Both Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughn Williams loved using folk music in their music. They were inspired by a „folk song revival“ started by an English musician named Cecil Sharp […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
For years, the Hoe-Down from Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo has been used in a commercial for the Beef Council. A lot of classical music turns up in T.V. commercials. It […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever is the official march of the United States of America. Sousa composed his most famous march in his head when he was […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Zoltán Kodály was not the only composer to use folk tunes in the music he wrote. Here are some others.
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème is about struggling artists in Paris. Its title means „the bohemian lifestyle.“ But Bohemia isn't in France; it's in the Czech Republic. Other composers such […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Leonard Bernstein’s „Candide“ is an operetta. An operetta is like an opera, with one big difference. In opera, everything is sung, but in operetta, there are spoken lines between the […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Around the year 1600, Italian composers started writing theater pieces that use music all the way through them. Instead of speaking, characters in operas sing their lines. From Claudio Monteverdi, […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Ludwig van Beethoven was a uniquely talented composer and musician. But by the time Beethoven was 30, his increasing deafness put an end to his career as a pianist. That […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his first opera when he was twelve, and opera continued to fascinate him throughout his life. Mozart had such genius for combining music and theater that […]
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
Born into a family of composers, Gustav Holst wanted to follow in their footsteps. His career included playing in orchestras and serving as head of music at St. Paul’s Girls‘ School for almost thirty years while also composing. He liked music by earlier English composers, folk music and poetry, especially poetry from ancient India. The success of The Planets thrust him into the spotlight and enabled him to focus more of his time on what he loved, composing.
Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / 6:00 RSS Feed Share Link
