Summary: Singer-songwriter Andrew Bird is a virtual one-man band - along with his vocal talents, he plays the violin, guitar, xylophone, and glockenspiel. The celebrated musician winds his instrumental techniques together with sophisticated electronic looping. Add in his uncanny ability to whistle anything, and he becomes not just a band but an orchestra. This TED presentation by Bird offers an ideal...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Using Mozart's lively operatic piece, this program illustrates how composers weave together musical ideas to bring contrast and texture to their music. Abrupt pizzicatos, resounding fanfares, and languid melodies presented as a series of quick edits illustrate the point, along with an uninterrupted playback of a portion of the Overture.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: How do musicians find the inspiration to create? Do most songwriters come up with lyrics first, or music? What does it mean to be a composer in today's high-tech world? This program addresses questions young people may have about embarking on a career in music or musical composition. Focusing on current styles like rock, techno, and hip-hop, the video includes interviews with a classically...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Here's a place where your students can turn their creativity into a career. This program looks at opportunities to design, produce, exhibit, perform, write, or publish in a variety of media, including theater, film, textiles, newspapers, radio, and television. Real-world insights into this cluster are provided through interviews with a cable TV broadcast engineer, newspaper reporter,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: How do three talented individuals translate their unique artistic sensibilities into action? This program explains. Section one focuses attention on Jacques d'Amboise, one of the world's finest classical dancers and founder of the National Dance Institute, which exposes thousands of inner-city school children to the magic and discipline of dance. Section two introduces viewers to Andre Andreev...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Aida was acclaimed at its first performance in 1871 and has grown in stature ever since to become one of the best-loved and most-performed grand operas of all time. Filmed at the Royal Opera House, Elijah Moshinsky's 1994 production of Giuseppe Verdi's extravagant and magnificent Egyptian opera features Cheryl Studer in the title role and a cast that includes Dennis O'Neill and Luciana...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1994
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Summary: One of Debussy's impressionistic Estampes, La soiree dans Grenade vividly recalls the landscapes and architecture of Spain and the Far East. Virtuoso pianist Martino Tirimo directs a thrilling master class in this program-enabling the diverse group of students gathered at London's Royal Academy of Music to achieve the atmospheric tonality that Debussy intended. Artists from the United States,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Inspired by Paganini's dedication to a soloist instrument, the violin, Chopin decided early in his career to write only for piano. This beautifully produced program presents a biography of the Polish-born child prodigy and composer who blended Slavic influences into his works. Sketches, paintings, and cinematic treatments of Chopin and his times complement the music. Archival footage includes...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This modern retelling of Humperdinck's fairy tale opera - described by Richard Strauss as "a masterpiece of the highest quality" - combines Romanticism, lyricism, and exuberant playfulness in a rich orchestration. Director Laurent Pelly places the siblings in a cardboard shack, and the iconic gingerbread house has been re-envisioned as shelves of child-enticing junk food. This popular...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: This program discusses the development of this ethereal instrument in 8th-century Ireland. We see how Irish monks introduced the harp to Europe, and follow its growth from a small, hand-held instrument into the standard 75-pound, 46-string instrument played today. Works by Handel, Mozart, Liszt, and Debussy, as well as music from Ireland and Switzerland, illustrate the harp's use through time.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: A close look at such rarities as the dulcimer and the hurdy-gurdy, as well as better-known instruments like the organ, harpsichord, and kettledrums.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Between the two of them, Wynton Marsalis and B.B. King have jazz, classical music, and the blues covered. What are these towering composer/musicians like as writers and performers-and as people? This NewsHour program shares a few moments of their lives to look deeper. Episodes include. * Wynton Marsalis-Jazzing the Pulitzer: Charlayne Hunter-Gault and a 35-year-old Wynton Marsalis talk...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: In what many believe to be the finest production of Verdi's Otello in modern times, Plácido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa lead a world-class cast under the forceful and sensitive musical direction of Sir Georg Solti. This is an outstanding performance of the first of the composer's two late Shakespearean operas, widely regarded as masterpieces of the form. The production is helmed by Elijah...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1992
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Summary: In 1701, Bartolomeo Christofori, a musician employed by the Medicis, invented the first piano by modifying a harpsichord. This program discusses how this popular instrument has changed over the years (except for its hammers), and how its flexibility and expressiveness have inspired composers such as Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and Bartok.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Two groups of instruments use strings as the primary source of sound: those in which plucking sets the strings in vibration, and the bowed strings. This program shows how the demand for more powerful sounds was met, and examines the instruments of Stradivari to determine what science can and cannot reveal about their magic. It also examines the ways in which scientific methods complement the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: This program discusses the history and evolution of electronic music. The synthesizer's roots are traced from the 1920s to the invention of the "Trautonium"-a prototype of the modern synthesizer. Its acceptance in European music circles is discussed. Performances that include the synthesizer show how the development of the modern Moog synthesizer in the 1970s revolutionized contemporary music...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: This captivating program combines key scenes from Mozart's singspiel The Abduction from the Seraglio as performed at the spectacular Topkapi Palace with a documentary about the intricate process of rehearsing the production. A winner of the International Broadcasting Convention's Golden Rembrandt, the program also provides fresh insights into the personal life of Mozart, the history of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 takes on new life in this Emmy-nominated Discovery Concert(tm) Conductor George Marriner Maull and the Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey create an interactive experience through which spectators become intimate with the concerto's third movement and the structure of a fugue. Engaging the live audience in spirited conversation, Maull cajoles them into...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This program discusses the instruments in the bass section of an orchestra-particularly the double bass. We see how the double bass, originally developed as an accompanying instrument, was used more prominently by such musical notables as double bass virtuoso and conductor Serge Kussevitzky-mentor of the late Leonard Bernstein. Music by Haydn and others illustrates the use of other bass...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: To understand the lyricism and rhythmic quality of James Joyce's work, take a stroll through the music-filled streets of Dublin-made possible by this charming and informative program. Set on "Bloomsday 2004," the 100th anniversary of Leopold Bloom's fictional excursion, the video immerses viewers in turn-of-the-century Dublin, popular Irish tunes of the era, and the various ways in which Joyce...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Primitive men developed the first musical instruments when they used tubes of bamboo, bone, or wood to produce whistling sounds. The ancient Greeks later played pan-pipes. This program shows what happened as the same principle was applied to a wide range of instruments.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: "The Royal Opera's new staging of La Fille du Régiment will probably go down in history as one of the company's great achievements," says The Guardian of the romantic comic opera. This 2007 Laurent Pelly production made the reputation of stars Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez - dubbed "King of the High Cs" for his ability to hit the famously rapid succession of nine top notes in the aria...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Though the violins of Antonio Stradivarius and Guarneri del Gesu remain the gold standard for concert musicians, their prices-often in the millions-and their scarcity place them beyond the use of all but a handful of soloists. This NewsHour program looks at Samuel Zygmuntowicz, the master violin-maker whose replicas and original designs fetch
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Introduce viewers to three women who have found gainful employment in the field of music. This program profiles Sandra Schultz, a sound engineer and technician who records and mixes for music producers; Shelley Park, a guitar builder who produces between 12 and 20 instruments per year; and Alice Bernier, an electronic music composer who works out of her own high-tech studio. Commentary from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007