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Bite-Sized Trivia
By Tom Heaton
It's happened to everyone. You're at a party, engaging in small talk - trying to balance your drink with your plate of hors d'oeuvres - when someone whips out a little-known factoid that amazes and thrills. It's okay: you can admit that you spent the next few minutes trying to think of some equally enlightening/obscure piece of info so you could do battle with Mr. (or Ms.) Trivia.
WCPE to the rescue! Not only can you get lots of useful tidbits from our on-line articles and biographies, but you can also use anything from the following list! Enthrall your guests (if you're the host) or be the hit of the party (if you're a guest) with these gems.
Before you get underway, you might want to consider some ground rules.
Rule #1: Stay away from the major composers. Why? Because these Big Boys have gotten a lot of coverage from many different sources. The last thing you want after dispensing some pearl about Mozart's romantic relationship with his future wife's sister is for someone in your conversation circle to top you with "Well, what about The Basle?" Composers who are less well-known can yield fascinating results and the odds are considerably smaller that someone in your group will know anything about them.
Rule #2: Don't make stuff up. While it might be tempting to attempt to win the one-up-manship game by telling some elaborate (and false) trivia, it nearly always comes back to haunt you. Someone who heard your anecdote will probably repeat it to someone else who just may know the story is false. Once it gets around that you're dispensing fanciful fiction rather than fascinating fact, your shot at party stardom will go down the drain...and fast!
Rule #3: Don't tell everything you know in one sitting. Chances are you'll run into some of these same people again. If you spill it all during one social, what will you have for the next one? Remember the great proverb: "It is better to say little and let people think you might be a fool rather than open your mouth...and remove all doubt."
Lastly, rule #4: Know when to move on to another group. There's nothing quite like being the object of the "oohs" and "aahs" of bedazzled party guests once you've dropped a trivia bomblet upon them. The difference between being a charming guest and one whose vocabulary consists solely of trivia facts is knowing when to go on to another conversation circle. This is best achieved in a graceful fashion while you are still basking in the afterglow of a successful delivery. If, however, you are at a small party and there are no other circles to join, see Rule #3 and then go fix yourself another drink.
Those are the rules. So, if you're ready, open up the old brain pan and grab a sponge!
ADDINSELL, RICHARD
Addinsell is akin to a pop music one-hit wonder. - His only composition to remain popular with the public is something called "The Warsaw Concerto."
- Warsaw Concerto isn't really a concerto in that it is just one movement (as opposed to the traditional three-movement concerto form).
- It's called "Warsaw" not because the composer was Polish or has some strong feelings about European politics - it got that name because it was written for and used in the film Dangerous Moonlight.
- Dangerous Moonlight was released in the U.S. as Suicide Squadron.
- Addinsell also wrote music for these military-based films: Siege of Tobruk and We Sail at Midnight.
- "Warsaw Concerto" was supposed to sound like music written by Rachmaninov.
ADAM, ADOLPHE
He was a composer of French opera who is, perhaps, more famous for a Yuletide work than for any stage production. - He wrote 30+ operas, among them "Falstaff," his take on the Shakespearean character.
- Although he was great at writing operas, and derived considerable financial success from them, he was a failure at running an opera house. His enterprise, the Opera-Nationale, went bankrupt soon after opening.
- The holiday song for which Adam is known? "O Holy Night" - although its proper name is "Cantique de Noel".
ANDERSON, LEROY
Although some derisively refer to him as "light classic", Anderson's catchy melodies and often bouncing tunes remain a consistent favorite with the public. - He is a Harvard graduate (magna cum laude) and studied under Walter Piston, Edward Ballentine and Walter Spalding.
- He was an arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra.
- At the height of World War II, he entered the Army and was stationed in Iceland.
- While in the Army he became a Captain in Military Intelligence and was Chief of the Scandanavian Desk at the Pentagon.
- His "Sleigh Ride" is a Christmas favorite - and was actually scored with a part for the horse-and-buggy whip!
- He began writing "Sleigh Ride" during a summer heat wave!
ARNE, THOMAS
These tidbits will come in handy should you find yourself in England. - He studied at Eton.
- After graduation from Eton, he worked for 3 years in a solicitor's office (a "solicitor" is the British equivalent of "lawyer").
- He wrote "Rule, Brittania" - one of the great patriotic songs of the country.
- He wrote operas, theatrical productions and even two oratorios.
- He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in music at Oxford.
BACH, C.P.E.
(Note: Not many people know much about Bach's composer sons, so you can feel free to use this info with reckless abandon.)
- His given name was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. It gets a bit much to say all those names, so people through the years have simply called him "CPE".
- He is known as the "Berlin" or "Hamburg" Bach.
- He studied law at college.
- In Hamburg, he served as music director for the city's five major churches - all at the same time!
- He was the third son of J. S. Bach.
BACH, J.C.
His given name was Johann Christian Bach. - He is known as the "London" Bach (because he lived much of his life there).
- He was the 11th and youngest surviving son of J. S. Bach.
- He converted from the Lutheran faith of his family to Catholicism in order to get employment in Milan.
- He befriended the child Mozart and they remained friends the rest of his life.
- He wrote about 90 symphonies.
- He and Mozart both wrote operatic treatments of "Lucio Silla".
BACH, W.F.
His given name was Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. - He is known as the "Halle" Bach.
- He was the eldest son of J.S. Bach.
- He studied mathematics, philosophy and law at the University of Leipzig.
- He's known as the "Halle" Bach because he held a job as organist at the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle for 18 years.
BACH, J.C.F.
His given name was Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. - He was the 9th son of J.S. Bach.
- He was considered a better musician than a composer. (It's not much, but there isn't much about JCF Bach available in print. If someone brings him up in a discussion of the Bach Boys, look at him and say "Yes...and?" You've put the burden on your would-be competitor to explain why talk time should be devoted.)
BALAKIREV, MILY
This name is a good one to bring up if you're discussing Russian topics or if you hear a balalaika playing. "Say, that balalaika reminds me of a funny story about Balakirev." - He studied under Mikhail Glinka.
- He made his debut as a pianist in St. Petersburg (Russia, not Florida), playing the solo part in his piano concerto.
- He catalogued a number of Russian folk songs during a trip down the Volga River, including The Song of the Volga Boatmen.
- Balakirev can be credited with creating the "Mighty Five" for it was at one of the concerts he arranged that the combined talents of Borodin, Cui, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev caught the attention of Vladimir Stasov, who coined the term.
- In the latter stages of a successful career as composer and musician, he took a clerical job with a railroad!
BARBER, SAMUEL
American composer. - His sister was Louise Homer, a contralto famous in her time.
- He tried his hand at writing an opera at the age of ten - he called it "The Rose Tree."
- His Symphony No. 1 had only one movement.
- His "Adagio for Strings" was played at FDR's commemorative service and the funeral of Princess Grace. (If you don't know who one or both of these people were - you shouldn't be vying for the title of Trivia Master.)
- He was commissioned by the Army to write a symphony, which included an electronic instrument for imitating "radio signals."
- He hooked up with Gian Carlo Menotti (of "Amahl and the Night Visitors" fame) to write a light operatic sketch called "A Hand of Bridge."
- He won a Pulitzer Prize for his Piano Concerto.
- He held 3 Guggenheim Fellowships and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts by Harvard University.
Read on! BEACH through BRUCKNER...
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