Checking out the most frequently used words relating to music and musicians in crosswords, we find dozens of words which appear to be about equally divided between what might be categorized as either "classical music" or "popular music."  For instance, if the clue is "Lincoln Center offering" or "La Scala production" the answer is, of course, OPERA.  If the clue is "Grand Ole _ _ _ _," we immediately fill in the appropriate blanks with OPRY.  Both words turn up often in crosswords and are easily identified as "classical" or "popular."

Since there are so many of these often used "music and musician" words, I've decided to split them into two separate columns.  "Classical Music and Musicians" words will be the subject of this column, saving "popular music" for later.  That means we'll have AIDA in this column and EVITA later; LALO now and KERN later in a "popular music" column.  You get the picture.

Our crossword designers start right out with music history, going back nearly 1,000 years for one of their favorite words which is...

ELA...Whether it turns up as "Guido's note" or "Guido's tone" or more often than not as "Guido's high note", the reference is to Friar Guido d'Arezzo's six note musical scale, ELA being the sixth and highest note in that scale.   You can learn more about the musical monk and his history-making codification of the first recorded scale by clicking on the high-lighted word ELA which takes you to the music glossary in Bill Markwick's " Folk File."

Continuing our music history lesson as given by a seeming majority of clue writing professors, we arrive at two words which have become a must in the vocabulary of all puzzle solvers:

DIES IRAE...The clues are either "_ _ _ _ Irae" or "Dies _ _ _ _", and both of them appear in crosswords with equal frequency.  A medieval Latin hymn about Judgment Day, it is a part of the Requiem Mass and therefore has the distinction of  being included in Requiem compositions by Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi and Andrew Lloyd Webber, to name just a few.  The browsers provide a nearly endless list of "Dies Irae" recordings.  For Latin and/or English text translations of the "Dies Irae," just click on the high-lighted words at the beginning of this paragraph.

OPERA...Moving right along from the earlier music history we come to a category of classical music which deserves all of the attention it receives from the cluemeisters.  As mentioned above, it can be a "Lincoln Center offering" or a "La Scala production", as well as a "Met offering" or a "Met performance'".  But these clues are only a beginning.  OPERA is also "'Falstaff,' e.g." or "'Turandot,'e.g." or "'Any opera you can name,' e.g.", not to mention "Bizet's bailiwick" and "Mozart's 'Cosi...'."  Recently I've also seen "Verdi work", "Verdi creation" and "'Norma' or 'Louise'".   The number of clues for this word goes on and on.  Opera coverage on the internet is equally extensive.  Every opera company in the world seems to have their own website, and if you don't believe it just click here to Mike Gibb's alphabetical list of links to home pages for opera companies..with separate listings by company name and by city location.

 If that doesn't satisfy your appetite for everything you could possibly want to know about OPERA, you can check out the for information about specific operas, their performances, their performers, their settings, etc., etc., etc.

Superseding even OPERA as the most frequently used musical term with puzzle composers we have ARIA.

ARIA...Just think how often we have come across "Met song", "La Scala song", "diva's song", "opera song", "operatic highlight", "operatic solo", "stage solo", "melody", "solo", "tune", "Pavarotti piece",  "Lily Pons specialty", "Sutherland forte", "Kathleen Battle offering", and "Puccini solo".  Any fan of crosswords can probably add an equal number of different clues they have encountered for what appears to be the most adaptable of all words tucked into puzzles by the crossword composers.   Depending upon the depth of interest you may have in this subject, a mouse click on the following Aria Database iconwill take you to a reference guide for 781 arias from 103 operas by 40 composers, all of them by name, opera, language and voice type including translations into English, libretti, and MIDI sound files for many of the arias.  Don't tell me you can't find whatever you might be looking for on the internet!

 The Crossword Puzzle Opera House has a somewhat limited repertoire, however.  There are one or two popular favorites with only occasional performances of several other operas.

AIDA...This "Verdi opera" is the clue writers favorite.  In just the last few months this "opera by Verdi" has shown up as a "Verdi heroine", an "opera set in the time of Pharaohs", an "opera set in Luxor", and we've even been informed that "it debuted in Cairo, Dec. 24, 1871".  Click on the high-lighted AIDA at the beginning of this paragraph to view Stephen L. Parker's complete and comprehensive page of information regarding this opera.

TOSCA..."Puccini's Floria" (the heroine's full name is Floria Tosca) is a crossword reference to the "Puccini opera", but there is seldom a clue other than one or the other of these two.  It had its premiere in Rome in January of 1900, and for more inclusive information (possibly leading to a wider variety of clues in the future), a click on the high-lighted word TOSCA will take you to Mr. Parker's page on this opera.  Feeling it is time to add a little color to this column, I am including a picture of the cover of Tosca's first printed score along with a picture of diva Hericlee Darclee, who performed as the very first Tosca in Rome in 1900.  The pictures come to us courtesy of Rick Bogart's OperaGlass, which turns out to be an additional source for extensive information about OPERA.
 

CARMEN...First up in our "occasional" category is "Bizet's cigarette girl", or "Bizet heroine" as some of the cluemeisters prefer.  Back when Rise Stevens was everyone's favorite Carmen, there were clues like "Rise's Met role" or "a role for Rise", but they would hardly pass muster in today's puzzles.

COSI..."_ _ _ _ fan Tutte" and/or "Mozart's ' _ _ _ _ fan Tutte'" turn up every now and again as is easily understandable given such a usable word.    Click on the high-lighted word COSI for a synopsis and other information about this opera.

FLUTE..."Mozart's 'The Magic_ _ _ _ _'" or just plain "'The Magic _ _ _ __'" also make an appearance in puzzles once in a while.     A mouse click on the high-lighted word FLUTE will produce the synopsis.

Of course we can't begin to proceed without an orchestra, and here's where our crossword composers shine.  I think we may be able to come up with as many as eight or nine instruments for our musical group.  How they might come together as a coherent and listenable combination I'll leave for you to decide.  Clicking your mouse on any of the pictures of the instruments shown below will take you to appropriate pages on same.
 

OBOE...This double-reed woodwind instrument with its range of nearly three octaves and high, penetrating, melancholy tone is surely going to end up the featured soloist of our orchestra considering how often it occupies a place in crosswords.  Usually referred to simply as  "woodwind", it might also be called "bassoon's cousin", "clarinet kin", "double reed", "woodwind instrument", "Philharmonic instrument", "Hautboy", or "Shawm's descendant".  The Shawm and the Hautboy are earlier versions of the oboe.

PIANO...As you can see in the accompanying picture it has been appropriately clued as "grand, e.g." or "one grand", and for classical music purposes it is, indeed, a grand piano.  Just to throw us off a bit one puzzle designer gave us "softly, to Ozawa" as the clue.  True enough, but I'm going to let you figure that one out.

 TUBA...The largest and most powerful of brass instruments turns up in puzzles as "big, band instrument", "band member", "Sousaphone", just plain "band instrument" and the wonderfully descriptive "oompah instrument".  In ancient Rome it was a straight war trumpet, but over time it has evolved into the "oompah instrument" we all know and love.

CELLO...The cello is the instrument of the lowest range in the violin family, tuned an octave lower than the viola and it is also larger than that instrument.  We still see it most frequently clued as "Casals' instrument", a reference to the Spanish cellist and composer Pablo Casals who lived most of his later years in self-imposed exile as a protest against his home country government.

LUTE...The clue writers seem to have a lot of fun with this one, an old "Baroque instrument" with six to thirteen strings that is the "mandolin's ancestor" and is "an instrument shaped like a pear".  They go on to explain that "a minstrel plucks this" as an "accompaniment for a pavane".

LYRE...We reach back even farther into history for this small, stringed instrument which is said to have been the one on which Israel's King David accompanied himself when singing the psalms which he composed.  In addition to being the "strings of yore", cluemeisters also refer to it as "Orpheus' instrument" as well as "King David's instrument".   Probably its most frequent clue, however, is "harp's cousin".

HARP...Like its cousin the lyre, the harp has a history which traces all the way back to medieval times, as is indicated by the picture of the three early examples of harps shown above.  Clue writers often give it an unearthly spin with references such as "angel strings" or "heavenly instrument",but a clue like "instrument with seven pedals" is obviously talking about a much more modern version of the harp.

AMATI...Now we come to the apex of stringed instruments, the violin.  And clue writers seem well aware that the very best violin ever made would be either an AMATI or a STRADIVARI.  The Amati family of violin makers plied their trade in Cremona, Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries, and taught Stradivari the art of violin making.  Usually, therefore, we find AMATI clued as "Stradivari's teacher".

STRAD...Since STRADIVARI wouldn't be all that easy to fit into a puzzle, we find clues such as "fine fiddle, for short" in order to accomodate an abbreviation of the name.

Unfortunately, there aren't too many composers for our orchestra to draw upon from the most frequently used list of crossword puzzle words.  They will be a bit of a challenge to our group, though, as they cover a lot of territory so far as their musical compositions are concerned.

IGOR...It seems a little strange that we find IGOR STRAVINSKY  at the top of our crossword composers list, but both "Stravinsky" and "composer Stravinsky" appear many times in many puzzles along with "'Rites of Spring' composer" as an additional popular clue.   He doesn't have the entire field to himself, however, since clues like "operatic Prince", "Prince _ _ _ _ ", and "Borodin's Prince" are quick to remind us that  ALEXANDER BORODIN's opera, "Prince IGOR" is equally favored by crossword composers.  Of course both composers must step aside for an occasional reference to "helicopter builder Sikorsky".

RAVEL...Our puzzle builders also seem to have a particular appreciation for the music of MAURICE RAVEL  as they come up with references to "'Bolero' writer" and "'Bolero' composer" and even "'Menuet Antique' composer".  It can work both ways in this instance since I've also seen "Ravel piece" and "Ravel composition" for the word BOLERO.  Also, don't be surprised when they throw in a ringer such as "fray" for the word ravel.

BACH..  When it comes to "Johann Sebastian _ _ _ _",  who is "one of the 3 Bs of classical music" in many a crossword, the World Wide Web is rife with information both about the man and his music.  And that information is offered in a complete variety of languages.  I felt we should give him two portraits instead of one, therefore.  Clicking on either of the two pictures above will take you to very interesting websites.  I've also seen him clued as just "one of the 3 Bs of music", but that might leave the door open for a choice between bop, boogie and blues or maybe even Bing, Betty and Barbra.  Have you ever noticed that the other "2 Bs of classical music" (Brahms and Beethoven) seem to get short shrift from the puzzle designers?

 That's about it for classical composers except maybe "'Le Roi d'ys' composer" or "Edouard _ _ _ _, composer" for LALO or "composer _ _ _ _ Bartok" for BELA.  I've also come across "Bach contemporary" for HANDEL and "choreographer Alvin" for AILEY, but none of them could be said to fall under the heading of "frequently used words in crosswords."  The same holds true for singers.  I've seen "diva Gluck" for ALMA and "tenor Caruso" for ENRICO as well as "coloratura soprano Maria" for CALLAS, and once someone even gave "an opera star called Bubbles" as the clue for Beverly SILLS.  Not an "often-used word" in the lot.

There are a few words used frequently enough in puzzles, however, which still deserve to be included here in our column on classical music and musicians.

ALTO...It's a "singing voice", "choir voice", "choir member", "quartet member", "chorus line", and my   favorite, the "doo wop part".

TENOR...Not quite on a par with ALTO as a real clue writer's favorite, but still turning up often enough to qualify as a "frequently used" item with clues such as "quartet voice", "voice above baritone", and "Domingo, e.g.".

SOLO...This would be a "single song", an "aria, e.g." or "aria, usually", but it also goes in other directions than just classical music with clues such as "to fly alone" and "Han, of Star Wars".

If you are into online crosswords, and have a Java-powered browser, you might like to try Timothy Parker's Universal Crossword.  Just click on the logo below.

Copyright 1999 C. Schnebel, all rights reserved

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