Match the Classical Music Piece to the Composer

What can we say about this piece that hasn't already been said? Well, perhaps this: A number of people would probably tell you that this piece is the triumphant finale to "Messiah," but it's not. It comes at the end of the second act.

Beethoven's work is often powerful and dominating in its sound. "Delicate" is not typically a word used to describe his music. However, the great man did make a contribution to chamber music, as well as writing his grand symphonies.

Of course, it's Mozart. Both he and his sister Nannerl were prodigies who played the piano in public from an early age. "The Magic Flute" premiered only shortly before Mozart's untimely death from a fever.

Bach was born into a family of musicians, but surpassed his father and uncles (to say the least). Bach is one of the "three B's" of classical music, and like Beethoven and Brahms, is considered one of the greatest classical composers to ever pick up a pen.

The airline in question is United Airlines, and more than one skater has found Gershwin's dreamy, jazzy melody the perfect counterpoint for their axels and camel spins. Gershwin wrote the piece in 1924, and premiered it in New York City. Some people consider "Rhapsody" a love letter to NYC.

"Clair de Lune" is the poetic French term for "moonlight." The piece is part of a larger work by Debussy, "Suite Bergamasque." Perhaps you were lucky enough, about five years ago, to see the charming Google doodle set to "Clair de Lune," showing a little boat proceeding along a river by moonlight.

We suspect that few people know this, but the piece's full name is "Canon and Gigue for 3 Violins and Basso Continuo." Another little-known fact about this piece: It almost died out, it was so rarely performed in the 19th and early 20th century. However, it had a revival in the late 1960s, and now it's frequently performed at weddings, funerals, garden parties and the like.

"Also Sprach Zarathustra" is what half the world thinks of as "that music from '2001: A Space Odyssey.'" Actually, "2001" only used the opening fanfare. To understand where its grandiose sound came from, it helps to understand that "Also Sprach Zarathustra" was inspired by Nietzsche's book of the same name, which is about grand themes like the "ubermensch," or "superman," whom humans should aspire to be.

Handel is better known for "The Messiah," but many classical music lovers are very fond of "Water Music." Divided into three suites, it was written as a royal commission for King George I of England. Not bad work if you can get it!

This gorgeous song is part of a larger work, "Song Cycle from the Lady in the Lake." Nowadays, you'll hear it most often in a religious setting, Christmas Eve services or funerals being two very common occasions.

"Missa solemnis" is actually a category of ecclesiastical music. It's a musical piece that mirrors the elements of a Latin mass. Other composers have written them, so it is a testament to Beethoven's skill that if you say, simply, "Missa solemnis," a classical-music lover will almost certainly think of Beethoven.

Hey Europe, you want to say to our faces that America has no great composers? Consider Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring," a ballet that premiered in 1944 with Martha Graham dancing the lead role. "Appalachian Spring" tells the story of a pioneer couple in the 19th century, in the beginnings of the American expansion westward.

Stravinsky was a 20th-century composer who, as wasn't uncommon for Russian musicians, did a lot of work in ballet. However, "The Rite of Spring" has come to be performed more frequently as a standalone musical piece than it is put on as a ballet.

A "polonaise" is a classical dance tune in the Polish style; "polonaise" is also the French word for "Polish." Props if you caught us sneaking "George Sand" in as an answer option — she was a French writer, not a composer, and was Chopin's lover for about ten years.

Schubert was a prolific composer who only lived to be 31 years old. We might have more works by this 19th-century prodigy if typhoid fever hadn't claimed him. Fortunately, we have his beloved works, like "Serenade," which are often covered by modern classical artists.

Vivaldi was one of the Baroque composers, of which we've seen quite a few in this quiz. Divided into four "concerti," the overall pieces evokes, as the name suggests, each of the four seasons of they year.

This was the last of Mahler's works to be performed while he was still living. It's an ambitious piece that requires a number of musicians and singers. Sidebar: Mahler's wife Alma was famous in her own right as an artist and artist's muse; a good biography of Gustave Mahler is better appreciated alongside one of Alma.

Many of Brahms' pieces have numbers, not names, but this one is an exception. He named it for the general quality of the music, the mood he wanted to evoke, not because it had a libretto and told a sad story.

"Aida" tells the story of a beautiful slave (they're always beautiful, aren't they?) in ancient Egypt. She is, secretly, a captured princess from Ethiopia, and there's a love triangle, and ... well, is it any wonder that this opera is popular to this day?

The Hebrides are a cluster of Scottish islands. Mendelssohn wrote the "Hebrides Overture" after visiting Fingal's Cave, a popular tourist destination that has fascinated writers and painters as well as musicians; Mendelssohn's work helped to popularize it.

Gershwin was in Paris in the 1920s, the same time that it was hosting and inspiring the writers Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, as well as painter Pablo Picasso. Fun fact: Gershwin went to Paris to study with Ravel, one of the other choices above, but Ravel told the young composer he had nothing to teach him. That must have been flattering!

"The Firebird" is a ballet based on a Russian fairy tale. It tells the story of a prince who spares the life of a mythical creature, the titular firebird. In exchange, she gives him one of her feathers, which allows him to summon her in a time of need. Does the prince use it? Do you really have to ask?

A sonata is an instrumental composition in three or four keys. Most of Chopin's were created to be played on the piano. "Cello Sonata in G minor" was the last of his works to be published in his lifetime.

The "Requiem" was not written (ostensibly) about Mozart's own impending death. Rather, it was commissioned by a nobleman in honor of his late wife. Mozart died before he could finish it; the piece was completed by Franz Sussmayr.

"Fanfare for the Common Man" was composed by American musician Aaron Copland in the mid-20th century. Fun fact: In keeping with its theme, the symphony conductor who commissioned it, Eugene Goossens, decided to premiere it "at income-tax time." Copland immediately got the significance and approved of the decision.

Haydn was a successful composer in the 17th century. He's also notable for his influence on younger, soon-to-be famous composers like Mozart and Beethoven. He tutored Beethoven, with whom there was a larger age gap than with Mozart.

Rachmaninoff's life spanned the late 19th and early 20th century. When he wrote "Symphonic Dances," which was partly inspired by his longing for Russia, Rachmaninoff was living in the state of New York. He would die a few years later in California.

Beethoven was almost entirely deaf when he wrote his last complete symphony. It was rushed into its first performance, which was complicated by Beethoven trying to conduct musicians whom he could not hear, but it nonetheless stands as one of the greatest achievements in classical music.

Bach was Lutheran, and composed music for Lutheran services, so it was unusual that he tackled a "Mass," which reflects the Latin rite.. But Bach, with typical virtuosity, wrote a piece that overshadows many written by lesser musicians more familiar with the Catholic faith.

"Va, pensiero" is also known as the "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves," because "Nabucco" is about the Jews' captivity in Babylon, events recollected in the Biblical books of Daniel and Jeremiah. Confused about the name? It's short for "Nabucodonosor," or "Nebuchadnezzar," the Babylonian king.

Berlioz wrote this piece after falling in unrequited love with an actress, Harriet Smithson. Well, it was unrequited at first. As almost never happens with fans who send a barrage of love letters, the actress Harriet Smithson eventually did meet Berlioz, and then married him. However, the marriage didn't last. (Who could have predicted that?)

Joseph Bologne was the son of a plantation owner and a slave; he grew up to write a number of classical works and direct a symphony. He was a contemporary of Mozart, and Mozart's jealousy might even have inspired a bad-guy character, an African named "Monostatos," in "The Magic Flute."

"Glass Houses" is a series of piano pieces written by the Canadian composer. Southam isn't a terribly well-known name, but we wanted to include a female composer in this quiz at least once. Women haven't made nearly the inroads into classical music composition that they have in other areas of the arts. Here's hoping the 21st century will change that!

Tchaikovsky might be the Russian composer who had the most "crossover" success into the European/Western canon. The other three composers listed above, for example, were contemporaries of Tchaikovsky, but they haven't become household names the way he did.

Over his long career, Britten wrote operas, orchestral pieces and chamber music. "War Requiem" was written for the opening of the new cathedral in Coventry, England, where the 14th-century cathedral was destroyed by an air raid in WWII.