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Seven days of questions and answers

Music Trivia Answers Archive

Review earlier daily rounds, reveal the correct answer, and use the short explanation to learn the fact behind each question. Page 2 of 12 covers seven completed UTC days.

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Daily round

  1. Which direction tells a musician to become gradually louder?

    Answer: Crescendo

    Crescendo is the instruction for a gradual increase in volume.

  2. Which interval is the smallest standard step in the chromatic scale?

    Answer: Semitone

    Semitone is the smallest standard step in the Western chromatic scale.

  3. Which related word also means gradually softer?

    Answer: decrescendo

    Decrescendo is a closely related term.

  4. Does an orchestral flute use a reed?

    Answer: No

    An orchestral flute makes sound when air crosses its embouchure hole, without a reed.

  5. What handheld tool may make those gestures easier to see?

    Answer: a baton

    A baton may make hand movements easier to see.

Daily round

  1. Which hardwood is commonly used for a professional oboe’s body?

    Answer: grenadilla

    Professional oboes are commonly made from dense grenadilla, also called African blackwood.

  2. How many strings does a standard guitar normally have?

    Answer: six

    A standard guitar normally has six strings.

  3. Which side-blown woodwind makes sound as air crosses an embouchure hole?

    Answer: Flute

    Flute is the side-blown instrument whose modern orchestral form is usually metal.

  4. How should piano be interpreted as a dynamic instruction?

    Answer: as a context-relative soft level

    The dynamic piano asks for a soft level judged in relation to the surrounding music.

  5. What interval separates adjacent piano keys?

    Answer: a semitone

    Adjacent piano keys are a semitone apart.

Daily round

  1. How does a cello’s usual register compare with a viola’s?

    Answer: below a viola

    Its pitch range lies below the viola.

  2. What does a crescendo require without fixing a final volume?

    Answer: an increase from the current dynamic

    A crescendo requires the sound to grow from its current level; it does not prescribe one fixed endpoint.

  3. Which direction tells a musician to become gradually softer?

    Answer: Diminuendo

    Diminuendo is the instruction for a gradual decrease in volume.

  4. Which note does the bass clef’s reference line represent?

    Answer: F below middle C

    That line represents F below middle C.

  5. How many equal-tempered semitones make an octave?

    Answer: twelve

    An octave contains twelve semitone steps in twelve-tone equal temperament.

Daily round

  1. What kind of beaters do timpani players use?

    Answer: specialized mallets

    Players use specialized mallets.

  2. What vocal technique can supply percussion?

    Answer: beatboxing

    Beatboxing may provide vocal percussion.

  3. What alternate name does the bass clef take from its reference note?

    Answer: F clef

    The bass clef is also called the F clef because its dots surround the staff’s F line.

  4. What do a conductor’s gestures communicate?

    Answer: beat and expression

    A conductor’s gestures communicate beat and expression.

  5. Which brass instrument is played by buzzing into a cup-shaped mouthpiece?

    Answer: Trumpet

    Trumpet is the instrument sounded by buzzing into a cup-shaped mouthpiece.

Daily round

  1. What is the violin’s usual tuning from lowest to highest?

    Answer: G, D, A, and E

    Its strings are commonly tuned G, D, A, and E.

  2. Which common clarinet is a transposing instrument?

    Answer: the B-flat clarinet

    The common B-flat model transposes.

  3. What produces all harmony in a cappella performance?

    Answer: voices

    Voices produce all of the harmony in a cappella music.

  4. What does the sustain pedal do?

    Answer: lets notes continue sounding

    Its sustain pedal lets notes continue sounding.

  5. What do musicians call notes sounded together as a harmonic unit?

    Answer: Chord

    Chord is the group of notes sounded as a harmonic unit.

Daily round

  1. How does a melody unfold through time?

    Answer: one note after another

    A melody unfolds one note after another.

  2. How are its bars arranged?

    Answer: like a keyboard

    Xylophone bars are arranged like a keyboard.

  3. What opening does the player blow across?

    Answer: an embouchure hole

    A flutist blows across an embouchure hole.

  4. Which voice part sits immediately below soprano?

    Answer: alto

    It sits above alto in a typical SATB choir.

  5. How does allegro’s typical tempo compare with adagio?

    Answer: faster

    It is faster than adagio in ordinary usage.

Daily round

  1. Which orchestral leader commonly coordinates the string section’s bowing?

    Answer: the concertmaster

    The concertmaster works with the conductor and string principals to coordinate bowing decisions.

  2. Which related word also means gradually softer?

    Answer: decrescendo

    Decrescendo is a closely related term.

  3. Which clef is normally used for lower-pitched staff notation?

    Answer: Bass clef

    Bass clef is the clef commonly used for lower-pitched notation.

  4. Which clef normally notates a modern soprano choral part?

    Answer: treble clef

    Modern soprano choral parts are normally written in treble clef.

  5. Which letter represents piano in a score?

    Answer: p

    The standard dynamic symbol for piano is p.