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Depressions 1929 United States Jazz History and criticism Music 20th century History and criticism Music 21st century History and criticism Music Instruction and study Music Performance Musical form Style, Musical United States History 1901-1953 United States Politics and government 1901-1953Filter By Series
America in the twentieth century (Hamilton, N.J.) Arts collection (New York, N.Y.) Harmonics (Princeton, N.J.) Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns Music of the 20th century Music of the twentieth century Piano master class Score (New York, N.Y.) The Appalachians Ultimate media librarian collectionFilter By Subjects
Depressions 1929 United States Jazz History and criticism Music 20th century History and criticism Music 21st century History and criticism Music Instruction and study Music Performance Musical form Style, Musical United States History 1901-1953 United States Politics and government 1901-1953Filter By Series
America in the twentieth century (Hamilton, N.J.) Arts collection (New York, N.Y.) Harmonics (Princeton, N.J.) Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns Music of the 20th century Music of the twentieth century Piano master class Score (New York, N.Y.) The Appalachians Ultimate media librarian collectionSummary: The flowering of the Jazz Age is a tale of two great cities, Chicago and New York, and two extraordinary artists whose achievements spanned nearly three-quarters of a century. Louis Armstrong was a fatherless waif who grew up on the rough streets of New Orleans, developing his extraordinary gifts before moving to Chicago, where his transcendent sound inspired a new generation of musicians. Duke...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: This program explores a century of conflict and tragedy in the Appalachians, beginning with the cultural oppression and forced exodus of the Cherokee. Documenting Appalachia's role in racial and ideological tensions leading up to the Civil War, the video examines the prevalence of slavery outside plantation culture and the unpredictable divisions among mountain communities that followed...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: During the early 20th century, Washington, D.C., was the cultural capital of black America. Prefiguring Harlem in the 1920s, D.C.'s Uptown area nurtured dynamic figures such as Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Mary Church Terrell, Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Dr. Charles Drew. In this program, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith tells the often-overlooked story of the heyday,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Best known for its flappers, gangsters, and jazz, the Roaring Twenties was also an era of social tensions and political change. This program is a time capsule of a boisterous era that began with a surge of hope and ended on the verge of the Great Depression. Topics include the presidencies of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, the post-World War I "return to normalcy," the economic boom and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Refined, luminous, and fundamentally optimistic, the music of Joaquin Rodrigo is a tribute to the rich and varied cultures of Spain. Filmed on location throughout Europe, this captivating program profiles the influential Spanish composer whose life spanned the 20th century and whose works set the standard for guitar technique in modern Spanish music. Performance clips from his Concierto de...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: What the painters and poets of the Impressionist movement sought to capture in their media, the French composer Debussy realized in music. This program looks at the techniques Debussy used to create pictures in tones and how he sought to express mood and melody in dramatically new ways. Among the selections featured are Herbert von Karajan conducting Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun and La...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This energetic program illustrates how unpredictable rhythms punctuate musical pieces, and how different instruments are used to create the effect. The orchestra dissects the two Stravinsky pieces line-by-line, illustrating the composer's use of stark rhythm changes to achieve wondrous musical special effects.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines the 20th-century history of Appalachia through the prisms of economic hardship, spiritual perseverance, and the region's rich musical heritage. Showcasing the power of the traditional string band, the video chronicles the rise of modern country music by way of the radio and phonograph. It also highlights the resonance of long-standing church traditions and documents the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The story of jazz begins in New Orleans, 19th-century America's most cosmopolitan city. Here, in the 1890s, African-American artists created a new music out of ragtime syncopations, Caribbean rhythms, marching band instrumentation, and the soulful feeling of the blues. This program introduces the pioneers of this revolutionary art form: half-mad cornet player Buddy Bolden, pianist Jelly Roll...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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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: 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 this program, Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of the musical group Sweet Honey in the Rock, and curator of the Community Life Division of the Smithsonian Institution, discusses with Bill Moyers how black music has shaped the African-American experience and identity. Reagon traces the role of early spirituals rooted in the black church to their inspirational use in the early Civil Rights...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: This program examines the first waves of settlement in the Appalachian mountains, beginning with the region's earliest inhabitants-the Cherokee people and other Native American tribes. Illustrating how these indigenous populations were eventually overwhelmed by the arrival of Europeans, the video focuses on the influx of Scots-Irish immigrants, their crucial role in the American Revolution, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Rap music has articulated a black aesthetic that is influencing pop culture around the world. But does it also promote violence, misogyny, and crime? This program featuring rap-master Melle Mel describes the history of rap and hip-hop from its roots in earlier oral and musical traditions to its full flowering in the mid-1990s. Commentary by Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, rap's early...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: To pursue new directions in music, Schoenberg bravely abandoned traditional tonal arrangements, composing atonal works that would eventually lead to the development of his unique Twelve-Tone System. In this program, musicologists David Rosen and Michel Fischer discuss the dramatic technical changes as well as the historical contexts of Schoenberg's music. Historic performances include Pierre...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: How "musical space" is used to create drama in classical pieces is explored by examining this famous work of American composer Aaron Copland. Mixing small musical steps with giant leaps between notes and chords, the orchestra shows how Copland developed a musical piece full of surprises and the dissonant sounds for which he is noted.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Moved as a boy by the charming simplicity of an organ-grinder's song, Mahler brought "street sounds" into his symphonies. As conductor, he demanded dynamic stage design and lighting and insisted on darkness in the hall, changing the nature of the conductor's role and introducing modern stagecraft. Even his appointment as director of the Vienna Court Opera at the precocious age of 37 was...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The wit, wisdom, and song of one of America's best-known bards comes to life in this program, which offers a rousing musical portrait of the beloved and often controversial folk singer, songwriter, storyteller, and activist. On the eve of Seeger's 75th birthday, Bill Moyers visited him at his home in New York's Hudson Valley for a warm and often wryly funny conversation about his life and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines 20th-century music from the perspective of its most fundamental force-rhythm. It shows how western orchestral music has freed itself from the domination of melody and explored the richness of musical pulse. Starting with the driving power of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Rattle uses works by Gustav Mahler, Sibelius, and modern composer Steve Reich to show that the labels...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Produced in conjunction with legendary singer Peter Gabriel, this program takes viewers to a stage outside London as it documents the work of artists appearing at the World of Music, Arts and Dance Festival (WOMAD) In addition to engaging and powerful on-stage numbers, the film captures intimate, behind-the-scenes moments with world music stars, tracing each performer's origins and artistic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: In the early 1950s, before rock-and-roll dominated youth and urban culture, an innovative form of music appeared on the streets of America's cities. It was a mix of strange new harmonies and nonsense syllables that came to be known as doo-wop. This program traces the development of doo-wop music and the accomplishments of musicians who made the style their own. Viewers also meet a group of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Throughout history, musicians and musical works have reflected the fashion, culture, and social attitudes of their times. Music today is more diversified than ever, from the megahits of teen pop stars to the depth and emotionality of gospel choirs to the tones and textures produced by large-scale orchestras. Add to this the unstoppable forces of MySpace, YouTube, the iPod, and a rapidly...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Back in the day, Run-DMC's mega-hit My Adidas promoted consumerism as a form of rebellion. More recently, however, as savvy teens lose interest in traditional forms of advertising, product placement in lyrics and music videos has become big, big business for manufacturers and rappers alike. Drawing on interviews with Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Records; Camille Hackney, of Elektra...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Liszt frequently expanded upon the work of previous composers to create new musical forms. His transcription of Verdi's Rigoletto was part of a completely new style of piano composition. In this program, Martino Tirimo guides students toward a mastery of the Rigoletto paraphrase and an understanding of its compositional layers. Assembled at London's Royal Academy of Music, pianists from the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005