# How Well Do You Know French Music?



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Think you know French music? From the salon to the symphony hall, from the opera to the ballet, the French have given us some great music. But, how much French music do YOU know? Try this little quiz.

I got 15/20 and surprised myself.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

12/20. They lure you in with a couple of easy ones, then BAM!!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I got 9 out of 20, and annoyed myself... 

Annoyed because one question I didn't read properly, and three I dickered between 2 choices and got the wrong one each time. 
*(Still - at least you got the French Baroque questions right, mon chou! - Madame la Marquise.)*


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

14 out of 20.

I'm not sure that the questions about Marie Antoinette's wigs or Louis XIV prove much. I guessed them as being the most obvious answers.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

19/20. Missed the last one.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

I decided to have a look and see how much French music I actually have: 19 CDs out of approx 350. Just over 5%.

So I feel I don't know that much about French music.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

Ingélou said:


> I got 9 out of 20, and annoyed myself...
> 
> Annoyed because one question I didn't read properly, and three I dickered between 2 choices and got the wrong one each time.
> *(Still - at least you got the French Baroque questions right, mon chou! - Madame la Marquise.)*


Ah, so you got the only questions that mattered. _I can see myself getting hit with a satin purse already._

As for the quiz, I was surprised to get 18. Don't consider myself much of an expert on opera or French music, and it seemed like the majority of it was opera music. Although, I must admit that two of my correct answers were just an educated guess, e.g. Saint Saens not being a member of Les Six.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

9/20
............................


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## Brian Rin (Apr 18, 2015)

13/20. My baroque knowledge is very poor..


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

14/20. I hadn't realized Boulez won that many Grammys.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

11 out of 20.

Thought it was pretty easy the first half. The second? Not so much


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

15/20. The five I "guessed" were all wrong.


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2015)

i won't share my score.

I don't think the quiz reveals how much one knows about French music.

It covers only very popular, very well-known things. The more obscure stuff is mostly tangential to music. Like the Chevalier de Saint-George one. Oh well.

Here's some more questions, though, if anyone's in the mood.

Who wrote a piece to be performed over 400 loudspeakers in a huge auditorium designedr by another composer for the 1958 World Fai?

Xenakis
Boulez
Varese
Henry

Who was the other composer, the also an architect one?

Dutilleux
Dhomont
Schaeffer
Xenakis

Which of these French composers were born elsewhere?

Bokanowski
Kasem
Ferreyra
Ferrari

Who did a series of several pieces following Cage's _4'33"_ which translate into English as "almost nothing"?

Noetinger
Marchetti
Ferrari
eRikm

And, for that tangential feeling, which French composer shares the same last name with an Italian composer born 36 years earlier?

Ferrari
Bokanowski
Marchetti
Henry

Wait, there was a nineteenth century as well? OK.

How many operas did Berlioz compose?

One
Seven
Four
Three

Who wrote a Biblical opera, one of the few written in any century by any composer?

Saint-Saens
Bizet
Adam
Dukas

And finally, who wrote _Vexations,_ which can take around 18 hours to perform?

Sauzay
Satie
Saint-Saens
Séverac

That was more fun than I like to admit.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Varese wrote the music for the World's Fair and I'm going to guess that Satie wrote _Vexations_, otherwise I haven't a clue.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I didn't get any score because I didn't bother to do the test.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

C20th: 2/5
C19th: 3/3


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

16/20 including some (evidently) inspired guesses!


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Only 12/20, but at least I got all the opera questions right!

some guy: there are loads of operas based on Bible stories. In the last two days alone, I've listened to Gounod's Reine de Saba and Arrieu's Noé. I know that's only two examples, and it's too late at night for my brain to think of others, but I'm sure there are plenty more. (Mehul's Joseph, of 'Champs paternels' fame- that's an opera, isn't it?) We should do a list of Biblically-inspired French operas, if it doesn't exist somewhere already.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

11/20 was my score. I am quite proud of that score.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

What score from below, my answers in red.



some guy said:


> i won't share my score.
> 
> I don't think the quiz reveals how much one knows about French music.
> 
> ...


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

12/20. I got a bit vexed at one of the questions I felt is a trick question. You'll know it when you see it. 

I confess about three I got correct from mere guessing.

Now we should have a real test. Play any baroque I haven't heard before and I can very probably tell you if it's German/Austrian, French, Italian or English. I might even be able to guess Spanish. Wandering composers like Handel or Scarlatti would get to go either way though as sometimes Scarlatti sounds a bit Spanish influenced and so forth.

I might have more trouble if we moved into the classic era which all sounds quite a bit alike to me, but then start having an easier time again on into the romantic.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

12 out of 20. I don't know much about French Baroque nor opera.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I'm not very knowledgeable about French music. I've got a thicker Boulez cluster and some thin strips of Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Satie and others. Without counting, I can safely guess that my interest is strongly Austro-German, with a heavy helping of Russian.


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## ProudSquire (Nov 30, 2011)

9 out of the possible 20. Some of the questions were rather odd, but that's the game!


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## Musicophile (May 29, 2015)

12/20. Stil have some serious gaps here.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

At least on my computer, the third question, about birdsong, displayed as:

Ravel
Dutilleux
All of the above
Messiaen

So, though dubious, I chose Messiaen - and got it wrong. Because I interpreted "above" to mean "above."

I will not finish this dumb quiz.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Yep - that was the trick question.^


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

18 out of 20 . I should have known the one about Boulez winning that many Gramy awards but had a senior moment . The one about French composers and birds was a trick question and I chose Messiaen, even though I knew the other ocmposers wrote music inspired by birds . No fair !


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

14/20 right for me. Not bad at all ....


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## Lord Lance (Nov 4, 2013)

13/20.

Lots of educated guesses/guesses. Darn Opera took away my points.


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2015)

Figleaf said:


> Only 12/20, but at least I got all the opera questions right!
> 
> some guy: there are loads of operas based on Bible stories. In the last two days alone, I've listened to Gounod's Reine de Saba and Arrieu's Noé. I know that's only two examples, and it's too late at night for my brain to think of others, but I'm sure there are plenty more. (Mehul's Joseph, of 'Champs paternels' fame- that's an opera, isn't it?) We should do a list of Biblically-inspired French operas, if it doesn't exist somewhere already.


We should. And not just French operas. Any operas based on Biblical stories. Far as I know, it's Greek and Roman myth that got people's engines runnin', not Hebrew myth. But, as Samson and Delilah illustrates, some of the Bible stories are cracklingly exciting.

And now I know that "far as I know" is not nearly as far as I'd like it to be.


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2015)

Hey ArtMusic,

You got all the 19th century ones correct, even the trick one, and all the twentieth century ones wrong.

I'd give the correct answers, but it's too soon, I think. I'd rather someone else did that. (Someone else already did the Varese/Xenakis pair correctly.)

Oh, wait. One other thing. You did get it right that Ferrari was not born in France, but two others on that list were also not born in France. In fact, neither one of them might like me referring to them as "French" composers. They live and work in France. One of them was an early member of GRM and another one of them teaches at university.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

17/20.

The trick question appeared for me as Messiaen first, then "all of the above". The fact that there _was_ an "all of the above" should have told me that "all of the above" was probably the correct answer.


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2015)

I took a chemistry class in college. Yes, just the one.

The teacher loved multiple choice questions, and loved trick questions best of all. One time he messed up, though. After three specific choices came these general options, in this order:

4. None of the above.
5. All of the above.

Now, in this instance, the three specific items were all of them correct, so the logical response would be "All of the above," except for that pesky item 4, which item 5 included.

Well, there was great hilarity in the class over this faux pas, followed by great consternation when he refused to throw out this question. So we all of us, the entire class, got marked down on this because we none of us answered it. It was a dark day in American education.

(I mentioned this to my dad. "Who did you say your teacher was?" I told him. "That guy? I went to college with him. We hated each other." And _that_ was a great day in American comedy.:lol


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

18/20... Not bad at all! Haha!


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

18/20!

I was too quick to pick Messiaen (#4) and Stravinsky (#10) who in fact couldn't have been a student of Nadia Boulanger...


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Dr Johnson said:


> 14 out of 20.
> 
> I'm not sure that the questions about Marie Antoinette's wigs or Louis XIV prove much. I guessed them as being the most obvious answers.


10/20

I guessed 3 of them with my language knowledge and I thought I can outsmart the test by choosing Louis XV


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Nereffid said:


> 17/20.
> 
> The trick question appeared for me as Messiaen first, then "all of the above". The fact that there _was_ an "all of the above" should have told me that "all of the above" was probably the correct answer.


Was too lazy to read that whole answer section, just picked the most obvious composer, so got an "incorrect" and thus 17/20.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Weston said:


> Now we should have a real test. Play any baroque I haven't heard before and I can very probably tell you if it's German/Austrian, French, Italian or English. I might even be able to guess Spanish. Wandering composers like Handel or Scarlatti would get to go either way though as sometimes Scarlatti sounds a bit Spanish influenced and so forth.


They don't have to wander. Avison up in Newcastle imitated Scarlatti. Then you get people like Geminiani who spent time in Dublin or the Earl of Kellie who brought the Mannheim style back to Scotland and influenced others.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Nereffid said:


> 17/20.
> 
> The trick question appeared for me as Messiaen first, then "all of the above". The fact that there _was_ an "all of the above" should have told me that "all of the above" was probably the correct answer.


Ah - but if "all of the above" is correct, then Messiaen is also correct. Two correct answers.

Conversely, if Messiaen is incorrect because it does not include Ravel and Dutilleux, then "all of the above" is equally incorrect because it does not include Messiaen.

I think it was just a mistake.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Several of the questions are just trivia. They have nothing to do with music. That website slowed down my 'puter too much.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

starthrower said:


> Several of the questions are just trivia. They have nothing to do with music. That website slowed down my 'puter too much.


That strange moment when you realize you have spent so much on Music that you forgot to spend some money to maintain and upgrade your computer!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Arsakes said:


> That strange moment when you realize you have spent so much on Music that you forgot to spend some money to maintain and upgrade your computer!


I probably ought to just restart it so some programs get updated. An icon apeared at bottom right a while ago saying get windows 10. Maybe I need to upgrade?


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

17 

A couple of them didn't seem to have that much to do with music. But, I'm good....


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

isorhythm said:


> Ah - but if "all of the above" is correct, then Messiaen is also correct. Two correct answers.
> 
> Conversely, if Messiaen is incorrect because it does not include Ravel and Dutilleux, then "all of the above" is equally incorrect because it does not include Messiaen.
> 
> I think it was just a mistake.


I think the positions of the answers were randomized, which is why it looked so hilariously wrong in most cases, and should have been better-worded.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

11/20 with a LOT of guessing.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

18 out of 20.

I guessed a couple, though!

Question 19 threw me. (SPOILER - in white: I knew of _Le Devin du village_, so thought Rousseau couldn't be the answer.)


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

16 out of 20.
Also some guessing


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

16/20, which should have been 17 had I bothered to read all answers to the birds question before voting the one I thought of.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

19/20 with a bit of guessing, but the one I got wrong was something of a trick quesntion. Messiaen was particularly inspired by birdsong and made it a lifelong study, which was not true of the others,


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

20/20.

Not bad, taking also into account that some of the questions were not really about music, after all.


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## Guest (May 9, 2016)

13/20, the second half was not so good.


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## Hildadam Bingor (May 7, 2016)

16/20. B minus!!

I got 4, 6, 7, and 19 wrong.  7 is totally unfair, though, Boulez got those Grammys for conducting, not composing! (I guessed Michel Legrand.) And when did Ravel write bird music??? Tell me, Google! (Oh, right, Miroirs. ^_^;;


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Hildadam Bingor said:


> 16/20. B minus!!
> 
> I got 4, 6, 7, and 19 wrong.  7 is totally unfair, though, Boulez got those Grammys for conducting, not composing! (I guessed Michel Legrand.) And when did Ravel write bird music??? Tell me, Google! (Oh, right, Miroirs. ^_^;;


Actually, Boulez did get at least one Grammy award for "Best Contemporary Classical Composition."


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## Hildadam Bingor (May 7, 2016)

Mahlerian said:


> Actually, Boulez did get at least one Grammy award for "Best Contemporary Classical Composition."


Yeah but I figured it was a safe guess he didn't have 27! (NOT saying he doesn't deserve them!) I guessed Legrand because I figured maybe he got them for film scores or something.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

starthrower said:


> I probably ought to just restart it so some programs get updated. An icon apeared at bottom right a while ago saying get windows 10. Maybe I need to upgrade?


It's probably too late. But I wouldn't recommend Windows 10 if you're interested in playing old video games (1985-2005) and don't like Microsoft spying on you.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

some guy said:


> We should. And not just French operas. Any operas based on Biblical stories. Far as I know, it's Greek and Roman myth that got people's engines runnin', not Hebrew myth. But, as Samson and Delilah illustrates, some of the Bible stories are cracklingly exciting.
> 
> And now I know that "far as I know" is not nearly as far as I'd like it to be.


There's also Judas Maccabeus (Handel) and Salome (R. Strauss).
my wife adds Amahl and the Night Visitors.
that's all we got.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

hreichgott said:


> There's also Judas Maccabeus (Handel) and Salome (R. Strauss).
> my wife adds Amahl and the Night Visitors.
> that's all we got.


Massenet's Herodiade
Auber's Enfant prodigue
Halevy & Bizet's Noe
Rossini's Moise et Pharaon (=Mose in Egitto)
Meyerbeer's Jephtaa Geluebde


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