The Great Composer Quiz – July 3, 2020
This Independence Weekend, it’s a Quiz about musical Founding Fathers. You may know about Thomas Jefferson’s violin playing. The author of the Declaration of Independence studied the violin from a young age and later the cello. While a student at the College of William and Mary, Jefferson often played in chamber music concerts. But Jefferson was not the only Founding Father who fiddled. One, for instance, like Jefferson began violin lessons at an early age, and later took up, not the cello, but the flute which he taught himself to play. Jefferson’s first encounter with this Founding Father involved music. Another Founding Father played flute and enjoyed playing house concerts with his step-granddaughter at the piano. And the Founding Father furthest advanced as a musician not only played violin, cello, harp, guitar, viola da gamba and harpsichord, he invented an instrument, and set aside a room in his home just for concerts, which typically also involved his daughter. So, who were these Founding Fathers who favored the fluid fusion of musical motifs?