Guitar Jeopardy

Hey, it’s your lucky day! We just happen to have some of the questions from the Guitar Jeopardy that John mentioned above. These miscellaneous questions were drawn almost exclusively from old WGS newsletters. Donald Sauter

1. Name the African-American guitarist who was the most important American guitarist of the 1860 time frame. He published over 300 guitar arrangements and an important guitar method.
Hint: first name Justin
Hint: last name evokes the Netherlands

2. The most important Russian guitarist of the early 19thcentury was Andrei Sychra. How many strings did his guitar have?
Extra credit: What chord are the 7 strings tuned to?

3. AUDIO JEOPARDY: What is the name of this famous theme? Composers throughout the centuries, including guitar composers Sor, Giuliani and Ponce, have used it as a basis for variations. Here is the beginning of the theme as set by John Duarte, played by the WGS guitar ensemble. (Start cd... "Dum duummm, da dum dum.")
Hint: the Fool's Dance

4. Name the famous Spanish Baroque guitarist who recommended against using bass strings on the guitar? He thought they were ok only for noisy music and for accompanying songs.
Hint: He wrote the famous Canarios.

5. The 1894 Sears Catalog was the first with a "Musical Goods Department". How much did the Washburn American Guitar, its most expensive model, cost? (Moderator responds to each guess with "higher!" or "lower!")
Quick follow-up: Which guitar string was the most expensive?
Hint: You only have 6 choices!

6. What would you find in the M127 boxes at the Library of Congress?

7. Identify the guitarist based on these clues (doled out one at a time):
Clue: 19th century
Clue: Spanish
Clue: friend of Fernando Sor
Clue: played with his fingernails (unlike Sor)
Clue: invented the tripodion, a stand to hold the guitar for the player
Clue: most of his output were small pieces, such as waltzes
Clue: wrote Troi Rondo Brillants (one recorded by Bream)
Clue: first name, Dionisio
Clue: If you don't have it by now, I give up.

8. What's it mean when a guitarist drools from both sides of his mouth?

9. Name the most important American female guitarist of the
20th century. She composed, arranged, concertized, collected guitar music and started the American Guitar Society in California.
Hint: initials VOB
Hint: changed her first name to Vahdah for astrological reasons
Hint: husband was guitarist Zahr Bickford (and if that doesn't
give it away...!)

10. Who wrote the earliest known guitar music?
Hint: published in 1546
Hint: included in a volume of music for the vihuela
Hint: one of the pieces for guitar was "Guardame las vacas" ("Watch the cows").
Hint: first name, Alonso.

11. In the WGS Newsletter, Vol. 3 No. 1 (Sep 1994), you can find guitar arrangements of two never-before-heard waltzes by a famous composer. Who was he?
Hint: very famous
Hint: I mean, really,really famous.
Hint: German, 18th century

12. If you examined all the arrangements for solo guitar at the Library of Congress, what would you have to conclude was the "No. 1 Greatest Hit" of 19th century America?
Hint: very sentimental song
Hint: "be it ever so humble..."

Guitar Jeopardy Answers

1. Justin Holland.

2. The Russian guitar has 7 strings tuned to a big G chord - DGBDGBD.

3. La Folia, or Folies d'Espagne. Coincidentally, later that same day Greg Koenig played the Giuliani variations, and Nicholas Goluses played the Ponce variations.

4. Gaspar Sanz.

5. $26. The cheapest model was $4.50. The G string, made of" best quality gut", cost 15 cents apiece. The basses cost 10 cents apiece.

6. guitar music (doh!)

7. Dionisio Aguado.

8. The stage is level. (Glen Caluda accused Joe Mayes of answering this one from experience.)

9. Vahdah Olcott Bickford. She was also on the original Guitar Foundation of America board of directors.

10. Alonso Mudarra. The 6 pieces were for 4-course guitar.

11. W. A. Mozart. The waltzes were constructed from Mozart's musical dice game which yields a few quadrillion distinct walzes, or "Schleifer".

12. Home Sweet Home, by Sir Henry Bishop. Not to be confused with other popular "home" songs such as "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Old Folks At Home" (an alternate title for "Swannee River"), both by Stephen Foster.

-Donald Sauter

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