Tune In to This Quiz on Famous Composers

Premiering on April 26, 1946, the animated short “The Cat Concerto” features Tom and Jerry tickling the ivories to Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.” Getting ready to perform the piece, Tom hammers the opening notes, which wakes up Jerry (who’s living inside the piano). The ensuing fight between the two still hammers out the right notes to Liszt’s masterwork. The cartoon won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

Mozart only finished 8 bars of the Lacrimosa, or “Requiem,” before his death in December 1791. At a bedside performance of the piece, a seriously ill Mozart allegedly cried at the end, knowing it was the last music he’d ever write. After his death at age 35, one of Mozart’s students finished the piece by drawing on the master’s notes and previous work. It’s now considered one of Mozart’s greatest pieces.

Quite possibly the most recognizable ringtone of all time, Nokia’s "Grande Valse" dates all the way back to 1902. It is a phrase from a solo guitar piece called "Gran Vals," written by Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega. The company first used the four-bar tune in a 1992 ad for the Nokia 1011, and it soon became the phone company's flagship ringtone.

In “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” Richard Wagner’s masterwork features riddles, a broken weapon destined for a hero, and a powerful ring that consumes its bearer. Sound familiar? Not a fan of Wagner, J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote that “both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases,” but critics have always drawn an undeniable link between the two.

Composer George Bruns faced the difficult task of creating music for Disney’s animated film, Sleeping Beauty. He turned to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1890 ballet of the same name. It wasn’t an easy adaptation, as Bruns meticulously pored over Tchaikovsky’s work, trying to find the perfect musical phrases for the film. “It would have been much easier to write an original score,” Bruns later said.

The Bach family is synonymous with music, as many Bachs throughout history have pursued the art. But no one left a mark quite like Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the greatest composers who ever lived. That talent passed on to his children; four of them went on to become accomplished composers in their own right.

One takes place in 1980s New York, the other 150 years earlier in Paris, but both tell a story of love and loss. Playwright Billy Aronson wanted to write a musical where the “splendor of Puccini’s world” was replaced with modern New York. The task eventually fell to Jonathan Larsen, who filled Rent with similar characters, plot points, and note-for-note musical phrases from Puccini’s masterpiece.

“Fur Elise” is one of Beethoven’s most recognizable pieces, but it wasn’t released until 40 years after his death. Published in 1867 by Ludwig Nohl, “Fur Elise” means “For Elise” in German, but many scholars think Nohl botched that transcription and it was supposed to read “For Therese,” a former student whom Beethoven proposed to in 1810. Unfortunately, he was turned down, but the resulting composition has remained a romantic melody for centuries since.

The two-act ballet “The Nutcracker” was first introduced in 1892. Set to a dazzling score by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the plot is based on the book “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E.T.A. Hoffman, though it was originally much more sinister. The addition of sugarplum fairies and toy soldiers helped turn "The Nutcracker" into the holiday staple it is today.

On January 27, 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born at No. 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria (then part of the Holy Roman Empire). Mozart wasted no time, creating his first musical compositions by the age of five. Soon, he began showcasing his prodigal talents at foreign royal courts throughout Europe. Today, Mozart’s birthplace is a museum, one of the most visited in all of Austria.