1) The envelope containing the results for this week’s quiz was delayed by a rather spectacular but still plausible series of events involving a tiger, a pair of galoshes and three pieces of old Canadian cheddar.

2) Miss Mussel stayed up til 7am Sunday morning making a website and hasn’t really been able to string more than four words together since. There’s no real content yet but you’re welcome to head over for a peak anyway.

Believe whichever scenario suits although Miss Mussel will say that learning PHP in help fora at 3am is possible but greatly reduces the chances that you will remember any of it the next day.

Apologies to Roger Miller, furnisher of the music for Quiz 21, for failing do it up properly. There were two people who responded with the correct answer and, given the relative obscurity of the piece, it seems only fair to publicly acknowledge Daniel J. Liss and Philip Amos.

As luck would have it, Mr Amos was the first to emerge from the Official OM Seed Corn Hat and so he can spend the summer ruminating over his choice of piece for an upcoming quiz or gleefully thinking of ways to spend his $20 credit at Arkiv.

So what was the piece? None other than Missa Brevis by British composer Paul Patterson written in 1985 and first performed by the Thomas Tallis Society in the same year. Further information on the Mass, in the form of a very helpful programme note can be found here.

The original recording Roger sent along was of the Epsom Chamber Choir however in the end, he decided to go with an EMI recording with the London Philharmonic Choir. Baton-wielder: Owain Arwel Hughes. Head to the jungle and buy your copy today! Act now, supplies are limited!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it is time to step away from the direct mail copywriting gigs. Ugh.

Two more tracks on the player to help you on your way to becoming the champion of Quiz #21. As well, here is the first installment of clues:

1) The composer was born in 1947 and, for the first time ever on the OM Quiz, is still drawing breath.
2) He wrote a series of fanfares for the inauguration of Chunnel.
3) You might find a staff listing at the Royal Academy in London to be of service. Or you could just ring up and pester the receptionist for the answer. Just don’t ask if her fridge is running.

Question: Why does the cat, having the entire apartment in which to find a bed, insist on laying right on top of the newsletter proofs Miss Mussel spent the weekend so carefully annotating?

Have a listen to this week’s mystery piece, as chosen by the winner of Quiz #17, Roger Miller, while you think it over.

There is something quite special about this piece, something different to any of the other twenty that have appeared so far. Tune in tomorrow to find out what, if you can’t guess already.

If you know anyone who wears a cassock and surplice on a regular basis, they are your new BFF, or at least until the Quiz closes at midnight EST on Weds.

All you need to do is send in the composer, name of piece and date of composition and your name will be placed in The Official OM Seed Corn Hat. The person whose name is first out receives a $20 credit at Arkiv or the chance to choose the mystery piece in the Autumn Quiz season.

Best of luck!

Another perfect summer day here in this corner of the universe. The temperature is a perfectly civilized 19 degrees which is making Miss Mussel’s heart nearly burst for joy. That special Southern Ontario brand of oppressive humidity and a jump of 10 degrees is coming at the weekend. Ugh.

Quite a few people wrote in this week with the correct answer but the person whose name was drawn first out of the Official OM Seed Corn Hat was: Ian Goh. Well done to you, sir.

The mystery piece was Poulenc’s Sonata for Violin and Piano Op 119.

Reader Philip sends in the following: “[The sonata] was composed, after much badgering on the part of Ginette Neveu, over 1942 and 1943. It was published in 1944, but Poulenc revised it in 1949 in light of Neveu’s performances and suggestions made by her, and it was republished the same year. Poulenc himself still thought it was a pretty dismal effort. It was dedicated to Federico Garcia Lorca, which accounts for the very vaguely Spanish parts.”

So there you have it.

A bit of a trick in the first batch of clues. Miss Mussel said the piece was published in the same year FDR was elected. Your choices were 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944. The last one is correct.

The composers posse mentioned in the second batch of clues was none other than Les Six.

According to Darius Milhaud, “[Collet] chose six names absolutely arbitrarily, those of Auric, Durey, Honegger, Poulenc, Tailleferre and me simply because we knew each other and we were pals and appeared on the same musical programmes, no matter if our temperaments and personalities weren’t at all the same! Auric and Poulenc followed ideas of Cocteau, Honegger followed German Romanticism, and myself, Mediterranean lyricism! (Ivry 1996)”

Good news on the A/C front: Miss Mussel scored a housesitting gig for the next three weeks. In exchange for doling out half a cup of cat food twice daily and changing a bit of litter, she gets to enjoy living in an artificial icebox. The temperature is meant to drop 10 degrees this week but that’s ok. There is also a giant television and a Wii. If blog posting is patchy this week, you’ll know Miss Mussel is on her way to becoming a MarioKart champion.

Another track has been added to the player for your listening enjoyment.

Here is the first set of clues:
1) The piece is dedicated to Frederico Garcia Lorca
2) The composer was uncomfortable writing for solo strings and had destroyed two violin sonatas before settling on this one.
3) In the year this piece was published, Franklin Roosevelt won the US Presidential Election.