A Minute with Miles

How did the piano get its name? Why can’t you “reach” a crescendo? Who invented opera—and why—and how do you pronounce “Handel”? These and countless other classical music questions are answered on South Carolina Public Radio’s A Minute with Miles.

Hosted by longtime NPR commentator Miles Hoffman, the segments inform and entertain as they provide illuminating 60-second flights through the world of classical music. (Photo: Mary Noble Ours)

PHOTO CREDITS: 123rf.com (purchased) and Pixabay.com

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Violin Family I | A Minute with Miles
Violin Family I | A Minute with Miles
Episode 1

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Have you ever wondered how the violin came to play such an important role in the history of classical music? Well, it starts with singing. The invention of opera, in late 16th century Florence, marks...
Violin Family II | A Minute with Miles
Violin Family II | A Minute with Miles
Episode 2

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The members of the modern violin family are the violin, viola, cello, and double bass. These instruments are descendants of various kinds of medieval fiddles—fiddle, by the way, being an older word...
Abraham Lincoln | A Minute with Miles
Abraham Lincoln | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

President's Day is observed in the United States on the third Monday of February. February 12 is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, and I wonder if you knew that our sixteenth president was a great music...
Atonal Music | A Minute with Miles
Atonal Music | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Atonal music is music that isn’t written in a key, music that doesn’t follow the traditional rules of harmony. But although the term “atonal” tells us what a piece isn’t, it doesn’t tell us what it is...
Atonality vs Dissonance | A Minute with Miles
Atonality vs Dissonance | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Atonality and dissonance are often linked in listeners’ minds, but they’re not the same thing. Dissonance, from the Latin words for “sounding” and “apart,” is the simultaneous sounding of two or more...
Chamber Music Rehearsals | A Minute with Miles
Chamber Music Rehearsals | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Chamber music rehearsals are very different from orchestra rehearsals. In an orchestra rehearsal, it’s the conductor’s job to make the overall musical decisions and to ensure that the members of the...
Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Melody | A Minute with Miles
Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Melody | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Already during their lifetimes, Antonin Dvorák and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky were among the most famous composers in the world. Their music is extremely sophisticated, the product of highly skilled...
Francis Poulenc | A Minute with Miles
Francis Poulenc | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Francis Poulenc didn’t have to depend on composition for his living—he was the heir to the fortune of the Rhône-Poulenc pharmaceutical company—but he nonetheless turned out an enormous body of work in...
Max Bruch | A Minute with Miles
Max Bruch | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Some great composers have been pioneers and musical radicals, and some have been fundamentally conservative. Max Bruch was a conservative to his bones, and it served him well. He established his...
Oboe | A Minute with Miles
Oboe | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The modern oboe most likely originated in France in the 1600's. The word oboe, which is the instrument’s name in both English and Italian, comes from the French name, hautbois, meaning “high wood,” or...
Program Notes for Non-Musicians | A Minute with Miles
Program Notes for Non-Musicians | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

A word of advice today for non-musicians reading program notes in concert programs: If the program notes are heavy on technical analysis and are loaded with terms like modulation, inversion...
Rise of Violin | A Minute with Miles
Rise of Violin | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Have you ever wondered how the violin came to play such an important role in the history of classical music? Well, it starts with singing. The invention of opera, in late 16th century Florence, marks...
Sarasate Plays Premiere | A Minute with Miles
Sarasate Plays Premiere | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

On January 2, 1881, the Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate was in Paris to play the premiere of the Violin Concerto No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns.
Serenade | A Minute with Miles
Serenade | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Serenade is one of those musical terms that has meant many different things at many different times. The term itself comes from the Italian sereno, which is from the Latin serenus, which means “serene...
Seymour Barab | A Minute with Miles
Seymour Barab | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The American composer Seymour Barab started out as a pianist and organist, but as a teenager he took up the cello, and as a cellist he became a highly successful orchestra musician, founder of...
The Clarinet | A Minute with Miles
The Clarinet | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The clarinet was the last of the principal woodwind instruments to join the orchestra. The modern clarinet evolved from earlier forms in the early 1700's—later than the modern oboe, bassoon, and flute...
The Development of the Piano | A Minute with Miles
The Development of the Piano | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The harpsichord, the keyboard workhorse of the Baroque period, is an instrument with a problem: varying the touch on the keys has absolutely no effect on volume or tone quality. Depress a key gently...
The Double Bass | A Minute with Miles
The Double Bass | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The double bass is the one member of the modern violin family whose roots are in the viola da gamba, or viol family. The next time you see a double bass, notice that its back is flat, like a viol’s...
The Glockenspiel | A Minute with Miles
The Glockenspiel | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

When a percussionist says, “I’m playing bells in this piece,” he means he’s playing the glockenspiel. Glocke is the German word for bell, and Glockenspiel literally means “bell-play.” The modern...
The Harp | A Minute with Miles
The Harp | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Here's a little secret: harpist don't use their pinkies even though they have 47 strings to play. In today's episode, Miles Hoffman describes how the Harp is played.
The Trumpet | A Minute with Miles
The Trumpet | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The Trumpet is the highest pitched and most brilliant member of the brass family. Miles Hoffman discusses the history of the trumpet.
The Waltz | A Minute with Miles
The Waltz | A Minute with Miles

Audio

Grades: 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

When the dance known as the waltz first became popular in Europe in the late 1700's and early 1800's, it was considered by many to be the ultimate in lewdness and licentiousness.
Vibrato
Vibrato

Audio

Grades: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

When violinists play, their left hands always seem to shake. But it’s not because they’re nervous. Violinists, violists, cellists, and double bass players all use a technique called vibrato.