Timeline: Vermont Public Classical

Chopin’s birthday is celebrated on the 1st of March and J.S. Bach’s on either the 21st or the 31st, depending on which calendar you use. That’s a long story for another episode. We’ve spent this entire month exploring the music and lives of these two composers. All of this has come together around a concert that VPR Classical hosted last month called “The Alchemy of Genius.”

We are continuing to celebrate the life and music of J.S. Bach and Chopin, listening to excerpts from a recent concert I hosted with pianist Paul Orgel in VPR’s Stetson Studio One while also featuring highlights from an interview I had with pianist and Chopin scholar Marjan Kiepura. On our website, VPR.org/classical, you can listen to all of Paul Orgel’s performances from “The Alchemy of Genius” pairing Nocturnes by Chopin with excerpts from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book II.

We’re spending the next few episodes celebrating the life and music of J.S. Bach and Chopin. In this episode we’ll look at Chopin specifically and we’ll also have some help…

Marjan: My name is Marjan Kiepura. I’m a pianist.

James: That’s a bit of an understatement. Marjan is a celebrated virtuoso and a noted Chopin scholar…

We celebrate Chopin’s birthday on the first day of March and J.S. Bach’s on the last. So, on Timeline we’ll be spending this month exploring the life and music of these two influential composers. In February, I had the pleasure of hosting a concert at Vermont Public Radio’s Stetson Studio One with pianist Paul Orgel. Paul was presenting an evening of musical pairings, putting together selections from J.S Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book II and Chopin’s Nocturnes. I was honored to be a part of the evening, giving some insights into the composers and their music. Here are some highlights I wanted to share with you.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart loved birds. His letters to family and friends mention several pet canaries he had during the course of his life, but the most famous bird Mozart ever owned was his beloved starling. The story goes that Mozart frequented a pet store in Vienna and became enamored with a particular European starling. These birds have an uncanny ability to mimic vocal sounds and presumably Mozart taught the bird to recite the opening melody of the third movement of his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G major. Mozart purchased the bird on May 27, 1784. We know this because he marked it in an expense book, along with a transcription of the bird’s version of Mozart’s melody – which had a couple of mistakes. The mistakes didn’t matter to Mozart. In the book, after the transcription, Mozart wrote the words, “That was beautiful!”

Listening to music is an emotional experience, unique to each individual. I think we’ve all had a moment when a song, a piece, a singer, a band, an orchestra has touched our hearts, moved us in some way. We also realize that it’s not the same for everyone; different music speaks to different people. We can try to describe the way the music makes us feel but I wonder if it’s even possible to really know how music effects someone else.

In the past couple of episodes we’ve looked at quite a few audio experiments (or illusions, if you will), exploring the limitations and wonderful abilities of our ears and mind. I’ve been joined by some friends from VPR, Brendan Kinney, Leslie Blount and Joe Tymecki. They volunteered to take part in these experiments and share their experiences with us.

Our ears and minds are amazing. Not only can they hear and experience the world around us, they are also filling in the gaps in our perception. We don’t even realize all the ways that our hearing is constructing the world around us, helping keep us safe and understand our surroundings.

We are wired to respond to sound, in a thousandth of a second. With that kind of visceral, automatic response, we sometimes get it wrong. I’ve been looking at the research of perceptual and cognitive psychologist Diana Deutsch. She has spent her career exploring and assembling audio illusions and curiosities. We’ll look at a few of them together and ask “can you trust your ears?” I posed that question to a few of my colleagues at VPR. They volunteered to experience a few audio experiments with me.

Have you ever had a song that you just couldn’t get out of your head? You’re not alone. 98% of people have reportedly experienced this phenomenon. Scientists call it Involuntary Musical Imagery but the more catchy title is "earworm."