With George Jean Nathan, H. L. Mencken co-founded a newspaper called The [this adjective] Mercury, which eventually fell under far-right leadership. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this adjective in the title of a Mencken book that pays homage to Noah Webster. That book claims that the sentence “who are you talking to” is “doubly” this adjective since it forgoes “whom” and puts a preposition at the end of a sentence.
ANSWER: American [accept The American Mercury or The American Language]
[10h] Name this composer whose addition of a minuet-and-trio movement popularized the four-movement format of the symphony. This composer pioneered a musical feature used in the finale of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.
ANSWER: Johann Stamitz (“SHTAH-mits”)
[10m] The Baltimore Sun sent Mencken to cover one of these events in Dayton, Tennessee, where he gave it a famous nickname. That event of this type was fictionalized in the play Inherit the Wind.
ANSWER: trial [accept Scopes trial or Scopes Monkey trial]
[10m] Stamitz was a part of a school of Classical-era composers named for this German city, which titles three of his symphonies. A musical motif consisting of a crescendoing arpeggiated melody is this city’s namesake “rocket.”
ANSWER: Mannheim [accept Mannheim School; accept Mannheim Rocket; accept Mannheim symphony]
[10e] At the end of Inherit the Wind, Henry Drummond picks up a book by Darwin in one hand and this book with the other. Mencken claimed to have coined the term for a “Belt” in the Southern United States named for this text.
ANSWER: the Bible
[10e] Among Stamitz’s other contributions was his dramatic use of this musical element, which may be notated with crescendos or diminuendos to indicate the volume to be played by the performers.
ANSWER: dynamics [prompt on descriptions of loudness or softness]
<American Literature>