Your Classical Coffee Break

Mr. Somers rolls out the blackboard to dissect the inner workings of the modern symphony form, using Joseph Haydn's "Surprise Symphony" as an example. Written before the invention of recording devices, most listeners only had one chance to hear this great music at a live concert. We examine the structure of the thematic material to understand how the music was composed to be memorable and "stick" in the listeners' heads,"

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Mr. Somers goes back to The Creation of the World by Darius Milhaud to see how classical music and jazz first merged, even before Gerschwin. We listen to Dave Brubeck and Leonard Bernstein as they "trade fours" in their attempt to merge the forms. We finish our search for genius and improvisation with a jazz piece by Bill Smith, with eight movements, based on an old folk tune.

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We follow the trail of improvisation in Baroque music to New Orleans and the beginnings of Jazz with Jelly Roll Morton, then onto Miles Davis, Gil Evans, and Dave Brubeck. Then we mix it all up with fascinating pieces where classical and jazz create a Third Stream. We end up in Spain where we hear Miles' Sketches where he incorporates an ancient musical technique with Jazz. Minds might be blown.

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Continuing their pursuit of understanding genius, the Pauls discover music from Spain, Soweto, and Mars to understand how music can be improvised within a structured format. We find that genius can be found even within a piano. A coffee break with some beautiful and far out sounds. And a taste of Gershwin too.

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Mr. Somers shows how brilliant musical structure can disappear in the immediacy of the performance, using the fugue and the passacaglia as examples. We listen to some excerpts of powerful works by Benjamin Britten. And how to play what's not there in Brahms Symphony No. 4.

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How much improvisation was there in performing Baroque music? A lot! says Mr. Somers as he discusses how Harmony was the springboard to improvisation. We take a quick zip through Vivaldi's The Four Seasons to explore the structural genius in creating a classic piece of music. Make sure you bring a coat. Winter can get pretty icy.

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The Pauls continue to consider the nature of genius with a discussion of how the play and movie "Amadeus" treats the creativity of Mozart and Antonio Salieri. Perhaps Salieri wasn't such a slouch after all. We listen to some of his works and compare them to Mozart's and Beethoven's and discover that Salieri could stand toe-to-toe with the legendary heavyweights.

For background, listen to:

http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/07-hallelujah

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Messrs. Somers and Herron discuss the nature of genius and how music and art are created. Drawing from a Malcolm Gladwell's "Revisionist History" podcast, the discussion compares the slow style of Beethoven versus the quick-on-the-trigger style of Schubert. And, by the way, is Shubert's "Trout" Quintet, the first anti-industrial, "green" composition?

Listen to the Malcolm Gladwell podcast: http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/07-hallelujah

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This coffee break is full of mystery as Mr. Somers plays a game with us all. He plays a series of exceptional music and we must guess who are the composers. A free CD of Mr. Somers' original music to the first person who emails the right answer,

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The conversation continues regarding Tchaikovsky's BIG SOUND and BIG TUNES, with a focus on the ballet Romeo and Juliet and the 1812 Overture (heard with a choir.) We close the talk with the great composer's final symphony, "Pathetique," and tragic, controversial death. Did Tchaikovsky conduct his very own suicide note?

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