You Gotta Know
You Gotta Know These Musical Works
The following table lists the fifty most-frequently referenced works of music in NAQT questions as of November 17, 2002. While you really gotta know their creators, these are also some of the works about which more substantive questions are written, so teams should be prepared for questions on their style, instrumentation, performance, lyrics, key, program, and circumstances of creation.
| Rank | Title | Genre | Creator | Date | Freq. |
| 1 | Aida | Opera | Giuseppe Verdi | 1871 | 44 |
| 2 | Carmen | Opera | Georges Bizet | 1845 | 41 |
| 3 | The Marriage of Figaro | Opera | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1784 | 35 |
| 4 | Appalachian Spring | Ballet | Aaron Copland | 1944 | 35 |
| 5 | Messiah | Oratorio | Geroge Frideric Handel | 1741 | 30 |
| 6 | The Barber of Seville | Opera | Gioacchino Rossini | 1775 | 30 |
| 7 | London Symphonies | Symphony | Franz Josef Haydn | 1791 | 29 |
| 8 | William Tell | Opera | Gioacchino Rossini | 1804 | 28 |
| 9 | Don Giovanni | Opera | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1787 | 28 |
| 10 | The Rite of Spring | Ballet | Igor (Fyodorovich) Stravinsky | 1913 | 28 |
| 11 | Salome | Opera | Richard (Georg) Strauss | 1905 | 26 |
| 12 | Boris Godunov | Opera | Modest (Petrovich) Mussorgsky | 1869 | 26 |
| 13 | La Boh�me | Opera | Giacomo (Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria) Puccini | 1896 | 26 |
| 14 | Madama Butterfly | Opera | Giacomo (Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria) Puccini | 1904 | 26 |
| 15 | Rigoletto | Opera | Giuseppe Verdi | 1851 | 25 |
| 16 | Symphonie fantastique | Symphony | (Louis-)Hector Berlioz | 1830 | 25 |
| 17 | The Magic Flute | Opera | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1791 | 23 |
| 18 | The Planets | Composition | Gustav Holst | 1918 | 21 |
| 19 | Fidelio | Opera | Ludwig van Beethoven | 1805 | 21 |
| 20 | Pastoral Symphony | Symphony | Ludwig van Beethoven | 1808 | 21 |
| 21 | The Flying Dutchman | Opera | (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner | 1843 | 21 |
| 22 | The Four Seasons | Concerto | Antonio Vivaldi | 1725 | 21 |
| 23 | Bolero | Composition | (Joseph) Maurice Ravel | 1928 | 19 |
| 24 | La Traviata | Opera | Giuseppe Verdi | 1853 | 19 |
| 25 | The Song of the Earth | Symphony | Gustav Mahler | 1909 | 19 |
| 26 | Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun | Composition | (Achille-)Claude Debussy | 1894 | 19 |
| 27 | Symphony Pathetique | Symphony | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | 1893 | 18 |
| 28 | Carmina Burana | Cantata | Carl Orff | 1936 | 18 |
| 29 | Eroica | Symphony | Ludwig van Beethoven | 1804 | 18 |
| 30 | Cosi fan tutte | Opera | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1790 | 18 |
| 31 | Pictures at an Exhibition | Composition | Modest (Petrovich) Mussorgsky | 1874 | 17 |
| 32 | The Nutcracker | Ballet | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | 1892 | 17 |
| 33 | Porgy and Bess | Opera | George Gershwin | 1935 | 17 |
| 34 | Turandot | Opera | Giacomo (Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria) Puccini | 1762 | 17 |
| 35 | Falstaff | Opera | Giuseppe Verdi | 1893 | 17 |
| 36 | Symphony from the New World | Symphony | Anton Dvorák | 1893 | 17 |
| 37 | Peter and the Wolf | Composition | Sergei (Sergeyevich) Prokofiev | 1936 | 17 |
| 38 | The Star-Spangled Banner | Song | Francis Scott Key (lyrics); music traditional | 1814 | 17 |
| 39 | Moonlight Sonata | Sonata | Ludwig van Beethoven | 1801 | 16 |
| 40 | Lohengrin | Opera | (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner | 1850 | 16 |
| 41 | Hungarian Rhapsodies | Composition | Franz Liszt | 1846 | 15 |
| 42 | Rhapsody in Blue | Composition | George Gershwin | 1924 | 15 |
| 43 | Jupiter Symphony | Symphony | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1788 | 15 |
| 44 | Amahl and the Night Visitors | Opera | Gian-Carlo Menotti | 1951 | 15 |
| 45 | Spring Symphony | Symphony | Robert (Alexander) Schumann | 1841 | 15 |
| 46 | Don Juan | Tone poem | Richard (Georg) Strauss | 1888 | 15 |
| 47 | A German Requiem | Sacred choral work | Johannes Brahms | 1868 | 15 |
| 48 | Symphony of a Thousand | Symphony | Gustav Mahler | 1907 | 15 |
| 49 | Rodeo | Composition | Aaron Copland | 1942 | 15 |
| 50 | Swan Lake | Ballet | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | 1877 | 14 |
NAQT has complete lists of the works of literature, art, and music that have been mentioned in its questions, sorted by frequency, available for purchase by coaches or teams for use as study guides.
Back to the You Gotta Know homepage.
The NAQT website is maintained by Chad Kubicek