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Culture Depressions 1929 United States Jazz History and criticism Music 20th century History and criticism Music 21st century History and criticism Musical form Style, Musical United States History 1901-1953 United States History Study and teaching United States Politics and government 1901-1953Filter By Series
America in the 20th century America in the twentieth century (Hamilton, N.J.) Arts collection (New York, N.Y.) Five centuries of music in Venice Harmonics (Princeton, N.J.) Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns Piano master class Score (New York, N.Y.) The Appalachians Ultimate media librarian collectionFilter By Subjects
Culture Depressions 1929 United States Jazz History and criticism Music 20th century History and criticism Music 21st century History and criticism Musical form Style, Musical United States History 1901-1953 United States History Study and teaching United States Politics and government 1901-1953Filter By Series
America in the 20th century America in the twentieth century (Hamilton, N.J.) Arts collection (New York, N.Y.) Five centuries of music in Venice Harmonics (Princeton, N.J.) Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns Piano master class Score (New York, N.Y.) The Appalachians Ultimate media librarian collectionSummary: 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: 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: 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: 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
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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: Deeply rooted in African rhythms, the first gospel music, as sung on southern plantations, expressed the collective sorrow of American slaves, and the history of their diaspora. Using narration and thrilling performance footage, these programs trace the 200-year history of gospel music from black churches, to the civil rights movement, to its influence on modern jazz, blues, and rock and roll....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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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: 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
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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: 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: 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
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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: Updated in 1998, Edith Piaf's meteoric rise to fame from the nightclubs of Paris to the world's most famous chanteuse is legend. "The Little Sparrow's" throaty renditions of such hits as "La Vie en Rose," "Non, je ne regrette rien," and "L'Accordioniste" seem as fresh today as when they were recorded. This program pays tribute to Piaf by examining her life through archival footage, photos, and...
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: Songs about a certain time and place are more than sentimental musings-they also serve as departure points for cultural and sociological studies. This program uses popular 20th-century French music to explore the rich character and modern-era development of Paris. Juxtaposing commentary from French scholars, performers, and business leaders with classic recordings by Edith Piaf, Brigitte...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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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: 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: 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: 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: This program covers the start of the International Music Festivals and Venice's role as host to Hindemith, Schoenberg, Bartok, and Stravinsky; the rise to fame of Malipiero, Nono, and Maderna; and the role of today's avant-gardists. Live performances in the Albrizzi Palace and on the Lido.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Copland himself is the key explicator of his own extraordinary musical career, from piano lessons in Brooklyn and study with Nadia Boulanger, a fling as a wild-eyed modernist, and finally to his preeminence in the American musical world. The program features a wealth of Copland music, including ballet sequences with Agnes de Mille dancing in Rodeo and Martha Graham in Appalachian Spring, scenes...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Impressed with how European music could have a "German sound," a "French sound," and so on, Aaron Copland returned from his years in Paris to New York City, intent on capturing the essence of the "American sound. This documentary presents an artful blending of the life and music of one of America's great modern composers. The many milestones in Copland's long career are discussed by his...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: It is seldom that an eminent figure in the arts lives to witness the outcome of his influence on a transitional era, but such is the case of Italian experimental composer Luciano Berio. This program presents a living biography of a musical innovator whose career began over fifty years ago with the Avant-garde movement. Using an ongoing arrangement of his acclaimed work Cronaca del Luogo as the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006