University Challenge

[teamsaint]

Ya not fooling anyone, sainty

I love the smell of calculus in the morning.......

[gurnemanz]

Nobel physicist, Werner Heisenberg, could have been a concert pianist. I'm fairly certain about that.

[Pabmusic]

...Interesting choice of Bizet to identify. The symphony in C was a teenage work which (apparently) didn't see the light of day until its 'rediscovery' and first performance in the 1930s. I thought it was a pretty arcane question for a general knowledge quiz....albeit a high-flying one.

It's a well established repertory piece, though - often loathed by string players (the last movement is fearsome).

[Pabmusic]

I've often pondered on the C.P.Snow-ish arts/science thing in relation to University Challenge. In general, science geeks tend to have a greater knowledge of the arts than vice-versa....which is the opposite way round from the commonly held perception. This might be due to the fact that la creme de la creme which ends up on UC probably had a schooling which instilled a wide general knowledge...

There is quite a link between the neurology of music and that of maths and other 'scientific' thinking.

[Vile Consort]

Max Planck played the organ, piano and 'cello and composed songs and operas. He could have chosen a career in music but instead chose physics. Einstein played the violin although accounts of how well he played are mixed. But he did play with people like Kreisler and Rubinstein. Werner Heisenberg was, as noted above, a very good pianist and could probably have made the concert platform if he had devoted his life to it. There are reports of him entertaining his colleagues by playing Beethoven piano concerti.

My experience at work is that the grammar, spelling and punctuation police are made up of people with mathematical, scientific or engineering backgrounds. The arts graduates can't spell to save their lives but they are terribly good at knowing what colour paper to write on.

[Pabmusic]

Max Planck played the organ, piano and 'cello and composed songs and operas. He could have chosen a career in music but instead chose physics. Einstein played the violin although accounts of how well he played are mixed. But he did play with people like Kreisler and Rubinstein. Werner Heisenberg was, as noted above, a very good pianist and could probably have made the concert platform if he had devoted his life to it. There are reports of him entertaining his colleagues by playing Beethoven piano concerti.

My experience at work is that the grammar, spelling and punctuation police are made up of people with mathematical, scientific or engineering backgrounds. The arts graduates can't spell to save their lives but they are terribly good at knowing what colour paper to write on.

And Brian Cox played keyboard with D:ream. Things can only get better.

[Pikaia]

And Borodin was a respected professional Chemist.

Einstein seems to have had a lot of musical ability. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein#Love_of_music

If an artist said he had never heard of, say, Richard Feynman, nobody would be surprised, but if a scientist admitted ignorance of say, Haydn, eyebrows would be raised. Equally important in their respected fields, but attitudes to the Arts and Science are not the same.

[chrisjstanley]

Another howler yesterday the Battle of Medway (for battle of Midway) indeed in recent years the lack of geographical knowledge of our world by those aspiring to lead us has been truly astonishing. What was it the other week........ cities thirty miles apart on the River Severn.... some bright spark answered Shrewsbury and Salisbury
FFS no wonder Paxo goes Apo.

bws
Chris S

[mercia]

I'm not sure how many students aspire to lead me anywhere

but I take your point

[Nick Armstrong]

Another howler yesterday the Battle of Medway (for battle of Midway)
bws
Chris S

I winced but not at the ignorance - the guy knew the answer, but it was one of those brain fade moments when one says the wrong thing - the mental equivalent of a typo, induced by the pressure of TV cameras / lights / Paxo / competition. That's what made me wince. The contestant didn't really think Medway was in the middle of the Pacific...

[MrGongGong]

I give you

the wonderful Jem Finer

http://jemfiner.net/bio.html

(interesting that his Banjo playing isn't on this biog )

and the genius that is Trevor Wishart .............. (Chemistry at Oxford)

[Bryn]

I give you

the wonderful Jem Finer

http://jemfiner.net/bio.html

(interesting that his Banjo playing isn't on this biog )

and the genius that is Trevor Wishart .............. (Chemistry at Oxford)

I'll see your Jem, and raise you his aunt Carole:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhLlKxU40zg

[MrGongGong]

I'll see your Jem, and raise you his aunt Carole:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhLlKxU40zg

great stuff
is that Evan Parker playing the mandolin ?

[pastoralguy]

Einstein seems to have had a lot of musical ability.


Which reminds me of the story where Einstein was playing quartets one evening. He kept missing his entry in th last movement of a Haydn quartet. After the fourth attempt the 'cellist turned to him in exasperation and said "your trouble Alfred is that you can't count"!

[ardcarp]

It's a well established repertory piece, though - often loathed by string players (the last movement is fearsome).

Yep. I've done it with an orchestra and young Bizet (who became IMO a very adept orchestrator...Jeux d'Enfants for example) puts most of the melodic interest very high up in the 1sts in a relentless sort of way. It's like treading a high wire for them.

I agree it is a sort of repertoire piece....but not one which, to the non-specialist musician, cries out 'BIZET'. In the same way some v. early R. Strauss doesn't sound like R. Strauss.

O well. If the questions were easy it wouldn't be UC. BTW, I'd love to be the guest chairman and have Paxo on one of teams and REALLY SNEER whenever he got one wrong!