Timeline: Vermont Public Classical

We’ve been telling the story of the Estonian "Singing Revolution," how a people used song to affect real, political and historical change.

We’ve been telling the story of the Estonian “Singing Revolution” and how non-violent, musical protest changed the course of a culture and a nation.

After World War II, the iron curtain of the Soviet Union fell on all the member states. One of the goals of Stalin’s regime was to bring uniformity across the vast territory that was now under Soviet control. Russification is a term used to describe the cultural assimilation that was taking place. Russian citizens would come by the thousands and settle in these other territories, to influence the...

Has music ever changed the world? Can culture hold a people together? This story explores those questions.

Originally aired Jan 25, 2016 The years 1813 to 1816 were a dry period for Beethoven. He was wrestling with his health and with his family. His brother, Casper, had passed away and left behind a son, Karl – Beethoven’s beloved nephew. Ludwig entered into a nasty custody battle with Karl’s mother and lost. Beethoven often wrote in his journal prayers that this time of suffering would come to an end...

Originally aired Jan. 18, 2016 At the dawning of the 19th Century Beethoven had not given up hope that his doctors would find a treatment to reverse his hearing loss. His condition was not only affecting his musical output but also his social life, which was very important to him.

This episode was originally aired on Jan, 11, 2016. Ludwig van Beethoven has been called the most admired composer in all of music history. His legacy stands as a monument for the entire 19th Century and beyond.

We’ve been tracing the Palchikoffs and Sergei’s violin through the 20th Century; starting in Russia during the civil war after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, to the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 and finally to California, where Sergei retired and passed away in 1969 leaving the violin to his daughter Kaleria.

We’ve been telling the story of Sergei Palchikoff, his family and his beloved violin that survived the bombing of Hiroshima 75 years ago. I’ve spent the better part of a year piecing this tale together from newspaper articles, old recordings and online resources. After the first episode aired on VPR Classical something remarkable happened. I got a phone call from Carmel, California; it was Anthony...

On Timeline, we’ve been telling the story of the Palchikoff family, their experiences fleeing Russia, settling in Japan and surviving the bomb. It’s also the story of Kaleria’s father, Sergei and his beloved violin which today, 75 years later, is being used to play songs of peace.

August 6, 1945, was a clear, blue Monday morning in the city of Hiroshima. At 7:09 air raid sirens shattered the morning air as allied weather planes flew over, driving a city of around 345,000 people indoors and into shelters. About 15 minutes later, the planes left, the skies emptied and the all-clear sounded; Hiroshima woke back up and started their Monday over again.

Over the past few episodes we’ve been telling the stories of hibaku-pianos and violins, musical instruments that survived the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago. In our last episode we were telling the tale of Sergei Palchikoff and his violin.

We’re listening to violinist, Soichi Sakuma performing at a school in 2017 on a hibaku-violin, an instrument that survived the atomic blast of Hiroshima in 1945. On Timeline we’ve been telling the stories of instruments just like this, relics of a time of great suffering and how they have been rescued, restored and are now being used to play songs of peace. This violin that we are hearing right no...

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the past few episodes we’ve been looking at musical instruments that have been rescued from the ashes and rumble of those explosions. They’ve been reclaimed and are now being used to promote peace and to bring understanding of the real human cost of war.

World War II was the bloodiest conflict in recorded history. It’s estimated that somewhere between, 70-85 million people died, about 3% of the global population at the time. That number is too big to comprehend. I don’t think anyone can truly grasp or understand that level of loss and suffering. So today we’ll talk about just one young woman and her piano.

We’ve been discussing the ways that music has changed the world, exploring how art and music has affected us as a species and as a society. In this episode, we’ll discover one piano tuner’s passion to change hearts and minds through restored instruments.

Show notes test for Maxime's eyes only! Sorry if you see this otherwise.

“In the beginning was the voice. Voice is sounding breath, the audible sign of life.” Those beautiful words were written by Otto Jespersen, an early 20th century Danish linguist, in the book Language, Its Nature, Development and Origin. Jespersen was on to something with that statement, voice as “the audible sign of life.” It reminds me of another popular quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Musi...

You’re at a wedding reception, this song starts to play and suddenly the dance floor is full of people moving together in rhythm. The crowd intuits the pulse of the music, corporately agrees on where the beat is and starts to move together. That’s how group dance works. This ability is something we share as humans and with other members of the animal kingdom. But do we ever think about what it tak...

Which came first, language or music? It’s not just a “chicken or the egg” type of question. Many linguists and theorists have debated this subject. For a long time the accepted norm stated that music appears “to be derived from language,” meaning that music is a subset of verbal communication. But modern research is painting a different picture. There’s an earlier episode of Timeline called “Baby...

Do you remember the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”? The director starts a movie about space by first showing us early humanity. We are introduced to two warring factions of hairy proto-humans, yelling and grunting at one another over some unknown conflict. That night one of the tribes wakes up at sunrise to a strange, black, rectangular object. In the shadow of this mon...

Over the years we’ve talked about a lot different subjects and explored the development of music throughout history. We’ve had deep discussions about where music comes from and what music is. We’ve looked at the ways music touches our lives and influences our health and behavior. We’ve explored the ancient past and modern practice. However, over the past few months I’ve been asking a question, “so...

originally aired December 10, 2018 Art is everywhere and always has been. It lines the walls of museums, buildings and caves. It fills our halls and ears with sound and music. It captures the eye with beautiful movement and imagery. Art doesn’t just express our passions and history; it defines, influences and shapes culture and civilization.

On Timeline we’ve asked a lot of questions; what is music? How was music created? Why is music written? Here’s another interesting question I’d love for us to ponder, where is music?

Another favorite episode of Timeline... Musical labels are useful. The title of a genre or style comes in handy in the record store, on the radio or for streaming services, because when you click on or tune into a station it’s helpful to know what programming to expect. But these labels can also be problematic and divisive. Today there are many labels that separate the musical landscape but none a...