruckner, and later controversy over Nazi Party membership among its musicians.

  • Silk Road Ensemble — Yo-Yo Ma’s rotating international music collective, founded to bring together performers from diverse musical traditions. Its repertoire blends musicians and instruments from across Eurasia and it was featured in the documentary The Music of Strangers. Recordings include New Impossibilities, Off the Map, and Sing Me Home, and its roster has included Kinan Azmeh and Osvaldo Golijov; Rhiannon Giddens later served as artistic director.

  • Military music
    • military band — A military band is an ensemble built around marches and related repertory, often featuring brass, woodwinds, and percussion. John Philip Sousa and Gustav Holst both wrote for this type of group, including the Sousa march tradition and Holst’s two suites for military band.
• Choirs and Vocal Ensembles
  • choirs — Choirs are vocal ensembles that sing without instrumental accompaniment and are central to much Christian choral music. They appear in works ranging from Tallis’s Spem in alium to Bach’s choral writing and SATB repertoire.
    • Mormon choirs
      • Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square — The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is a large Mormon choral ensemble directed by Mack Wilberg. It has long broadcast Music and the Spoken Word and is known for recordings such as Spirit of America and Battle Hymn of the Republic.

  • glee club — A glee club is a choral group, originally referring in Britain to an unaccompanied male ensemble singing short pieces. In modern American usage, it can mean any traditionally all-male singing group.

  • Red Army Choir — The Red Army Choir, also called the Alexandrov Ensemble, is the Soviet and Russian military song-and-dance ensemble associated with patriotic and folk performance. It became especially well known as a large choral group accompanied by orchestra and dancers.

  • Vocal ensembles
    • concerto delle donne — The concerto delle donne was a celebrated Ferrarese ensemble of professional female singers at the Este court. It influenced seconda pratica and composers such as Luzzasco Luzzaschi and Monteverdi.
• Concerts, Festivals, and Training
  • BBC Proms — The BBC Proms are the BBC’s annual London classical concert series centered at the Royal Albert Hall and broadcast by the BBC. They are known for cheap standing tickets and for the Last Night tradition of ending with patriotic works such as Rule, Britannia!, Fantasia on British Sea Songs, Land of Hope and Glory, Pomp and Circumstance, and Jerusalem.

    • Last Night of the Proms — The Last Night of the Proms is the finale of the BBC Proms season, usually held at Royal Albert Hall in London. It is known for patriotic crowd participation and performances such as Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 and the Fantasia on British Sea Songs.

    • The Proms — The Proms are the annual summer classical concerts traditionally associated with the BBC and the Royal Albert Hall in London. The festival is famous for the Last Night, patriotic finales, and repertory linked to British composers such as Vaughan Williams and Elgar.

  • concert halls — Concert halls are performing arts venues built for classical music, from the Walt Disney Concert Hall to the Berlin Philharmonie and the Copenhagen venue designed by Jean Nouvel. Clues often mention vineyard seating, shell-like façades, and famous auditoria such as Royal Albert Hall.
    • Carnegie Hall — Carnegie Hall is the famous Manhattan concert venue associated with a landmark 1938 Benny Goodman performance that helped make jazz respectable to elite audiences. It is also linked to major classical and jazz performances by Duke Ellington and others, and the old joke says the way to get there is practice.
  • concert performance
    • encore — An encore is an extra piece performed after the main concert program, usually in response to audience applause. The word comes from French and means “once more.” It is associated with concerts such as the Vienna New Year’s Concert, where post-program extras may be performed.
  • Concert series
    • Concert Spirituel — The Concert Spirituel was a major Parisian public concert series founded by Anne Danican Philidor in 1720. It featured sacred and orchestral works such as Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and helped introduce Parisian audiences to symphonies by the Mannheim school and Mozart.
  • Conservatories of music
    • Curtis Institute of Music — The Curtis Institute of Music is Philadelphia’s elite conservatory, known for full-tuition merit scholarships. Its alumni and students include Hilary Hahn, Lang Lang, and other major performers.
  • Prizes and competitions
    • Grand Prix de Rome — The Grand Prix de Rome was a prestigious French prize for artists and composers, instituted under Louis XIV. Winners studied at the Académie de France à Rome, and the prize became famous for composition awards won by musicians such as Berlioz, Lili Boulanger, and Nadia Boulanger.

  • Tanglewood Music Center — Tanglewood Music Center is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. It includes the Koussevitzky Music Shed and Seiji Ozawa Hall, and hosts the Festival of Contemporary Music.

  • Three Choirs Festival — The Three Choirs Festival is the long-running English choral festival shared by Hereford, Gloucester, and Worcester cathedrals. It was a major venue for composers such as Vaughan Williams, Holst, Elgar, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

  • Young People’s Concerts — Young People’s Concerts was Leonard Bernstein’s CBS series of televised lecture-concerts with the New York Philharmonic. The series ran from the late 1950s into the early 1970s and covered composers, topics, and specific works for family audiences.
• Publishing, Recording, and Musical Networks

  • Deutsche Grammophon — Deutsche Grammophon is the Berlin-based classical record label nicknamed the Yellow Label.

  • record labels
    • Naxos Records — Naxos Records is a major classical music label known for its broad catalog, budget releases, and large online library. It has issued major series such as Naxos Historical and American Classics, and its name comes from the Greek island Naxos.
  • Les Apaches — Les Apaches was a Parisian circle of artists and composers associated with Maurice Ravel, Ricardo Viñes, Tristan Klingsor, and other admirers of Debussy. The group met around shared musical tastes and inspired several of Ravel’s Miroirs pieces.

Other Traditions and Musical Scholarship

Compare musical traditions and the scholarship used to study them.

Traditional and Court Music

• Ancient Greek music
  • Lyre — The lyre is the ancient Greek stringed instrument associated with Hermes, Apollo, Orpheus, and other mythic musicians. It appears in stories about Amphion building Thebes, Apollo defeating Marsyas, and Hermes inventing the instrument from a turtle shell.
• Carnatic music — Carnatic music is the South Indian classical tradition shaped by sung performance, solfege patterns, and compositions such as varnams and kritis. It is closely associated with Purandara Dasa’s teaching exercises and the vocalized rhythmic style called konnakol.
  • Carnatic — Carnatic is the South Indian classical music tradition contrasted with Hindustani music. It emphasizes vocal performance, kritis, ragas, and tala, and uses instruments such as the tambura.
• Chinese musical instruments
  • guqin — The guqin is a seven-stringed Chinese zither associated with literati and scholarly culture, including the Four Arts alongside painting, calligraphy, and Go. It is linked with Confucius and with the story of Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi. Its playing uses plucked, harmonic, and sliding tones, and it is often contrasted with the guzheng, which has movable bridges. It has Korean and Japanese cognates.
• Japanese court music
  • gagaku — Gagaku is the traditional court music of Japan, famous for instruments such as the hichiriki, sho, and ryuteki. Composers including Messiaen and Hovhaness drew on its sonorities, and works like Etenraku belong to this style.
• Ravi Shankar — Ravi Shankar was the sitar virtuoso who helped popularize Indian classical music in the West and collaborated with Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison. He composed for Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy and was the father of Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar.
  • Shankar — Shankar is the surname of Ravi Shankar, the sitar virtuoso who popularized Hindustani music internationally and collaborated with Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison. The name also belongs to his daughter Anoushka and to other musicians and artists associated with Indian classical performance.
• English folk songs
  • Greensleeves — “Greensleeves” is a traditional English folk tune often paired with the Christmas hymn “What Child Is This?” It is traditionally, but incorrectly, attributed to Henry VIII, with the apocryphal story that he wrote it for Anne Boleyn. Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote a fantasia on the tune, and Holst quoted it in the Dargason movement.
• Purandara Dasa — Purandara Dasa was a major 15th-century composer in the Carnatic tradition and is often credited with systematizing its elementary exercises. His name is tied to the alankaras, swaravalis, and other training materials used in South Indian classical music.

Composer and Performer Names: Cross-References

• C.P.E. Bach — see Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach under Classical Era above. German composer and keyboard virtuoso, the second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach. A major transitional figure between Baroque and Classical style, he was associated with empfindsamer Stil, served Frederick the Great as harpsichordist in Berlin, later succeeded Telemann as Kapellmeister in Hamburg, and wrote the influential Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. His notable works include the Solfeggietto, the Prussian and Wurttemberg sonatas, The Israelites in the Desert, and The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus.

• Rubinstein family

  • Rubinstein — Rubinstein is a surname associated with several famous pianists, especially Anton, Nikolai, and Artur/Arthur Rubinstein. Anton Rubinstein founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, and Nikolai Rubinstein helped found the Moscow Conservatory. Artur Rubinstein was a celebrated pianist and Chopin interpreter.

Music Scholarship and Criticism

• Music critics
  • Alex Ross — Alex Ross is the New Yorker’s classical music critic and the author of The Rest Is Noise. He also wrote Cheap Seats and Listen to This, which reflect his broad coverage of twentieth-century music.
• Musicologists
  • Alfred Einstein — Alfred Einstein was a German-American musicologist, not the physicist, known for his work on Mozart and for revising the Köchel catalogue. He also wrote on Italian madrigals and other Renaissance music.

• Nicolas Slonimsky — Nicolas Slonimsky was a Russian-born composer, conductor, and writer known for the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. He also wrote A Lexicon of Musical Invective, a collection of attacks on composers since Beethoven’s time, and was admired by figures such as John Coltrane and Frank Zappa.

• Richard Taruskin — Richard Taruskin was a prominent musicologist at UC Berkeley who wrote the six-volume Oxford History of Western Music. He criticized purely formal analysis, especially of Stravinsky and of historically “authentic” performance practice.

• Anthony van Hoboken — Anthony van Hoboken was a Dutch musicologist best known for compiling the standard catalog of Haydn’s works. His name supplies the Hoboken catalogue and the Hob. numbering used for Haydn compositions. He also founded the Vienna archive of musician portraits and produced a massive thematic listing organized by genre.

• Ludwig Alois Ferdinand Ritter von Köchel — Ludwig Alois Ferdinand Ritter von Köchel compiled the standard chronological catalog of Mozart’s works, known as the Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis. The familiar Köchel numbers, or K numbers, run from Mozart’s early pieces through the Requiem and remain the usual way of identifying his output; the catalog was later revised by Alfred Einstein and others.

• Marin Mersenne — Marin Mersenne was a 17th-century French mathematician, Minim friar, and theorist of music remembered for work on number theory and acoustics. His name is attached to Mersenne primes, the Mersenne Twister, and three laws describing waves on fixed-length strings. He also wrote on acoustics and proposed optical designs that anticipated later reflecting telescopes.

• Donald Tovey — Donald Tovey was a British musicologist and critic whose Essays in Musical Analysis became a standard source on classical music. He taught at the University of Edinburgh and is also known for a completion of Bach’s unfinished Contrapunctus XIV.

Performance Practice and Musical Debates

• early music performance practice
  • historically informed performance — Historically informed performance is an approach to early music that aims to recreate the sound world of a work’s original era. It often uses period instruments, historical tuning, and performance practices associated with figures such as Arnold Dolmetsch and Wanda Landowska.
• music history
  • Romantic-era music debates
    • War of the Romantics — The War of the Romantics was the nineteenth-century clash between the conservative camp around Brahms and Joachim and the New German School around Liszt and Wagner. It was fought less on the battlefield than through essays, concerts, and compositional polemics.
• Synesthesia
  • color organ — A color organ is a device designed to produce synchronized colored light, often for synesthetic or multimedia performance. It was associated with Scriabin’s Prometheus and later experimental realizations such as Mary Hallock-Greenewalt’s “Sarabet.”
• Compositional techniques
  • polystylism — Polystylism is a compositional approach that juxtaposes contrasting musical idioms within a single work. It is especially associated with Alfred Schnittke and with works that mix older and newer styles in a deliberately eclectic way.
• Eduard Hanslick — Eduard Hanslick was an Austrian critic best known for his defense of Brahms and his formalist claim that music is “tonally moving forms.” He attacked program music and the symphonic poem, and he helped shape the debate of the War of the Romantics.