The obscure riddle thread (1)

[bernhard]

This is for those who are finding the riddle thread too easy. In that thread the rules allowed only well-known composers and well - know pieces of the literature. In this one this rule is reversed: only obscure/neglected composers are allowed and only obscure pieces. Since this is goig to be far more difficult I suggest that cryptic statements could be liberally given.

How to play:
 
1. Only pieces for piano solo, or pieces where the piano plays an important part (e.g. Piano concertos, piano trios, etc.)
 
2. Only obscure repertory (no well-known composers - even if the piece is obscure, or well known pieces even if the compsoer is obscure)
 
3. Only one question per player (A player can only ask another question after being answered)
 
4. Only questions that can be answered with "yes" or "no"
 
5. Cryptic statements should be given liberally without the need to ask for them.
 
3. Penalties:
 
a. Any player can ask as many questions as s/he wants, however if the player makes a guess about the composer's name, the name of the piece, or the opus number, after three “nos” s/he is out of the game. So, as long as the name of the piece or of the composer is not mentioned in the question, no penalty results.
 
b. If the riddler gives the wrong answer to a guesser's question and therefore utterly confuses and misleads the guesser, the riddler will have to miss a round, that is, s/he must win two games before s/he is allowed to be the riddler again (and eat the erasers of their pencils...)

So I will start:

He composed only one work for piano (as far as we know).

Go figure!

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[dmk]

Although this composer wrote only 1 work for piano, is he obscure in his own field?

[bernhard]

Although this composer wrote only 1 work for piano, is he obscure in his own field?

I would say yes. Mind you he did not compose that much more for other genres either.

[dmk]

Bernhard,

This guess is a little out there but is it Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite for piano duet.

[bernhard]

Bernhard,

This guess is a little out there but is it Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite for piano duet.

Yes. It is a little out there. Actually the work in question was solo (not duet) and written (most likely) for the forte piano.

[dmk]

On the forte piano...well that has blown my other guess which was Webern's op 27 Suite!!  I guess I'll have to put my thinking cap back on!

[bernhard]

On the forte piano...well that has blown my other guess which was Webern's op 27 Suite!!  I guess I'll have to put my thinking cap back on!

We are talking massive obscure here. You don't want to blow your guesses right at the beginning! Best way is to start asking basic questions (dates, countries, etc.). I will say that: Although obscure now, in his own time this composer was a bit of a celebrity.

[dmk]

Is this composer German?

[bernhard]

Is this composer German?

No. He was not French either, but he lived in Paris.

[presto agitato]

Stravinsky

[chopinisque]

Stravinsky

[sarcastic]I never knew Stravinsky was obscure.

Was the composer from the Romantic period?

[Vinteuil]

Did this composer start a lottery in Paris ?

[bernhard]

Is this composer German?

No.

Here is an interesting paralel that just occurred to me: Just like this composer was born in a certain country and moved to Paris, a generation earlier a really famous (and I mean famous) Italian composer moved from Italy to this composer's country.

[bernhard]

No.

Here is an interesting paralel that just occurred to me: Just like this composer was born in a certain country and moved to Paris, a generation earlier a really famous (and I mean famous) Italian composer moved from Italy to this composer's country.

ooops, I just repleid twice to the same question. Never mind. You will need the extra cryptic statement.

[bernhard]

Stravinsky

Er... no (Stravinsky? Fortepiano? )

[bernhard]

[sarcastic]I never knew Stravinsky was obscure.

Was the composer from the Romantic period?

No. But then one may perhaps say that he is not easily classified.

[bernhard]

Did this composer start a lottery in Paris ?

I doubt very much. He was not old enough.

[TheHammer]

No.

Here is an interesting paralel that just occurred to me: Just like this composer was born in a certain country and moved to Paris, a generation earlier a really famous (and I mean famous) Italian composer moved from Italy to this composer's country.

So, then (knowing your inclination towards Scarlatti) are we talking about a Spanish composer?

[Vinteuil]

Although obscure now, in his own time this composer was a bit of a celebrity.

Was his celebrity related to music ?

[bernhard]

So, then (knowing your inclination towards Scarlatti) are we talking about a Spanish composer?

Excellent! Now we are getting somewhere. Yes, he was Spanish, form the town of B...

[bernhard]

Was his celebrity related to music ?

Yes, very much so. It was the same sort of celebrity that was attached to another, very famous composer. In fact he was often referred to as the Spanish version of that very famous composer.

[Vinteuil]

Fernando Sor, born in Barcelona, also known as the "Beethoven of the guitar".  ?

[Vinteuil]

I am much less confident now that I have read Sor seems to have composed more than one piano piece.

[bernhard]

Fernando Sor, born in Barcelona, also known as the "Beethoven of the guitar".  ?

That was a very good stab at it! I  am impressed. 

Unfortunately it is not Sor . Our composer was not born in Barcelona either. However, the city where he was born there is now a famous art museum – a “sister” so to speak to a famous museum in New York. Both museums were built by American architects who shared their first name.

Also the famous composer was not Beethoven, but someone Beethoven admired greatly and would have liked to study with.

[bernhard]

I am much less confident now that I have read Sor seems to have composed more than one piano piece.

Also, I have referred to a piano "work" as opposed to a piano "piece". Some may consider this as a single work with a number of movements, or as a number of separate pieces. (I prefere to conisder it as a single work).

[TheHammer]

Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, so I think? The tip with the museum was too much --> Bilbao, and then google. I will try to find the name of the piano work...

[xvimbi]

Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga (The Spanish Mozart): Tres Estudios o Caprichos Para Piano

[xvimbi]

TheHammer, we got the answer at the same time. I was typing my (complete) answer and previewing it, when you posted the composer.

If that's really the solution, TheHammer, then go ahead and post a new riddle.

[TheHammer]

the funny thing is, I will hear his ouverture to "Los esclavos felices" in summer but I had no clue
Cool, learned pretty much stuff through this, thanks Bernhard!

@xvimbi, well I am not too keen on it, so you would have to urge me. Besides, you also found out the piece, so...

[xvimbi]

@xvimbi, well I am not too keen on it, so you would have to urge me. Besides, you also found out the piece, so...

Naah, you go ahead. When one puts up a riddle, one has to know a LOT about the piece and the composer in order to answer all those questions. It always took me a lot more time to come up with answers than with questions. One does learn a lot though. However, I don't have that much time right now, so please, you pick.

[bernhard]

Well done guys!

Indeed Arriaga, who sadly died at 19 having composed one opera ("Los esclavos felices"), one synphony (inD) 3 string quartets and the 3 studios o caprichos for piano (great piece!).

So fight over the thread, xvimbi and hammer.

[TheHammer]

 When one puts up a riddle, one has to know a LOT about the piece and the composer in order to answer all those questions.

That is exactly the reason I am not so keen on it, but anyway...
Here is my cryptic statement:

"This knight could not fight with her, so he fought for her against the composers' greatest foe. Doing this, he became a thief, but is that something unusual?
Oh, and we are searching the composer and the piece..."

(The problem is, I don`t know if this one is obscure enough. I didn`t know him, at least..., but that`s just me...)

[chopinisque]

Is the composer from Germany?

[TheHammer]

Is the composer from Germany?

No.

[chopinisque]

British?

[TheHammer]

British?

Certainly. 

[chopinisque]

Medieval composer?

[TheHammer]

Medieval composer?

No.

[bernhard]

Is the composer still alive?

[TheHammer]

Is the composer still alive?

No.
[edit] Okay, a free cryptic statement and some math again : In the first of the two years in the exact middle of his life, another composer was born, who wrote some incidental music (and a suite?) for the play which was also basis for an opera of Debussy.

[bernhard]

Is the piece a piano-solo piece?

[TheHammer]

Is the piece a piano-solo piece?

Yep.

[bernhard]

The British composer is Sir William Sterndale Bennett (1816 – 1875).

The first year halfway through his life is 1845, the year Gabriel Faure was born. He wrote incidental music for Maeterlinck’s play Pelleas & Melisande, which Debussy later made into an  Opera.

The piece is the Piano Sonata in Ab Op. 46 “Maid of Orleans”, a programmatic piece based on Schiller’s story about Joan of Arc. The plot is what the first cryptic statement is all about (knights, thieves, etc.)

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[xvimbi]

The British composer is Sir William Sterndale Bennett (1816 – 1875).

The first year halfway through his life is 1845, the year Gabriel Faure was born. He wrote incidental music for Maeterlinck’s play Pelleas & Melisande, which Debussy later made into an  Opera.

The piece is the Piano Sonata in Ab Op. 46 “Maid of Orleans”, a programmatic piece based on Schiller’s story about Joan of Arc. The plot is what the first cryptic statement is all about (knights, thieves, etc.)

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

Oh no, you just beat me to it, by a minute...

Actually more like by a decade

respect!

I must say, I like TheHammer's riddles

[TheHammer]

The British composer is Sir William Sterndale Bennett (1816 – 1875).

The first year halfway through his life is 1845, the year Gabriel Faure was born. He wrote incidental music for Maeterlinck’s play Pelleas & Melisande, which Debussy later made into an Opera.

The piece is the Piano Sonata in Ab Op. 46 “Maid of Orleans”, a programmatic piece based on Schiller’s story about Joan of Arc. The plot is what the first cryptic statement is all about (knights, thieves, etc.)

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

Now, what a nice surprise in the morning. Congrats, that is exactly true (hmm, should have used a more cryptic cryptic statement).

I must say, I like TheHammer's riddles

 

[chopinisque]

lol  And I was thinking the statement referred to the composer himself.  I imagined a British medieval knight fighting off music critics...

Good one, Hammer.

[TheHammer]

lol And I was thinking the statement referred to the composer himself. I imagined a British medieval knight fighting off music critics...

Good one, Hammer.

*whispering* psst, actually, Bennett was indeed dubbed knight - therefore Sir William, and I did mean it this way, and Bernhard mentioned it also.
But, well, his one is of course a good explanation, too, and I did not want to spoil Bernhard's mood
(Or, more honestly speaking, it was very, very early (for me) when I first replied...)

[bernhard]

This composer, with this set of pieces, created a whole new genre. Unfortunately, a much more famous composer got the credit for the genre while our composer, well, fell into obscurity.

[anda]

was this in the 1700's?

[bernhard]

was this in the 1700's?

No. But I had to ponder and reflect deeply before answering this question.