Random Questions

2008 ACF Fall - Packet by Yale A and Michigan - #3 [report this tossup]
He offered four variations on a "sighing" theme in the "Variazioni" section of a work featuring movements inspired by the Alborada and Fandango dances, while King Dodon is advised about the Queen of Shemakha by the title mystical object of one opera. Along with Capriccio Espagnol and The Golden Cockerel, he used terse violin cadenzas representing the light emanating from Christ's tomb to separate the sections of his Russian Easter Festival Overture and the bass motif of the sultan is contrasted with the violin motif of the title character in a work based on The Arabian Nights. For 10 points, name this Russian composer of Scheherazade and "Flight of the Bumble Bee."
Answer: Nicolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov

1999 ACF Nationals - Packet by John Patrick Sheahan - #1 [report this tossup]
Samuel was a union admiral in the American civil war and the namesake of a neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Pierre Samuel was an economist credited with coining the word "physiocrat," and Pete was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. Eleuthere was a student of Lavoisier who emigrated to the United Stated in 1804, where he built the gunpowder mill that would become the source of the family's fortune. For 10 points identify this family, whose namesake company has long dominated business and politics in the state of Delaware.
Answer: Du Pont (de Nemours)

2009 ACF Winter - Packet by Dennis Jang - #6 [report this tossup]
In the left background of this painting, two men in breeches contrast with another man wearing Quaker dress, while wispy clouds are seen in the sky over a clump of willow trees. Its artist's familiarity in painting the Biglen brothers and work with Jean-Leon Gerome may have assisted in this painting, which sees the mansion Sweetbriar serves as a contrast with the eighteenth century building at the right center. The Girard Avenue Bridge and the Connecting Railroad Bridge can both be seen in the background, while the title character sits in the Josie while three parallel wakes trail behind him. While the artist himself can be seen resting on his oars, the title character is in the foreground of, FTP, which Thomas Eakins painting set on the Schuylkill River?
Answer: Max Schmitt in a Single Scull