Episodes

Nov 26

Jack Bunch Listen as we are joined by guest Tim Goldrainer, lead singer for the rock band “The Menus,” as we discuss music around the holidays and what it means […]

Sep 18

Jack Bunch Listen as we are joined by Dr. A. Kori Hill, musicologist and professor at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, as she talks to us about […]

Apr 29, 2024

Trinity Le, CFK Intern Today we are joined by guest Marissa Kerbel, a fantastic pianist and teacher, and graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music! Here she talks about the […]

Mar 26, 2024

Trinity Le, CFK Intern Molly Stanford, DMA student and soon-to-be graduate at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, joins us today to talk about Clara Schumann. She was a piano child […]

Nov 16, 2023

St. Paul's Girls' School in London has a sign that says: "Gustav Holst wrote The Planets and taught here." Holst composed his St. Paul's Suite for the student orchestra at St. Paul's Girls' School. Many other composers wrote music for students to perform.

Nov 15, 2023

Astronomy is the science that studies the sun, moon, planets, and other objects in the sky. Astrology is not a science – it tries to show how objects in the […]

Nov 15, 2023

Born into a family of composers, Gustav Holst wanted to follow in their footsteps. His career included playing in orchestras and serving as head of music at St. Paul's Girls' School for almost thirty years while also composing. He liked music by earlier English composers, folk music and poetry, especially poetry from ancient India. The success of The Planets thrust him into the spotlight and enabled him to focus more of his time on what he loved, composing.

Feb 16, 2023

From a very early age, Scott Joplin supported himself as a performing pianist. Eventually, he earned a living selling his compositions, too. Thanks to Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag, the most […]

Dec 31, 2022

It’s December, and winter has officially begun. This is a program of music with wintery themes.

Dec 24, 2022

In celebration of the Christmas season, some classical compositions that have Christmas carols in them.

Dec 17, 2022

Ralph Vaughan Williams arrived on the scene just as a definite English classical music sound was being established. His three main teachers at the Royal Academy of Music were Arthur […]

Dec 10, 2022

Originally, a musical fantasy was a piece that instrumentalists made up as they went along. Eventually, fantasies evolved into pieces that composers built out of various melodies they liked — […]

Dec 3, 2022

Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of the most important 20th century English composers. He spent years traveling the country collecting English folk songs, writing them down, and publishing them. Many […]

Nov 26, 2022

Charles Ives loved to put hymns into his music. Several other composers borrowed hymn tunes; here are several examples from 20th Century American compositions.

Nov 19, 2022

The Country Band March has 12 recognizable popular and folk tunes in it. But Ives was not the only composer to put borrowed tunes in his music. Many classical composers […]

Nov 12, 2022

Charles Ives wrote the Country Band March about amateur musicians — people who make music for the love of it. In the Country Band March Ives combines a tune that […]

Nov 5, 2022

The music that Charles Ives wrote was greatly influenced by his father, George. From the time he was a kid, Ives heard his father experiment with sound. George Ives always […]

Oct 29, 2022

Appropriately spooky classical music for Halloween.

Oct 22, 2022

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov spent years as a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Many of his students became famous composers themselves: Anatol Liadov, Alexander Glazunov, and Igor Stravinsky. A lot of […]

Oct 15, 2022

To go with this month’s music from Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, some more music by composers who were playing with fire.

Oct 8, 2022

Igor Stravinsky based his ballet The Firebird on a Russian folk tale about an evil demon named Kashchei, who has thirteen princesses under his spell. A prince who wanders into […]

Oct 1, 2022

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky had a big hit with his first ballet, The Firebird. Stravinksy kept on writing ballets, followed by operas, and orchestral and choral music.

Sep 24, 2022

“Gigue” is the French word for jig — a lively dance in triple time. The jig started out as folk dance in Ireland, Scotland, and northern England, before finding its […]

Sep 17, 2022

Georg Philipp Telemann never studied composition – he taught himself how to write music. There are quite a few composers who taught themselves, including Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Edward Elgar, Francis Poulenc, […]

Sep 10, 2022

Georg Philipp Telemann composed during the Baroque period, which ran from about 1600 to 1750. Suzanne Bona, host of the National Public Radio program Sunday Baroque, talks with Naomi Lewin […]

Sep 3, 2022

Telemann loved to write. He wrote more pieces of music than any other composer, and he also wrote not one, not two, but THREE autobiographies.

Aug 27, 2022

Tritsch-Tratsch — the title of a polka by Johann Strauss, Jr. — is Austrian slang for “chit-chat.” A lot of composers used music to portray people making sounds: talking, laughing, […]

Aug 20, 2022

The waltz is a dance in 3/4 time that was very popular in Vienna, Austria in the 19th century. But the roots of the waltz go back to the German […]

Aug 13, 2022

Johann Strauss, Sr. had three musical sons: Johann, Jr.; Josef; and Eduard. Sometimes they worked together as musicians, but other times, there was bitter rivalry.

Aug 6, 2022

Johann Strauss, Jr. was the son of a very successful violinist and orchestra leader. Eventually, Johann, Jr. was in competition with his father, conducting an orchestra of his own. When […]

Jul 30, 2022

What do Frank Sinatra, Blood Sweat and Tears and John Denver have in common? They all used classical music in some of their pieces. After Aaron Copland composed his Fanfare […]

Jul 23, 2022

In 1942, Eugene Goossens, music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, invited two dozen or so composers to write fanfares honoring those serving in World War II. Hear some more of […]

Jul 16, 2022

A look at exactly what’s going on musically in Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man.

Jul 9, 2022

The word fanfare comes from a French word that means to blow trumpets. Fanfares have been used for centuries to announce someone or something important. Presidential inaugurations, movies, the Olympics […]

Jul 2, 2022

Aaron Copland was a 20th century American composer from Brooklyn, New York. Copland is known for writing very American music, but he actually studied in France. His teacher, Nadia Boulanger, […]

Jun 25, 2022

Opera singer Denyce Graves talks with Naomi Lewin about what it’s like to be an international opera star.

Jun 18, 2022

Giuseppe Verdi composed Aida for a new opera house in Cairo, Egypt that opened around the time as the opening of the Suez Canal. Aida is the story of an […]

Jun 11, 2022

An opera is like a play in which the characters sing all their lines. Opera singers do not use microphones — their voices are trained, and can fill a whole […]

Jun 4, 2022

Guiseppe Verdi — “Joe Green,” in Italian — was a great opera composer and Italian patriot. His music became part of the Italian fight for independence and unity.

May 28, 2022

From the time Frédéric Chopin was a child, audiences loved to hear him play the piano. A lot of composers were famous as keyboard players, too: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt…

May 21, 2022

In his Military Polonaise, Frédéric Chopin uses the piano to imitate the drums that accompanied armies marching into battle. A lot of composers have put battle sounds into their music.

May 14, 2022

The polonaise is a dance that was fashionable in the Polish court. Since Polish nobility used to like to speak French, the name “polonaise” is French. Eventually, the polonaise caught […]

May 7, 2022

Frédéric Chopin was one of the greatest pianists of his day. Every single piece of music he wrote used the piano. The name Chopin doesn’t sound very Polish because Chopin's […]

Apr 30, 2022

Benjamin Britten was asked to compose music for a film that explained the instruments of the orchestra to children. Britten borrowed a tune by one of his favorite composers, Henry […]

Apr 23, 2022

Benjamin Britten was asked to compose music for a film that explained the instruments of the orchestra to children. Britten borrowed a tune by one of his favorite composers, Henry […]

Apr 16, 2022

Pizzicato is the Italian word for “plucked” — it tells string players how to play their instruments at a given spot in the music. A lot of musical “traffic signals” […]

Apr 9, 2022

Benjamin Britten composed his Simple Symphony when he was twenty, but he based it on music that he’d written much earlier — some of it when he was only 10! […]

Apr 2, 2022

After studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in London, Benjamin Britten got a job writing film music. Then he went on to compose choral music, chamber music, songs, and […]

Mar 26, 2022

A program featuring acclaimed conductor JoAnn Falletta, who talks about her early love of music, how seeing her first symphony concert inspired her to become a conductor, and all the […]

Mar 19, 2022

There are many women composers these days, and this program introduces some of them: Caroline Shaw, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Lera Auerbach, Kaija Saariaho, Chen Yi, Jennifer Higdon, Libby […]

Mar 12, 2022

Though many societies either forbade or looked down on women who wanted to be composers, many persevered. This show highlights Francesca Caccini, Élizabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Louise Farrenc, […]

Mar 5, 2022

How women in world history – Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II, Aphra Behn, Joan of Arc, Emmeline Pankhurst, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sojourner Truth, Rosa […]

Feb 26, 2022

Music by composers with all kinds of hyphens to their African heritage: African-French, French-Cuban, African-English, and African-American.

Feb 19, 2022

Lots of movies use classical music. Sometimes, that music is such a big part of the movie that the two become linked forever.

Feb 12, 2022

Ragtime music is truly African-American music. It combines rhythms that were brought to this country by slaves, with musical forms brought over to the United States from Europe. Ragtime uses […]

Feb 5, 2022

From a very early age, Scott Joplin supported himself as a performing pianist. Eventually, he earned a living selling his compositions, too. Thanks to Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag, the most […]

Jan 29, 2022

Many countries around the world have national anthems and other patriotic songs that were written by classical composers. Haydn, Elgar and Verdi are just a few you’ll explore here.

Jan 22, 2022

The minuet is a dance that started in the 1700’s in the French court. Gradually, the minuet began to be used for non-dancing purposes, as a musical form — especially […]

Jan 15, 2022

Every year, when the weather turned nice, Prince Esterhazy — Franz Joseph Haydn’s employer — moved his entire household to his summer palace. When it turned cold again, everyone moved […]

Jan 8, 2022

Franz Joseph Haydn never had any children, but the musicians who worked for him liked him so much they called him Papa Haydn. And Haydn is also known as the […]

Jan 1, 2022

Franz Joseph Haydn spent over thirty years working as music director for the Esterhazy family. By the end of his life, Haydn was both rich and famous, and he had […]

Dec 25, 2021

George Frederick Handel’s Messiah wasn’t written for Christmas — it was first performed in April. Hear some other pieces of classical music that traditionally get played during the Christmas season.

Dec 18, 2021

Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker is based on a story by German author E.T.A. Hoffmann. In The Nutcracker, a Christmas present — a nutcracker — comes to life as a handsome […]

Dec 11, 2021

Ballet is a theatrical performance that tells a story using music, costumes, sets, and dance. Victoria Morgan, artistic director of the Cincinnati Ballet, talks with Naomi Lewin about ballet and […]

Dec 4, 2021

Some composers in Tchaikovsky’s day didn’t think his music sounded “Russian” enough, but Tchaikovsky was Russian through and through. Tchaikovsky wrote symphonies, operas, songs, chamber music — and of course, […]

Nov 27, 2021

Leonard Bernstein grew up in the Boston area. Here are some more composers who spent time in and around that city.

Nov 20, 2021

Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” is an operetta. An operetta is like an opera, with one big difference. In opera, everything is sung, but in operetta, there are spoken lines between the […]

Nov 13, 2021

When he was growing up, Leonard Bernstein loved to put on operas and other musical shows with his friends. That interest in musical theater continued all through his life, and […]

Nov 6, 2021

American-born Leonard Bernstein became famous all over the world as a composer, a conductor, and a pianist. In addition to writing classical music, composed classic Broadway musicals, including West Side […]

Oct 30, 2021

Appropriately spooky classical music for Halloween.

Oct 23, 2021

Incidental music creates a mood, or illustrates the action for what is going on in a play, movie or television show.

Oct 16, 2021

Music by composers from the three official Scandinavian countries — Norway, Denmark and Sweden — and a couple of unofficial ones — Finland and Iceland!

Oct 9, 2021

“In The Hall of the Mountain King” is part of the incidental music Edvard Grieg wrote for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. Hear the story of the play as you […]

Oct 2, 2021

Edvard Grieg was from a music-loving Norwegian family. In addition to becoming the leading Scandinavian composer of his day, Grieg became a big supporter of Norwegian arts and culture.

Sep 30, 2021

Dance is very important in Spain, and Spanish dance forms have made their way all over the world. They’ve even turned into music that was never meant for dancing. Listen […]

Sep 30, 2021

La danza es muy importante en España, y las formas de danza españolas se han hecho camino en todo el mundo. Incluso se han convertido en música que nunca fue […]

Sep 25, 2021

After Christopher Columbus made his first trip across the Atlantic Ocean, Spain and other European countries began to colonize the Americas. Spanish music had a big influence on Latin American […]

Sep 25, 2021

Después de que Cristóbal Colón hizo su primer viaje a través del Océano Atlántico, España y otros países europeos comenzaron a colonizar las Américas. La música española tuvo una gran […]

Sep 18, 2021

In the 16th century, “conquistadores” – soldiers from Spain – sailed to Mexico, and took over the country from the Indigenous people who lived there. The Spanish brought their language, […]

Sep 18, 2021

‘En el siglo XVI, los "conquistadores" – soldados de España – navegaron hasta México, y se apoderaron del país de los indígenas que vivían allí. Los españoles llevaron su idioma, […]

Sep 11, 2021

When composers use their country’s folk songs, dances, and rhythms to paint musical pictures of local places and legends, it’s called musical nationalism. Hear how composers like Isaac Albeniz, Enrique […]

Sep 11, 2021

‘Cuando los compositores usan las canciones, danzas y ritmos folclóricos de su país para pintar cuadros musicales de lugares y leyendas locales, se llama nacionalismo musical. Escucha cómo compositores como […]

Sep 4, 2021

¡Bienvenidos! Listen and explore the music of some of Spain’s most influential composers and players, from King Alfonso X (a.k.a. “Alfonso El Sabio”/Alfonso the Wise) to Francisco Tárrega, known as […]

Sep 4, 2021

¡Bienvenidos! Escucha y explora la música de algunos de los compositores e intérpretes más influyentes de España, desde el rey Alfonso X (también conocido como “Alfonso El Sabio”) hasta Francisco […]

Aug 28, 2021

Zoltan Kodály developed a method for teaching music. It is still used by teachers around the world today. Jill Trinka, who teaches the Kodály Method, talks with Naomi Lewin.

Aug 21, 2021

Zoltán Kodály was not the only composer to use folk tunes in the music he wrote. Here are some others.

Aug 14, 2021

Kodály’s opera Háry János is about a real person who told real whoppers – big, fat lies. If you listened to him, you'd think he defeated Napoleon's army all by […]

Aug 7, 2021

Zoltán Kodály was born in a small town in Hungary. His father worked for the Hungarian railroad, so the family moved around a lot. This meant that as a kid, […]

Jul 31, 2021

“Rhapsody” is an ancient word that means “songs stitched together”. The Greeks used to write long poems in praise of their heroes, and then take bits and pieces of those […]

Jul 24, 2021

In his day Franz Liszt was most famous as a pianist. So, were Mozart, Beethoven and a lot of other composers.

Jul 17, 2021

Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies were greatly influenced by gypsy, or Romani music. Brahms, Telemann and Verdi are among the many composers were attracted to this distinctive music.

Jul 10, 2021

Inspired by violinist Niccolo Paganini, Franz Liszt became a piano superstar. Many classical music superstars followed, including Jan Paderewski, Jenny Lind, Van Cliburn, Enrico Caruso, Yo-Yo Ma and Lang Lang.

Jul 3, 2021

Franz Liszt was a pianist, composer, conductor and teacher who came up with musical innovations in all those fields. He was the first of the virtuoso performers and invented the […]

Jun 26, 2021

From the late 1800’s to the early 1900's, professional bands toured all over the United States, and many towns in this country had their own amateur bands.

Jun 19, 2021

The United States Marine Band is this country’s oldest military band. Each branch of the U.S. Armed Forces has its own band, and song. Captain Don Schofield, associate conductor of […]

Jun 12, 2021

John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever is the official march of the United States of America. Sousa composed his most famous march in his head when he was […]

Jun 5, 2021

John Philip Sousa — the most American of composers — was the son of immigrants to the United States. Because of his love for bands and band music, John Philip […]

May 29, 2021

Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn’s older sister, was a talented pianist and composer. So was Clara Schumann, wife of composer Robert Schumann. Also featured: music of Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, […]

May 22, 2021

A child prodigy, Felix Mendelssohn began composing when he was 10. This week on Classics for Kids hear about other composers who started just as early — or even earlier.

May 15, 2021

Probably no playwright has had more music based on his work than William Shakespeare. Felix Mendelssohn, Henry Purcell, Hector Berlioz, Giuseppe Verdi are just a few of the composers who’ve […]

May 8, 2021

When Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn put on Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream to entertain their family, the two of them played all the characters! Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer […]

May 1, 2021

By the time he was a teenager, Felix Mendelssohn was already an excellent pianist and composer. And Mendelssohn was very talented in other areas. In addition to German (his native […]

Apr 24, 2021

William Grant Still was a 20th century African-American composer. But hundreds of years before he lived, there were other black composers. ‘The Music of Freedom The songs that helped the […]

Apr 17, 2021

After William Grant Still wrote his Afro-American Symphony, he found bits of poetry that he thought went with each movement. The poetry was written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first […]

Apr 10, 2021

William Grant Still wanted to put the sound of the blues into a symphony. His Afro-American Symphony is centered on a bluesy theme. Still took that theme and did something […]

Apr 3, 2021

William Grant Still has been called the Dean of Afro-American composers. Judith Anne Still, the composer’s daughter, talks with Naomi Lewin about her father’s life, and the difficulty he faced […]

Mar 27, 2021

Antonin Dvorak and his fellow Czech composers were among the first music nationalists. Here’s a look at many others, including composers from America.

Mar 20, 2021

All across Europe in the 19th century, there was a wave of nationalism as people fought for political independence. Composers started wanting musical independence, too. When they started putting folk […]

Mar 13, 2021

In 1892, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s trip to the New World, a wealthy New Yorker invited Antonin Dvorak to visit America. Tchaikovsky, Albeniz, and Delius were […]

Mar 6, 2021

At the time when Czech composer Antonin Dvorak was born, the Czech people had no country of their own. The regions where they lived — Bohemia and Moravia — were […]

Feb 27, 2021

Many composers used European dance forms in their work. Dvorak, Haydn, Chopin and Beethoven are just a few of the composers featured here.

Feb 20, 2021

The Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms were never really intended for dancing. But that doesn’t mean that people in Hungary don't dance! Richard Graber, the director of a Hungarian dance […]

Feb 13, 2021

When he was a young pianist, Johannes Brahms accompanied a Hungarian violinist, and fell in love with Hungarian music. His own Hungarian-flavored dances were written to entertain his friends at […]

Feb 6, 2021

Brahms, Bach, and Beethoven are known as the “Three B’s” of classical music. Brahms always knew that he wanted to be a composer — by the time he was six, […]

Jan 30, 2021

Even though Schubert’s Marche Militaire has the word “march” in the title, it was never actually meant for anyone to march to. Several other composers wrote march music without bands […]

Jan 23, 2021

Franz Schubert wrote his Marche Militaire for piano four hands — two people playing the same instrument. Here are some more pieces for piano four hands.

Jan 16, 2021

Songs in classical music are usually called “art songs.” In German, art songs are called Lieder. Franz Schubert was a master of writing Lieder. Each of his songs combines poetry […]

Jan 9, 2021

Franz Schubert’s father expected his son to be a teacher in the school that he ran. But Schubert didn't last long at that job — he was much more interested […]

Jan 2, 2021

A collection of musical firsts, including the first string quartet, the first use of trombones in a symphony, and the first professional musician to make a recording.

Dec 26, 2020

In the “Farandole” from Georges Bizet’s Arlésienne Suite, there are examples of all three kinds of harmonic texture: monophony, homophony, and polyphony. Hear those terms explained in words and in […]

Dec 19, 2020

In celebration of the Christmas season, some classical compositions that have Christmas carols in them.

Dec 12, 2020

Georges Bizet was not Jewish, his father-in-law was. Bizet married the daughter of his composition professor, Jacques Halevi. To celebrate Chanukah, we learn about some other Jewish composers of classical […]

Dec 5, 2020

Georges Bizet’s parents were both musicians, so he grew up surrounded by music. Today, Bizet is best remembered for his theatrical music — operas and incidental music for plays.

Nov 28, 2020

Both Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughn Williams loved using folk music in their music. They were inspired by a “folk song revival” started by an English musician named Cecil Sharp […]

Nov 7, 2020

Born into a family of composers, Gustav Holst wanted to follow in their footsteps. His career included playing in orchestras and serving as head of music at St. Paul’s Girls’ […]

Oct 31, 2020

Appropriately spooky classical music for Halloween.

Oct 24, 2020

Many pieces of music from Russian operas have become much more famous in the concert hall than on the opera stage. Some of these pieces include Tchaikovsky’s Waltz and Polonaise […]

Oct 17, 2020

Russian artist and architect Victor Hartman was a good friend of Modest Mussorgsky. When Hartman died at the age of 39, there was a memorial exhibit of his work. That […]

Oct 10, 2020

The Mighty Handful, also known as the Mighty Five, were group of Russian composers who all wanted to develop a distinctly Russian style of classical music. The Mighty Five composers […]

Oct 3, 2020

When he was a kid growing up, Modest Mussorgsky learned Russian fairy tales and folk stories from the family nurse. Those fairy tales put in an appearance in the music […]

Sep 26, 2020

Rondo is an Italian word that means round. A rondo is an instrumental form with a refrain that keeps coming back. Unlike the verses of a song, though, the music […]

Sep 19, 2020

In the 18th century, Janissary music became all the rage in Europe. Janissaries were the men who guarded the sultan of Turkey. They had wonderful bands that included instruments that […]

Sep 12, 2020

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his first opera when he was twelve, and opera continued to fascinate him throughout his life. Mozart had such genius for combining music and theater that […]

Sep 5, 2020

When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sat down at the keyboard at the age of three, it was clear to his father Leopold that he had a genius on his hands. From […]

Aug 29, 2020

For some reason, Beethoven has been the butt of many musical jokes over the years. You can find Beethoven references everywhere from disco, to the Beatles, to the Broadway musical.

Aug 22, 2020

The beginning of the second movement of Beethoven’s 8th Symphony imitates a metronome — a mechanical device that ticks steadily to help musician keep to the beat of the music. […]

Aug 15, 2020

Plenty of composers wrote more symphonies than Beethoven, but few did more to change the way the symphony sounded. Beethoven’s First Symphony reflects the fact that he learned from Mozart […]

Aug 8, 2020

Beethoven was a pianist. During his lifetime, the piano changed quite a bit, and those changes were reflected in the music Beethoven composed for the instrument. William Black, who was […]

Aug 1, 2020

Ludwig van Beethoven was a uniquely talented composer and musician. But by the time Beethoven was 30, his increasing deafness put an end to his career as a pianist. That […]

Jul 25, 2020

George Gershwin was just one composer who used jazz in music that was written for the classical concert hall. So did Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, and others.

Jul 18, 2020

George Gershwin wrote his Rhapsody in Blue in a big hurry, after he saw a newspaper announcement saying that he was writing a jazz concerto for a concert taking place […]

Jul 11, 2020

“Rhapsody” is an ancient word that means “songs stitched together”. The Greeks used to write long poems in praise of their heroes, and then take bits and pieces of those […]

Jul 4, 2020

George Gershwin was an American composer who combined classical music and jazz to create his own unique style. Gershwin wrote music for Broadway shows, movies, the concert hall, and opera. […]

Jun 27, 2020

Handel wrote his Water Music for the King of England. Lots of aristocrats hired composers to write music for them. But some kings and nobles wrote music themselves, including King […]

Jun 20, 2020

The Water Music that Handel composed may be the most famous classical music associated with water, but there are lots of other composers who wrote watery pieces.

Jun 13, 2020

As soon as Handel got his first job of court composer to a German prince, he headed for England. Through a bizarre twist of royal succession, that prince ended up […]

Jun 6, 2020

1685 was a very good year for German composers. Within the space of a month, two of the greatest were born: Johann Sebastian Bach, and George Frederick Handel. Handel spent […]

May 30, 2020

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov spent years as a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Many of his students became famous composers themselves: Anatol Liadov, Alexander Glazunov, and Igor Stravinsky. A lot of […]

May 23, 2020

There are many pieces of classical music — besides “The Flight of the Bumblebee” — that are about bees, birds, and other winged creatures. Composers use various instruments to imitate […]

May 16, 2020

Many pieces of music from Russian operas have become much more famous in the concert hall than on the opera stage. Some of these pieces include Tchaikovsky’s Waltz and Polonaise […]

May 9, 2020

The Flight of the Bumblebee comes from an opera called The Tale of Tsar Saltan, which is based on a story by the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. In the […]

May 2, 2020

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov became a navy officer in order to follow in his older brother’s footsteps. But his real talent lay in music. After leaving the navy, he became a teacher […]

Apr 25, 2020

Vivaldi is not the only composer who wrote music about the seasons, or about spring. Many other composers wrote springtime music.

Apr 18, 2020

Concertos got their start in 17th century Italy. The history of violin concertos follows the history of great violinists.

Apr 11, 2020

Vivaldi based each of his The Four Seasons concertos on a set of sonnets — poems. The music in each of the Four Seasons describes exactly what’s going on in […]

Apr 4, 2020

Antonio Vivaldi was the oldest of six (some say nine) children. His father was a barber, baker and violinist. Vivaldi inherited his father’s musical talent, and his flaming red hair. […]

Mar 28, 2020

When Johann Sebastian Bach sent a set of six concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg — a German official — the Margrave probably never even looked at the music. Bach […]

Mar 21, 2020

A concerto is a piece of music in which one or more solo instruments get to shine in front of an orchestra. A concerto can be written for any instrument. […]

Mar 14, 2020

Johann Sebastian Bach was married two times, and had a grand total of 20 children! All of Bach’s ancestors were musicians, and his sons were expected to follow in his […]

Mar 7, 2020

Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a musical dynasty. The Bach family had over 300 years’ worth of professional composers and musicians, but Johann Sebastian was the most famous of […]

Feb 28, 2020

A Finale is the end of a piece of music. Here’s a look at some famous finales.

Feb 22, 2020

Depicting a thunderstorm in music was one of Rossini’s specialties. Here are some more examples of musical thunderstorms.

Feb 15, 2020

Usually, an overture is a piece of music played at the beginning of a play, opera or ballet in order to set the mood. But there are also other kinds […]

Feb 8, 2020

The William Tell Overture was written to open an opera by Gioachino Rossini. The opera is based on a legend about the Swiss hero William Tell. According to the legend, […]

Feb 1, 2020

Italian composer Gioachino Rossini was born in 1792 and died in 1868, so you might think that he celebrated 76 birthdays. But Rossini was born in a leap year, on […]

Jan 25, 2020

Lt. Kijé is the story of an imaginary soldier, created when the Russian Tsar misread a smudged name on a list of his men. Everyone around the Tsar was too […]

Jan 18, 2020

In music, a suite is a specific collection of pieces. Here are some examples of various kinds of musical suites.

Jan 11, 2020

Prokofiev was not the only classical composer to paint a musical portrait of a sleigh ride on a snowy day. Listen as we take you through several other examples of […]

Jan 4, 2020

Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev lived and traveled around the world, but found that he was most at home in Russia. This look at his life takes you on his travels […]

Aug 31, 2019

For years, the Hoe-Down from Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo has been used in a commercial for the Beef Council. A lot of classical music turns up in T.V. commercials. It […]

Aug 24, 2019

Copland’s ballet Rodeo tells the story of a cowgirl who is in love with a cowboy, but just can't get him to notice her. Once she finally does, she decides […]

Aug 17, 2019

Agnes de Mille loved to dance. She became hooked on ballet as a child, after seeing the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova perform. Agnes de Mille performed all over America and […]

Aug 10, 2019

Copland’s first cowboy ballet was Billy the Kid, about the notorious outlaw who lived in the American Southwest in the late 1800's. Then, choreographer (a choreographer is a person who […]

Aug 3, 2019

Aaron Copland was a 20th century American composer from Brooklyn, New York. Copland is known for writing very American music, but he actually studied in France. His teacher, Nadia Boulanger, […]

Mar 30, 2019

Through the centuries, there have been exceptional female performers – on the largest stages of the world, and in smaller, more intimate settings. They include Clara Wieck Schumann, Maria Theresia […]

Dec 29, 2018

The Music Hall founded by Andrew Carnegie in New York City opened on May 5, 1891 with a concert conducted by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It quickly became known simply as […]

Sep 30, 2017

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy. He wrote his first symphony when he was eight, but actually started composing at the age of five. In this show, hear about […]

Jan 23, 2017

A collection of musical firsts, including the first string quartet, the first use of trombones in a symphony, and the first professional musician to make a recording.

Nov 26, 2016

On this week’s Classics for Kids show, music for the harvest – and for fall.

Nov 19, 2016

Robert and Clara Schumann were a husband and wife musician/composer team. But theirs was not the only family in which musician were linked by marriage. Others include Dvorak/Suk, Wagner/Liszt, Mozart/Weber, […]

Nov 12, 2016

Clara Wieck was born in 1819 in the German city of Leipzig. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a piano teacher who decided even before his daughter was born that she […]

Nov 5, 2016

From the time he was young, Schumann knew that he wanted to write. The only question was, should he write words, or music? Eventually, Schumann became known as a famous […]

May 30, 2015

Incidental music creates a mood, or illustrates the action for what is going on in a play, movie or television show.

May 23, 2015

Even though classical music is sometimes referred to as “serious music,” a lot of times it just isn’t. Serious, that is — classical composers wrote some very funny music.

May 16, 2015

The kind of galop that Dmitri Kabalevsky put his suite The Comedians has nothing to do with horses. In fact, it’s not even spelled the same as a horse's gallop. […]

May 9, 2015

After Dmitri Kabalevsky wrote music for a play called The Inventor and the Comedians, he put selections from that music into a concert suite called The Comedians. Listen to what’s […]

May 2, 2015

By the time Dmitri Kabalevsky was 14, the Russian Revolution had turned his country into a communist state. In spite of the Soviet Union’s control over artists of all kinds, […]

Jun 22, 2013

Many operas feature music that is has become so famous all by itself, you might just forget that it’s part of an opera!

Jul 28, 2012

Before television, radio, and the movies, it used to be a very big deal when the circus came to town. Circus parades and performances were always accompanied by marches called […]

Jun 23, 2012

Jonathan Larson, the composer of the musical “Rent,” used the same plot for this musical as Puccini did for La Bohème. Other composers also used classical music when they wrote […]

Jun 16, 2012

Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème is about struggling artists in Paris. Its title means “the bohemian lifestyle.” But Bohemia isn't in France; it's in the Czech Republic. Other composers such […]

Jun 9, 2012

Around the year 1600, Italian composers started writing theater pieces that use music all the way through them. Instead of speaking, characters in operas sing their lines. From Claudio Monteverdi, […]

Jun 2, 2012

By the time Italian composer Giacomo Puccini was born in 1858, there had already been four generations of musicians in his hometown of Lucca. Most were church musicians, but Giacomo […]

Mar 31, 2007

A collection of musical firsts, including the first string quartet, the first use of trombones in a symphony, and the first professional musician to make a recording.