GF Handel composed his “Royal Fireworks Music” to accompany a fireworks display presented by King George I. A fire broke out in the fireworks box, causing all of the fireworks to explode at once. In the chaos that followed, the musicians were unable to finish playing their music.

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.

Franz Josef Haydn believed he could not compose well unless he was wearing a ring given to him by Frederick the Great.

GF Handel had a rather unique way of dealing with the singers in his operas. When one of them disagreed with the way he wanted her to sing one of his arias, he held her out a window until she saw it his way.

Towering genius?? Records show that Beethoven, Mozart and Shoenberg were 5'4"; Schubert was 5'2"; Wagner was 5'5"; and Stravinsky was 5'3".

Money was scarce when Johannes Brahms was growing up. As a young boy, he supplemented the family income by playing the piano in seedy bars and taverns in the dockyards. He reportedly didn't enjoy it very much.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was always a sensitive little boy. The slightest scolding from his nanny would send him into a long sulk. She called him a "porcelain child."

Igor Stravinsky is the only composer in the history of music to write a polka for a troupe of elephants. The first performance was billed as "50 Elephants and 50 Beautiful Girls in an Original Choreographic Tour de Force" at Ringling Brothers' Circus

For one of his recitals, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) had a card printed up telling the audience that the purchase of a ticket entitled them to sit quietly and listen, but not to express their opinion of the music.

In November 1989, Albi Rosenthal paid L880,000 (more than $2 million) for a manuscript signed by Robert Schumann. The manuscript was of Schumann's only finished piano concerto, begun in 1841 for his wife, Clara. The manuscript also has her handwriting, indicating that she apparently helped compose the concerto. Rosenthal bought the piece for a German library.

Beethoven composed five piano concerti, nine symphonies, thirty-two piano sonatas, one opera ("Fidelio"), two masses, and hundreds of shorter pieces.

Amy Beach's (1867-1944) "Gaelic Symphony" was the first symphonic work by an American woman. It was premiered by the Boston Symphony in 1896.

Johann Strauss was “The Waltz King of Vienna.” So was his father, whose name was also Johann Strauss. They had a very bitter rivalry, but the son ended up being the more famous of the two.

The San Francisco Opera House was the birthplace of the Charter for The United Nations on June 26, 1945.

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.

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

When the waltz was introduced in Vienna in 1754, it was considered indecent. The word “waltz” actually means “revolving.”

Before he died in 1941, Polish prime minister and composer/pianist Ignacy Paderewski asked to be buried in the US until Poland became a free country. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery for 51 years. In June 1992, Paderewski’s body was returned to Poland - except for his heart, which, by his request, remains in the US inside a bronze monument at the Our Lady of Czestochowa shrine in Doylestown, PA.