Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven) - Quiz
Symphony No
  • 1. What is the typical duration of a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5?
A) 30–40 minutes
B) 70–80 minutes
C) 50–60 minutes
D) 10–20 minutes
  • 2. How many movements are in Symphony No. 5?
A) Six movements
B) Three movements
C) Five movements
D) Four movements
  • 3. What is the tempo marking of the first movement?
A) Presto
B) Andante con moto
C) Allegro con brio
D) Adagio
  • 4. How many notes make up the famous opening motif of the first movement?
A) Six notes
B) Four notes
C) Five notes
D) Three notes
  • 5. Which classical predecessors did Beethoven inherit sonata form from?
A) Schubert and Brahms
B) Haydn and Mozart
C) Bach and Handel
D) Liszt and Wagner
  • 6. What secondary key is established in the exposition of the first movement?
A) C minor
B) E flat major
C) G major
D) A flat major
  • 7. What is the home key of the first movement?
A) D
B) G
C) F
D) C
  • 8. Among Beethoven's symphonic first movements, how does the length of the first movement of No. 5 rank?
A) It is the shortest
B) It is the longest
C) It varies randomly
D) It is of medium length
  • 9. Which instrument plays a brief and mournful recitative marked adagio during the recapitulation?
A) First oboe
B) First violin
C) Solo cello
D) French horn
  • 10. What is the key of the second movement?
A) A♭ major
B) G major
C) E♭ major
D) C minor
  • 11. What musical form is used in the second movement?
A) Double variation form
B) Rondo form
C) Ternary form
D) Sonata form
  • 12. Which instruments introduce the first theme of the second movement?
A) Violas and cellos
B) Horns and oboes
C) Violins and flutes
D) Trumpets and timpanists
  • 13. Which instruments provide the accompaniment when the first theme of the second movement is introduced?
A) Clarinets
B) Double basses
C) First violins
D) Bassoons
  • 14. What is the musical form of the third movement?
A) Double variation form
B) Sonata form
C) Ternary form
D) Theme and variations
  • 15. In which of Beethoven's symphonies did he first start using a scherzo as a 3rd movement?
A) 3rd Symphony
B) 2nd Symphony
C) 1st Symphony
D) 5th Symphony
  • 16. Which symphony by Beethoven is an exception to his practice of using a scherzo as the third movement?
A) No. 9
B) No. 8
C) No. 3
D) No. 6
  • 17. Which instruments play the opening theme of the third movement?
A) Violins and violas
B) Cellos and double basses
C) Horns and trumpets
D) Flutes and oboes
  • 18. What key is the trio section of the third movement in?
A) E flat major
B) A flat major
C) C major
D) C minor
  • 19. What texture is the trio section of the third movement written in?
A) Monophonic texture
B) Homophonic texture
C) Atonal texture
D) Contrapuntal texture
  • 20. How is the scherzo performed when it returns for the final time?
A) Pizzicato and very quietly
B) Arco and very fast
C) Staccato and forte
D) Loudly with full brass
  • 21. What instrument plays a long sequence of repeated notes during the transition passage to the final movement?
A) Trombone
B) Snare drum
C) Contrabassoon
D) Timpani
  • 22. How is the finale played after the transition passage from the third movement?
A) Adagio
B) Attacca
C) Pizzicato
D) Silently
  • 23. What is the opus number of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony?
A) Op. 67
B) Op. 21
C) Op. 55
D) Op. 68
  • 24. By what alternative German name is Symphony No. 5 occasionally known?
A) Schicksalssinfonie
B) Pastorale
C) Eroica
D) Choral
  • 25. In which city was the 5th Symphony first performed?
A) Paris
B) Vienna
C) London
D) Bonn
  • 26. What pattern describes the opening motif of the 5th Symphony?
A) Long-long-long-short
B) Short-long-short-long
C) Long-short-short-long
D) Short-short-short-long
  • 27. How is the opening motif of the symphony often characterized metaphorically?
A) A bird singing in the woods
B) Fate knocking at the door
C) A storm approaching
D) A victorious army marching
  • 28. Which compositional period of Beethoven does the 5th Symphony fall squarely within?
A) Final Period
B) Early Period
C) Middle Period
D) Late Period
  • 29. Around what year did Beethoven's 'Middle Period' of composition start?
A) 1803
B) 1808
C) 1805
D) 1800
  • 30. What personal struggle troubled Beethoven's personal life during his mid-30s while composing the symphony?
A) Chronic insomnia
B) Increasing deafness
C) Vision loss
D) Severe arthritis
  • 31. Which military leader's troops occupied Vienna in 1805?
A) Frederick the Great
B) Duke of Wellington
C) Tsar Alexander I
D) Napoleon
  • 32. At which house in Vienna was the symphony written?
A) Heiligenstadt Testament House
B) Lobkowitz Palace
C) Theater an der Wien
D) Pasqualati House
  • 33. On what date did the 5th Symphony premiere?
A) 2 November 1931
B) 22 December 1808
C) 15 April 1815
D) 7 December 1842
  • 34. At which venue did the premiere of the 5th Symphony take place?
A) Vienna State Opera
B) Conservatory of Paris
C) Pasqualati House
D) Theater an der Wien
  • 35. Who directed the music at the premiere of the 5th Symphony?
A) François-Antoine Habeneck
B) Arturo Toscanini
C) Johann Peter Salomon
D) Beethoven himself
  • 36. In which month and year did the first printed edition of the symphony with its dedication appear?
A) January 1810
B) November 1805
C) December 1808
D) April 1809
  • 37. Why did Beethoven have to stop the music and start again during the premiere concert?
A) A member of the audience fainted
B) A mistake by one of the performers in the Choral Fantasy
C) The heating system caught fire
D) A string broke on his own violin
  • 38. Which publication featured E. T. A. Hoffmann's detailed review and analysis of the symphony?
A) Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
B) Wiener Zeitung
C) Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
D) Leipziger Zeitung
  • 39. Which distinguished violinist and conductor initially called the symphony 'rubbish' before retracting his statement?
A) Courtenay Edward Stevens
B) Johann Peter Salomon
C) François-Antoine Habeneck
D) Friedrich Kark
  • 40. Who led the first French performance of the symphony in about 1828?
A) François-Antoine Habeneck
B) Johann Peter Salomon
C) Arturo Toscanini
D) Friedrich Kark
  • 41. With which orchestra did the 5th Symphony play in the inaugural concerts on 7 December 1842 in the United States?
A) National Symphony Orchestra
B) Boston Symphony Orchestra
C) Philadelphia Orchestra
D) New York Philharmonic
  • 42. On what date was the 5th Symphony played in the inaugural concerts of the US National Symphony Orchestra?
A) 7 December 1842
B) 15 April 1815
C) 22 December 1939
D) 2 November 1931
  • 43. Which orchestra made the first recording of the 5th Symphony in 1910?
A) Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
B) BBC Symphony Orchestra
C) Odeon Orchestra under Friedrich Kark
D) New York Philharmonic
  • 44. Which composer's 4th Symphony was particularly inspired by Beethoven's Fifth?
A) Mahler
B) Brahms
C) Tchaikovsky
D) Bruckner
  • 45. Since which global conflict has the symphony sometimes been referred to as the 'Victory Symphony'?
A) Second World War
B) Napoleonic Wars
C) Franco-Prussian War
D) First World War
  • 46. Which British leader popularized the 'V for Victory' campaign during WWII?
A) Winston Churchill
B) Franklin D. Roosevelt
C) Clement Attlee
D) Neville Chamberlain
  • 47. Who suggested using the four-note opening motif of the 5th Symphony to preface BBC broadcasts to Special Operations Executives?
A) Arturo Toscanini
B) Johann Peter Salomon
C) Courtenay Edward Stevens
D) Friedrich Kark
  • 48. What instrument played the four-note opening motif during BBC wartime broadcasts to preface transmissions?
A) Drums
B) Timpani
C) Trumpets
D) Horns
  • 49. Which Italian conductor performed the first movement of the symphony following the fall of Benito Mussolini in September 1943?
A) Arturo Toscanini
B) Johann Peter Salomon
C) Friedrich Kark
D) François-Antoine Habeneck
  • 50. In what month and year did Arturo Toscanini complete the remaining movements of his performance after Germany was defeated?
A) September 1943
B) June 1945
C) December 1944
D) May 1945
  • 51. What is the German term for the fate motif used in the symphony?
A) Schicksals-Motiv
B) Schicksalssinfonie
C) Appassionata
D) Fidelio
  • 52. Which piano sonata was composed by Beethoven while he repeatedly interrupted his work on the 5th Symphony?
A) Appassionata
B) Moonlight
C) Waldstein
D) Pathétique
  • 53. How many Razumovsky string quartets did Beethoven work on around the same period as the 5th Symphony?
A) Two
B) Four
C) One
D) Three
  • 54. Besides the 3rd Symphony and the 5th Symphony, which opera exemplifies Beethoven's 'Middle Period' emphasis on heroism?
A) Missa Solemnis
B) Fidelio
C) Egmont
D) The Creatures of Prometheus
  • 55. Which aspect of the concert conditions contributed to the poor critical response at the premiere?
A) The auditorium was overwhelmingly hot
B) There were no seats available
C) A sudden rainstorm flooded the stage
D) The auditorium was extremely cold
  • 56. How many new players join the orchestra at the outset of the finale?
A) 3
B) 5
C) 4
D) 2
  • 57. Which of the following instruments joins the orchestra at the start of the finale?
A) Flute
B) Clarinet
C) Piccolo
D) Oboe
  • 58. Which brass instrument joins the orchestra at the start of the finale?
A) Trombone
B) Trumpet
C) Tuba
D) Horn
  • 59. Which low woodwind instrument joins the orchestra at the start of the finale?
A) Bassoon
B) Contrabassoon
C) English horn
D) Bass clarinet
  • 60. At the end of the development section, on what does the music halt?
A) A dominant cadence, played fortissimo
B) A silent pause with no sound
C) A tonic chord, played pianissimo
D) A slow descending scale
  • 61. How many bars of C major chords, played fortissimo, end the symphony?
A) 29
B) 15
C) 40
D) 50
  • 62. In what book does Charles Rosen discuss the ending reflecting Beethoven's sense of proportion?
A) Beethoven's Compositional Process
B) The Classical Style
C) Music in the 19th Century
D) The Symphony: Structure and Style
  • 63. Who first pointed out that the third movement's theme shares sequence of intervals with Mozart's Symphony No. 40?
A) Gustav Nottebohm
B) Charles Rosen
C) Ludwig van Beethoven
D) Lewis Lockwood
  • 64. Who is credited with the tale that the initial motif represents Fate knocking at the door?
A) Ferdinand Ries
B) Antony Hopkins
C) Carl Czerny
D) Anton Schindler
  • 65. Whose version of the motif's origin mentions a yellow-hammer's song heard in the Prater-park?
A) Ferdinand Ries
B) Anton Schindler
C) Elizabeth Schwarm Glesner
D) Carl Czerny
  • 66. According to Antony Hopkins, which origin story has the public preferred?
A) The conversation book
B) Fate-at-the-door
C) The yellow-hammer's song
D) The royal commission
  • 67. In what year did Leonard Bernstein liken the Fate Motif to a 4-note coda in a television lecture series?
A) 1954
B) 1960
C) 1945
D) 1939
  • 68. What television lecture series did Leonard Bernstein use in 1954 to discuss the symphony?
A) Omnibus
B) The Bernstein Hours
C) Symphony Live
D) Masterclass
  • 69. Who does the text cite as the 'really author' of the poetic exegesis about Fate knocking at the gate, according to skeptical evaluations?
A) Anton Schindler
B) Carl Czerny
C) Ferdinand Ries
D) Charles Rosen
  • 70. Who remarks that Beethoven had been known to say nearly anything to relieve himself of questioning pests?
A) Anton Schindler
B) Charles Rosen
C) Elizabeth Schwarm Glesner
D) Antony Hopkins
  • 71. How is the key of C minor commonly regarded in relation to Beethoven?
A) A joyful and celebratory key
B) A stormy, heroic tonality
C) A tragic and hopeless key
D) A gentle, pastoral key
  • 72. According to Charles Rosen, what does Beethoven in C minor come to symbolize?
A) His failing hearing
B) His artistic character
C) His financial struggles
D) His classical restraint
  • 73. In C minor works, what figure does Beethoven reveal himself as?
A) Rebel
B) Philosopher
C) Victim
D) Hero
  • 74. What does Charles Rosen say C minor does NOT show Beethoven at?
A) His most subtle
B) His most extroverted
C) His most impatient
D) His most heroic
  • 75. In C minor, Beethoven appears to be most impatient of what?
A) Any compromise
B) Musical criticism
C) Publisher deadlines
D) Orchestral tuning
  • 76. What type of bird is mentioned in Carl Czerny's account of the motif's origin?
A) Nightingale
B) Yellow-hammer
C) Cuckoo
D) Sparrow
  • 77. Who stated that the opening motif is 'a rhythmic pattern (dit-dit-dit-dot) that makes its appearance in each of the other 3 movements'?
A) Doug Briscoe
B) Richard Bratby
C) Antony Hopkins
D) Peter Gutmann
  • 78. According to the New Grove encyclopedia, in how much of the first movement is the famous opening motif heard?
A) Not at all in the first movement
B) Almost every bar
C) Precisely half the bars
D) Only the very beginning
  • 79. In which movement do the horns play a solo where the short-short-short-long pattern occurs repeatedly?
A) The fourth movement
B) The third movement
C) The first movement
D) The second movement
  • 80. In the coda of the finale, which instruments repeatedly play a similar rhythmic figure?
A) Lead violins
B) Piccolo players
C) Bass instruments
D) Solo flutes
  • 81. How do some commentators view the resemblances of the motif in later movements?
A) Mandatory for all symphonies
B) Intentional and brilliant
C) Mathematically calculated
D) Accidental
  • 82. Who discusses the theme in the scherzo and states that 'no musician with an ounce of feeling could confuse' the two rhythms?
A) Donald Tovey
B) Antony Hopkins
C) Doug Briscoe
D) Richard Bratby
  • 83. Who pours scorn on the idea that a rhythmic motif unifies the symphony?
A) Peter Gutmann
B) Doug Briscoe
C) Donald Tovey
D) Richard Bratby
  • 84. Which other Beethoven work features the same rhythmic motif, according to Donald Tovey?
A) Missa Solemnis
B) The Ninth Symphony
C) The 'Appassionata' piano sonata
D) Fur Elise
  • 85. Besides the 'Appassionata' sonata, which concerto does Donald Tovey mention as containing the motif?
A) Triple Concerto
B) Violin Concerto in D major
C) Fourth Piano Concerto
D) First Piano Concerto
  • 86. Which specific bars in Beethoven's 5th Symphony contain the Folia harmony?
A) Bars 50 to 65
B) Bars 1 to 12
C) Bars 166 to 177
D) Bars 200 to 215
  • 87. Who analyzed Folia-aspects in Beethoven's oeuvre in 1982?
A) Johann Sebastian Bach
B) Reed J. Hoyt
C) Ludwig van Beethoven
D) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • 88. In which journal was Reed J. Hoyt's 'Letter to the Editor' published?
A) The Musical Times
B) Classical Music Review
C) College Music Symposium
D) Journal of Music Theory
  • 89. What volume number of the College Music Symposium featured Hoyt's letter?
A) 50
B) 10
C) 35
D) 21
  • 90. Who specified trombones for a symphony in 1807 before Beethoven's use?
A) Peter Gülke
B) Jonathan Del Mar
C) Joachim Nicolas Eggert
D) Claudio Abbado
  • 91. What is an autograph score?
A) The original version from the composer's hand
B) A printed edition by Peters
C) An orchestration by a later conductor
D) A modern performance recording
  • 92. How are the scherzo and trio sections structured in the autograph score (using letters)?
A) AABBA
B) ABABA'
C) ABA'
D) ABBA
  • 93. How do most modern printed editions render the 3rd movement structure?
A) ABBA
B) ABA'
C) AABBA
D) ABABA'
  • 94. In the structural notation ABA', what does A represent?
A) Trio
B) Scherzo
C) Autograph
D) Finale
  • 95. In the structural notation ABA', what does B represent?
A) Trio
B) Pizzicato strings
C) Scherzo
D) Finale
  • 96. Is the repeat mark in the autograph likely an error by Beethoven?
A) Unlikely
B) Proven to be a printing mistake
C) Very likely
D) Added by Peter Gülke
  • 97. What year is the Bagatelle for solo piano, Op. 33, No. 7 from?
A) 1807
B) 1999
C) 1802
D) 1978
  • 98. Which publisher released Peter Gülke's edition in 1978?
A) Tonhalle
B) Peters
C) New Philharmonia
D) Bärenreiter
  • 99. Who published an edition in 1999 advocating a return to ABA'?
A) Jonathan Del Mar
B) David Zinman
C) Pierre Boulez
D) Peter Gülke
  • 100. Which publisher released Jonathan Del Mar's edition in 1999?
A) Bärenreiter
B) Schott
C) Peters
D) Universal
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