How to use this quiz: choose an answer before opening the explanation. Each answer is supported by two independent sources checked on 2026-08-27.
10 music history questions
1 · Warm-up
A performer controls pitch and volume by moving both hands without touching anything. What are they playing?
- A theremin
- A glass harmonica
- A concertina
- A celesta
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: A theremin. A theremin is played without physical contact.
One antenna senses the hand controlling pitch, while another senses the hand controlling volume. Small changes in hand position alter the electromagnetic fields and the resulting tone.
Sources: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science Museum Group.
2 · Warm-up
Why is the saxophone called the saxophone?
- Its brass alloy was once called sax
- Its inventor's surname was Sax
- It debuted in the German state of Saxony
- Its name came from an old French music term
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Its inventor's surname was Sax. The saxophone is named after its inventor, Adolphe Sax.
Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax patented the family in Paris in 1846. He designed it to blend a brass instrument's power with a woodwind's agility.
Sources: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Library of Congress.
3 · Core
During John Cage's 4'33”, the performer makes no intentional notes. What becomes the music?
- The conductor's silent hand pattern
- A metronome heard through headphones
- Unplanned sounds in and around the room
- The score imagined privately by the pianist
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Unplanned sounds in and around the room. Ambient sounds constitute the audible content of 4'33”.
Cage divided the work into timed movements but prescribed no deliberate sound. Audience movement, ventilation, traffic, and other ambient sounds become the audible content.
Sources: Museum of Modern Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
4 · Core
Before Paul McCartney finished Yesterday's lyrics, which placeholder phrase fit its melody?
- Golden Slumbers
- Morning Coffee
- Sunny Side Up
- Scrambled Eggs
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Scrambled Eggs. The placeholder phrase was Scrambled Eggs.
McCartney recalled waking with the melody and used “scrambled eggs” as a temporary lyric while checking that it was original. He completed the final lyrics later.
Sources: The Beatles and Harvard University.
5 · Core
Voyager leaves the planets carrying Earth's greetings, sounds, and music on what physical object?
- A gold-plated phonograph record
- A magnetic eight-track cartridge
- A punched metal piano roll
- A crystal read by ultraviolet laser
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: A gold-plated phonograph record. Each Voyager probe carries a gold-plated phonograph record.
Each probe carries a gold-plated copper disc, a stylus, and pictorial playback instructions. The record contains 90 minutes of music from a range of cultures and periods.
Sources: NASA and Smithsonian Music.
6 · Core
Before the birthday lyrics were used, what words accompanied the Hill sisters' melody?
- Welcome Back, Dear Children
- Good Morning to All
- Many Happy Returns
- School Is Starting Now
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Good Morning to All. The melody first appeared with the words Good Morning to All.
Mildred and Patty Hill published Good Morning to All for young students in 1893. The familiar birthday lyrics were later set to the same melody.
Sources: National Museum of American History and University of Louisville.
7 · Core
The pet copied a theme from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17. What kind of mimic was it?
- A canary
- A parrot
- A starling
- A nightingale
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: A starling. The mimic was a starling.
The bird sang a recognizable version of the finale's theme while changing a pitch and part of the rhythm. Mozart transcribed the variation in a notebook.
Sources: Boston Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic.
8 · Core
Why is Video Killed the Radio Star significant in television history?
- It was the first video broadcast in color
- It introduced stereo sound to television
- It was the first song sold only on video
- It was the first music video shown on MTV
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: It was the first music video shown on MTV. MTV's first music video was Video Killed the Radio Star.
When MTV launched in 1981, the Buggles' video was the channel's first selection.
Sources: GRAMMY Museum Mississippi and Guinness World Records.
9 · Challenge
How did the recording turn a few performers' stomps and claps into the sound of a large crowd?
- Layer copies at carefully varied delays
- Stretch one take to half its speed
- Mix in hidden stadium-crowd samples
- Rerecord them through a giant guitar amp
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Layer copies at carefully varied delays. The production used repeated tracks with prime-number delay intervals.
Brian May added individual repeats at different delay lengths based on prime numbers. The varied timings distributed the stomps and claps across perceived distances, creating the sound of a much larger group.
Sources: Brian May and NPR Fresh Air.
10 · Challenge
When Take Me Out to the Ball Game was written, what was true of both its lyricist and composer?
- Both had played professional baseball
- Neither had ever attended a baseball game
- Both worked as ballpark announcers
- Both had worked as sports reporters
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Neither had ever attended a baseball game. Neither songwriter had attended a baseball game when the song was written.
Jack Norworth reportedly drew the idea from a subway sign, and Albert von Tilzer set the words to music. Both attended their first baseball games years later.
Sources: Library of Congress and National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Keep playing in trivolivia
These questions come from the same source-backed Library used in the free game. Open trivolivia for a shuffled five-question round, immediate feedback, and a trail of related topics.