Through the centuries, and still today, music has been the salve to heal the hurts of the world. During the week of December 21st, Bill McGlaughlin will take us on an exploration of music to help us find peace.
Week of December 7, 2020 - Vienna, Part I
A two-week exploration of the rich culture of Vienna, this great musical capital commonly referred to as the City of Music. Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven all made their way to Vienna, where they developed and deepened their art. Then along came Franz Schubert, who was actually born in Vienna, and many other composers also found their way to Vienna, including Brahms from up north. And, of course, this is the city of the waltz with Johann Strauss Jr. and Joseph Lanner.
Week of December 14, 2020 - Vienna, Part II
We continue our exploration of one of the world’s great musical capitals with the brilliant Romantic composers, the renegades of the last century and beyond. Bill starts us walking in the footsteps of Mozart in 1788 and continues with Beethoven, and then on to Johann Strauss II, Gustav Mahler, and Arnold Schoenberg. This music has a fierce beauty that evokes the history, architectural wonder, and intimate coffee houses of Vienna —our city of music.
Week of December 21, 2020 - Dona Nobis Pacem - Grant Us Peace
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Leonard Bernstein said these words in response to the assassination of JFK. Sadly, half a century later, tens of thousands of people are killed by guns in the United States every year. This week Exploring Music borrows its title, Dona Nobis Pacem, from the Latin Mass for our reaction to such violence. While there is so much work that we all must do to end this senselessness, we also must make sure to nourish and comfort our own souls. We hope that you find some peace in our selections including Bach, Byrd, Grieg, Schubert, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Week of Dec. 28, 2020 - You and the Night and the Music
Novelists who have built their plots around great music. Join us as we step inside the minds of authors groping for the words to describe the feelings and emotions of the music. We begin with an inspiring mandolin, and the letters of T.S. Eliot. In Thursday’s program Bill tells the story of a violin maker and part-time sleuth with a nostalgic longing for Bach. Dvorák falls in love and an author reminisces about his father’s final journey with Beethoven. We end our travels through literature and music with a dream of the devil and E.M. Forster’s vision of Beethoven from Howard’s End.
