…Ross Marshall, who correctly divined that the film whose title reminded me of the Paul Verlaine poem on which Varese’s 1906 piece Un Grand Sommeil Noir is based is Total Eclipse. Verlaine was played by David Thewlis and Rimbaud was played by Leonardo In Siprio. Ross also got the bonus question: Régine Wieniawski a.k.a. Poldowski was the female composer who wrote 21 pieces based on Verlaine poems.
The winner of the second pair of tickets is Robert Thomas, who correctly responded that Varese’s short flute piece is called Density 21.5 because it was written for Georges Barrère’s platinum flute and Varese thought the density of platinum was 21.5, but, in fact, it is 21.45. Actually, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz was first with the answer but he can’t go because he’s milking the cows or something that evening and Elaine Fine was second but she won’t be in New York until the following week. So, Dr. Bob wins by default, but that’s ok. Elaine added the helpful note that Density 21.5 is a total ripoff of Debussy’s Syrinx, which is also for solo flute.
Others with the correct answer were Tawnie Olson, Jim Supanick, Eric William Lin and Warren Stewart. Thank you all for playing and we’ll do it again.