It's The Annual Month Of Hell On Earth, So...

It's the annual Month Of Hell On Earth, and so just for brief respite we override our normal indifference to such things, and respond to a blogospheric quiz, this one set up by blogger Matthew Guerrieri of Soho the Dog.

1. What's the best quotation of a piece of music within another piece of music?

The quotes from the Ring and Parsifal in Bruckner's No. 9.

2. Name the best classical crossover album ever made.

There is no such thing as "best" of this egregious mongrel breed.

3. Great piece with a terrible title.

Goldberg Variations.

4. If you had to choose: Benjamin Britten or Michael Tippett?

That's like asking, "If you had to choose: James Joyce or Mickey Spillane?"

Britten, of course.

5. Who's your favorite spouse of a composer/performer?

Cosima Wagner. (That's a joke ... I say, just a joke, son!)

6. Terrible piece with a great title.

Enigma Variations

7. What's the best use of a classical warhorse in a Hollywood movie?

Also Sprach Zarathustra in 2001: A Space Odyssey (technically not a Hollywood movie, but what the hell). Also, An der schönen blauen Donau (Blue Danube Waltz) in the same film.

8. Name the worst classical crossover album ever made.

See answer to No. 2 above, mutatis mutandis.

9. If you had to choose: Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye?

Who?

10. Name a creative type in a non-musical medium who would have been a great composer.

Orson Welles.

EXTRA CREDIT:

For opera nerds: If you had to choose:

a) Lawrence Tibbett or Robert Merrill?

Merrill.

b) Amelita Galli-Curci or Lily Pons?

Not a clue.

For early-music nerds: Name a completely and hopelessly historically uninformed recording that you nevertheless love.

Beecham's recording of the Goossens orchestration of Messiah (we bet everyone names that one).