Johann MacLeod
Duc de Lorraine
Thomas Morley?
Classical Music Quiz
- Thread starter Achinz
- Start date
Achinz
Hermit of Huangshan
Not quite; I don't think Morley was that notorious and neither was he an aristocrat although he was a comtemporary.
So a progressive clue: Our composer was not English.
So a progressive clue: Our composer was not English.
JonathanValjean
Porschephile
Welcome to CFC and to the Classical Music Quiz, Scowler. 
Great job, by the way, with your correct answer!
Great job, by the way, with your correct answer!
JonathanValjean
Porschephile
Okay, I'll take the liberty of asking the next question.
Mozart was quite a prodigy. He wrote his first opera at age 11. At what age did he compose his first minuet?
Mozart was quite a prodigy. He wrote his first opera at age 11. At what age did he compose his first minuet?
insurgent
Exhausted
8?
(Wasn't that what they said in 'Amadeus'?)
(Wasn't that what they said in 'Amadeus'?)
Achinz
Hermit of Huangshan
A belated (I've been to the countryside today - just got back) answer which as JV has indicated is Correct!
BTW Gesualdo was the subject of an opera by Alfred Schnittke which received its world Premiere in Vienna in May 1995.
And again welcome - the CM group seems to grow from strength to strength. There's so much to explore
insurgent
Exhausted
I think it's your turn to ask a question, Scowler...
Achinz
Hermit of Huangshan
Looks like this is a bit of a stumper.
Perhaps you'd like to give progressive clues and hints to keep the momentum going, Scowler, like your definition of synaesthesia eg.
Perhaps you'd like to give progressive clues and hints to keep the momentum going, Scowler, like your definition of synaesthesia eg.
Sorry - I thought this was something that was generally known. Basically, synaesthesia is a condition where the senses become transposed; for instance, someone might "see" sounds in terms of colour. Hopefully this should provide a fairly big clue, but let me know if you need any more - we don't want this to take 1001 nights...
Siegmund
King
The only one I could think of, after I looked up a definition, was Scriabin.
Further web searching reveals a long list of composers who are accused of having it by some but not by others. The only two names I saw cited repeatedly were Rimsky-Korsakov and Messaien.
I was intrigued that Scriabin's way of seeing things (see this link ) appears to be a rainbow wrapped around the circle of fifths, rather than just wrapped around the pitches in their usual scale-order.
I don't hear colours or see sounds myself, but it reminds me of a theory I had in high school - the range of visible light wavelengths spans just about one octave. I had a theory that colours looked good together if their wavelength-ratio was consonant, and clashed if it was dissonant. It seemed to work fairly well: colours that almost but don't quite match clash = seconds, and 'opposites' like orange and blue were gaudy (tritones) while adjusting either colour a little bit (say red-blue, or orange-dark green) looked good (fourths and fifths).
I gave up investigating the theory, partly because of difficulty in finding the actual exact wavelengths or having a way to experiment with them, and partly since people's ideas of what looked good seemed to vary a lot.
Anyway, interesting question.
Further web searching reveals a long list of composers who are accused of having it by some but not by others. The only two names I saw cited repeatedly were Rimsky-Korsakov and Messaien.
I was intrigued that Scriabin's way of seeing things (see this link ) appears to be a rainbow wrapped around the circle of fifths, rather than just wrapped around the pitches in their usual scale-order.
I don't hear colours or see sounds myself, but it reminds me of a theory I had in high school - the range of visible light wavelengths spans just about one octave. I had a theory that colours looked good together if their wavelength-ratio was consonant, and clashed if it was dissonant. It seemed to work fairly well: colours that almost but don't quite match clash = seconds, and 'opposites' like orange and blue were gaudy (tritones) while adjusting either colour a little bit (say red-blue, or orange-dark green) looked good (fourths and fifths).
I gave up investigating the theory, partly because of difficulty in finding the actual exact wavelengths or having a way to experiment with them, and partly since people's ideas of what looked good seemed to vary a lot.
Anyway, interesting question.
Well done Siegmund! Scriabin, Messiaen, and Rimsky-Korsakov were indeed the names I was looking for. I liked the article about Scriabin and Rimsky you found - very interesting. Messaien's synaesthesia has been tackled in at least one journal article, and you can find a short description of that here (second section down).
It looks like it's your turn to pose a question now.
It looks like it's your turn to pose a question now.
Siegmund
King
Bach's Wohltemperierte Klavier demonstrated the abillities of a new type of tuning keyboard instruments that was just coming into use in the late 17th century.
What were the "old" and "new" ways of tuning that were being contrasted? (And a warning: do not fall into the obvious trap.)
What were the "old" and "new" ways of tuning that were being contrasted? (And a warning: do not fall into the obvious trap.)
Achinz
Hermit of Huangshan
IIRC the new type was "equal temperament" and the old "mean-tone temperament".
Equal temperament was the intentional tempering of the tuning such that the slight acoustic inaccuracy was compensated by the ability to play octaves with one hand ie by having C and B# share the same string and so on for the other close pairs.
Mean-tone temperament is based on major thirds being accurate and the other intervals adapted so that about six major keys and three minor keys sound musical but beyond that the dreaded "wolf" out-of-tune-ness rears its ugly head.
Very simplified - the topic needs a treatise!
Equal temperament was the intentional tempering of the tuning such that the slight acoustic inaccuracy was compensated by the ability to play octaves with one hand ie by having C and B# share the same string and so on for the other close pairs.
Mean-tone temperament is based on major thirds being accurate and the other intervals adapted so that about six major keys and three minor keys sound musical but beyond that the dreaded "wolf" out-of-tune-ness rears its ugly head.
Very simplified - the topic needs a treatise!
Siegmund
King
First, sorry I didn't log in yesterday to respond and keep the thread moving.
Achinz: that is half-right. (But go ahead and ask the next question... the more variety of material we have to talk about, the more people will stop by and give us a look.)
Mean-tone tuning was indeed the leading 16th- and 17-th century tuning procedure, and, as you say, it makes a few keys sound very good, and the rest sound very bad.
But it was not replaced at once by equal temperament: in between came a variety of 'well temperaments' - tunings with several keys almost-as-good-as-meantone, and a few others noticeably different-sounding but passable. Supposedly Bach's sets of 24 were intended for the Werckmeister well temperament, designed to show off a) the fact that the former wolfs had been brought close enough to in tune to not be painful, and also b) to make use of somewhat different colours in the various keys according to which intervals were better or worse in each. This article by Kyle Gann gives a bit more detail on the tunings.
My personal interest in the subject is in various scales of 24 to 34 unequally-spaced pitches, so arranged as to give 12 or more perfectly-in-tune scales.
Achinz: that is half-right. (But go ahead and ask the next question... the more variety of material we have to talk about, the more people will stop by and give us a look.)
Mean-tone tuning was indeed the leading 16th- and 17-th century tuning procedure, and, as you say, it makes a few keys sound very good, and the rest sound very bad.
But it was not replaced at once by equal temperament: in between came a variety of 'well temperaments' - tunings with several keys almost-as-good-as-meantone, and a few others noticeably different-sounding but passable. Supposedly Bach's sets of 24 were intended for the Werckmeister well temperament, designed to show off a) the fact that the former wolfs had been brought close enough to in tune to not be painful, and also b) to make use of somewhat different colours in the various keys according to which intervals were better or worse in each. This article by Kyle Gann gives a bit more detail on the tunings.
My personal interest in the subject is in various scales of 24 to 34 unequally-spaced pitches, so arranged as to give 12 or more perfectly-in-tune scales.
Achinz
Hermit of Huangshan
@Siegmund
That's why I concluded my answer with a "very simplified" qualification. I've indeed come across the erudite treatments eg in Groves Dictionary on the details of what Bach meant by "Well-tempered".
Yes, the CM quorum is growing and as I mentioned before there's indeed much interesting and diverse ground to cover.
Next question coming up
That's why I concluded my answer with a "very simplified" qualification. I've indeed come across the erudite treatments eg in Groves Dictionary on the details of what Bach meant by "Well-tempered".
Yes, the CM quorum is growing and as I mentioned before there's indeed much interesting and diverse ground to cover.
Next question coming up
Achinz
Hermit of Huangshan
The next question:
Music composition like much creative activity is usually an individual solitary process. Very occasionally there are collaborative efforts. Can you name three compositions (works) that have contributions by more than one composer?
Edit: And who are the contributing composers in the work?
Music composition like much creative activity is usually an individual solitary process. Very occasionally there are collaborative efforts. Can you name three compositions (works) that have contributions by more than one composer?
Edit: And who are the contributing composers in the work?
Achinz
Hermit of Huangshan
Progressive clues called for, I guess.
I can think of a least four, two French, one predominantly German and one by a Committee!
I can think of a least four, two French, one predominantly German and one by a Committee!
