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Learn about instruments and compositional techniques. Also, explore various musical styles and meet musicians featured on Knowitall.

 

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Music | Topics
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Learn about instruments and compositional techniques. Also, explore various musical styles and meet musicians featured on Knowitall.

 

Francis Poulenc | A Minute with Miles

Audio

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...
Chamber Music Rehearsals | A Minute with Miles

Audio

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...
Abraham Lincoln | A Minute with Miles

Audio

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...
Seymour Barab | A Minute with Miles

Audio

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...
Max Bruch | A Minute with Miles

Audio

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...
Atonality vs Dissonance | A Minute with Miles

Audio

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...
Atonal Music | A Minute with Miles

Audio

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...
Rise of Violin | A Minute with Miles

Audio

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...