Hats off to anyone who could finish this without resorting to aids! A tough challenge, thanks Gozo.
The theme is composers, and not the obvious ones either. I knew some of the composers, some names rang a distant bell in my mind and some were completely unfamiliar to me.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CARL ORFF | Boris heard right inside (4,4) |
| CARLOFF sounds like (heard) “Karloff” (boris Karloff, actor) containing R (right) | ||
| 5 | VARESE | Turning out as ever (6) |
| anagram (turning out) of AS EVER – Edgar Varese, pioneer of music as “organised sound” | ||
| 9 | MASCAGNI | Academic examination entered by leading Greek independent (8) |
| MA (academic) SCAN (academic) containing (entered by) G (Greek) then I (independent) – Pietro Mascagni, composer of Cavalleria Rusticana | ||
| 10 | LIGETI | Beginner has to get into team (6) |
| L (learner, beginner) with GET inside II (eleven, a team) – Gyorgy Ligeti, modern avant-garde composer | ||
| 12 | BLISS | Old car firm – Mini designer starts there! (5) |
| 13 | HINDEMITH | Rear forge worker changes direction for starters (9) |
| HIND (rear) and sMITH (forge worker) with S (south) changed to E (east) – German composer Paul Hindermith | ||
| 14 | LASSUS | Girl seen with American? (6) |
| LASS (girl) with US (American) – Orlande de Lassus, 16th century Flemish composer | ||
| 16 | BRITTEN | Put in words, but black, not white initially (7) |
| wRITTEN (put in words) with W (white) replacing B (black) – Benjamin Britten | ||
| 19 | IRELAND | Cross-country invader gutted antelope (7) |
| InvadeR (gutted, no middle letters)then ELAND (an antelope) – John Ireland, English composer of songs and pieces for piano. |
||
| 21 | SCHUTZ | Close involvement with the Czech Republic (6) |
| SHUT (close) mingled with (involvement with) CZ (Czech Republic) – Heinrich Schutz 17th century German composer | ||
| 23 | SCARLATTI | Distraught at articles neglecting European (9) |
| anagram (distraught) of AT ARTICLeS missing E (Europe) – Allessandro Scarlatti, founder of the Neapolitian school of opera. He had two sons Dominico and Pietro who were also composers. | ||
| 25 | SPOHR | Half of Shropshire is affected (5) |
| anagram (affected) of SHROPshire (half of) – Louis Spohr 19th century German violinist and composer | ||
| 26 | TALLIS | Sit back and absorb everything (6) |
| SIT reversed (back) contains (to absorb) ALL (everything) – Thomas Tallis, composer of early English choral music | ||
| 27 | SIBELIUS | Encore rejected – missing start of another theme word (8) |
| BIS (encore) reversed (rejected) then dELIUS (another composer, theme word) missing starting letter of – Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, someone that everyone has heard of! | ||
| 28 | EISLER | Queen touring Barra? (6) |
| ER (Elizabeth Regina, The Queen) contains (touring) ISLE (Barra for instance) – Hanns Eisler, composer of the GDR national anthem | ||
| 29 | MESSAGER | Brief note to ring-leader (8) |
| MESSAGE (brief note) with Ring (leading letter of) – Andre Messager composer of ballet and comic opera | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | COME BY | Call sacked FBI chief about initial broadcast (4,2) |
| COMEY (FBI chief sacked by Trump) containing Broadcast (initial letter of) | ||
| 2 | RUSTICATE | Ban from college game, one about to take place in New York, say (9) |
| RU (ugby Union, game) then I (one) C (circa, about) inside (to take place in) STATE (New York say) | ||
| 3 | OPALS | Gems from Salop (5) |
| anagram of SALOP | ||
| 4 | FINCHES | Birds on top of fence in small county (7) |
| Fence (topletter of) IN CHES (Cheshire, abbreviated=small) | ||
| 6 | ALIVE WITH | What! Evil one turned out, accompanied by many parasites (5,4) |
| anagram (turned out) of WHAT EVIL and I (one) | ||
| 7 | ELEMI | Priest keeps space for fragrant resin (5) |
| ELI (priest in OT) contains EM (a space, printing) | ||
| 8 | EPIPHANY | Husband with tube upset on some festival date (8) |
| H (husband) followed by (with…on) PIPE (tube) revered (upset) than ANY (some) | ||
| 11 | SNUB | Turned up to check (4) |
| double definition – “of a nose” and “to restrain movement of a rope” | ||
| 15 | SMALL-TIME | Unimportant being second? (5- 4) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 17 | TATTOOING | Art form of circles enclosed by lacework (9) |
| OO (circles) inside TATTING (lacework) | ||
| 18 | FIRST TEE | The start, of course! (5,3) |
| cryptic definition – of a golf course | ||
| 20 | DATA | Info included a tabulated section (4) |
| found inside ( a section of) includeD A TAbulated | ||
| 21 | SUICIDE | Finish without help (7) |
| cryptic definition – die without the help of outside influences | ||
| 22 | ERASER | Stationery item from Times Editor outside (6) |
| ERAS (times) then EditoR (outside letters of) | ||
| 24 | AXLES | Jumble sale including spot marker for vehicle parts (5) |
| anagram (jumble) of SALE including X (X marks the spot) | ||
| 25 | STEPS | Flight interrupted by landing? (5) |
| cryptic definition | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Well done for completing this PeeDee. I gave up. For 12a, read as ire + land for cross + country and for 12a, I think it is BL for British Leyland and ISS for beginning of Issigonis, designer of the Mini.
Thanks PeeDee – I think the cross-country is IRE-LAND, i.e. country of anger.
I was able to get all the composers (the only one I didn’t know was Eisler, but the wordplay was helpful), but had to cheat on 21 (which I thought was a bit weak), so was unable to “finish without help”.
I probably wouldn’t have got round to this had a poster on the Guardian thread not given the theme away. I’m glad he did, as this theme was so far up my street it got lost and had to ask for directions. Like Andrew, EISLER was the only one that I had to check on, though he did ring a vague bell. Lest this sounds like showing off, I hasten to add that classical music is one of my few strong points – had it been pop groups I would have been totally lost.
Thanks, Gozo.
Thanks PeeDee, Gozo
Same reason for doing this as cruciverbophile – thanks for the tip-off, copmus. So I knew there were composers, but didn’t notice there were special instructions for ages, thus a very slow start. I hadn’t heard of Lassus or Spohr, but clear enough from the wordplay. Did my usual trick of bunging in a speculative answer early on (STAIR instead of STEPS) and forgetting it might be wrong, so I finally ground to a halt in the bottom right – annoying, since SIBELIUS was one of the easier ones. I couldn’t parse SNUB, and wasn’t even sure it was right, though it seemed the most likely of the limited choices. Quite enjoyable.
There have been some comments here and there comparing this puzzle to today’s Brendan.
Two puzzles with the same idea: all the across clues are of a kind.
(although Brendan gave the theme away and Gozo didn’t)
Personally, I enjoyed this crossword more than I did ‘the other one’, clever though it was.
After my FOI (ERASER – 22d) and understanding what was happening in 25ac, SPOHR was my first theme word.
Quickly followed by its successor (TALLIS).
Bingo.
Only MESSAGER (29ac) had to be checked and I entered SCHUTZ at 21ac with some hesitation.
12ac had to be BLISS but I couldn’t see why.
I still find it a bit of an iffy clue with ‘starts there!’.
CARL ORFF at 1ac came relatively late as it didn’t just contain the man’s family name.
Those who usually look somewhat beyond the Mozarts and Beethovens of this world, should be familiar with 90% of the names Gozo used.
I mean with their names, not necessary with their music.
Gozo left out Nielsen? 🙂
Just like James (and for the same reason) I failed on 11d (SNUB).
Many thanks PeeDee for the blog and Gozo for what Turbolegs would call the ‘fun factor’.
… not necessarily … [4th line from the bottom]
Wow. First time in ages havent been able to complete the FT Grid . Tks for the parsing
Quite a challenge. Without aids, ended up failing on LASSUS and LIGETI and had never come across EISLER or SCHUTZ before, both of whom went in from the wordplay.
Wonder if the crossing of MASCAGNI and RUSTICATE was deliberate?
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
DATA and then TALLIS were my first two in – and had absolutely no idea what a ‘Tallis’ might mean. It wasn’t until I was able to unravel MASCAGNI from the word play and look him up that the theme revealed itself. It took a number of sessions across the day and a lot of referential help to finally complete the grid.
Missed the second word play of IRELAND, the cross country part, (oversight to go back and make sure the whole clue had been used) and went with ISSA the designer that fitted out Kate Middleton instead of the real Mini designer at 12a.
Finally got down to the SE corner where my STAIR instead of STEPS held me up one last time before I was able to find MESSAGER (who I had heard of) and SIBELIUS to finish off a hard but enjoyable and educational solve.
I was going to try and finish this before commenting, but having seen the ones I didn’t get (most of the SE corner and MASCAGNI), most of the remaining names were unfamiliar, so I’m not surprised I got stuck. I enjoyed what I did.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
Well done PeeDee.
I found this totally impenetrable, and it just put me in a bad mood.
I can’t imagine how anyone was meant to work out the across theme, and as for the down clues, well the less said the better.