Men of Musical Composition

Question: What did Pyotr Tchaikovsky study before he studied musical composition?

Answer: Tchaikovsky was a student at the School of Laws in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1859 he was graduated and became a clerk in the Ministry of Justice. He studied music afterward.

Question: Who composed The Well-Tempered Clavier?

Answer: One of Bach’s most famous works is The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of preludes and fugues for solo piano. ("Clavier" is another word for a keyboard instrument.)

Question: Who wrote the music for Austria’s national anthem?

Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s final work, the Freimaurerkantate, provides the tune for Austria’s national anthem.

Question: Who composed the Trout quintet?

Answer: Franz Schubert’s 1819 Trout quintet, composed when he was only 22 years old, is one of his most frequently performed works.

Question: Which composer is considered a pioneer of impressionism?

Answer: In later years Claude Debussy’s unusual chords, based on the whole-tone scale, laid the groundwork for an unconventional style of music called impressionism.

Question: What composer was an early supporter of Edvard Grieg’s?

Answer: Edvard Grieg’s First Violin Sonata in F Major, written in 1865, won a letter of praise from Franz Liszt that helped attract the attention of the Norwegian government to Grieg’s genius.