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Giuseppe Verdi Aida. "Triumphal March". Rome Opera Theater Orchestra. Sir Georg Solti. Decca 289 466 966.

Georg Philipp Telemann Concerto in C minor for Oboe, Strings & b.c. First and Second Movements. English Chamber Orchestra. Thomas Indermühle, Oboe and conductor. Brilliant Classics 99677.

Giacomo Puccini Tosca. "Vissi d'arte". Orchestre de L'Opéra National de Lyon. Kent Nagano. Kiri Te Kanawa, Soprano. Erato 0630-17071.

Thomas Arne Alfred. "Rule Britannia". English String Orchestra. William Boughton. Edmund Barham, Tenor. Leeds Festival Chorus. Nimbus Records NI 7067/8.

Electric Light Orchestra "Do Ya". Epic/Legacy EK 89072.

Johann Sebastian Bach Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E major, BWV 1042. First Movement. English Chamber Orchestra. Alexander Schneider. Isaac Stern, Violin. Sony Classical SMK 66 471.

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Marche Slave, Op. 31. Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra. Neeme Jarvi. Deutsche Grammophon 429984.

Kaplan: Crossword puzzle editor and music lover, Will Shortz on today's edition of "Mad About Music."

[Theme Music]

Kaplan: : He holds the world's only college degree in enigmatology, the study of puzzles. His library on this subject is the world's largest, with more than 20,000 items. If there is one editor at The New York Times who every day crosses the spectrum, and along the way often makes us very cross, it is my guest today, the crossword puzzle editor of The New York Times. Will Shortz , welcome to "Mad About Music."

Shortz: Thank you, Gil, it's a pleasure to be here.

Kaplan: Now, music of course shows up regularly in your puzzle. I noticed recently that Parsifal was an answer to "Wagner's last opera" - the clue; but some music like "aria" and "oboe" seems to show up almost all the time.

Shortz: Well, if you ever try to create a crossword puzzle, you'll instantly understand the importance of short words with lots of vowels, so a word like "oboe" or "aria" is very useful to a puzzle maker - it's the glue, it's the mortar of the puzzle that allows you to do the construction.

Kaplan: Operas are especially popular in the puzzle. Which ones show up the most?

Shortz: As you might guess, the most popular one is Aida, it's four letters, three of which are vowels. There's an on-line database of words and names that show up in crosswords and Aida is the most popular opera there, it showed up in the database 121 times. The next most popular was Tosca, at 58; Otello at 29, and you know, more familiar operas like Fidelio shows up only seven times, and La Traviata, which everyone knows, didn't show up at all.

Kaplan: Now what about conductors? Who were the lucky ones with short names and a lot of vowels?

Shortz: Well, Georg Solti is one of the top ones. Probably the number one conductor in crossword puzzles is Otto Klemperer, Otto being four letters, two of which are vowels. Other popular conductors in crosswords are Zubin Mehta, Andre Previn, Riccardo Muti.

Kaplan: I suppose crossword puzzles are a haven for one conductor whose name is not exactly easy to remember, Esa-Pekka Salonen, because his first name, Esa, gives you not only two vowels, but also an "s", which can hook onto words easily in a puzzle, right?

Shortz: Yes, "esses" are very valuable, especially on the right side and bottom row of a crossword because of lots of plurals. I don't think Esa-Pekka Salonen is one of the best-known conductors in America, but the name does show up frequently in crosswords because of its value.

Kaplan: All right, then let's listen to our first selection and we're going to hear some music that features the opera and conductor crossword regulars, Aida and Sir Georg Solti.

[Music]

Kaplan: The "Triumphal March" from Verdi's Aida, Sir Georg Solti conducting the Rome Opera Theater Orchestra, a musical selection to highlight Aida and Solti for their frequent appearances in The New York Times crossword puzzle, edited by my guest today on "Mad About Music," Will Shortz . Later in the show, we'll present a puzzle of our own, and the first five listeners to e-mail a correct answer will win a prize, so stay with us. Now, I have observed that crossword puzzles are popular with musicians. I've seen musicians in rehearsals who don't have to play for a long while actually scribbling away.

Shortz: Absolutely.

Kaplan: And they even have competitions among some people in the New York Philharmonic, I am told, and they gather up The New York Times puzzle to take on long trips. Are classical musicians, you think, any good at this?

Shortz: I think they are, because classical music and mathematics go together, and crosswords and mathematics go together. It's a certain mindset. The all-time champion of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which I run every year in Stamford, Connecticut, the all-time champion, is Jon Delfin, who's a pianist in Manhattan. He's won seven times.

Kaplan: And do you ever have any musicians who are contributors of puzzles?

Shortz: Well, there are two classical musicians who are frequent contributors to the Times. One of them is Elizabeth Gorski, who is a violist here in Manhattan, and Alfio Micci, who's a retired violinist with the New York Philharmonic.

Kaplan: Now, do musicians ever contact you?

Shortz: I've received letters from Stephen Sondheim, once very amusingly, because I misquoted a lyric of his in the Times crossword, and he wrote in to correct me. Beverly Sills is a regular Times crossword solver, and we've spoken by phone. And composer Ned Rorem has written me several times.

Kaplan: I see. Now, it's very flattering, of course, to be in the puzzle. I once appeared - the clue was "Financier who conducts Mahler's Second Symphony". But do musicians ever lobby to get into the puzzle at all?

Shortz: Well, there's one musician whom I won't name who has done that. He has sent me lists of places he'll be, his work will be done, or names of his works. It's nice to get that, but I try to ignore messages I get like that. I want anything that appears in the crossword, I want it to appear naturally.

Kaplan: Okay. Well, we've looked at opera and we've examined conductors. Let's now turn to instrumental appearances in the puzzle. Is there a clear winner there?

Shortz: The most popular instrument in crosswords must be the oboe.

Kaplan: But the oboe appears to be an easy word to get, but it shows up all the time in the puzzle and I know that you structure the puzzles so that each day during the week it gets harder and harder, and so the oboe shows up not only on Monday, but also on Friday. I mean, how do you work that out?

Shortz: Well, that's right. If it's a Friday puzzle, I would like the clue for "oboe" to be harder. For a Monday puzzle, it might be straightforward like, a clue might be "Woodwind instrument", or "Double-reed instrument". For a Wednesday, Thursday puzzle, which is medium in difficulty, I might say "BLANK d'Amore" or "Relative of an English horn." And on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, where it should be the most challenging puzzle, I might say "Orchestra seat," or my favorite clue is, "It's in the winds."

Kaplan: All right, well, I hope our listeners have taken all those notes down, because the oboe keeps coming back. And so we then should hear the oboe as it's the instrumental crossword puzzle winner, and this time we'll hear it in a concerto by Telemann.

[Music]

Kaplan: The First and Second Movements of Telemann's Concerto in C minor for Oboe and Strings, with soloist and conductor Thomas Indermühle and the English Chamber Orchestra. On "Mad About Music" today, we are featuring music with connections to The New York Times crossword puzzle, and my guest today, its editor, Will Shortz: . The oboe, with its powerful combination of being only four letters, three of which are vowels, is the number one ranking instrument in appearances in the puzzle.
Okay, we've covered operas, conductors, and instruments. What about musical terms that appear in the crossword puzzles? I'm sure the clear winner must be "aria," just based on my own experience, right?

Shortz: That's right. I've researched this and found that it's the 12th most common word of any type in crosswords, and it's the third most common answer in four letters.

Kaplan: What's the competition?

Shortz: Well, "alto" would be right up there. "Etude", "lento", you know, any of the musical notes in plural form, "re's", "me's", "fa's" and so on.

Kaplan: Now, what about performers? I notice many of them show up in the puzzle because of the attractiveness of their first names.

Shortz: Well, performers, both musicians and singers, some of the most popular ones are Renée Fleming, Kiri Te Kanawa, Renata Tebaldi, Ezio Pinza, the pianist Emil Gilels, they all appear in crosswords all the time.

Kaplan: Now, you mention Renée Fleming shows up a lot. She's scheduled to appear on "Mad About Music" later, and I wonder if she realizes that while her multiple appearances on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera reflect her glorious voice, her popularity in your crossword puzzles stems from her parents' decision to give her a first name of five letters, three of which are "e's".

Okay, so let's try to tie all that we've been talking about together in the next selection. The number one musical term "aria," the second most popular opera, Tosca, and a top contender for the singer, Kiri - for her first name - Te Kanawa.

[Music]

Kaplan: "Vissi d'arte" from Puccini's Tosca. Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa and the Opera Orchestra of Lyons led by Kent Nagano. Our music selections on "Mad About Music" today have all connections to The New York Times crossword puzzle and with its editor and my guest, Will Shortz . Tosca is the second most seen opera in the puzzle, Aida, we heard earlier, is first. And Kiri Te Kanawa, with a first name of only four letters, two of which are vowels, also shows up frequently. You can learn more about Will Shortz or listen to any of our prior shows over the past two years, by logging on to our website at WNYC.org, and then just click on "Mad About Music". When we return, we'll talk about the composer who ranks number one in appearances in The New York Times crossword puzzle. See if you can guess who it might be and, later in the show, we'll have a puzzle of our own and prizes for the first five listeners to solve it by e-mail.

[Station Break]

Kaplan: This is Gilbert Kaplan with my guest on "Mad About Music", New York Times crossword puzzle editor, Will Shortz . We've been talking about music as it appears in the crossword puzzle, and so far we've covered operas, instruments, performances, conductors, musical terms. So now let's look at composers. Is there a clear winner?

Shortz: Yes, there is, in four letters, it's Thomas Arne, A-R-N-E, the 18th century English composer who's best known for "Rule Britannia," which comes from the Masque of Alfred. In this database of crossword answers at Cruciverb.com, it appeared 83 times, which was well above the second most common name, Satie, as in Erik Satie, which was only 45 times.

Kaplan: Well, Satie, of course, is not nearly as well known as some other composers. I mean, who are some of the composers that we might to expect to see in the puzzle who don't show up at all?

Shortz: Well, take Beethoven, for example. Maybe the most famous composer of all appeared only three times; Brahms, two; again, it's the short, vowel-heavy names that are the most useful.

Kaplan: Well, since we're focusing on the most appearances, I think we have to select Thomas Arne, and why don't we pick the piece you spoke about before, probably his best known, "Rule Britannia".

[Music]

Kaplan: "Rule Britannia" by Thomas Arne, performed by the English String Orchestra, led by William Boughton, with tenor Edmund Barham and the Leeds Festival Chorus. Thomas Arne may be a fine composer, but his claim to fame here is that he's blessed with a short name, two vowels, which propels him to the top of the list of most appearances as a composer in The New York Times crossword puzzle, whose editor, Will Shortz , is my guest today on "Mad About Music."
We've now reached the part of the show where our guests have a chance to select a work from outside the classical and opera genre. We've had a fascinating history of these selections and we even did a special show on them, in fact. You can pick anything you like, and I would love to know what "wild card" did you bring us today?

Shortz: Well, I brought something that will probably cause heart attacks across the audience here, but it's the song "Do Ya" by the Electric Light Orchestra, which appears frequently in crosswords, of course, as ELO. It was a hit song from 1977. I loved it then, and when I played it again the other day, I loved it just as much.

[Music]

Kaplan: "Do Ya," performed by the Electric Light Orchestra, the "wild card" selection of my guest on "Mad About Music", New York Times crossword puzzle editor, Will Shortz . I suspect that classical music probably reached its zenith, in crossword puzzle terms at least, when The New York Times devoted an entire puzzle to the legendary violinist Isaac Stern. Tell me how that came about.

Shortz: Well, my memory is that it was a puzzle by a long-time New York Times crossword constructor, going back to the 1950s. She had a quotation, I believe, from Isaac Stern. This was - it ran on his 80th birthday, and shortly after that, unfortunately, he died; but his family wrote me a very sweet note saying how much first they appreciated that puzzle, and how much they appreciated the names Isaac and Stern appearing in the crosswords over the years.

Kaplan: So he was a frequent shower-upper in your puzzles even before that?

Shortz: Yes.

Kaplan: So let's hear Isaac Stern as he plays Bach, the second-ranking classical composer in crossword puzzle terms behind Erik Satie, who has the benefit of three vowels and five letters. Stern plays the Violin Concerto of Bach.

[Music]

Kaplan: The First Movement of Bach's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E major. The English Chamber Orchestra led by Alexander Schneider with soloist Isaac Stern. Legendary as a violinist, the savior of Carnegie Hall, but here unique as the only musician to be the subject of an entire crossword puzzle in The New York Times, whose editor, Will Shortz , is our guest today on "Mad About Music." When we return, we'll learn Will Shortz 's favorite classical work and at the same time we'll present our listeners with a puzzle of our own. The first five listeners who answer it correctly by email will receive a prize.

[Station Break]

Kaplan: This is Gilbert Kaplan with my guest New York Times crossword puzzle editor, Will Shortz . Now, listeners may have detected by now that when I've described the music we're playing, I have not attributed it to my guest, Will Shortz. And I guess it's also time for true confessions. Will Shortz is not really a classical music enthusiast. And on "Mad About Music," you have to explain yourself!

Shortz: You know, people do assume that something intellectual like the Times crossword has to be put together by someone who likes classical music. People make that assumption all the time. But, as you could guess from my "wild card" selection, "Do Ya" by the Electric Light Orchestra, I'm really more of a rock-n-roll sort of guy. I like music of all sorts. You know, I do listen to classical music, but what excites me the most is good, hard rock.

Kaplan: But you did bring us one classical selection today, didn't you?

Shortz: That's right. Something that I used to play quite a lot and I still enjoy. It is Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave, which I like, because of the heaviness of it, and it's based on a Slavic folk song, which gives it a nice melody that I enjoy.

[Music]

Kaplan: Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave, the Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Neeme Jarvi, the favorite classical work of my guest today on "Mad About Music," New York Times crossword puzzle editor, Will Shortz. Now, since our show has been devoted to music and puzzles, for the first time, we would like to challenge our listeners with a puzzle of our own. The answer came from our executive producer, Tony Rudel. But as my guest today, Will Shortz, rewrites approximately 50% of the clues that contributors submit, we've asked him to prepare the clue. Anyone who would like to enter this competition can send their answer to MAMproducer, Mad About Music, MAMproducer@aol.com. The first five people to answer the clue correctly will receive a gift of a CD that directly relates to their answer. So, Mr. Crossword Puzzle Master, what is the clue?

Shortz: Well, it's a straightforward clue. And often straightforward is best. You're going for a seven-letter answer here, and the clue is "The BLANK Trio". Now, in the Times crossword, we never tell you the number of words in the answer, but I will tell you here, it's three words, so it's "The BLANK trio", seven letters, three words.

Kaplan: Well, for those of you who are still listening and haven't run to your computer, I'm sure you'll agree that Will Shortz has been a fascinating guest. Where else could you learn the terms you normally know - "aria", "Aida", "oboe" - are not only musical terms, but they are the most popular terms that show up in The New York Times crossword puzzle? In fact, Will Shortz fascinates us every day in the special way he brings music into our life. Will Shortz , thank you for appearing today. This is Gilbert Kaplan for "Mad About Music."

[Credits]

About Will Shortz

Will Shortz has been the puzzle master for NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday since the program's start in 1987. He's also the crossword editor of The New York Times, the former editor of Games magazine, and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (since 1978).

Will sold his first puzzle professionally when he was 14 -- to Venture, a denominational youth magazine. At 16 he became a regular contributor to Dell puzzle publications. He is the only person in the world to hold a college degree in Enigmatology, the study of puzzles, which he earned from Indiana University in 1974.

Born in 1952 and raised on an Arabian horse farm in Indiana, Will now lives near New York City in a Tudor-style house filled with books and Arts and Crafts furniture. When he's not at work, he enjoys bicycling, movies, reading, travel, and collecting antique puzzle books and magazines.

Links:
NPR's Weekend Edition puzzle