Until about 1890, women were not allowed to study music theory. They were thought to be incapable of understanding theory, and were not allowed into classes.

Because of the color of his hair, Antonio Vivaldi was nicknamed “Il prete rosa,” or "the red priest.”

As a young boy, the sound of a solo trumpet would send Mozart screaming from the room. He didn't like the sound of the flute, either.

The British refer to the whole note as a "semibreve" and a half note as a “minim.”

The British refer to the quarter note as a "crotchet" and an eighth note as a “quaver.”

The British refer to the sixteenth note as a "semiquaver" and a thirty-second note as a “semidemiquaver.” That makes a sixty-fourth note a “hemidemisemiquaver.” There will be a quiz later!

Igor Stravinsky often composed music on whatever paper was handy: napkins, envelopes, restaurant menus. He liked to wear a battered old green beret while he slept, and once compared his music to his nose.

About 20,000 people attended Ludwig van Beethoven's funeral.

Unlike Mozart, who almost never made corrections to his music once he wrote it down, Beethoven often worked on pieces for years, making many changes.

Mozart's sister, Nannerl, became a piano teacher, and often played her brother's music. She was four years older than Wolfgang, but outlived him by forty years.

In her later years, Mozart's first love, Aloysia Weber, regretfully admitted that she had never realized that Mozart was a genius, and had seen him only as a "little man.”

George Frederic Handel composed his “Water Music” to entertain King George I on a cruise up and down The Thames River. Handel and about fifty musicians were aboard the barge and had to play the entire suite three times to keep the king and his friends amused.

Mozart is said to have been afraid of ghosts and trumpets. He was also a terrible speller and was poor at math. Some of his symphonies were mis-numbered - #24 is really #31, and there is no #37.

When Beethoven was 8, his father arranged a concert to show off the boy’s talents. To make his playing even more impressive, Mr. Beethoven advertised that his son was only six.

Johann Nepomuk Maelzel was an inventor. His most famous invention was the metronome. Among his other inventions were a mechanical bugler who played flat and an automatic chess player that always lost.

Charles-Louis Hanon, composer of piano exercises, was a church musician. He lived in Boulogne, France, for most of his adult life, and made his living by publishing his own music, teaching piano and voice lessons privately, and renting out pianos.

Along with his books of exercises for pianists and organists, Hanon composed more serious music for all levels of advancement. His piano exercises are what made him famous, however, and he won a silver medal for them in 1878 at the Exposition Universelle. Editions of the work appeared in the USA and Russia in 1900, and today it is available throughout the world. There are also adaptations available for guitar, accordion, and xylophone!

Frederic Chopin was the most fashionable and expensive piano teacher in Paris in the 1830’s and ‘40’s.

The CD was originally formatted to hold all of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

The first inductees into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame included Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, the US Marine Band, Scott Joplin, John Philip Sousa, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and Igor Stravinsky. Quite a varied lot, but that’s what America is supposed to be about!

In 1837, Clara Wieck (later Schumann) was the first person to play Beethoven’s sonatas for a concert audience.