The Iceman Cometh

Crystal Clear

Sculpting a series of musical instruments from solid blocks of ice and using them at a prestigious venue to perform music you have yourself composed isn't something that appears on many people's CVs. Yet for Norwegian composer and percussionist Terje Isungset it's all in a days work as he will be demonstrating to audiences this weekend at London's Sommerset House. During a series of six half hour concerts in a geodesic dome specially installed on a terrace outside the venue, which has been dubbed 'the urban igloo', Terje will be joined by singer and compatriot Lena Nymark in performances that have to be restricted to thirty minutes each because of the fragile nature of the instruments being used. These include ones carved from ice blocks the composer extracted from an ancient glacier and a frozen lake. We at Highly Questionable? take our thermals off to Terje, whose ninth and most recent album 'Winter Songs' we plan to download and listen to tonight. Today's quiz on musical instruments is dedicated to this Scandinavian musical pioneer.       

Musical Instruments Quiz

1 What does the piano's full name of pianoforte literally mean?

2 Who composed 'Carnival Of The Animals', a piece often used to introduce children to each of the instruments that feature in an orchestra? 

3 Having been credited with its creation, which musical instrument is Apollo, the Greek god of music, most associated with? 

4 Who was the maker of the violin known as The Molitor which in October 2010 was sold at auction for the world record price of $3.6 million?

5 How many strings does a bass guitar have?

Answers to our musical instrument quiz will be published along with tomorrow's quiz questions.

Witches Quiz Answers

The answers to yesterday's Highly Questionable witches themed quiz were:-

1 'The Crucible'.

2 Morgana Le Fay.

3 A familiar.

4 Cher.

5 The Rowan tree.

The author of the Highly Questionable quiz blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com.