University Challenge

[Richard Tarleton]

Team captain Leo was interviewed by Evan Davis on PM yesterday, on becoming a social media sensation - they replayed some of his correct starters.

I'm happy to say I got the Grocer Fugue (deaf composers - one of them was bound to be Beethoven) but he was bl**dy quick off the mark with Smetana.....

[Nick Armstrong]

Team captain Leo was interviewed by Evan Davis on PM yesterday, on becoming a social media sensation - they replayed some of his correct starters.

I'm happy to say I got the Grocer Fugue (deaf composers - one of them was bound to be Beethoven) but he was bl**dy quick off the mark with Smetana.....

Yes he was phenomenal. He blew Cugini, the highly-strung Emmanuel captain, out of the water - she was all over the place.

Got all the deaf composers save RVW - to my shame, I didn't know he was deaf by the time he wrote the 9th which I don't really know well in any event

[Richard Tarleton]

Yesterday....the minor composer vinteuil.....

Dozed off so can't remember much more.

[LMcD]

Yesterday....the minor composer vinteuil.....

Dozed off so can't remember much more.

It wasn't the most gripping of contests, was it?

[Boilk]

Team captain Leo was interviewed by Evan Davis on PM yesterday, on becoming a social media sensation - they replayed some of his correct starters.

I'm happy to say I got the Grocer Fugue (deaf composers - one of them was bound to be Beethoven) but he was bl**dy quick off the mark with Smetana.....

Even before the (final) Grocer Fugue excerpt began I would have unhesitatingly yelped "Beethoven" for the last of the three bonuses. First of all, the last of any set of three bonus questions is usually the easiest and, with the link being deaf composers, Beethoven was surely the raison d'être for the questions?

[Stanfordian]

Team captain Leo was interviewed by Evan Davis on PM yesterday, on becoming a social media sensation - they replayed some of his correct starters.

I'm happy to say I got the Grocer Fugue (deaf composers - one of them was bound to be Beethoven) but he was bl**dy quick off the mark with Smetana.....

I didn't know that Smetana and RVW became deaf. You learn something new every day.

[Bryn]

I didn't know that Smetana and RVW became deaf. You learn something new every day.

I am shocked to read that but promise not to cold shoulder you over it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I didn't know that Smetana and RVW became deaf. You learn something new every day.

- Smetana's encroaching deafness is represented in his From My Life Quartet by the high first violin harmonic that interrupts the previously vigorous Music in the Finale.

RVW's problems (I don't think he ever became profoundly deaf) probably originated in his experience of the big guns during the First World War (and, thinking about it, his work in the Blitz wouldn't have helped, either). There are photos from his later years which show a very prominent hearing aid.

[JimD]

With Smetana I have heard more references to the tinnitus from which he suffered, and that it was the tinnitus to which the quartet referred.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

With Smetana I have heard more references to the tinnitus from which he suffered, and that it was the tinnitus to which the quartet referred.

Yes - the UC question referred to composers' "deafness or hearing loss" (or similar words); I was being careless using "deafness" as a "catchall" there.

[french frank]

There are photos from his later years which show a very prominent hearing aid.

Even an ear trumpet (1957 at a meeting of the Third Programme Defence Society)

[LMcD]

Even an ear trumpet (1957 at a meeting of the Third Programme Defence Society)

I take it the Third Programme Defence Society was the prototype of this Forum...

[cloughie]

I take it the Third Programme Defence Society was the prototype of this Forum...

They would shedding tears now at what has happened to their beloved 464 MW!

[Bryn]

They would shedding tears now at what has happened to their beloved 464 MW!

With less than 3 hours of music a day, more often than not in the '50s, I reckon they would be hppy to put up with the current weaknesses, given that we get way more music each day.

[Richard Tarleton]

Even an ear trumpet (1957 at a meeting of the Third Programme Defence Society)

When Cali posted this photo on a previous occasion I was not the only one to observe that just about everyone in the photo was smoking but that RVW appeared to be inserting his pipe into the wrong orifice.