Week of November 4, 2024 - I Hear America Singing As our nation turns our minds and hearts to vote Exploring Music will celebrate America's unique voice in music and poetry. Walt Whitman taught Americans how to hear their country sing in his 1860 poem "I Hear America Sing". Composer Aaron Copland took up Whitman’s call and fashioned his Lincoln Portrait as part of an expressive musical landscape of the country in the early 20th century. Bill reveals the extraordinary American-ness captured in this music — and in election speeches incorporated into operas such as Douglas Moore’s Ballad of Baby Doe — then through the music of Charles Ives, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and Mark O’Connor. Playlist here.
Week of November 11, 2024 - Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) This week, Bill will focus on Gabriel Fauré, a pioneering composer of his generation in France. Bill suggests that Faure’s early talent places him in the same league as prodigies like Mendelssohn and Mozart. Exploring Music will start the week by featuring two beautiful songs: "Le papillon et la fleur" (The butterfly and the flower) and "Mai”, both composed when Fauré was 16 years old. Bill will describe Fauré's composing style, and on the piano, he will demonstrate his numerous harmonic and melodic innovations, as heard from his smaller compositions to "Pelléas et Mélisande" and his Requiem in D minor.
Week of November 18, 2024 - Magnificent Magyars Surveying the history of music in Hungary. Hungary was settled by the Magyars in the late 9th century and became a state in the year 1000. After adopting Latin Christianity in the 11th century, the country’s rich musical heritage of church music started with Gregorian plainchants, and later in the Middle Ages with fully realized polyphonic singing. Bill picks it up from there with the blending of religious music and ethnic folksongs from the countryside, reflected in the music of Liszt, Kodály, and Bartók. And let’s not forget the influences of Hungarian Roma music and Transylvanian dances.
Week of November 25, 2024 - American Masters, Part IV From the East Coast to the West, American composers developed a singular identity in the 20th century that continues to energize and influence classical music. This week is dedicated to less popular American composers like John Alden Carpenter, Marion Bauer, and Randall Thompson. Bill investigates their family history, what drove them to compose, and what artistic journey they went on to expand music during their time. Join Bill for a trip to sample everything from Carpenter's wonky ballet Krazy Cat to Thompson's choral takes on the poetry of Robert Frost.
