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Chamber Music Rehearsals | A Minute with Miles Seymour Barab | A Minute with Miles

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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...

Chamber Music Rehearsals | A Minute with Miles Max Bruch | A Minute with Miles

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Max Bruch | A Minute with Miles

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...

Chamber Music Rehearsals | A Minute with Miles Atonality vs Dissonance | A Minute with Miles

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Atonality vs Dissonance | A Minute with Miles

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 Atonal Music | A Minute with Miles

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Atonal Music | A Minute with Miles

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...

Abraham Lincoln | A Minute with Miles Rise of Violin | A Minute with Miles

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Rise of Violin | A Minute with Miles

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...

Chamber Music Rehearsals | A Minute with Miles Oboe | A Minute with Miles

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Oboe | A Minute with Miles

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...

Chamber Music Rehearsals | A Minute with Miles Women's Voices | A Minute with Miles

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Women's Voices | A Minute with Miles

In operatic singing, there are three principal voice types for women. From high to low, they are soprano, mezzo-soprano—mezzo meaning “middle” in Italian—and contralto. The ranges of these voices...

Chamber Music Rehearsals | A Minute with Miles Violin Family II | A Minute with Miles

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Violin Family II | A Minute with Miles

Episode 2

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...