Second, I was very happy to see pretty packets, so another kudos there.
However, there were a lot of places where questions were obviously too hard, and far more than most this occurred in the music. There was a fundamental disconnect between the music editor and both "what is actually famous" and "what teams can be expected to know" at this level. For example:
Prokofiev’s C-major third work in this genre begins with an elegiac clarinet solo. Bartók’s first work in this genre begins with ominous repeated notes in the timpani. Shostakovich’s first one of these works uses an orchestra of only strings and trumpet. Gershwin’s only work in this genre also begins with a timpani solo and is in F Major. Rachmaninoff’s second work in this genre was his first piece after a period of writer’s block. Paul Wittgenstein commissioned Prokofiev’s fourth and Ravel’s D-minor works in this genre, both of which only use the soloist’s left hand. For 10 points, name these works for a keyboard instrument and orchestra.
ANSWER: piano concertos [accept any answer indicating concertos or concerti for pianoforte and orchestra; prompt for instrument on just “concerto” or word forms]
The last movement of one of this composer’s piano works begins with a measure of quickly repeated Es. That work by this composer includes a “Forlane” and a “Rigaudon” as well as that “Toccata.” The last movement of his Sonatine is also in the style of a toccata. This composer wrote some of the most difficult piano pieces in the repertoire, including “Alborada del gracioso” from his Miroirs and “Scarbo” from his Gaspard de la Nuit. In one of his orchestral works, a melody first played by the flute just repeats over a constant snare drum rhythm. For 10 points, name this French composer of Le Tombeau de Couperin, Pavane for a Dead Princess, La Valse, and Boléro.
ANSWER: Maurice Ravel [or Joseph-Maurice Ravel]
Schoenberg’s difficult D-Major concerto for this instrument is an arrangement of a harpsichord concerto by Georg Matthias Monn. In modern performances this is the most typical melody instrument in a continuo group. This instrument “replaced” the gamba. The last work in a set of six for this instrument is in D Major and was written for a five-stringed version of it. Beethoven’s five sonatas for it and piano were recorded by Daniel Barenboim and his wife Jacqueline du Pré. A set of six works for this instrument alone begins with a G-Major Prélude and was played by Mstislav Rostropovich and Pablo Casals. For 10 points, name this low string instrument for which Bach wrote six suites, which is played by Yo-Yo Ma.
ANSWER: cello [or violoncello]
This man wrote an F-minor string quintet with two cellos, revised it as a sonata for two pianos, and then finally turned it into his piano quintet. Late in his life, he wrote a trio in A minor, sonatas in F minor and E-flat major, and a quintet in B minor for clarinet. This composer of two string sextets loved the natural horn and wrote a trio in E-flat for that instrument, violin, and piano. His works for two pianos include Variations on a Theme of Haydn and variations on a theme by his teacher, Schumann. This composer’s stormy C-minor first symphony rips off “Ode to Joy,” which is part of the reason Bülow nicknamed it “Beethoven’s Tenth.” For 10 points, name this composer of the Hungarian Dances.
ANSWER: Johannes Brahms
All of these tossups are bad in general and for Fall -- and should be very obviously so to anyone even basically competent in music -- and there's a couple more pretty bad ones I could easily pull to bump it close to or above 50% of the music tossups. This is not how anyone should be writing music for this level.One of this composer’s works begins with the strings slowly playing “D-E-F-sharp” before the violin soloist plays a very long pentatonic cadenza. He used folksongs as the basis for his three Norfolk Rhapsodies. He contributed the hymn “For All the Saints” or Sine Nomine to the 1906 Hymnal. Midway through another of this composer’s works, the solo viola introduces a theme that is then developed by the rest of a string quartet, which contrasts with a double string orchestra. This composer based a work for violin and orchestra on the George Meredith poem “The Lark Ascending.” For 10 points, identify this English composer who wrote fantasias on “Greensleeves” and on a theme of Thomas Tallis.
ANSWER: Ralph Vaughan Williams [first name pronounced “rafe”]