Tritsch-Tratsch — the title of a polka by Johann Strauss, Jr. — is Austrian slang for „chit-chat.“ A lot of composers used music to portray people making sounds: talking, laughing, […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Copland’s first cowboy ballet was Billy the Kid, about the notorious outlaw who lived in the American Southwest in the late 1800's. Then, choreographer (a choreographer is a person who […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Zoltan Kodály developed a method for teaching music. It is still used by teachers around the world today. Jill Trinka, who teaches the Kodály Method, talks with Naomi Lewin.
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Benjamin Britten was asked to compose music for a film that explained the instruments of the orchestra to children. Britten borrowed a tune by one of his favorite composers, Henry […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
George Gershwin was just one composer who used jazz in music that was written for the classical concert hall. So did Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, and others.
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
The kind of galop that Dmitri Kabalevsky put his suite The Comedians has nothing to do with horses. In fact, it’s not even spelled the same as a horse's gallop. […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Inspired by violinist Niccolo Paganini, Franz Liszt became a piano superstar. Many classical music superstars followed, including Jan Paderewski, Jenny Lind, Van Cliburn, Enrico Caruso, Yo-Yo Ma and Lang Lang.
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
By the time he was a teenager, Felix Mendelssohn was already an excellent pianist and composer. And Mendelssohn was very talented in other areas. In addition to German (his native […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
„Rhapsody“ is an ancient word that means „songs stitched together“. The Greeks used to write long poems in praise of their heroes, and then take bits and pieces of those […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
The beginning of the second movement of Beethoven’s 8th Symphony imitates a metronome — a mechanical device that ticks steadily to help musician keep to the beat of the music. […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
