ARTSEDGE: The Kitchen Sink

You walk down the red carpet; an usher shows you to your seat under the sparkling chandeliers. Just what you’d expect when attending a performance in the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center. But this isn’t a typical performance in the Concert Hall. This is OK Go performing for a packed house being filmed by almost two dozen professional and amateur videographers. The confetti cannons burst into the air, and in a frenzy of sight and sound, the band takes the stage with their hit, “Do What You Want” in SD.

Moving on to Norway in our tour, we meet composer Edvard Grieg. Grieg’s challenge was to write music that told a clear story without using any words. Listen as he uses music to help the hero of his story, Peer Gynt, escape from mountain trolls. Next stop, England.

In this episode, meet award-winning Documentary Composer Lenny Williams, a classically trained musician who is as at home in the pit orchastra of the Kennedy Center as he is in a jazz club with DC go-go legend Chuck Brown. Listen as Lenny scores two documentary television scenes, and learn the musical difference between a lion chase and a jellyfish attack!

For such a small country, Austria has had a huge impact on European culture and on classical music. On this stop of our tour, we'll hear how Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart used pitch in his Symphony no. 29. In the next episode, we'll be off to Norway!

In this episode, meet Sound Designer and Producer Cheryl Ottenritter, and listen as she builds compelling promos for Shark Week and the Military Channel, sound by sound. Cheryl also discusses how her background as a musician helps her collaborations with soundtrack composers, and explains what does a sound designer does when what is on screen makes no sound of its own.

Hundreds of years ago, the world was introduced to the orchestra. It was love at first sound. Everyone was captivated by the never-before-heard sounds of some 20 to 100 musicians playing together. Before the orchestra, classical music was for groups of three (trios) or four (quartets)—tops! The invention of this much bigger musical group meant bigger musical possibilities, and the world’s imagination went wild. Composers all across Europe were inspired to try their hand at creating symphonies for the orchestra and pushing classical music to new limits. Next stop: Austria!

Meet Ben Burtt, Sound Designer for films like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark and WALL-E. Learn how he comes up with sounds that complement the amazing things seen on the silver screen – from laser blasts to whirring, buzzing lightsabers. Find out the story behind some of his signature effects and how he first got interested in sound design.

Indian music typically contains no harmony, can be completely improvised, and is rarely written down. So how do Indian musicians manage to play together? In this segment, we’ll learn about rhythmic patterns called taal, music unique to certain communities and even times of the year, and if deep-rooted musical traditions can continue as India undergoes fast-paced growth and modernization.

The geographic, language, and cultural diversity of India contributes to a broad range of musical styles within Indian music. Certain folk styles and traditions of music important to one region may be virtually unknown in others. In this segment, we’ll learn about many common elements of Indian music—ragas, drones, improvisation, and the celebrity of being a Bollywood playback singer.

Do you know which drum can speak? Or what instrument is made from a pumpkin? In this segment, we’ll learn about the many instruments that define the sounds of Indian music, and how they are played: the tabla, sitar, tanpura, sarangi, mizhavu, naal, dhol, pung… and the double-flute sitara, whose players can perform without stopping to breathe!