Dr. Music

Send a text Edvard Grieg is certainly the most famous composer of Norway, though he rightly has secured a position among the top composers of the 19th century.  Besides his well-known incidental music for Peer Gynt (discussed in Season 1, Episode 12), Grieg's Piano Concerto In A Minor, the only one he wrote, is one of his most popular compositions, and a standard of the genre. Like many great...

Send a text Out of all the classical music you've ever listened to, have you ever listened to the music of Josquin des Prez?  If you've never heard of him, don't feel bad. He's not a household name like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. Musicologists  refer to him affectionately as "Josquin," because he is by far one of the most famous composers of the entire Renaissance P...

Send a text Peter Tchaikovsky is known mainly for his popular ballets, like The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and The Sleeping Beauty,   but he was more fond of his  serious larger works, especially his symphonies.  In this episode, we will take a look (and listen) at the first movement of his great Symphony No. 5, a work that continues to enjoy a healthy life in the standard symphonic repertoire.  Like...

Send a text If you've listened to prior episodes of this podcast, you know that a little bit of music theory goes a long way in unlocking the mysteries of why musical gestures produce certain effects. Great composers like George Gershwin possessed an innate sense of how simply voicing a chord in a particular way can dramatically change how a listener experiences the muslc.  In this episode, w...

Send a text If you are familiar with the ragtime classic, The Entertainer, it is possibly due to the 1973 hit film, The Sting. Scott Joplin's rags, of course, were performed and admired long before that movie was released. While we don't often associate Scott Joplin with classical music, he can certainly be credited with elevating the art of ragtime to a hitherto unseen level. This is pa...

Send a text Polish composer Frederic Chopin was a master of both the short and long forms, and one of the great pianists of the nineteenth century.  Like Bach, he composed a piece in each of the 24 keys, calling them preludes.  But while Bach's preludes were introductory pieces to his fugues, Chopin's preludes are pieces unto themselves. Nobody at that time had ever composed a prelude by...

Send a text Imagine you heard a quick, sprightly theme, followed by a slow, lyrical, gorgeously romantic theme.  The two themes sound very different in both profile and emotional mood. Now imagine you are told that the second theme is the first one in disguise! That is the magic of theme and variations, which we have discussed in previous episodes. In the hands of an incredibly gifted composer lik...

Send a text The German lied , or song, can demonstrate the level of artistic heights attained within a symphony, in the hands of composers like Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann.  In this episode, we will examine the lied Auf Dem Flusse, from Schubert's song cycle, Winterreise. By the end of this episode, you will appreciate more how a talented composer does not merely write pretty, singable...

Send a text In Episode 23 of Season 1, we briefly discussed Mozart's Fantasy In D Minor to introduce rhapsodies in music. We return to it in this episode. A fantasy, like a rhapsody, is improvisatory in nature, and doesn't subscribe to any rigid formal scheme.  The challenge in writing such a composition is making it all somehow hold together, and there are many different methods a compo...

Send a text Do you think it's possible for a single  piece of music to incorporate multiple harmonic systems and still remain stylistically consistent?  Often that is more the rule than the exception in 20th century music. In this episode, we will be examining part of Ravel's beautiful ballet, Mother Goose, to reveal how 20th century composers can draw upon various harmonic systems - som...

Send a text The late piano sonatas of Beethoven are among the most amazing piano compositions ever composed. Beethoven wrote these sonatas essentially deaf, and it was this afflction that ironically motivated him to produce some of the most original, personal music of the entire 19th century.   In this episode, we will be looking at the Opus 109 Piano Sonata in E Major. It is amazing how, through...

Send a text Hello Listeners, and welcome to Season 2 of Dr. Music!  In this first episode, we'll be talking about the format of Season 2 in general, and then dive into the first movement of Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 - one of the great symphonies of the 20th century.  In relation to sonata form, which was introduced in Season 1, we will gain a better understanding of how the mind of a gr...

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Send a text In this, the Season 1 Finale, Dr. Music discusses a subset of program music called the tone poem. A tone poem, like other types of program music, is a musical representation of a work of art, be it a short story, novel, poem, or historical event.  The later Romantic composers like Richard Strauss had a significantly developed advanced harmonic vocabulary to  explore the psychological s...

Send a text Some of the most "informal" compositions are called rhapsodies, in that they don't follow a specific formal procedure.  There is no rule for the sequence of events; anything can happen in a rhapsody.  In Mozart's time, they were called "fantasies," and by the time we get to George Gershwin, a "fantasy" became "Rhapsody in Blue"...a mode...

Send a text When you think of Brahms, do you think of pop music?  It turns out that many famous composers, like Brahms, Strauss Jr., and Dvorak, wrote what today can be categorized as "symphonic pops."  Yet we should always remember that the "popular" element in this music does not lessen its artstic value in the least.  Popular music is not trying to be serious symphonic music...

Send a text Thematic Transformation - does the term sound a bit intimidating?  It won't be intimidating at all after you listen to this episode. On the contrary, it will be very enlightening, as you will understand better how composers throughout history have manipulated themes to explore the various possibilities that can develop a relatively small amount of musical material.  From a compose...

Send a text From To Kill A Mockingbird to Clash of the Titans, discover the great music of film composers who are not necessarily household names like John Williams.   In this episode, we will look at examples from four film composers: Elmer Bernstein, Basil Poledouris, Lalo Schifrin, and Laurence Rosenthal.  We will consider what it is about these film cues that make them special, and very approp...

Send a text When you think of a march, you may think of John Philip Sousa -- and rightly so.  But the march, like every other genre of music, can take on dramatically various characters, depending on the time period it was written and the particular composer. Think about how different a march by Mozart or Beethoven may be than a 20th century composer like Shostakovich or Stravinsky!  We'll li...

Send a text One of the most common string performance techniques is pizzicato, plucking the strings instead of bowing.  Through a variety of examples, will see how dramatically the pizzicato effect changes depending on the musical context, the historical time period, and the particular composer's style.  There will be excerpts ranging from ballet music, to symphonic music, to film music, and...

Send a text Open up a whole world of understanding with an introduction to one of the most important forms in serious classical music: sonata form.  Large forms can sometimes be intimidating, very much like tackling a lengthy, complicated novel. Sometimes it helps to have somebody guide you through complicated novels, and that is exactly how this episode will help you navigate through a complicate...

Send a text May 29, 1913 marks a landmark in music history - the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in Paris.  The basic elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and orchestration would see a fresh new light in this one 30-minute ballet. The premiere was not only one of the most famous in music history - but also one of the most scandalous.  We will discuss what it is about this m...

Send a text A continuation of Episode 14, this new episode looks at Igor Stravinsky's second major ballet, Petrushka.  Bridging the gap between his impressive and innovative first ballet, The Firebird, and the earth-shattering Rite of Spring, Petrushka is a fairy tale about two puppets at a Russian carnival vying for the love of a third puppet, the ballerina.  Filled with quotations from Russ...

Send a text If you asked any musicologist who are the top five most important composers of the 20th century, Igor Stravinsky will certainly be on that list. Stravinsky's three major ballets - The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring - remain landmarks of innovative soundscapes, introducing exciting new explorations of the basic elements of music. You will also find it fascinating how S...

Send a text Today will will look at the magnificent musical magic of Johann Sebastian Bach. The way he manipulates multiple melodies at once - formally known as a contrapuntal texture - is nothing short of astounding. Regardless of whether or not you like Bach's music, we can all appreciate his undisputed genius, and the indelible mark he has left on music history. After looking carefully at...