The Listening Service

Tom Service considers the texture of music. We often talk about the pitches and the rhythms in a piece of music, but how does it strike the ear? Is it rough or smooth, dense or transparent? And how are such textures achieved? He talks to composer Anna Meredith about how she creates excitement through combining different layers of orchestral sound; and to arranger Iain Farrington about how to preserve the textures of a Mahler symphony when it's arranged for only a dozen musicians.

All noise and no tunes?

Why is contemporary classical music often thought of as hard work and how can we learn to love it?

With music from Beethoven to Birtwistle to Burna Boy and Stormzy, new music fan Tom Service has words of encouragement.

The office party... unwelcome relatives... indigestion... alcoholic overindulgence... hideous decorations... Among all the inevitable woes that accompany the festive season, yuletide music is surely one of the most annoying and pervasive. But what are its origins, its essential ingredients and intrinsic worth? And has the commercial always been a major element of most Christmas music? On a mission to find out, Tom Service has been listening to a lot of it, so you don't have to. Including contributions from Judith Flanders, author of 'Christmas: a Biography' and some of those whose perennial Christmas hits invariably provide the season's soundtrack.

David Papp (producer)

Every "sha-la-la-la" and every "wo-o-wo-oh"...Tom Service brings the backing singers of both the pop and opera worlds to the fore.

From shortbread tins to the Royal Mile, rugby games and highland weddings, the bagpipes have long been a symbol of Scottish identity: but where did they come from, what are they for, and who writes their music?

With pipers Simon McKerrell and Brighde Chaimbeul, Tom Service explores their history against the backdrop of global piping traditions from Sweden to Macedonia, Spain and Hungary. What's the difference between the ceol mhor and the ceol beag? Are modern pipes more likely to be made from goat or gore-tex? And how did they make their way into everything from AC/DC to Eminem, and Berlioz to Bach? Tom is on the case...

So you want to write a piece of music? Where do you start? And then how do you carry on? How much music theory do you need to know? Or can you get away with knowing very little about music?

Can we get beyond The Four Seasons? Was he really a priest? Did he write the same concerto several hundred times? Antonio Vivaldi wrote arguably the most famous piece of classical music of all time but his reputation has suffered as a result. Some accuse him of churning out the same concerto multiple times at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice where he taught music and performed alongside orchestras and choirs of female musicians, much to the titillation of travelling tourists of the day.

With the help of violinist Hugo Ticciati (who performs Vivaldi's works alongside those of rock band Metallica), and Vivaldi expert Susan Orlando Tom explores the joyfully physical realm of The Red Priest's music, how Vivaldi's music can teach us to listen in a whole new way and why Vivaldi's operas will soon be making a comeback.

From loud to soft, even louder and even softer, dynamics are crucial to the dramatic effect of music.

The Royal College of Music’s Head of Composition William Mival and BBC Sound engineer Matilda Macari give an insight into just how loud the music that we're hearing through our radios is.

Produced by Calantha Bonnissent.

Isaac Newton's 'Truth is ever to be found in simplicity...' has often been echoed in music by many of the great composers down the ages. But during the 20th and 21st centuries, akin to movements in the visual arts, some composers have pared down their music to a few seemingly basic elements. But how difficult is it to achieve meaningful musical simplicity and what's the difference between that and mind-numbingly banal simple-is-as-simple-does?

With the help of composer Howard Skempton and Tate Modern curator Emma Lewis, Tom Service discovers the hard and often complex truths about simplicity.

David Papp (producer)

Tom Service looks at Progressive Rock, to find out whether it was an apotheosis of rock music, thanks to the influence of classical music, the virtuosity of the performers and the ambition of its structures - or was it a folly of hopelessly over-reaching naivety and vapid pomposity? For a short period in the early 1970s, rock bands such as Yes, Genesis, ELP and King Crimson were boldly experimenting with their music, devising complex pieces that bore little relation to the simple pop song, and exhibiting dazzling instrumental skills. So why did it all go wrong so quickly? Tom consults Dr Sarah Hill, co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Progressive Rock, and also speaks to legendary keyboard wizard (and ex-member of Yes), Rick Wakeman.