Bach

How Can We Understand Classical Music?

Laura Phillips Ward, who maintains The Discovery Orchestra’s twitter account @AhaClassical, recently forwarded me a tweet from Sweden! “How can I understand classical music I guess is the question.” This…

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Why Classical Music Is Still Cool!

Jon Levine, in a March 8, 2015 post on Music.Mic entitled: Why Isn’t Classical Music Cool Anymore? gives us three principal factors – Cost, Time and Alienation. I love those…

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The Opening Chord Revisited

I’ve been blogging now for a little over three years. I sometimes wonder if anyone out there has actually been reading them. To recapitulate, as we’d say in sonata form,…

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New Jersey Youth Symphony String Quartet

Ear Worms

This revolting term actually has a specific musical meaning! Wikipedia states: “An ear worm, sometimes also known as a brain worm, (that sounds even worse to me) is a catchy…

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Image of Danny Ailo, Sandy Aillo, and George Marriner Maull

Emmy Reflections

Yes, it was disappointing not to win the Emmy. At The Discovery Orchestra we at times lulled ourselves into magically thinking that the proverbial ‘third time would be a charm.’…

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Picture of Bach

Bach’s Birthday

It’s been a couple days since J.S. Bach’s birthday on March 21. Think about this. What if you could write a musical composition that would still powerfully move listeners 300…

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Stumbled upon this quite by accident on our Maryland PBS station. What a joy! Firebird is my favorite piece of music and your wonderful program just enhanced my appreciation of Stravinsky’s genius. Thank you and keep up your great work of feeding our souls!

— Discover The Firebird TV Viewer