Quiz Bowl Questions

In one of this man’s operas, the princes Guidon and Alfron die after their father listens to the bird Astrologer and the Queen of Shemakha seduces King Dodon. In another opera, the title character lives with the Berendeyans and falls in love with Mizgir. In addition to The Golden Cockerel and The Snow Maiden, this composer of (*) Cappricio Espagnol wrote a work whose movements include “The Sea and Sinbad's Ship,” the symphonic suite Scheherezade. For 10 points, what Russian composer of the Mighty Five wrote The Tale of Tsar Saltan, which includes the fast-paced “Flight of the Bumblebee”? (#)

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

“Clouds” and “Sirens” are movements from this composer’s Nocturnes, which were inspired by James Whistler paintings. The love-death leitmotif from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde often interrupts the last movement of a suite by this composer called “Golliwog’s (*) Cakewalk.” A C-sharp minor second movement of another piece by this composer of the Children’s Corner Suite is “Play of the Waves.” One of his works was inspired by a Stephane Mallarme poem. A Paul Verlaine poem names the third movement of his Suite Bergamasque. For 10 points, name this French composer of La Mer, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and “Claire de Lune.” (#)

Claude Debussy

A character in this novel recounts a dream about swimming in a lake where “there is no monster...just water.” This novel’s protagonist is surprised when his friend falsely admits to stealing money and a watch. This novel’s protagonist witnesses a public stoning in a soccer stadium while trying to rescue his nephew, Sohrab. A character in this novel repeats the phrase (*) “for you, a thousand times over.” After winning a tournament in which this novel’s title objects are adorned with glass shards, the protagonist watches Assef sexually assault his Hazara friend. The Afghan children Amir and Hassan drift apart in, for 10 points, what novel by Khaled Hosseini (#) ?

The Kite Runner

One character in this play states “I have an idea” before spitting in another’s face. At the beginning of this play, the concept of blinking is explained to a valet in a Second Empire style room. Another character is brought to the setting of this play for [*] throwing her baby off a balcony. That character, Estelle, uses a paper knife to stab Inez several times at this play’s end. Garcin declares “Hell is other people” in, for ten points, what Jean-Paul Sartre play? (#)

No Exit (accept Huis clos)

This character learns from Lord Munodi about the disastrous effects of the Academy of Projectors, and later discovers that Alexander the Great died of alcoholism. This character is convicted of treason for urinating on a fire in a royal palace. He helps settle a conflict about (*) eggs between the Little and Big Endians before fleeing to Blefescu. This character returns home after spending time with the horse-like Houyhnhnms [“HWIN-ums”]. For 10 points, name this character who encounters tiny people in Lilliput and giants in Brobdingnag in a novel by Jonathan Swift. (#)

Dr. Lemuel Gulliver [or Lemuel Gulliver; or Gulliver’s Travels]

The Knickerbocker Theatre premiered this composer's operetta The Charlatan, set in 19th-century Russia. Charles Klein wrote the libretto to an operetta by this composer in which Don Enrico Medigua kills the Peruvian “El Capitan” (kah-pee-TAHN). For an awards ceremony sponsored by a newspaper, this composer wrote a composition partly titled (*) “The Washington Post.” A piccolo obligato appears in a piece by this composer, who names a tuba variant that wraps around the body. For 10 points, name this “March King” who wrote “Stars and Stripes Forever.” (#)

John Philip Sousa

This person was painted with a rabbit, a symbol of purity, and a fruit basket by Titian, and Titian also created a portrayal of this figure encircled by arches with a red flag and members of the Pesaro family. In one Mannerist painting, this figure was shown with an (*) elongated spinal column by the artist Parmigianino.The most famous depiction of this figure shows her in front of the title stony structure with an angel and infants John the Baptist and Jesus. For ten points, name this Biblical woman painted “of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian term for the Virgin Mary. (#)

Madonna (accept Mary before mention)

This composer adapted his piece “Ruins” into the first movement of his Fantasia in C. A work by this man, initially called Easy Pieces, includes the movements “Blind Man’s Bluff” and “Knight of the Hobbyhorse.” He borrowed the melody from his own piece (*) Kreisleriana for the final movement of his first symphony. This composer included sections named for Chopin and Paganini in a twenty-one movement piece. This creator of the A-S-C-H motif wrote the piano suite Scenes from Childhood. Many of his works for piano were performed by his wife Clara. For 10 points, name this German composer of Carnaval and the Spring Symphony. (#)

Robert Schumann

This musician’s track “India” features a tanpura playing beneath Eric Dolphy’s clarinet solo. Paul Chambers plays an E-flat pedal tone on a slow ballad by this musician. A bassline by Jimmy Garrison leads into chants of one of this artist's album names at the end of the track “Acknowledgement.” This artist’s “Countdown” appears on an album alongside a track named for his first wife, (*) “Naima.” On an album’s first track, Tommy Flanagan struggled to keep up with rapid chord progressions known as this musician’s namesake “changes.” For 10 points, name this jazz saxophonist whose “sheets of sound” style appears in A Love Supreme and Giant Steps. (#)

John Coltrane [accept Coltrane changes]

Although the Townley version of this work has the title figure looking down, the original version shows him looking back at the object in his outstretched right hand. One Roman copy of this work, restored by Pierre-Étienne Monnot, depicts the title figure as a wounded gladiator supporting himself on his (*) arm as he sinks to the ground, and this famously well-proportioned work crouches in an unnatural pose. For 10 points, name this famous Greek sculpture by Myron, which shows an athlete about to throw the titular Frisbee-like object. (#)

Discobolus or Discus Thrower

Piece type and composer required. The first of these pieces, marked legato, features a series of wide arpeggios in the right hand played over a pedal point. Another of these pieces, marked vivace in E minor, opens with a series of dissonant minor seconds in the right hand over arpeggiated chords, thus is nicknamed “Wrong Note.” Most of these pieces were collected into their composer’s Opus 10 and (*) Opus 25. A challenging series of descending sixteenth note passages in the left hand follows the jarring opening fortissimo first-inversion G7 chord in one of these pieces inspired by the November Uprising. For 10 points, name these highly technical works for piano by a Polish composer, which include one called the “Revolutionary.” (#)

piano études by Frédéric François Chopin

Near the beginning of this novel, a group of eunuchs called the Ten Attendants were slaughtered following an assassination plot. One character in this work is killed by his foster son after moving his capital to Chang’an, while another dies in Luoyang due to a brain tumor. That character, (*) Cao Cao [tsao-tsao], had earlier lost the Battle of Red Cliffs. A prominent scene in its first chapter features Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, and Liu Bei swearing the Oath of the Peach Garden. For 10 points, name this novel by Luo Guanzhong about the feuding states of Wu, Wei, and Shu. (#)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

One of this man’s paintings features a lightning bolt in the upper left corner, causing the titular horse to twist its neck backwards. Another of his paintings includes an Assyrian fortress in the background, as well as a bed with elephant heads on its corners. A hand protrudes through rubble beneath a kneeling woman in his Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi. This artist of The Death of Sardanapalus used hats to denote social classes in a work which features a Phrygian cap-clad Marianne. That painting centers on a bare-chested woman waving a French flag amidst the July Revolution. For 10 points, name this artist of Liberty Leading the People. (#)

Eugène Delacroix (accept Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix)

One character in this work is bribed by the promise of having Deiopea [“die-oh-PAY-ah”] for a wife. One character in this work breaks a fidelity oath for her dead husband Sychaeus [“sigh-KAY-us”], who had been killed by Pygmalion. In this work, the hair of the title character’s wife, Lavinia, catches on fire. After recognizing the belt of his dead friend Pallas, this work’s title character kills (*) Turnus. This epic’s title character falls in love with the Carthaginian Queen Dido before later breaking her heart. For 10 points, name this Virgil epic named for a Trojan prince who was legendarily an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. (#)

The Aeneid [or Aenē̆is]

In a poem addressed to a member of this profession, Atticus and Sporus are ridiculed as the narrator yells “Shut, shut the door, good John!” to avoid being swamped by admirers. A character in this profession is inspired to write the poem “Bad Roads in Spring” after he is kidnapped by the Forest Brotherhood. A pair of glasses recovered from the Marabar Caves (*) is used to falsely accuse one of these people of raping Adela Quested. Another person with this occupation accidentally infects Hippolyte’s club foot and is frequently cuckolded by his dissatisfied wife in Madame Bovary. A friend of Gabriel Utterson who tramples a young girl also has this profession. For 10 points, name this job held by characters such as Yuri Zhivago and the alter ego of Mr. Hyde. (#)

doctor [accept answers like surgeon or physician]

The appendix to this novel provides sentences like “This dog is free of lice” and divides language into A, B, and C vocabulary. This novel introduced the idea of holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously, and accepting both as true. This novel’s protagonist receives a note that reads “dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite fullwise”, and is later told that (*) two and two make five. Words like Ingsoc, Miniplenty, and crimethink are used excessively in this novel’s Newspeak dialect. Its protagonist avoids telescreens and hopes that proles will bring down Oceania and Big Brother. For 10 points, name this George Orwell dystopian novel. (#)

Nineteen Eighty-Four or “1984”

In this novel, one character asks one of the Scherbatskys to leave after he flirts with his wife; that wife nurses his brother Nikolai when he suffers from consumption. After a husband in this novel forgives an affair due to the near-death of his wife, the man in the affair attempts to shoot himself. In this novel, Kitty marriesKonstantin (*) Levin and the title character elopes to Italy after her husband, the government official Karenin, refuses to grant her a divorce. Because she thinks that Count Vronsky has been unfaithful, the title character of this novel throws herself in front of a train. For 10 points, name this novel by Leo Tolstoy. (#)

Anna Karenina

A figure can be seen under a yellow building in this painting, and a white cross appears above that building. A man wears a ring on his index finger in this painting, and an upside-down woman plays a violin on the top right. Next to her is a man walking with a scythe, and a glowing tree appears in the hand of a man on the bottom. A woman milks a goat on the left of this painting, and the face of a large green man wearing a necklace appears on the right. For 10 points, name this painting involving Yiddish and Russian folk themes, a work by Marc Chagall. (#)

I and the Village

In one novel from this nation, Inger-Johanna falls in love with Grip despite her father’s objections. In another novel from this country, Inger kills her harelipped child and lies to Isak about it. In addition to The Family at Gilje, written by Jonas Lie, and The Growth of the Soil, this nation is known for a writer who created John Gabriel Borkman and Hjalmar Ekdal, as well as the wife of Torvald Helmer. For 10 points, identify this nation, home to the author of Hunger, Knut Hamsun, and the author of A Doll’s House, playwright Henrik Ibsen. (#)

Norway

The second act of this play is titled “Love and Marriage”; the title of the third act is left open to the audience. One character in this play laments, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?”, and when asked which day of her life she wants to relive, she goes back to see her twelfth birthday. A chorus led by Simon Stimson sings “Blessed Be The Tie That Binds” at a wedding finishing this play’s second act. The conversations of the Webb and Gibbs families are intertwined in this play, set on a stage without scenery in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. For 10 points, name this play about George and Emily, narrated by the Stage Manager, and written by Thornton Wilder. (#)

Our Town

In a work by this author, two characters “lose their shanks” in a cycling accident in the Ardennes. One of this playwright’s characters speaks about the “works of Puncher and Wattman” after being instructed to “Think!” In a play by this author, Nagg and Nell are unable to kiss because they live in dustbins, while in another of his plays two characters swap (*) hats with each other while standing next to a withered tree. This author of Endgame wrote a play in which Lucky is led on a rope by Pozzo [POT-so] while expecting the arrival of a figure who never appears. For 10 points, name this absurdist Irish playwright who wrote Waiting for Godot [GOD-oh]. (#)

Samuel Beckett

In this book, the female children of one family have been named synonyms of “white” for four generations. A child in this book enjoys painting the walls of her room. The visiting French count Jean de Satigny reveals one relationship in this book, causing one man to slap Clara and knock out her front teeth. One character in this book bears the epithet “the Beautiful” and has green hair. Another character in this book creates a “model hacienda” [ah-see-EN-da] at Tres Marías. That character dies in Alba’s arms after writing their memoir and is named Esteban. Featuring the Trueba family, for 10 points, name this magical realist novel by the Chilean author Isabel Allende. (#)

The House of the Spirits [accept La casa de los espíritus]

In this story, a moth-like figure with a human voice flutters out of a black pocket book. One character in this story is first seen wrestling with a ram named Goliath and later gives another character “a kick that would stun a horse” after being told that his sons will die during a war. The central character of this story speaks in a voice “like a big bell” to a group including (*) Simon Girty and Blackbeard. This story is set in the town of Cross Corners, where a farmer is visited by Mr. Scratch after wishing to sell his soul for two cents. For 10 points, name this story in which Jabez Stone is saved from damnation by the titular statesman, a work of Stephen Vincent Benet. (#)

“The Devil and Daniel Webster”

One poem by this author features a series of italicized stanzas in which a pair of birds sing songs on Paumanok. The conclusion of that poem focuses on the sea singing to the “solitary me” about death. This poet of “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” wrote “Flood-tide below me! I watch you face to face” in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Another of his poems concludes with the lines “But I / with mournful tread / Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead,” and that poem was written after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. For 10 points, name this poet who wrote “O Captain! My Captain” and Leaves of Grass. (#)

Walt Whitman

One member of this group has a servant named Grimaud who communicates through body language. This group travels to a convent to rescue Madame Bonacieux. The ex-wife of one member of this group is discovered to have a fleur-de-lis branded on her back and is named (*) Milady de Winter. They attempt to recover diamonds to hide an affair between Queen Anne and the Duke of Buckingham. This group has the motto “One for all, all for one,” and d’Artagnan (“dar-TAHN-yan”) wants to become a member in an 1844 novel. For 10 points, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are members of what group of French soldiers in an Alexander Dumas novel? (#)

the three musketeers [or les trois mousquetaires]

The dome of the Dome of the Rock is currently made out of a kind of this medium. A group of over one thousand plaques in this medium were created by the Edo people in the Benin Kingdom, while a series of the “Ritual” kind of this medium were found in ancient Chinese tombs. Works made in this medium are often created in the (*) lost-wax casting process. Many Greek sculptures such as Doryphoros and Discobolus were created in this medium but the Roman copies of these were made of marble because it was cheaper. For 10 points, name this metal that is an alloy consisting mostly of copper. (#)

Bronze

Chris Burden was nailed shirtless to one of these objects in his performance art piece Trans-Fixed. Works made from these objects are found at an Art Reserve in Nebraska, where Jim Reinders created a replica of Stonehenge using them. The Aztec gods are invoked in a 27-panel mural series depicting laborers creating these objects by Diego Rivera. One of these objects is declared to be “more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace” in the (*) Futurist Manifesto. 1960s hippies often had brightly-painted examples of these objects with their logos replaced by a peace sign. For 10 points, name these objects manufactured by companies like Volkswagen. (#)

automobiles [or cars; or minibuses; accept Carhenge; accept specific brands of cars]

In a work from a collection by this author, a lawyer eats a quince laced with love potion, then starts to believe that his entire body is made of glass. In a story from the same collection by this man, the title “Little Gypsy Girl,” Preciosa, is revealed to be kidnapped royalty. This author of the (*) Exemplary Novels wrote a novel in which the title character’s niece and barber burn his library before telling him that it was the work of a wizard. That work by this author features a protagonist who pursues the lady Dulcinea, and involves an episode in which attacks giants that are actually windmills. For 10 points, name this author of Don Quixote. (#)

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

This composer’s fourth symphony quotes “In the Field a Birch Tree Stood” while the strings play rapid sixteenth notes, and opens with the brasses playing an A-flat Beethoven-inspired “fate” motif. This composer’s sixth symphony contains a bassoon solo with a dynamic marking of 6 p’s. This composer of the “Winter Dreams” and (*) “Manfred” symphonies wrote a work that included quotations of “God Save the Tsar” and “La Marseillaise” [mar-say-ez] to commemorate the defense of Russia from Napoleon. That piece included a part for the cannon. For 10 points, name this Russian composer of the “Pathetique” symphony and the 1812 Overture. (#)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

In one poem by this man, the speaker holds a pane of glass “against the world of hoary grass” and wonders if his sleep is “just human sleep”, and in another, Warren finds Silas dead beside the stove. The narrator of another poem remarks that he could say “Elves” to a man who is “all pine”, whereas he is “apple orchard”. In addition to “The Death of the Hired Man”, this man wrote a poem which states “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence” and concludes “And that has made all the difference.” For 10 points, name this American poet of “Mending Wall” and “The Road Not Taken”. (#)

Robert Frost

One character in this novel borrows a houndstooth jacket from the protagonist to wear on a date with Jean. That character gets in a fight with the protagonist over a poem that describes green writing covering a baseball mitt. The protagonist of this novel tells women from Seattle that he has just seen Gary Cooper at the Lavender Room. He later seeks advice from a former English teacher who strokes his head, Mr. Antolini. At the end of this novel, the protagonist watches his sister Phoebe ride a carousel, several days after leaving Pencey Prep, a boarding school that he thinks is full of “phonies.” For 10 points, name this novel which centers on Holden Caulfield, by J.D. Salinger. (#)

The Catcher in the Rye