# Classical music challenge **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 22, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278 "2025-09-22T01:20:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/1 "2025-09-22T01:20:07Z")
The German composer Johannes Brahms composed the famous _Hungarian Dances._ The Hungarian composer Bela Bartok composed the (not as, but still reasonably) famous _Romanian Dances._ Can anyone continue the chain in either direction? Ideally with other “dances”, but anything with a nationality in the title will work. (Disclaimer: I can’t, so don’t expect a definite answer to be coming.) ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/2 "2025-09-22T01:33:27Z")
Hmm, does a polka by Enescu hand it off to a Polish composer? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/3 "2025-09-22T01:36:09Z")
Gioachino Rossini composed the operas _The Turk in Italy_ and _The Italian in Algiers_. I always thought he should have completed the circuit with _The Algerian in Turkey_. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/4 "2025-09-22T01:40:17Z")
Back to the thread topic: the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed _Three German Dances_. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/5 "2025-09-22T01:51:36Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Hmm, does a polka by Enescu hand it off to a Polish composer? > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed _Three German Dances_. If we allow these, then we can possibly complete the circle by noting that the Polish composer Chopin wrote a piano piece called “Souvenir de Vienne”. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/6 "2025-09-22T02:04:28Z")
[deleted] ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/7 "2025-09-22T02:37:00Z")
Relying heavily on Google and Wikipedia, I found that Max Schönherr’s most (possibly only) famous piece was _Austrian Peasant Dances._ He was born in what is now Slovenia, but what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire … so that’s problematic. I say we count it though, and if there are any Slovenian dances or, fudging it even more, Yugoslavian dances, then I think we can keep the chain going. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/8 "2025-09-22T02:43:17Z")
“The **Polovtsian Dances** , or **Polovetsian Dances** ([Russian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language): Половецкие пляски, [romanized](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Russian): _Polovetskie plyaski_), form an exotic scene at the end of act 2 of [Alexander Borodin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Borodin)’s opera _[Prince Igor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Igor)_… The name _Polovtsian Dances_ refers to the [Cumans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumans) (_Polovtsy_), who were [nomadic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomadic) invaders of Russia; the Cumans capture Igor in the opera and then entertain him with dances.[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polovtsian_Dances#cite_note-2)” - [Polovtsian Dances - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polovtsian_Dances) This music is heard in the 1931 German film _Congress Dances_, a piece of Viennese schmaltz I endured because it was one of my mom’s favorite movies (primarily owing to the performance of Conrad Veidt as Metternich). ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/9 "2025-09-22T16:11:53Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > The **Polovtsian Dances** Ah, that’s a good one. One of those dances provided the tune for _Stranger in Paradise_, an old standard that’s probably mostly forgotten now. I didn’t know Polovitsian was a nationality, but it is more-or-less. Borodin was Russian, so we need a way to get there. The only Russian Dance I know of is from _The Nutcracker,_ and Tchaikovsky’s also Russian, damn him. If we could get to Russia we could also get to China and “Arabia” by the same source. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/10 "2025-09-24T20:12:13Z")
Does Antonin Dvorak bring us anywhere in the chain with his Slavonic Dances? ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classical-music-challenge/1023278/11 "2025-09-24T22:54:30Z")
I thought of that, but I think those were mostly based on Czech dances, and he’s Czech, so no chaining there. Let me know if I have that wrong though.