Oh the little white lies we tell, purposely or not. From the tiniest exaggeration to the most outrageous whopper, it would seem to be human nature to stretch the truth. The examples are endless.  “The Check is in the mail.” “No, those pants do not make your butt look big.”   “I never got your message.” “Your table will be ready in just a minute, ma’am.” “It’s not the money, it’s the principle.” “This won’t hurt a bit.”  “I just need just five minutes of your time.” “Hey, I was kidding.” “It’s not your fault.” “No, really, really I’m fine.” Let’s add to this inglorious list one of my favorites: “So and so is a concert pianist.” A “concert pianist”.   There are two possible applications of the phrase “concert pianist”.  One of them is correct and one of them is not correct. Let’s start with the correct one. A “concert pianist” is a professional pianist who makes his or her living playing concerts.  (A “concert” is a live performance during which people pay good cash money to hear a professional pianist play.) That definition of “concert pianist” does not, unfortunately, include the locally known “music major” who teaches piano to […]

So here we are.  It’s almost 2013: roughly one-eighth of the way through the twenty-first century.   The music of the twentieth century, which seemed so contemporary but a few years ago, is now the music of the last century.  Which brings up a painful fact, one that I am frequently called on the carpet over, and that is, why is there so little twentieth century music in my Great Courses surveys? The answer: it is because of fear, greed, short-sightedness and sometimes pure venality.  Not mine, but rather, that of the lawyers and publishing houses that guard the estates of living and recently deceased composers with a drooling, single-minded ferocity that makes Cerberus the three-headed dog from hell look like the Taco Bell Chihuahua by comparison. Here’s the scoop.  Music remains under copyright until 75 years after the death of its composer.  Some composer’s estates and publishers will indeed allow us to license their music for use, which is the reason why the music of Aaron Copland and Dmitri Shostakovich is frequently featured in my courses.  Other publishers are virtually impossible to work with, which is why I can no longer feature the music of – for example – Béla […]

Ah, the Olympic medal ceremony.  Young athletes stand proudly on the winners’ platform while in the background the flag of the gold medalist’s country is hoisted to the stirring sounds of her national anthem.  During the summer games in Beijing in 2008, the home town fans had a lot to cheer about: they saw their flag raised and heard their anthem played fifty-one times.  The Star Spangled Banner was hoisted and played 36 times; the Russian national anthem 23 times, and the national anthem of Great Britain – the inimitable God Save the Queen – 16 times. And what of proud France, the country that along with Italy gave us civilization, Paris, haute couture, and Catherine Deneuve?  Alas, the French Tricoleur was raised and La Marseillaise played but seven times, the same number of times as the anthems of Ukraine and the Netherlands and but one more than Kenya and Jamaica. But in truth, for those whose hearts bleed Gallic blue, white and red, there is great solace, because more French music was heard during the Olympic games (and will again be heard in London this summer) than that of any other country, by several orders of magnitude.  That is […]

Ah, bedtime.  The kids’ teeth are brushed; their pj’s are on; the book has been read, and then read again.  They have been kissed goodnight.  At which point begins THE BIG STALL.  “I’m hungry”; “I’m thirsty”; “I need to go to the bathroom”; “I need to call my broker”; etc. Dead Euro-composers to the rescue!  It’s a moment that calls for some music, something that will calm, edify, enthrall, engage, distract and transport the little darlings to sleepy-land, so that the adults might move off to an appropriately distant room and watch Game of Thrones. The criteria for the most effective bedtime music are as follows.  One: the music should have a steady beat.  Two: the music should have a steady harmonic rhythm (meaning that the chords – the harmonies – change with a high degree of regularity).  Three: the music should not include voices.  Voices (and the words being sung by voices) grab and hold our attention in a manner not conducive to snoozing.   Four: Generally speaking, it is best to steer clear of works for orchestra because of their greater dynamic range (meaning extremes of loud and soft) and conversely, better to stick to works for solo keyboard […]

Franz Peter Schubert was born in the Habsburg capital of Vienna on January 31, 1797.  He died there on November 19, 1828, having lived only 31 years, 9 months, and 19 days. In his all-too-brief life, Schubert created a body of music the size and quality of which leaves us shaking our heads in wonder.  In the last sixteen years of his life, from the age of 15 to 31, Schubert produced, among other works: 9 finished and “unfinished” symphonies; 10 orchestral overtures; 22 piano sonatas; 6 masses; 17 operas; 637 songs; over 1000 works for solo piano and piano four-hands; around 145 choral works; 45 chamber works, including fifteen string quartets and one string quintet. The tiny (about 5’ 1”), pudgy, be-spectacled Schubert was a compulsive composer.  He rather innocently described his routine this way: “I work every morning.  When I have finished one piece I begin another.” To which we would add, “and another, and another, and another.”  Schubert was a workaholic, one who combined the amateur’s pure joy of music-making with a professional’s discipline and technical abilities. To paraphrase Sir Charles Barkley, Schubert was “a small round mound of profound sound”. What makes Schubert’s amazing compositional output […]

The standard repertoire of “Concert Music” is music written primarily by dead Euro-males between roughly 1650 and 1900, music typically heard in the rather formal environs of a concert hall.  Yes, this music is often referred to as “classical music”, which is as useless a phrase as “real imitation margarine!”  When we call something “classic”, we are identifying it with the ideals and restraint of ancient Greek art, which immediately rules out the great bulk of concert music, which as- often-as-not is filled with schmerz und schmutz, sturm und drang, angst and exaltation.  Even if we use the word “classic” in its loosest permutation – to indicate something exemplary – who’s to say that the phrase “classical music” shouldn’t apply equally to “Classic Jazz”, “Classic Rock” – and even, painful though it may be to contemplate, “Classic Death Metal/Grindcore”. So: a pox on the phrase “classical music”.  Concert music it is. And why should we want to introduce our children to concert music?  Because it constitutes some of the greatest art our species has ever cooked up, musical art that informs, edifies, educates, entertains, inspires, and ultimately packs a toy shop’s worth of joy that will stick with them for […]