Classical Music History Quiz

Which composer's early works came out of late Romanticism but were unmistakably modern in Outlook, throwing away many of the devices of traditional harmony and exploring exotic influences from the east?

• Claude Debussy

• Igor Stravinsky

• Gustav Mahler

• Richard Strauss

Who is considered as one of the Giants of 20th century music and constantly on the lookout for new sources of inspiration?

• Dmitri Shostakovich

• Arnold Schoenberg

• Richard Strauss

• Igor Stravinsky

Which composer revitalized approaches to rhythm and harmony and is a figure as central to classical music in the 20th century as Picasso is to the art world?

• Claude Debussy

• Dmitri Shostakovich

• Igor Stravinsky

• Richard Strauss

Who is known for writing his profoundly moving quartet for the end of time while being a prisoner in a German prisoner of war camp?

• Olivier Messiaen

• Tristan Murail

• Pierre Boulez

• Karlheinz Stockhausen

Which American composer is at the forefront of a wave of American experimentalism and is known for his interest in exploring ways of removing himself from the compositional process altogether?

• Morton Feldman

• John Cage

• Philip Glass

• John Adams

Who is considered as one of the leaders of the post-war avant-garde centered around the International summer course for new music in Darmstadt in Germany?

• Morton Feldman

• Pierre Boulez

• Karlheinz Stockhausen

• John Cage

Which style of music has its origins in West African rhythms and became one of the dominant forces in contemporary music in the 20th century?

• Expressionism

• Serialism

• Minimalism

• Neoclassicism

Which composer fused aspects of minimalism with jazz and European modernism and is known for his unique paths in music?

• Philip Glass

• Morton Feldman

• Lou Harrison

• Conlon Nancarrow

Who is known for re-examining the building blocks of sound with the age of computers and attempting to build new sound worlds out of them?

• Tristan Murail

• Karlheinz Stockhausen

• Henri Dutilleux

• Louis Andriessen

Which composer is known for his eclectic and instantly recognizable works and is considered as one of the world's leading composers in the 21st century?

• Thomas Adès

• Magnus Lindberg

• Unsuk Chin

• Kaija Saariaho