Leos Janacek Quiz Questions and Answers
Q1. In what year was Leos Janacek born?
A. 1845
B. 1854
C. 1863
D. 1872
Answer: B. 1854
Q2. Where was Leos Janacek born?
A. Hukvaldy, Moravia
B. Prague, Bohemia
C. Brno, Moravia
D. Vienna, Austria
Answer: A. Hukvaldy, Moravia
Q3. What was Janacek’s profession in addition to being a composer?
A. Painter
B. Folklorist
C. Novelist
D. Architect
Answer: B. Folklorist
Q4. Under which teacher did Janacek study choral singing as a young chorister in Brno?
A. Antonin Dvorak
B. Frantisek Skuhersky
C. Pavel Krizkovsky
D. Leo Grill
Answer: C. Pavel Krizkovsky
Q5. Which conservatory did Janacek attend in 1879–1880 for advanced studies in piano and composition?
A. Prague Conservatory
B. Leipzig Conservatory
C. Vienna Conservatory
D. Brno Conservatory
Answer: B. Leipzig Conservatory
Q6. What institution did Janacek found in Brno in 1881, which he directed until 1919?
A. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
B. National Theatre
C. Brno Organ School
D. Moravian Folk Music Archive
Answer: C. Brno Organ School
Q7. Who was Janacek’s wife, whom he married in 1881?
A. Kamila Stosslova
B. Zdenka Schulzova
C. Gabriela Horvathova
D. Xavera Behalkova
Answer: B. Zdenka Schulzova
Q8. Which personal tragedy profoundly influenced Janacek’s composition of his opera Jenufa?
A. The death of his daughter Olga in 1903
B. The death of his son Vladimir in 1890
C. His divorce in 1916
D. A failed premiere in Leipzig
Answer: A. The death of his daughter Olga in 1903
Q9. What innovative technique did Janacek develop, deriving melodies from the natural inflections of spoken language?
A. Scasovky
B. Speech melodies
C. Modal counterpoint
D. Folk modulation
Answer: B. Speech melodies
Q10. Which Russian composer did Janacek admire and meet in 1888, influencing his later works?
A. Modest Mussorgsky
B. Sergei Rachmaninoff
C. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
D. Igor Stravinsky
Answer: C. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Q11. What was the title of Janacek’s first opera, composed between 1887 and 1888?
A. Jenufa
B. Sarka
C. Osud
D. Kata Kabanova
Answer: B. Sarka
Q12. In what year did Janacek’s opera Jenufa premiere in Brno, marking a key point in his stylistic development?
A. 1896
B. 1916
C. 1904
D. 1921
Answer: C. 1904
Q13. Which opera by Janacek premiered successfully in Prague in 1916, bringing him international recognition?
A. The Cunning Little Vixen
B. Jenufa
C. The Makropulos Affair
D. From the House of the Dead
Answer: B. Jenufa
Q14. What is the English title of Janacek’s opera Osud?
A. Destiny
B. The Excursion
C. The Vixen
D. The Case
Answer: A. Destiny
Q15. Which Janacek opera, composed from 1908 to 1917, features satirical adventures in the Moon and the 15th century?
A. Kata Kabanova
B. The Excursions of Mr. Broucek
C. The Makropulos Affair
D. Sarka
Answer: B. The Excursions of Mr. Broucek
Q16. Based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, which opera did Janacek compose between 1919 and 1921?
A. Jenufa
B. From the House of the Dead
C. Kata Kabanova
D. The Beginning of a Novel
Answer: C. Kata Kabanova
Q17. What inspired Janacek’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen, premiered in 1924?
A. A Dostoevsky novel
B. A serialized novella in Lidove noviny
C. Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata
D. Moravian folk tales
Answer: B. A serialized novella in Lidove noviny
Q18. Which Janacek opera, premiered posthumously in 1930, is based on a Fyodor Dostoevsky novel?
A. From the House of the Dead
B. The Makropulos Affair
C. Osud
D. Sarka
Answer: A. From the House of the Dead
Q19. In what year was Janacek’s orchestral rhapsody Taras Bulba, based on Gogol’s tale, revised and completed?
A. 1915
B. 1918
C. 1927
D. 1926
Answer: C. 1927
Q20. Which famous orchestral work by Janacek, composed in 1926, was originally written for a gymnastics festival?
A. Glagolitic Mass
B. Sinfonietta
C. Danube Symphony
D. The Fiddler’s Child
Answer: B. Sinfonietta
Q21. What is the subtitle of Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1, composed in 1923?
A. Intimate Letters
B. Fairy Tale
C. The Kreutzer Sonata
D. Youth
Answer: C. The Kreutzer Sonata
Q22. Which chamber work for piano and seven instruments did Janacek compose in 1925?
A. Pohadka
B. Concertino
C. Capriccio
D. Violin Sonata
Answer: B. Concertino
Q23. What is the English title of Janacek’s piano cycle composed in 1900–1901 and revised in 1910?
A. In the Mists
B. The Eternal Gospel
C. 1. X. 1905
D. On an Overgrown Path
Answer: D. On an Overgrown Path
Q24. Which song cycle by Janacek, completed in 1919, reflects his unrequited love?
A. Amarus
B. The Diary of One Who Disappeared
C. The Wandering Madman
D. Our Father
Answer: B. The Diary of One Who Disappeared
Q25. Who was the young married woman who became Janacek’s muse and inspired many late works, including Kata Kabanova?
A. Zdenka Schulzova
B. Gabriela Horvathova
C. Kamila Stosslova
D. Olga Janackova
Answer: C. Kamila Stosslova