2015 STIMPY: Music Discussion

[vinteuil]

Feel free to voice any music-specific concerns here!

[jfuchs]

What was the split between classical and and non-classical?

[vinteuil]

2/2 Jazz, 12/12 non-Jazz (i.e., 4/14 packets had a jazz question). I like this ratio a lot, but I'd be very curious to hear what more "jazz-only" and " 'classical'-only" people think about it.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I'm not a great music player (though I'm trying to learn) so I don't feel very qualified to comment on the cluing of tossups, etc. I thought the music had a pretty consistent, well-executed vision of difficulty throughout the tournament, though, and definitely didn't suffer from a lack of easy parts or variance (though the Couperin bonus could use a better easy part than "preludes").

[Eddie]

I was really happy that the Shostakovich TU clued from pieces significant in academia or in the concert repertoire, rather than from the same old tired clues about the 7, 11, or 13. I feel like there's a bit of a difficulty cliff between the clues about the 14 and the 7, and maybe you could put in a clue about the 10 to smooth that out.

[vinteuil]

I was really happy that the Shostakovich TU clued from pieces significant in academia or in the concert repertoire, rather than from the same old tired clues about the 7, 11, or 13. I feel like there's a bit of a difficulty cliff between the clues about the 14 and the 7, and maybe you could put in a clue about the 10 to smooth that out.

That's fair. Shostakovich 14 is a little more quizbowl-famous than it needs to be (but...I love that piece!), so I might have underestimated that cliff in terms of real-world knowledge.