Quiz time! Hooray!

I haven't done a blog quiz thing in a while, and this one's tailored specifically to musicians -- although non-musicians can participate too, simply by omitting the specifically musicianly questions. I found it via Tosy and Cosh, who in turn got it from Terry Teachout, who in turn links this as the embarkation point for this quiz.

GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OR TWO OF AN ESPECIALLY GOOD OR INTERESTING:

1. Movie score. The Lord of the Rings (Shore), The Sea Hawk (Korngold), Star Wars (Williams)

2. TV theme. Magnum, PI (how great was the team of Post/Carpenter at TV themes in the 1980s!); Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (still my favorite of the Trek themes); The West Wing (nifty "patriotic" sound; ends on an unresolved chord)

3. Melody. The idee fixe from Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique; "On the Street Where You Live" by Lerner and Loewe, from My Fair Lady; "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" from Lohengrin (this will be the entry music if I ever get married again).

4. Harmonic language. "Irish Tune from County Derry", set by Percy Grainger. In fact, all of Grainger; he had an amazing way of voicing chords so you rarely notice just how dissonant they are.

5. Rhythmic feel. Elmer Bernstein's score to The Magnificent Seven. The last movement of Scheherazade. "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash.

6. Hip-hop track. I don't know anything about hip hop.

7. Classical piece. Geez, how many! I don't often mention the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto here. Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead. Berlioz's wonderful oratorio L'enfance du Christ. (If you only know Berlioz as the master of orchestral bombast, check this work out.)

8. Smash hit. Hmmmm...I usually tune smash hits right out of my consciousness after I get sick of them. The theme song to "Friends", I guess.

9. Jazz album. I used to pretend to be a jazz afficionado, but I eventually gave that up. Still, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis should be in every record collection.

10. Non-American folkloric group. Altan; the Battlefield Band.

11. Book on music. The Joy of Music by Leonard Bernstein; Evenings with the Orchestra by Hector Berlioz.

BONUS QUESTIONS: (I'm just presenting them here, but not answering them, because they don't really apply.)

A) Name an surprising album (or albums) you loved when you were developing as a musician: something that really informs your sound but that we would never guess in a million years.

B) Name a practitioner (or a few) who play your instrument that you think is underrated.

C) Name a rock or pop album that you wish had been a smash commercial hit (but wasn’t, not really).

D) Name a favorite drummer, and an album to hear why you love that drummer.

So there you go.