Our Theme Music
Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, “Italian” was recognized by the composer himself as one of the “jolliest” scores he’d ever written. The first movement of this symphony, which serves as…
Form
Two Timbres Over Easy
Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra is thought by many to be one of his most accessible scores for listeners. Commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation, the composition received its premiere in…
Game of Tones Parties
14.7 million US citizens watched the first episode of the last season of Game of Thrones. . .according to Reuters news. That’s about 5.25% of our total population. According to…
Beethoven’s 9th – the Last 10 Minutes Part 1
The last ten minutes of the final movement of Beethoven’s final symphony are so full of emotionally moving detail that host George Marriner Maull devotes two episodes of Inside Music…
A Belated Valentine
The creation of emotional tension and the release of it is a common aesthetic goal among all composers of wordless, abstract music. The moment of greatest emotional intensity in a…
Your “listening guide” amazes me, in that it is a means of illustrating the role of various instrumental sections in communicating and “telling” a story. My background is science and technology so the 1 -1 ½ hours listening to a symphony with your presentation was an exciting learning experience I was not expecting.You are an exceptional talent and personality to be able to introduce someone like myself to the very complicated language of a symphony.