# Quiz: Can you name a piece just by looking at the music?



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Here's an interesting quiz. I got 15 out of 20.

http://www.classicfm.com/discover/music-quizzes/name-the-piece/?fb_ref=Default#8sVl0Kob2WZhLtZ7.97


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

12/20! 

And I wasn't even familiar with all the choices. What is Beethoven's Battle Symphony?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

GreenMamba said:


> 12/20!
> 
> And I wasn't even familiar with all the choices. What is Beethoven's Battle Symphony?


Aka Wellington's Victory.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

18/20
Got that Saint-Saens wrong
And don't know my Rossini from my Donizetti very well either.
Quite pleased otherwise. A couple of educated guesses saw me through.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

18/20. Don't know my Rossini operas, inexplicably failed to recognize the Holst. I also had a few educated guesses.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

13/20 ...................


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

13/20. I need a bigger screen than an iPad mini. It helped that I've played The Lark Ascending and my mother has played the Minute Waltz. It was a bit tricky doing this quiz while I had music playing in the background.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

20/20. And not just in hindsight.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

17/20

Unfamiliar with a few of them.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

18/20

I thought the Saint Saens looked like the Can-can from Orpheus.

And there was a Verdi Opera I got wrong. I haven't listened to any Verdi operas yet.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

17/20, the Saint-Saëns one threw me off!


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

A long-ago friend of mine, a piano teacher, had a competition with another pianist as to how many bars of a piece they could play before it was identified. The record was zero bars, as soon as the other person reached out to the keyboard, my friend identified the piece by the orientation of the hands & fingers! I only wish that I could remember what the piece was.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

17/20

I missed Carnival of the Animals, the Crumb piece, and The Lark Ascending which...doesn't bother me that much, really.



> The sung text of the Crumb piece was a dead giveaway actually.


To people who know or care about his, I guess?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

The sung text of the Crumb piece was a dead giveaway actually.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

16/20.
The Saint-Saens one was very clever - thank goodness I listen to _Le carnaval_ so much!


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## Guest (May 3, 2015)

19/20. Damn, got caught out on that one where the ladies kick their legs in the air causing le grand scandale !!


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

0/20

Try to beat _that_, suckers.


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

^^^^^^ :lol: I reckon Moonlight Sonata could get -1 out of 20. He managed after all to get 16/15 in a previous quiz


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

violadude said:


> 18/20
> 
> I thought the Saint Saens looked like the Can-can from Orpheus.
> 
> And there was a Verdi Opera I got wrong. I haven't listened to any Verdi operas yet.


The Verdi was the one I got right by pure luck.


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## TresPicos (Mar 21, 2009)

12/20

Apart from the opera stuff that I'm not that familiar with, I actually didn't recognize Pachelbel's Canon. I hope that means it has finally been purged from my brain.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

DiesIraeVIX said:


> 0/20
> 
> Try to beat _that_, suckers.


Sorry, but I can't open the link.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

18/20 — Opera is my weakness. In general, however, the test was a poor one, favoring trivial knowledge (quintuple meter for Holst, the keys of pieces, what piece has two cellos, etc.) over stylistic competence.


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## Guest (May 4, 2015)

That's true Edward. In terms of stylistic competence, try this: http://qq.themefinder.org/


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

9/20.

Of course, opera is a lesser art form, so those q's shouldn't really count.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

15/20

Sadly I don't have all two hours of the St. Matthew Passion memorized 
Also string quartet's aren't my thing, so I wasn't going to get that one
Don't know operas well, so didn't get Verdi
I feel like the string quintet one was unfair, but perhaps I'm wrong
And the last one was just a guess tbh


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Cosmos said:


> 15/20
> 
> Sadly I don't have all two hours of the St. Matthew Passion memorized
> Also string quartet's aren't my thing, so I wasn't going to get that one
> ...


The string quintet one was a process of elimination. The Brahms and Mendelssohn quintets are for 2 violas not two cellos. And the Mozart piece was a woodwind quintet, not a string quintet.


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## Medtnaculus (May 13, 2015)

14/20

Looks like I need to listen to more operas.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

19/20 for me, and before I read any comments on this thread (fearing spoilers).
I missed the Bach/Handel oratorio/mass question.

I remember a TIME magazine article about 35 years ago about a bloke whose party trick was to recognize classical music LPs and identify the music by the pattern of the grooves; louder music has deeper wider grooves. (without reading the centre label, obviously). He claimed his greatest achievement was to recognize an LP of Beethoven's 5th from across the room...

cheers,
Graeme


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