Dr. Music

Send us a textWhen Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 5, he, like all Soviet artists, was writing under the watchful eye of Joseph Stalin. Learn how a very talented composer can disguise a seemingly nationalistic, optimistic piece as a veiled denunciation of the regime!

08-18

22:20

Send us a textDiscover how Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was able to produce such a vivid impression of the sea in his classic symphonic suite, Scheherazade!

08-09

25:57

Send us a textClose Encounters of the Third Kind is one of Steven Spielberg's greatest movies - and features one of the greatest scores of John Williams. In this episode, we'll be looking at the last 20 minutes of the film to get a better appreciation of why Mr. Williams is the second most Oscar-nominated person in all film history!

08-05

27:38

Send us a textSamuel Barber's Adagio For Strings, from his String Quartet, is one of the most recognizable works of the 20th century. Despite its mournful tone, why has this haunting piece caught the attention of so many listeners, including film producers?

07-27

27:37

Send us a textHarold Arlen's "Over The Rainbow" is considered one of the best songs ever written for the movies. What is it about this song that makes it so memorable, and so magical? We'll see how the notes themselves reflect the lyrics in a way as colorful as a rainbow!

07-19

18:09

Send us a textStar Trek fans! What is it about Alexander Courage's famous main theme to the original series that makes it sound otherwordly -- "where no one has gone before?"

07-12

18:54

Send us a textWhat is it about Mozart's last composition, the Requiem, that places it more in the Romantic Period of Beethoven than his own Classical Period? We will discover that the line between each of these historical periods is not so cut and dry.

07-05

21:37

Send us a textSchubert's Symphony No. 8 may be the "Unfinished," but the first few pages of the score can teach us a lot about how his genius worked!

06-28

25:01

Send us a textWhat exactly is pandiatonicism in music? Let's travel to a few countries (including America) and find out!

06-21

26:19

Send us a textWhy do musicians have access to only 12 notes in the chromatic scale? Why are there not more or less notes available? The answer lies in math - and don't worry. This is FUN math!

06-14

19:44

Send us a textIn this first episode of Season 3, discover how music is related to the birth of the universe!

06-06

19:38

Send us a textA short addendum to Dr. Music Season 2, including a quote from W.E.B. Du Bois!

09-13

09:32

Send us a text Happy Labor Day! Almost everybody is familiar with the Ode To Joy theme from the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony - right? But how many people, other than musicologists, are familiar with exactly how that monumental movement is constructed? What makes masterpieces of music great is not the melody itself. The French children's song, Ah! vous dirai-je, maman, is a very memorable melody...but look what Mozart did with it! Likewise, ...

09-06

30:18

Send us a text The French composer Jules Massanet (1842-1912) is known mainly for his operas, though general audiences are often familiar with either specific arias or suites from operas. Besides the very popular Meditation from his opera Thaïs , the ballet suite from Le Cid contains some popular Spanish folk pieces. Yet how does one make a simple folk-like melody sound interesting and fresh within a serious orchestral composition? It takes the hand of a very talented compos...

08-30

20:54

Send us a text What does the French word Gymnopédie mean? It could mean an ancient Greek dance, but only Erik Satie, the composer of three piano pieces bearing that name, knows the real answer. Being a mysterious man, it is possible he wanted the meaning to remain mysterious. Yet if the title is mysterious, the music itself is a lesson in unadorned beauty. Gymnopédie No. 1, the most well-known of the three, is the subject of this episode. We will see how Satie rejects t...