University Challenge

[vinteuil]

would Dora Copperfield's Jip count as a lapdog ?Then there's Flush of course but perhaps that wasn't a lapdog either

... Jip was certainly a lap dog, and an unpleasant piece of work. But Flush was a cocker spaniel, so a gun dog rather than a lap dog.

[Serial_Apologist]

I suppose it was predictable that a programme that is in essence about competitively regurgitating facts about facts appeals to some on this forum.

[jean]

I'm a lean dog, a keen dog, a wild dog, and lone;
I'm a rough dog, a tough dog, hunting on my own;
I'm a bad dog, a mad dog, teasing silly sheep;
I love to sit and bay the moon, to keep fat souls from sleep.

I'll never be a lap dog, licking dirty feet,
A sleek dog, a meek dog, cringing for my meat,
Not for me the fireside, the well-filled plate,
But shut door, and sharp stone, and cuff and kick, and hate.

Not for me the other dogs, running by my side,
Some have run a short while, but none of them would bide.
O mine is still the lone trail, the hard trail, the best,
Wide wind, and wild stars, and hunger of the quest!

(Irene Rutherford Mcleod.)

I remember singing a setting of this at school, but I've no idea who wrote it.

[subcontrabass]

I'm a lean dog, a keen dog, a wild dog, and lone;
I'm a rough dog, a tough dog, hunting on my own;
I'm a bad dog, a mad dog, teasing silly sheep;
I love to sit and bay the moon, to keep fat souls from sleep.

I'll never be a lap dog, licking dirty feet,
A sleek dog, a meek dog, cringing for my meat,
Not for me the fireside, the well-filled plate,
But shut door, and sharp stone, and cuff and kick, and hate.

Not for me the other dogs, running by my side,
Some have run a short while, but none of them would bide.
O mine is still the lone trail, the hard trail, the best,
Wide wind, and wild stars, and hunger of the quest!

(Irene Rutherford Mcleod.)

I remember singing a setting of this at school, but I've no idea who wrote it.

There is a setting by Britten: http://www.fridayafternoonsmusic.co....and_Lyrics.pdf

[jean]

That wasn't it!

[subcontrabass]

That wasn't it!

There is a setting by Michael Head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdidf3AM92Q

and another by Sidney Homer (Opus 34 No 4 - but I cannot find anything more on that).

[gurnemanz]

The only song I can think of containing the word "sphincter" is a vulgar but quite amusing parody of the Eton Boating Song: "The Sexual Life of the Camel". I remember it from mis-spent rugby evenings many years ago but won't contaminate this board by quoting any more of the text.

[vinteuil]

would Dora Copperfield's Jip count as a lapdog ? Then there's Flush of course but perhaps that wasn't a lapdog either

... if pomeranians count as lapdogs, then an extreme use in literature might be Saki's short story 'Louis' -

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Loui.shtml

But in terms of quality, nothing beats Chekhov -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_with_the_Dog

[jean]

There is a setting by Michael Head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdidf3AM92Q

No, that's not it either.

Come over here and I'll sing it to you.

[Richard Tarleton]

I liked the Hanslick questions last night. Looking at the pieces/composers Hanslick didn't like makes one wonder about those he did .

For anyone who missed it, clips were played from Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (the starter), Liszt Sonata, Bruckner 7, Tristan....I don't think anyone got anything did they?

The all-female team from last week back to try for a place as a high-scoring loser (2 out of 4 I think) .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I liked the Hanslick questions last night. Looking at the pieces/composers Hanslick didn't like makes one wonder about those he did

Of his contemporaries, Brahms and ... err ... em ... well, that's it, really. A bit like Schenker, Hanslick produced a valuable historical/analytical method of listening to Music, and anything that didn't meet this standard just wasn't good. One of the "nobody writes good Music anymore" types - as tedious then as now.

For anyone who missed it, clips were played from Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (the starter), Liszt Sonata, Bruckner 7, Tristan....I don't think anyone got anything did they?

I thought that they guessed Wagner correctly - but I may be wrong. What struck me later was the contrast with how knowledgeable they were about Painting: getting Gentileschi I thought was most impressive.

[Dave2002]

I liked the Hanslick questions last night. Looking at the pieces/composers Hanslick didn't like makes one wonder about those he did .

For anyone who missed it, clips were played from Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (the starter), Liszt Sonata, Bruckner 7, Tristan....I don't think anyone got anything did they?

The all-female team from last week back to try for a place as a high-scoring loser (2 out of 4 I think) .

I think that Wagner was identified.

I'm glad that the team from last week which lost is still able to come back. I feel there is now significant bias from Paxman - which tends to favour Oxbridge teams and maybe a few others. This is particularly in the seeming lack of a time limit for the mutterings/deliberations about answers. Last week Paxman tried to hurry up the losing team - perhaps on that occasion to give them a better chance to score a few more points, but some of the discussions about possible answers seem to go on for minutes. Teams which take a long time to get to an answer are denying their opponents time to get points for themselves.

The statement about the rules is now skipped at the start of each programme, and yes, we all do know the basics - but shouldn't there be a rule, or if there is one, shouldn't it be enforced, about the length of time for deliberation on questions?

There is occasional bias in acceptance of answers which are slightly off the mark - sometimes allowed and sometimes not.
There is (and there was last night) some nudging, where one team gave a partial answer and were then nudged to give the correct full answer. These two extra factors can also bias the outcome slightly.

Attention to these issues, particularly the time limit for answering, wouldn't necessarily change the outcomes in many cases, but would feel a lot fairer.

[Nick Armstrong]

For anyone who missed it, clips were played from Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (the starter), Liszt Sonata, Bruckner 7, Tristan....I don't think anyone got anything did they?

Yes - good question wasn't it. Ferney's right, I think the guy who looked like the third Proclaimer* got Wagner.

I must confess I was at sea with the first piece - those damn' romantic violin concertos, they all blur in my mind - Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaik.... I can never spot which is which. The contestant who tried Brahms at least had a feel for it (rather than the bloke dressed as a monk from Bristol who was older than the others and who should have known better than his random guess of 'Vivaldi' )


.


*

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes - good question wasn't it. Ferney's right, I think the guy who looked like the third Proclaimer got Wagner.

Wasn't he the theologian? The word cloud questions were a gift.....

[gurnemanz]

I liked the Hanslick questions last night. Looking at the pieces/composers Hanslick didn't like makes one wonder about those he did .

For anyone who missed it, clips were played from Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (the starter), Liszt Sonata, Bruckner 7, Tristan....I don't think anyone got anything did they?

The all-female team from last week back to try for a place as a high-scoring loser (2 out of 4 I think) .

Vivaldi was rather a wacky guess for the Tchaikovsky. Paxman's quip: Who remembers Hanslick nowadays? is the standard way of getting at critics but Hanslick is one of the few critics who actually is remembered. After all, he did get a question on UC.