Tim The Composer

Episode 10 of Tim The Composer's podcast, with host Tim Benjamin, is about Beethoven's Third Symphony, known as the "Eroica" symphony. Originally dedicated to Napoleon, Beethoven removed the dedication, apparently in a rage, leaving it "to the memory of a great hero". Who was that hero, then, if not Napoleon? Why did Beethoven think of Napoleon in the first place? And w...

Episode 9 of Tim The Composer's podcast, with host Tim Benjamin, is about Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20, in D minor (K.466), and Mozart's life and influences up to the time of the concerto's chaotic first performance in 1785. This was a time of radically changing styles, and the adoption of "empfindsamkeit" or "sensibility" into musical language aided by new in...

Episode 8 of Tim The Composer's podcast, with host Tim Benjamin, is the second of two episodes featuring music by Tchaikovsky. After presenting the 1812 Overture last time, in this episode, Tim explores Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony and the composer's life from the time of the 1812 Overture up to his death, just a few days after the first performance of this symphony. By contrast to the...

Episode 7 of Tim The Composer's podcast, with host Tim Benjamin, is the first of two episodes featuring contrasting music by Tchaikovsky. In this episode, Tim explores in detail Tchaikovsky's famous 1812 Overture, which depicts almost cinematically the Russian defeat of Napoleon, with many performances featuring real cannons. However, despite this being one of Tchaikovsky's most popula...

Episode 6 of Tim The Composer's podcast explores Thomas Tallis's forty-part motet "Spem in alium" and its turbulent Tudor context. Tim tells the story of Tallis's life as a secret Catholic through the reigns of four monarchs, how and why "Spem in alium" came to be, the mysterious numbers and symbolism within it, why it may be a piece of cunning subversiveness in dangerous times, and how Tallis cre...

Episode 5 of Tim The Composer's podcast tells the story of Haydn's Symphony No. 45, the "Farewell". Tim explores how a group of homesick musicians, stranded at a remote Hungarian palace by their fabulously wealthy employer Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, turned to their Kapellmeister for help. Haydn's response was a symphony in an impossible key, ending with musicians walking off...

Episode 4 of Tim The Composer's podcast is all about Monteverdi's opera, Orfeo, one of the very earliest of all operas. Tim discovers the fascinating story behind the opera's creation, exploring how and why Monteverdi and his collaborator Striggio ended up picking on this story in particular and creating this new artform, and the background in the Duchy of Mantua and the influence of t...

In Episode 3 of Tim the Composer's Podcast, Tim goes back to the earliest origins of reliably written music, and talks about Guido d'Arezzo, his life, and his solutions to the problem of writing down music such that it can be reconstructed precisely years, decades, or centuries later. Tim also discovers a number of surprising and entertaining connections between Guido d'Arezzo and the...

In Episode 2 of Tim the Composer's Podcast, Tim looks at J.S. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier". He explains what both "well-tempered" and "clavier" mean precisely, and then explores the music itself in the dramatic context of Bach’s life at around the time of the music’s composition. Spotify Playlist for Episode 2: Tempered

In this first episode of Tim the Composer’s Podcast, Tim explores Beethoven’s First Symphony. The story starts as Beethoven leaves home in Bonn for a new life in Vienna and his friends give him a send-off, and ends 8 years later with the first performance there of his first symphony - a revolutionary moment in music! Spotify Playlist for Episode 1: First

In Episode 0 of Tim The Composer's Podcast, Tim introduces the podcast and explains what it's all about, including why he doesn’t call it "classical" music!