Summary: West Side Story not only brought unconventional subject matter to the musical stage, it ushered in a new breed of director-choreographer and a need for performers who could sing, dance, and act. But by the time Jerome Robbins’ last original musical, Fiddler on the Roof, closed in 1972, the world of Broadway had changed even more radically. Rock ’n’ roll, civil rights, and the Vietnam War took...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
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Summary: Taking viewers back to the Roaring Twenties, this program examines the Broadway of the Jazz Age-the era of Runnin' Wild, George White Scandals, and Shuffle Along, which helped reopen Broadway's doors to African-American artists. The film also features unique talents like the Marx Brothers, Al Jolson, the Gershwin brothers, and the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. But the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
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Summary: Producer David Merrick conquered Broadway in 1981 with an adaptation of the movie musical 42nd Street. But soon the biggest hits were arriving from an unexpected source-London. This program illustrates the reshaping of the Broadway musical as the curtain fell on the 20th century and reopened on the 21st. From Stephen Sondheim’s contemplative Sunday in the Park with George to blockbusters like...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
View online at AVOD
Summary: In 1893, the intersection of Broadway and 42nd was nobody's idea of "the crossroads of the world." But by 1913, Flo Ziegfeld had transformed the area into an entertainment mecca. This program tells Ziegfeld's story, introduces many of the era's key figures-such as Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice, Bert Williams, and George M. Cohan-and culminates with a look at Ziegfeld's 1927 production of Jerome...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program explores the biological reasons why humans have the most amazing sense of taste on the planet. Persuading a family raised on Chinese food to try ripe Stilton cheese and a group of gourmet cheese lovers to try a Chinese delicacy of fermented raw duck eggs, host Nigel Marven assesses how we end up with such extraordinary tastes that vary across different cultures. Yale University...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program argues that the human visual system is skillful at some things, but that we miss an amazing amount of what is going on right in front of our eyes. Whether spotting attractive people in a crowd, gauging depth and distance, or even predicting where things end up, the eyes are at their most perceptive. But clever experiments conducted at a nightclub by scientists from Sussex...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Why are humans so responsive to touch? This program calculates the different sensitivities of the body's most receptive parts. The density of touch sensors in the skin explains why some parts of the body seem to have a much lower pain threshold-a microscopic splinter in a finger can be extremely painful, while a cut on your leg may not hurt as much. University College London professor Tony...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program deconstructs the emotional effects evoked by music and other sounds. Experiments by Dr. Mark Blagrove at the Sleep Laboratory in Swansea show that our sense of hearing is constantly alert, even while asleep, and Dr. Sarah Collins, from Nottingham University, explains why deep voices are so attractive to the opposite sex. Scientists assert that we have certain automatic responses to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although facial and body hair are the most visible signs of male puberty, the process of becoming a man actually involves major organs like the heart and lungs. No one demonstrates that better than 14-year-old Jesse, whose physique is developing rapidly-while Mark, at almost the same age, poignantly awaits even the first hint of change. Meanwhile, 12-year-old choir member Dominic struggles to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: The modern version of the oboe and the many forms it has taken during its evolution are the subject of this program. We see the oboe's ancient Egyptian ancestor-an unrecognizable prototype of the instrument played today. The more familiar-looking oboe, developed in the 17th century, is discussed within the context of its predecessors-the English horn, the heckelphone, and the contra bassoon....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The roots and foreign branches of the guitar-family tree. The program looks at the more important of the many relatives of this instrument.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program traces the history of four violins made at the workshop of master craftsman Andrea Amati-an original Amati made in 1566; a violin made by Nicolo Amati, an instructor to Stradivarius; and two 18th-century violins. We visit the Venice workshops of other violin master craftsmen, and see how the craft spread from there to Switzerland, where a workshop established in the 17th century...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In the 11th century, European musicians tried to make their instruments sound like the human voice. Instead of plucking the strings, they began drawing a piece of wood or bone across them to sustain the tone. By Elizabethan times, the viol was the aristocrat of bowed instruments, while the violin was considered fit only for pubs and parties. This program shows how fashions as well as musical...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: The guitar is the national instrument of Spain, so it is appropriate that this program begins with the playing of the traditional vihuela. The story of the instrument's development over the next 400 years includes its replacement of that universal Renaissance instrument, the lute, in both Spain and Italy. Both guitar solo performances and guitar performances with voice appear throughout the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Pipe organs are the most majestic of musical instruments, and each one is a unique work of art named after its designer. This program studies the painstaking craftsmanship in wood and metal that goes into pipe organ construction and illustrates the function of the instrument's many parts. The voicing process, in which the volume and tonal quality of a pipe organ is adjusted to suit the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The development of reeds from those played loudly by the Saracens to frighten the Crusaders' horses, to the seventeenth-century forerunners of today's orchestral reed instruments.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
Summary: Everything is wrong, complains Claudia-who, until her changing body lost its sense of balance, envisioned no obstacles to becoming a professional dancer. Identical twins Jessica and Rebecca prepare for high school and the social stress it will bring, with bra shopping at the top of their worry list. And Alex, now 13, sheds light on the trauma of starting puberty at age seven. Incorporating...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: The origins of the Book of Kells are uncertain; it was written and illustrated around the year 800, but the monastery where it originated has not been identified. It contains the Latin text of the four Gospels, with some pages in elaborate color; almost every page has brightly-colored birds and animals, and there are portraits of the four evangelists. This program not only shows but identifies...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program focuses on the components of our sense of balance. Stunt coordinator Marc Cass demonstrates how the balance organs inform us of how we are moving. At the Circus School, in San Francisco, a troupe of acrobats illustrates how eyes control balance by calculating what our bodies are doing in relation to the outside world. Dr. Ros Davies, from the National Hospital for Neurology and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program investigates how psychological principles determine a smell's level of repellence. After testing natural smells found to be offensive to most people, scientists at Monell Chemical Services Center and the University of California propose that our reactions are heavily shaped by personal experience. Demonstrations of how olfactory lobes work are featured. Host Nigel Marven observes...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006