University Challenge

[Pabmusic]

Surely the difference is that only one of them snogged Glenda Jackson on a train?

You may be right.

[Rolmill]

Big zeros all round again for the classical music questions this week to Nottingham and St Cats Cambridge... (Nottingham receiving a Paxo broadside about needing to 'brush up on classical music, you were absolutely hopeless' at the end...)

Yes, they were pretty clueless. Interestingly, just before this edition of UC there was an edition of Celebrity Mastermind on BBC1 which we were watching over dinner - my customary bitching ("who are all these people and what are they celebrated for?") and sneering ("why are their specialist subjects always Harry Potter, football teams and pop groups?") was temporarily silenced when a young-ish chap (apparently presenter of a re-location property series) chose classical music between 1900 and 1960. The questions were not as hard as the non-celebrity Mastermind equivalents, but I thought he was pretty good - certainly much more impressive than the subsequent UC contestants' efforts on classical music.

[Stillhomewardbound]

It is sad how a smattering of knowledge of the classical canon is no longer regarded as one of the necessary virtues.

My parents, though neither concert goers or aficionados, knew their Beethoven from their Bruckner. They knew also their great opera moments. Our record collection was not short on greatest hits 'n' bits compilations but there was no sense in which classical music required consigning to the medicine cabinet.

That's very much how it seems to be regarded in UC Land these days. When they are dumbfounded by a classical music question now there's a rolling of the eyes, hence the absurd answers where they are played a piece of a certain era and will attribute it to a composer 150 years either side.

It's just a terrible shame that a song of forty or fifty years merit tops work of 300/400 years longevity.

[mercia]

classical music between 1900 and 1960.

blimey, that's a big subject - but I guess the difficulty of the questions is adjusted accordingly

[gurnemanz]

It is sad how a smattering of knowledge of the classical canon is no longer regarded as one of the necessary virtues.

My parents, though neither concert goers or aficionados, knew their Beethoven from their Bruckner. They knew also their great opera moments. Our record collection was not short on greatest hits 'n' bits compilations but there was no sense in which classical music required consigning to the medicine cabinet.

That's very much how it seems to be regarded in UC Land these days. When they are dumbfounded by a classical music question now there's a rolling of the eyes, hence the absurd answers where they are played a piece of a certain era and will attribute it to a composer 150 years either side.

It's just a terrible shame that a song of forty or fifty years merit tops work of 300/400 years longevity.

If I'm brutally honest, I don't think I'd have been very much better than them aged 19-20. The time would have been 1967-69, my first and second year at university, and I was only just starting to be interested in classical music having spent my teenage years almost totally preoccupied, like all my friends, with the rather amazing emerging pop scene from 1962 onwards - Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Joni Mitchell et al.

Once I was "into" classical music my interest in pop music receded but much 30-40 year-old rock music has stood the test of time for me and I listen to it just as enthusiastically as to classical music of far greater longevity.

[Stanfordian]

If I'm brutally honest, I don't think I'd have been very much better than them aged 19-20. The time would have been 1967-69, my first and second year at university, and I was only just starting to be interested in classical music having spent my teenage years almost totally preoccupied, like all my friends, with the rather amazing emerging pop scene from 1962 onwards - Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Joni Mitchell et al.

Once I was "into" classical music my interest in pop music receded but much 30-40 year-old rock music has stood the test of time for me and I listen to it just as enthusiastically as to classical music of far greater longevity.

Hiya gurnemanz,

Those questions on incidental music were certainly not easy. Although the answers were inept.

[gurnemanz]

Hiya gurnemanz,

Those questions on incidental music were certainly not easy. Although the answers were inept.

I certainly got Purcell as the composer of that one piece but couldn't name the piece (Abdelazar?) so wouldn't have got the marks.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

I suppose that until there's a decent success rate on the repertoire questions there's no chance of any UC questions on musical theory.

[Pabmusic]

Hiya gurnemanz,

Those questions on incidental music were certainly not easy...

That depends on whether you knew the answers.

Grieg: Peer Gynt, Mendelssohn: Midsummer Night's Dream, and Purcell: Abdelazar (Young Person's Guide...)? What might be better known?

[Rolmill]

blimey, that's a big subject - but I guess the difficulty of the questions is adjusted accordingly

Yes, some of the questions were not very difficult (opening question was: whose first symphony was nicknamed the "Classical"?), though some of the later ones were harder (and included reference to Stockhausen, some will be glad to know ).

I was just (sadly) pleased to see any aspect of classical music chosen as a specialist by a (so-called) celebrity, and even more surprised at the period chosen. As Stillhb has pointed out, classical music is now very much a niche, specialist subject and therefore no longer considered to be a core aspect of general knowledge. I have compiled and hosted a couple of quiz evenings for parents at our children's school in recent years and on both occasions had the temerity to include a (just one) question on classical music - the level of incomprehension and disbelief was significantly greater than that met by similar (but harder) questions on literature and art.

[Rolmill]

That depends on whether you knew the answers.

Grieg: Peer Gynt, Mendelssohn: Midsummer Night's Dream, and Purcell: Abdelazar (Young Person's Guide...)? What might be better known?

Well yes, but although the Purcell may be well known, naming the piece was not as easy as naming the composer (and both were required to earn the point). Also, the Grieg excerpt played was not one of the better-known passages of Peer Gynt - I recognised it as familiar immediately, but it took me a while longer to name it. I would agree with Stanfordian that neither were easy as 'general' knowledge questions.

[ardcarp]

I certainly got Purcell as the composer of that one piece but couldn't name the piece (Abdelazar?) so wouldn't have got the marks.

As it happens, Mrs A and I both said "Abdelazar" at the same time, but only because we're fairly dedicated Purcellians...and have seen it on many a copy of Britten's YPGO. I know University Challenge is meant to be difficult, but surely 'Abdelazar' is so rarefied a play (has anyone seen it???) as to be outside the extremes of 'general knowledge.' I do find questions that require two bits of info (in this case composer and play) are the ones that result in undue consultation time among teams.

[Pabmusic]

Well yes, but although the Purcell may be well known, naming the piece was not as easy as naming the composer (and both were required to earn the point). Also, the Grieg excerpt played was not one of the better-known passages of Peer Gynt - I recognised it as familiar immediately, but it took me a while longer to name it. I would agree with Stanfordian that neither were easy as 'general' knowledge questions.

Yes, you are quite right - it's difficult for me because I did know them. Simple frustration on my part, I suppose.

[mangerton]

On this occasion, I did know them all and would have got full marks. I hasten to add that that is by no means always the case. gurnemanz's remarks in #425 above apply almost exactly to me - and I suspect quite a few of us here, looking at the non-classical associations thread.

[mangerton]

As it happens, Mrs A and I both said "Abdelazar" at the same time, but only because we're fairly dedicated Purcellians...and have seen it on many a copy of Britten's YPGO.

Shurely you mean Britten's VAFOATOP.