cbf@allegra.UUCP (12/15/83)
Les jeux sont faits. Rien ne va plus. The contest is over, and the winner is Jeff Winslow <tekecs!jeffw>. "Place d'honneur" goes to Oscar Nierstrasz <utcsrgv!oscar>. Ray Davidson <pur-ee!davidso> finishes third, while Robert Gardner <hpcnoa!rdg> and Larry Riddle <emory!riddle> are tied for fourth place. Paul Asente <decwrl!asente> ends in fifth place. Honorable mentions go to <ih1ap!face>, <astrovax!tss> and <sdcrdcf!willie>. A few statistics: I included 16 contestants in my final count. Their scores were: 49 45.5 44.5 42 42 40.5 39 37 36 32.5 31 30 26 25 22 16 9.5 8.5 The average score was exactly 32, while the maximum possible (according to my answers, to be posted later) was 84 points. I've written back to everyone who has submitted answers to let them know how they've done. If you didn't hear from me, then I probably didn't hear from you. A few people said they intended to submit an entry, but didn't deliver. A few comments: The points awarded were solely for answers which came from prior knowledge helped along by one's record collection. Several people did a terrific job of research. Among those must be mentioned (in no particular order) <phs!paul>, <utcsrgv!oscar>, <teklabs!larrym>, and <parsec!hansen> who came closest to citing all the answers I had in mind. One tricky matter is the question of what kinds of pieces I was accepting as answers. I stated those very explicitly in my articles on the quiz. So I had to turn down a few Tragic Overtures, a few Scottish Fantasias, some ballets, orchestral suites, etc. The basic idea was to think of formal classical constructions which didn't have intrinsic names, but rather nicknames, appended sometimes by the composer, but more often than not by others. In other words, those names are usually not at all needed to identify the piece. There are a few exceptions in the categories of works I was accepting, and I'll address those in my next submission. The comments I got were very encouraging. I did get a few complaints: "Too much Beethoven" (I had to reject a good half of Beethoven names I had thought of), "Not enough stuff before Haydn and after Mahler" (Well on one side there was too much and the other too little), "Not enough items, period" (I didn't want to overstay my welcome), "Too simple" (Oh really?). I am willing to concede, though, that I might have been wrong in restricting the answers to memory. As someone pointed out, it would have been more instructive for people to go out and look for answers they didn't know. Also, establishing which answers came from where became a little complicated. Furthermore, the prize is forcibly awarded to the person who needs it the least. True, true. All I can say on my behalf is that, seeing so little discussion of 'art' music in the newsgroup, I thought of using the quiz as a barometer of the net's interest in the classics. Oh well, all you can do is your best. All things considered, I think it was worth it and everyone seems to agree with me. Answers and some more interesting statistics shortly. -- "Yes, but is it art?" Charles B. Francois (decvax!allegra!cbf)