Filter By Subjects
African Americans History Depressions 1929 United States Jazz History and criticism Music 20th century History and criticism Music 21st century History and criticism Music appreciation Musical form Style, Musical United States History 1901-1953 United States Politics and government 1901-1953Filter By Series
America in the 20th century America in the twentieth century (Hamilton, N.J.) Five centuries of music in Venice Harmonics (Princeton, N.J.) Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns Music of the 20th century Music of the twentieth century Score (New York, N.Y.) The Appalachians Ultimate media librarian collectionFilter By Subjects
African Americans History Depressions 1929 United States Jazz History and criticism Music 20th century History and criticism Music 21st century History and criticism Music appreciation Musical form Style, Musical United States History 1901-1953 United States Politics and government 1901-1953Filter By Series
America in the 20th century America in the twentieth century (Hamilton, N.J.) Five centuries of music in Venice Harmonics (Princeton, N.J.) Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns Music of the 20th century Music of the twentieth century 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
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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 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: 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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
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: 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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
Summary: Olivier Messiaen played a leading role in the evolution of 20th-century music. In this classic interview, the late composer talks on topics such as his love of nature and his fervent Christian faith, two themes that profoundly shaped his work; his views on rhythm and tonal color; his relationship with his mother, the poet Cecile Sauvage; and his professorship at the Paris Conservatoire. Film...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program describes a great musical culture in decline in turn-of-the-century Vienna, and discusses how that decline led to the musical revolution whose reverberations are still felt today. Names like Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg still strike terror in the hearts of many concert-goers. With the help of Simon Rattle, however, we hear in their powerful, brooding music the collapse of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
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