The Great Zemlinsky Quiz

The Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the American Premiere of the Symphony in D minor (No. 1) of Viennese composer Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942) on the 26th of April 2014 at the Harris Theater in Chicago.  Test Your Zemlinsky knowledge:

1) When Brahms heard the first movement of Zemlinsky’s Symphony in D minor (No. 1) he A) Stole the music to light his cigars; B) Cribbed a few themes for his own 4th Symphony; C) Had Zemlinsky expelled from the Vienna Conservatory; D) Invited the young composer to his flat for composition lessons and had his publisher print Zemlinsky’s Piano Trio

2) Zemlinsky almost married Alma Schindler, the most beautiful woman in Vienna.  Whom did she actually marry?

A) Novelist Franz Werfel; B) Architect Walter Gropius; C) Composer Gustav Mahler; D) All the above but not at the same time

3) When Alma Mahler had an affair with Walter Gropius, Whom did Mahler consult?

A) Dr. Ruth Westheimer; B) Albert Schweitzer; C) Jonas Salk; D) Sigmund Freud

4) Zemlinsky’s sister, Mathilde, married his close colleague the not-yet-famous composer Arnold Schoenberg.  What did she do then? A) Bore him two children; B) Had a passionate affair with an Expressionist painter; C) Had a passionate affair with an Impressionist painter; D) A and B

5) When Richard Strauss modeled a composition after himself, he composed Ein Heldenleben (“A Hero’s Life”). What piece did Zemlinsky write to model himself?

A) Die Fledermausmann (Batman); B) Übermensch (Superman); C Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid); D) Der Zwerg (The Dwarf)

6) Zemlinsky did NOT set poetry by: A) Bengal Poet Rabindranath Tagore; B) African-American Poet Langston Hughes; C) Belgian Poet Maurice Maeterlinck; D) American Poet and radio personality Charles Osgood;

7) In the final song of “Six Maeterlinck Songs” set to music by Zemlinsky, the Queen does what? A) Purchases a Lexus; B) Flies the Concord; C) Dances the Macarena; D) Runs off with a female troubadour

8) Despite being married, Zemlinsky loved it when young women Blancked his Blanks.

9) When Mahler married his girlfriend and later immigrated to America, which left him holding the bag at the Vienna Court Opera, Zemlinsky responded by: A) poisoning Mahler’s apple strudel; B) letting an amorous orangutan into Mahler’s sister’s house; C) fighting Mahler in a dual with conductor’s batons; D) performing all the Mahler Symphonies in Prague

10)  Despite being raised in a Jewish family and marrying a second Jewish woman after his first Jewish wife died, the Nazis realized that Zemlinsky was only partly Jewish by blood and therefore: A) Allowed him to be music director of the Berlin Philharmonic; B) Commissioned him to write waltzes for Hitler’s birthday bash; C) Used his music for Die Seejungfrau to inspire the German Navy; D) banned his operas and forced him into exile in America

Answers: 1) D; 2) D; 3) D; 4) D; 5) D; 6) D; 7) D; 8) attended his operas; 9) D; 10) D

8-10 Correct  You have knocked off 10 years from your Freudian Psychoanalysis

4-7   Correct  I see wiener schnitzel in your future

1-3   Correct  You have been reading too many tweets from Justin Bieber

0      Correct   Ask IPO Executive Director Andrew Bradford for your two complementary passes to the IPO Concert 26 April for Zemlinsky remediation (You can ask him, but I’m not sure he will give them to you.)