The First Secular Music

UNIVERSAL PICTURES PROD LTD

This program proceeds from the early music of the Eastern churches to the establishment of music as part of the Christian liturgy; the influence of Pope Gregory and the first composers for the Church; Notre-Dame de Paris and other religious centers; Leonin, Perotin, Guillaume de Machaut; the birth of secular song; Walther von der Vogelweide, Landini, Dunstable, and Dufay. Contents include excerpts from: Traditional Gregorian, Hebrew, and Greek chants; Leonin's Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Estampie from the Manuscript du Roi; Perotin's Viderunt Omnes; Tempus est iocundum from Carmina Burana; Walther von der Vogelweide, Palestinalied; Machaut, Il m'est avis, Quant je suis mis, Gloria from Notre-Dame Mass; Landini's Questa Fanciulla Amor and L'Alma Mia Piange; Dunstable's Veni Sancte Spiritu; and Dufay's Ave Regina Coelorum. (60 minutes)

Blues Beginning

Eagle Rock Entertainment

The blues was born in the Mississippi Delta over 100 years ago. To tell the story of its genesis and early development, Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman invites us to his club, Ground Zero, in Clarksdale Mississippi. Simple but powerful songs played by dirt-poor African-Americans went on to inspire the likes of Dylan, Hendrix, Clapton, and The Rolling Stones, and helped create modern rock music. Freeman guides us from the music's African roots, to the old Delta masters such as Robert Johnson. The program then illustrates the rich variety of the blues from the 1940s onwards. Freeman introduces live footage of BB King, Buddy Guy, Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, and Etta James at the Montreux Jazz Festival; Buddy talks about his life and times as Clapton's favorite player. Other insights and musical examples come from Olu Dara, blues musician and father of rap superstar Nas, and musician and actor Chris Thomas King. This entertaining and educational narrative documents the roots and shoots of a seminal American art form.

Traveling Blues

Eagle Rock Entertainment

Oscar-winning actor and avid blues fan, Morgan Freeman, hosts a fascinating program exploring how the blues has developed and diversified from the 1960s onwards, and in the process played a huge role in shaping the face of rock music. He begins with the British Blues boom of that decade which saw many white musicians pick up the blues baton: musicians such as Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and Eric Clapton. Clapton features in live footage recorded at the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival. Clapton’s contemporaries in the 1960s included Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana. We see Santana jamming with the Saharan band Tinariwen whose hypnotic sound takes us back to the very roots of the music in Africa. This film also celebrates more recent blues contributors including Robert Cray and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Freeman showcases the sounds of Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion, who in turn influenced The White Stripes; and the hip-hop/blues combination delivered by actor-musician Chris Thomas King. King, Speech from Arrested Development, G. Love, and Buddy Guy provide lively analysis and insight.

Heart of Soul

Eagle Rock Entertainment

In the 1960s, soul music topped pop charts around the world. Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman begins this history of 1960s and 1970s soul by outlining the achievements of Berry Gordy at Motown. We see footage of The Supremes and a clip featuring Motown labelmate, Gladys Knight. We then return to Memphis to celebrate Stax records via, Booker T & the MGs. Another major figure at Stax was Isaac Hayes. Here we see him perform the Theme From Shaft. Trumpeter, Wayne Jackson shares personal experiences of working at Stax. At Hi Records, Al Green became the last great soul singer of the era. Here he performs Take Me To The River. Other legendary contributors to the story of soul include Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and James Brown. In the 1990s, neo-soul singers such as Jill Scott and Angie Stone look back to soul's glory days. Leela James closes this musical journey with a version of Sam Cooke’s classic A Change Is Gonna Come. Music critics Nelson George and Rob Bowman share their expert knowledge throughout. While musicians Sweet Honey in the Rock and Nona Hendryx describe what soul meant to them as African-Americans in an era rife with racial tension.

Mr. Handy's Blues

Joanne Fish

W.C. Handy is a larger than life figure in American music history. For over a century, he has been revered internationally as "The Father of the Blues." This is the first documentary to offer a portrait of the legend’s life. It is an against-all-odds tale of family conflict, racial tensions, and redemption. Born the son of a preacher in post-Civil War Alabama, Handy rose to fame as one of the most beloved and prolific composers of the 20th century. Ten years in the making, the film reveals never-before seen footage and photographs, and extensive rare audio and video recordings of W.C. Handy himself. Starring Taj Mahal, Bobby Rush, and Vince Giordano, and featuring performances of Handy’s iconic songs by current artists, this documentary preserves the legacy of this American treasure for generations to come.

Eras of Music History: Baroque

C Major Entertainment GmbH

This program covers the music of the Baroque period, which ran from 1600 to 1750. Characterized by elaborate compositions, the decreasing influence of the church meant that composers had a greater degree of freedom to work on other music (beyond that for religious occasions). This period also saw the rise of instrumentalist suites and concertos, which created the basis for the classical forms to come. We also see the rise of opera during this period. Key composers from this period include Bach, Handel, Purcell, and Vivaldi.

Eras of Music History: Romantic

C Major Entertainment GmbH

The Romantic period, which lasted from 1820 to 1910, is the focus of this program. This era of rapid evolution in music saw composers composing from the heart. No longer employees, they could follow their own direction much more freely. This period is the beginning of the commercialization of music, where composers had to promote their own music through concerts, make deals with publishing houses, and compose music that had commercial value. Many composers were themselves skilled conductors and performers, who would tour their new works. Now celebrities, compositions begame longer and more elaborate, played by huge orchestras and choirs. The period is also characterized by the emergence of different 'schools' of music, from folk to impressionist. Composers of this period include Beethoven and Schubert, as well as Chopin, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvorak, Schumann, Bizet, Verdi, Wagner, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, Satie, Debussy, Mussorgsky, and Rachmaninoff.

The Waltz King

EuroArts Music International

At the beginning of the 19th century, Europe was set alight by a shocking new dance craze. It was accompanied by popular music that was played, whistled and hummed all around the globe. It was called the waltz and its story is inseparable from the story of one family — family named Strauss. This docu-drama, entertainingly presented by Lesley Garrett, tells the story of the waltz and the Strauss family. The Strauss family kept Vienna and much of the rest of the world dancing for over a hundred years. However the father and son composers, who both held the public title of "The Waltz King," were uneasy rivals in their private life. Johann Strauss Senior, born in 1804, was a hugely popular composer, at home and abroad, who transformed the waltz from a simple dance into a Viennese cultural phenomenon. But despite the great acclaim he enjoyed in his lifetime, his reputation has been entirely eclipsed by his eldest son Johann Strauss Junior took the waltz to a whole new musical level. He wrote some of the most popular tunes ever, including "The Blue Danube," and ended up a household name around the globe. However although Strauss Junior travelled further, composed greater music, and was altogether privately and publicly more successful, in his own mind, he never quite escaped the shadow of his father. Lesley Garrett explores the origins of the waltz - the music, the dance steps, the ballrooms, and the costumes, and at the same time narrates the drama of the two great waltz composers, a bitter conflict between a father and a son. This rich and compelling story is lavishly illustrated with the music and dancing of the time, recreated in Vienna's sumptuous Hofburg Palace.

For the Love of Mahler: The Inspired Life of Henry-Louis de La Grange

C Major Entertainment GmbH

This program presents a portrait of the famed French-American music historian Henry-Louis de La Grange. The film joins him on his annual migration from Marrakech to Paris and to Toblach in the Italian Alps, while he busily works on revising his epic four-volume biography of Gustav Mahler. How Mahler’s music inspired his life, and how Henry-Louis channeled what could have been a self-indulgent obsession into a lifetime of groundbreaking discoveries, famous friendships, and award winning accomplishment, demonstrates the remarkable power of music to change lives.

John Cage: Journeys in Sound

C Major Entertainment GmbH

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the American composer, John Cage, in autumn 2012, this documentary honors one of the most extraordinary protagonists of 20th century music. The program is directed by Oscar-winner Allan Miller, whom the New York Times called "America's foremost filmmaker of documentaries on classical music." Shot in America, Germany, and Japan, the program premieres rare archival footage; presenting concert excerpts and a set of short stories; featuring associates of Cage and contemporary artists, playfully delineating different aspects of the composer. Protagonists are Yoko Ono, David Tudor, Christian Wolff, Steffen Schleiermacher, Toshio Hosokawa, Mayumi Miyata, Calvin Tomkins and many others. The film was awarded "best documentary" at the Golden Prague Festival 2012 and the best educational program at FIFA Montréal 2013. (Please note that there is some German and Japanese spoken without translation in the film)

The Game

Off the Fence

How did hip hop become more than just a genre of music? Over the last two decades, hip hop has transformed into a social movement, and then a lucrative commodity. Featuring artists like 50 Cent, Ice T, Chuck D, Young Thug, Grandmaster Caz, as well as the people working behind the scenes to engineer their success, this program shows how the culture of hip hop was converted into a brand that could be used to sell anything from headphones to clothing.

Episode 1: The Rub (Beginnings-1933) (Ken Burns: Country Music)

Ken Burns

After centuries of percolating in America’s immigrant and racial mix, particularly in the American South, what was first called “hillbilly music” begins reaching more people through the new technologies of phonographs and radio.

Episode 3: The Hillbilly Shakespeare (1945-1953) (Ken Burns: Country Music)

Ken Burns

Country music adapts to the cultural changes of post-war society. Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs transform string band music into Bluegrass. Out of the bars comes a new sound and songs about drinking, cheating, and heartbreak: Honky Tonk.

Episode 6: Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1968-1972) (Ken Burns: Country Music)

Ken Burns

With the Vietnam War intensifying, America is more divided than ever. Country music is not immune to the divisions. Kris Kristofferson abandons his military career, becomes a writer whose lyricism sets a new standard for country songs.

Schumann: Genius and Madness (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 4)

PBS

Many composers have struggled with mental health problems, few more famously than Robert Schumann. Scott goes to Scotland, Germany and France, with cellist Bion Tsang, psychiatrist and pianist Dr. Richard Kogan and other fascinating musicians and scholars, to understand the connection between mental health and creativity in the work of Schumann and other great artists.

Creating Woodstock

Filmhub

For three days in August 1969, nearly a half-million young people descended upon Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York for the rock'n'roll event that defined a generation.

Rachmaninoff Revisited

EuroArts Music International

Sergei Rachmaninoff was celebrated in his day not only as a great composer but also as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto. Interviewing young pianists and presenting Rachmaninoff's biographical story, this program explores the relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff’s own life, considering the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades. It presents brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today’s well-known young pianists, with commentary on the differences of the approaches to Rachmaninoff's piano repertoire. It considers how musicians may be bound and stymied by tradition, rather than being able to liberate their approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which Rachmaninoff approached his own work in his time.

Songs of Freedom: Episode 4

EuroArts Music International

In this episode, Measha Brueggergosman performs “I Surrender All” with Nova Scotia Mass Choir, directed by Marko Simmonds. She then journeys to Cameroon to discover her Bassa roots and learn more about how slavery stole from a generation of families while performing a stirring solo version of “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord”. The Ebenezar English Choir in Cameroon, as well as Measha’s band at Southern Ontario’s Chalet Studios breathe powerful new life into “Amazing Grace” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, along with an adorable visit to the Saint Alvine Bilingual School in Douala, Cameroon to get the students’ singing along. Along with Musical Director/Keyboardist Aaron Davis, Measha’s studio band includes David Piltch (guitar), Marc Rogers (bass) and Davide DiRenzo (drums), as well as Kevin Turcotte (trumpet), Terry Promane (trombone, tuba) and Carlos Del Junco (harmonica).

Birth of Metal (Rock Legends, Season 10)

3DD Entertainment

Overdriven guitars with heavy drums, bass lines working with and against guitar lines and vocals from voices at the limit of their power. In metal, everything is at 10. The 1960s flower power movement – peace and love in music no longer reflected the lives of a generation. At the same time, de-industrialisation was beginning. If you were angry, you didn’t want to change the world. You just wanted to scream. Featuring artists such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Nazareth.

Chicago Blues (Rock Legends, Season 10)

3DD Entertainment

The Chicago Blues sound replaced acoustic instruments with amplified versions and the basic guitar/harmonica duo of Delta Blues and Piedmont blues was expanded into a full band with bass guitar, drums, and sometimes saxophone. It was more full-bodied than its country cousin, reaching beyond the standard six-note blues scale to incorporate major scale notes. With Bo Diddley, Howlin Woolf & Muddy Waters.

Americana (Rock Legends, Season 11)

3DD Entertainment

Americana is American Roots music it incorporates everything from Blues to Country Music, to Zydeco, to Bluegrass, Appalachian Music, Folk. Acoustic instruments are very much at the heart of Americana music. Banjo, mandolin, violin, steel guitars - it’s very much a rural tradition to Americana music. Featuring clips of Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, and Bonnie Raitt. Journalists/critics include Will Hodgkinson (The Times), Sunta Templeton (Radio X), John Aizlewood (Evening Standard).

Funk (Rock Legends, Season 11)

3DD Entertainment

Funk is about the groove; Funk is about the beat. Without the drums, without the bass, there is no Funk. Previously, Rock and Roll would put the beat on the two and the four, but by putting it on the one, changes the sound of the music and the rhythm of the music, and that really becomes the basis of what Funk is. James Brown is the originator of Funk. You have a guy who came out of R&B music, and he did something which hadn’t really been done before, where he changed the rhythm. Featuring clips of Sly & the Family Stone, Kool & the Gang, Earth, Wind & Fire. Journalists/critics include Will Hodgkinson (The Times), Sunta Templeton (Radio X), John Aizlewood (Evening Standard).

J. S. Bach

Off the Fence

Johann Sebastian Bach worked in many of the German states, until he finally made his home in the ancient Saxon city of Leipzig. There he created some of the greatest music ever written, like the St Matthew Passion.

The Schubert Generation (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 2)

PBS

Franz Schubert’s genius wasn’t recognized till after his death. Scott Yoo goes to today’s musical capitals to play Schubert’s masterpieces, understand his life, and learn what it takes for a young classical artist to make it today.

Haydn: The King of Strings (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 2)

PBS

Scott Yoo and Geoff Nuttall reveal how Joseph Haydn borrowed folk music from Scotland, Hungary and Austria, and created the string quartet format. With this inside look, gain a deeper appreciation for the entire genre.

Handel: Italian Style (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 1)

PBS

Handel traveled with the Scarlatti family and learned from the masters of Italian Style. In Rome and central Italy, Scott takes in the art, architecture, fashion, food, wine, light and landscape that shaped Handel for the rest of his life.

While You Live, Shine

MVD Entertainment Group

A journey deep into the oldest music in the Western world - Greek music - guided by an eccentric musicologist who has dedicated his life to understanding and preserving it. An immersive sonic and visual feast that leaves the viewer feeling they've looked into a way of life that the 21st century has left behind. A call to arms for a different way of listening to music and understanding humanity.

Bill Monroe: Father of Bluegrass Music

MVD Entertainment Group

The legendary father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, is joined here in memorable performances by Lester Flatt, Emmylou Harris, Paul McCartney, the Osborne Brothers, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, John Hartford, and a once-in-a-lifetime Blue Grass Boys reunion featuring Del McCoury, Chubby Wise, and Bill Keith. The film also features archival footage and rare 1990s performances from Monroe's final years, including many of the greatest songs from his six decades of recording such as Uncle Pen and Muleskinner Blues. In addition, it offers exclusive access to Bill Monroe telling his story in his own words. Other interview subjects include the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and country music legend Roy Acuff in one of his final film appearances. Bill Monroe: Father of Bluegrass Music is an intimate, compelling, and detailed portrait of this unique musical innovator. (98 minutes)

Voices from Heaven: The Religious Music of Europe in the Middle Ages

Powersports Video Productions

Filmed in several of northern Italy’s most magnificent churches and beautiful villages, this documentary illuminates the medieval origins of Christian music through vocal and instrumental performances by the Gothic Voices of London, the Ensemble Venance Fortunat of Paris, the Orthodox Chorus of Moscow, and the Quartetto Vocale Giovanna Marini, Ensemble Micrologus, of Assisi, Italy. The Timna Brauer & Elias Meiri Ensemble of Vienna performs songs based on the ancient Kabbalah. Expert commentary on the cultural and religious context of these authentically rendered melodies, combined with outstanding footage of the art and architecture of the Middle Ages, rounds out the program. (57 minutes)

Free Jazz to Future Jazz

Eagle Rock Entertainment

Jazz is one of America’s great gifts to world culture. In this program, Oscar-winning actor and music enthusiast, Morgan Freeman tells the story of jazz’s varied and sometimes challenging postwar history. After the musical revolution of bebop in the 1940s there came an even more challenging style, free jazz, formulated by Ornette Coleman in the late 1950s; concurrently, John Coltrane took Miles Davis’s experiments with ‘modal jazz’ and made them his own. During the 1960s, sax-playerCharles Lloyd led one of the most popular jazz combos in the world. We see him here playing with an Indian tabla player. Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, also showcased, played highly influential roles in developing ‘jazz-fusion’ in the late 1960s. Shorter, one of the true saxophone greats, co-founded Weather Report in the 1970s; while Hancock sold over a million albums with his band Headhunters, and has since been sampled by many rappers. More recently, the jazz flag has been flown by an array of musicians including pianist Brad Mehldau and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.

Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music

HBO

Rich with stunning musical performances, the documentary Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music captures Taylor Mac’s marathon, 24-hour immersive theatrical experience. The one-time-only concert offered an alternative take on U.S. history, narrated through popular music performed by Mac (accompanied by a 24-piece orchestra) in elaborate, decade-specific costumes.

Piazzolla’s History with Tango (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 4)

PBS

Scott Yoo and his wife Alice Dade, a leading flutist, travel to Buenos Aires to discover the music of Astor Piazzolla, who fell in love with tango. Then fell out of love. Then tango fell out of love with him. Scott and Alice play with Argentina’s greatest musicians and dancers, to find out if Piazzolla and tango could ever reconcile.

Lightfoot

McIntyre Media Inc

Lloyd Robertson sits down for a rare interview with singer-songwriter and Canadian music icon Gordon Lightfoot, who at the age of 79 is still on the road touring. From his first Canadian hit in 1962 Lightfoot has toured continuously and has become known as Canada's troubadour. Highly acclaimed, his songs have been covered by scores of other famous musicians, such as Elvis Presley, yet his family and friends know him for his unselfish generosity, fairness, and genuine loyalty.

Maurice Ravel - “The Color of Music”

Sound Venture

Ravel, a French composer who loved Spanish rhythms, once said of his most famous and sensuous piece, Boléro, “It is 17 minutes of the orchestra without any music”. We look at the history of Boléro, one of the most popular pieces of music of any period, and how it brilliantly defines color in music. We explain its Hollywood appeal (heard in several films) and how it has remained an audience favorite for more than seventy years.

Andy Akiho Found (His) Sound (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 4)

PBS

Scott Yoo follows composer, steel pan virtuoso and video artist Andy Akiho through New York, to figure out how this musical visionary has combined Caribbean, Asian and jazz influences to become one of the most in-demand composers today.

Albéniz: Portraits of Spain (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 4)

PBS

Like Scarlatti before him, Isaac Albeniz was a keyboard composer captivated by Spain. Scott Yoo travels with guitarist Manuel Barrueco and pianist Juan Perez Floristan through the great Spanish cities of Andalusia, to see how Albeniz captured their culture, history and sounds in a brilliant series of musical portraits, his most celebrated works.

W. A. Mozart

Off the Fence

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Austria, in Salzburg. As a child prodigy, he was touted about the courts of Europe by his father, playing violin and piano in all the courts of Europe. The last ten years of his life were spent in the centre of the musical world, in Vienna, where he died, impoverished and unmourned; it was Prague that really recognised his genius.

L. van Beethoven

Off the Fence

Ludwig van Beethoven spent most of his life in Vienna, though he was born in Bonn, then a small provincial town. Early deafness robbed him of a performing career, but his world-shattering achievements as a composer changed music forever.

F. Chopin

Off the Fence

Warsaw and Paris were the cities at the heart of Frédéric Chopin’s world: he was one of the first great piano virtuosos, and his piano music helped usher in a new romantic spirit across all the arts. Though he appreciated the sophisticated life of the French capital, the music, fierce and passionate, that grew out his love of his native land shook his audiences to the core.

E. Grieg

Off the Fence

Edvard Grieg, who, like Chopin, wasn’t afraid to express a new sense of national identity in his art. Grieg’s music breathes the air of Norway, illustrating the northern nation’s landscape, climate, and folklore.

Episode 2: Hard Times (1933-1945) (Ken Burns: Country Music)

Ken Burns

During the Great Depression and World War II, country music thrives and reaches bigger audiences. Gene Autry sets off a craze for singing cowboys, Bob Wills adapts jazz’s Big Band sound to create Texas Swing, and Roy Acuff becomes a star.

Episode 4: I Cant Stop Loving You (1953-1963) (Ken Burns: Country Music)

Ken Burns

In Memphis, the confluence of blues and hillbilly music at Sun Studios gives birth to “rockabilly,” the precursor of rock and roll. Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash are at the forefront. Nashville has become Music City USA.

Episode 5: The Sons and Daughters Of America (1964-1968) (Ken Burns: Country Music)

Ken Burns

During a time of upheaval, country music reflects the changes in American society. Loretta Lynn performs songs that speak on behalf of women. Charley Pride becomes a country star. Merle Haggard becomes the “Poet of the Common Man.”

Episode 8: Dont Get Above Your Raisin (1984-1996) (Ken Burns: Country Music)

Ken Burns

As country music’s popularity skyrockets, the genre confronts the question of whether it can also stay true to its roots. The success of the “New Traditionalists”—Reba McEntire, Randy Travis, the Judds, and Dwight Yoakam—suggests it can.

Transmission: Learning Music—Exploring the World of Music

Annenberg Learner

How we learn musical traditions and how we maintain, modify, notate, teach, and perform them for a new, younger audience are exemplified here in Indian classical music, African village drumming, and modern jazz and gospel.

Songs of Freedom: Episode 1

EuroArts Music International

In this episode, soprano Measha Brueggergosman sings “This Little Light of Mine” with the renowned Nova Scotia Mass Choir, directed by Marko Simmonds and records/performs “Ride On King Jesus/Great Gettin’ Up Mornin'”, “Partons la Mere et Belle” and “Blessed Assurance” at Southern Ontario’s Chalet Studios with Music Director/Arranger Aaron Davis and a stellar band including David Piltch (guitar), Marc Rogers (bass), Davide DiRenzo (drums), Kevin Turcotte (trumpet), Terry Promane (trombone, tuba) and Carlos Del Junco (harmonica).

Songs of Freedom: Episode 2

EuroArts Music International

In this episode, Measha Brueggergosman performs and gives her impressions and interpretation of “In The Garden” with Music Director/Arranger Aaron Davis and “Wade in the Water” at Southern Ontario’s Chalet Studios with a stellar band including David Piltch (guitar), Marc Rogers (bass) and Davide DiRenzo (drums). Measha also delivers a powerful solo performance of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” and a rousing rendition of “His Eye is on the Sparrow” with the Nova Scotia Mass Choir, directed by Marko Simmonds.

American Rock (Rock Legends, Season 10)

3DD Entertainment

The foundations of American Rock are firmly in rock and roll and infused a variety of musical genres of the time. America was fighting the Vietnam War, protests across the country were widespread. It was during this period of unrest that the driving force behind artists such as Boston, REO Speedwagon, Styx and many others were formed.

Folk Around the World (Rock Legends, Season 10)

3DD Entertainment

An orally transmitted musical heritage of a culture, in the 1930s, enjoyed a resurgence during the Great Depression following stock market crash, droughts and dust storms encouraged farmers out of the dust bowl to California and New York State. The American folk music revival began with performers like Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Paul Robeson. Breakthrough act The Weavers sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, labour songs, and American ballads and their style inspired the commercial folk boom that followed them into the 1960s, with Peter Paul and Mary, Gordon Lightfoot and The Seekers.

Soul R&B (Rock Legends, Season 10)

3DD Entertainment

The style for R&B music is soulful and moving. It is a music genre whose origin is from African American cultures that began in the 1940s. The genre continued to evolve with a wide range of extraordinary artists. with Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Four Tops and Jimmy Ruffin.

Bluegrass (Rock Legends, Season 11)

3DD Entertainment

Bluegrass music is a form of American Roots music. It originates from the Appalachian Mountain regions of America, and it very much features acoustic instruments; acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, and fiddle. It’s music from struggle, but it’s music, which has this sense of joy, and when it gets going, there’s an almost religious fervour. Featuring clips of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Dolly Parton, Allison Kraus. Journalists/critics includeWill Hodgkinson (The Times), Sunta Templeton (Radio X), John Aizlewood (Evening Standard).

Gospel (Rock Legends, Season 11)

3DD Entertainment

Gospel is a genre of religious music, which is very much focused on a strong vocal delivery. These amazing harmonies and lyrics, which are celebratory. It’s music of unparalleled spirituality. It’s the music of hope; it’s the music of light, and it’s the music of better times ahead. It’s a combination of African Spirituals from Africans who were brought over to be slaves, and Christianity, but the non-conformist side of Christianity; Methodism, Pentecostalism. Gospel is a particularly Christian kind of music, but it’s also a music that’s infused with the African beat and the African harmonies that the slaves brought over to America. They adapted their music to some of the Christian music that was already there, particularly in a Pentecostal tradition. But also, because the churches were so segregated, then that tradition developed itself. After emancipation, many Gospel songs moved across the US, as rural black southerners moved north to cities looking for work. And these styles of celebration in the church quickly spread across America. To have a sense of singing together through harmony, but also through this uplifting spiritual message that brought people together and was an early form of black power and black pride; that’s really what Gospel was about. Featuring clips of Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston Journalists/critics include Will Hodgkinson (The Times), Sunta Templeton (Radio X), John Aizlewood (Evening Standard).

Scandi Invasion (Rock Legends, Season 11)

3DD Entertainment

Sweden alone is the world’s third biggest export of music, and for such a small area, this is kind of incredible. Since the 1970s, Scandinavia has had this incredible propensity to pump out catchy sing-along Pop songs; far greater than any other European country; singing in English Scandi-Pop is a very specific type of Pop music. It merges the European schlager, which is a sort of European folk music, which has a very melancholy, undertone to it, with bright, breezy, upbeat Pop. Featuring clips Abba, A-Ha, Ace Of Base, Roxette. Journalists/critics include Will Hodgkinson (The Times), Sunta Templeton (Radio X), John Aizlewood (Evening Standard).

Lebanese Music Scene

CNN

We follow the modern face of Arabic music in Lebanon as Yasmine Hamdan rekindles the connections of her past and explores Beirut's ever growing musical scene.

2017 Year in Review

CNN

Revisit stories of artists showcasing their work to new audiences, designers looking to their past for inspiration, and musicians creating a new soundtrack of today's Middle East.

Becoming Mozart (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 2)

PBS

Scott invites Stewart Goodyear to play his 20th piano concerto just as Mozart would have--directing the orchestra while improvising the solos. Scott teaches Stewart to conduct, and Stewart will have to find his inspiration to become Mozart.

New Wave: Dare to Be Different

MVD Entertainment Group

U2, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Blondie and most 80's musical artists might be unknown if not for small Long Island radio station, WLIR. Program Director Denis McNamara, the 'LIR crew and the biggest artists and music execs of the era tell how 'LIR battled the FCC, the record labels, mega-radio and the "rules" to create a musical movement that changed American culture forever.

Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime

El Dorado Films, LLC

Combining unseen footage with original scores from the era, this film tells the story of Noble Sissle's incredible life journey that spans "The Harlem Hell Fighters" of World War I, Broadway Theater, the Civil Rights Movement, and decades of black cultural production.

Discover The Firebird: Stravinsky's Masterpiece

The Discovery Orchestra

Recorded with a live audience at the Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey, this program begins with a complete orchestral performance of the Infernal Dance movement from Igor Stravinsky'sballet The Firebird by 85 members of The Discovery Orchestra and Maestro George Marriner Maull. A fun, interactive exploration of musical detail in this electrifying movement follows, with the help of an on-screen Listening Guide. Stravinsky’s unusual compositional and orchestration techniques are presented in a way that is easily understood by classical music novices and seasoned concert-goers alike. The program concludes with a performance of the last three movements from the Suite: Kastchei’s Infernal Dance, the gentle Berceuse, and glorious Finale.

Blitzed: The 80s Blitz Kids Story

MVD Entertainment Group

Boy George was the coat check girl (admittedly stealing money from the purses). Bowie, synth beats, and a new freedom of sexual identity were in the air. The Blitz Club spell was cast and a hotbed of talent emerged: Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club, Sade, and practically everyone else you've ever heard from the era.

Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk in NYC

MVD Entertainment Group

Nightclubbing is the first ever documentary about the renowned New York City nightclub Max's Kansas City (1965-1981) which had an indelible impact on the world of music, fashion, art, culture and the creation of the New York City Punk Rock scene.

Scarlatti: Man Out of Time (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 1)

PBS

Scott travels to Spain and Morocco to discover the greatest composer you’ve never heard of: Domenico Scarlatti. He incorporated the exotic sounds of Spain to create a new musical language that inspired generations of composers after him.

Eras of Music History: Viennese Classicism

C Major Entertainment GmbH

The Viennese Classical period, from 1750 to 1820, is covered in this program. With even greater freedom than the Baroque period, composers during this period explored music in a range of different directions. During this period, most composers worked for private individuals - nobles and royals - and public concerts were becoming more popular. Music was considered abstract and pure, rather than depicting anything in particular, and instrumental music was more common than vocal forms. Symphonies, concertos, string quartets and sonatas ruled the day and works were not given titles, but merely called things like Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major. Popular composers of this period include Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven.

Eras of Music History: Modernism

C Major Entertainment GmbH

This program features the music of the modern period, from 1910 to the present. The Romantic trend of fragmentation continued apace during this period. Some composers continued to develop older traditions, while others shot off in vastly different directions, experimenting with atonal music, serialism, experimental and minimalist music. Some used traditional instruments in unconventional ways, overturning principles previously considered fundamental. During this period, popular music (which had been around for centuries) found a new mass audience with the advent of new media, and film music became a new genre. The advent of electrical instruments, amplifiers, and synthesizers, as well as the use of computers in creating and manipulating sound also had a huge effect on the development of new musical forms. Composers of this period include Strauss, Stravinsky, Bartok, Gershwin, Ravel, Schoenberg, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Cage, Glass, Bernstein, Britten, Copland, and Williams.

Episode 7: Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way? (1973-1983) (Ken Burns: Country Music)

Ken Burns

Defining country music is debated as never before, and the argument sparks a vibrant era. Dolly Parton crosses over to mainstream success. Willie Nelson finds creative freedom in Texas. Emmylou Harris influences a new generation of artists.

I Killed John Lennon

Network Ireland Television

On the evening of December 8, 1980, Mark Chapman shot John Lennon four times outside the famous Dakota apartment building opposite Central Park in New York. By killing the iconic founder of The Beatles and one of the most famous people on the planet, Chapman immediately joined the pantheon of the most notorious killers of the 20th Century. Why did this middle class young man who had idolized The Beatles kill his hero? A decade later, in a series of taped interviews with writer/journalist Jack Jones, Chapman explained for the first time what motivated him to commit this murder. In this unique documentary, through reconstructions and using the actual taped voice of Mark Chapman, the assassination is chillingly re-created for the viewer. Interviews with police personnel and psychiatrists also shed some light on the twisted personality and psychosis that caused Mark Chapman to kill John Lennon.

Songs of Freedom: Episode 3

EuroArts Music International

In this epidode, soprano Measha Brueggergosman sings "Blessed Assurance," "I Surrender All," "Were You There," "Amazing Grace," "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," and "Deep River."

Singer Writes the Song (Rock Legends, Season 10)

3DD Entertainment

Songwriters have their roots in the folk, acoustic traditions of Celtic, European, Troubadours from North Africa, Blues & Country in the USA. This genre emerged in the 1960s, against the backdrop of political change and would forge the careers of great artists such as Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, and James Taylor.

New York Hip Hop (Rock Legends, Season 10)

3DD Entertainment

New York Hip Hop is a regional subgenre of hip hop music that originated in New York City during the 1970s and recognized to have evolved first in the Bronx; New York hip hop became a distinct subgenre after artists from other regions of the United States emerged with different styles. In contrast to other styles, this used complex lyrics for attentive listening rather than beats for dancing. The main components of hip hop culture from that time and still today are MCing, DJing, break dancing, and graffiti. with Public Enemy, Ice Cube and Big Daddy Kane.

The Motown Sound (Rock Legends, Season 10)

3DD Entertainment

For many music fans, the Motown Sound is the defining sound of the 1960s pop, R&B, and soul music. The distinctive musical style—all tambourines, driving bass lines, and gospel-influenced vocal harmonies—became synonymous with the Detroit studio where the songs were recorded and the stars who sang them. with The Temptations, The Miracles & Martha Reeves & the Vandellas.

Rockabilly (Rock Legends, Season 10)

3DD Entertainment

One of the earliest styles of rock and roll, daring back to the early 1950s. Blending US country with rhythm and blues, to what is "classic" rock and roll. The combination of "rock" (from "rock 'n' roll") and country music (often called "hillbilly music" at that time gives it its name, with other important influences being swing, boogie-woogie, and electric blues. With Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson and Brenda Lee.

Country (Rock Legends, Season 11)

3DD Entertainment

Country Music’s roots are found in the mountains of Appalachia. The people who lived in the mountains had come from Western Europe; they had brought their Celtic music with them; they had brought their English ballads with them too. But when they migrated from the mountains, when they went down into Tennessee, then they took their music with them. In the Great Depression of the 1930s, there were huge communities of displaced people. A lot of people travelling to places like Nashville, to Georgia, to the cities, and of course, across to California. And they were facing grinding poverty, facing being uprooted from their homeland, and from family members. So the radio very often became the connection to the old world. Radio programmers realised that there was an audience for these genres of music, which reminded people of home. They started putting on these barn dance shows, where musicians would come and play live. People would tune in and listen to that music that reminded them of where they had come from. Featuring clips of Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, George Jones. Journalists/critics include Will Hodgkinson (The Times), Sunta Templeton (Radio X), John Aizlewood (Evening Standard).

Grunge (Rock Legends, Season 11)

3DD Entertainment

Grunge is very loud, very rebellious; lots of very heavy guitar and fuzz effects, but in terms of its recording techniques, it’s very lo-fi; everything is stripped back, and really taken back to just the instruments. The lyrics tended to be about real life stuff, alienation; a kind of weariness at the world; a cynicism, but also a lot of humour. Grunge was the music of the underdog. There was no point aping glamour because there was no glamour in their lives, and it wasn’t something that they could graduate to. So they would sit at home, play riffs, deep, big, huge riffs. Featuring clips of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots. Journalists/critics include Will Hodgkinson (The Times), Sunta Templeton (Radio X), John Aizlewood (Evening Standard).

The British Invasion (Rock Legends, Season 11)

3DD Entertainment

The British Invasion was massive. America, for a brief period, and one that really hasn’t been repeated, went crazy for all things British. It was youthful excitement, Swinging Sixties, and it was through the music that you got the access. The incredible success of the Beatles led to record companies encouraging more of the same. They wanted to emulate that success with more British bands crossing over the Atlantic and having that huge impression on the culture there. A lot of these British bands came from post-war austerity. America looked so glamorous. It wasn’t just that the sun of California and the bustle of New York… it was a really successful open place where they felt like anybody could succeed. And because America wanted them to succeed, everybody was a winner. Featuring clips Rolling Stones, Dave Clark 5, Herman’s Hermits, Animals. Journalists/critics include Will Hodgkinson (The Times), Sunta Templeton (Radio X), John Aizlewood (Evening Standard).

The Festival Years 1967-68 (Rock Legends, Season 11)

3DD Entertainment

The Monterey Pop Festival was organised in just seven weeks by producer, Lou Adler, with John Phillips from the Mamas and the Papas. And it’s really the first time such a large music event is put on. It’s part of the 1967 Summer of Love, the culmination of this counter-culture movement, the hippy child ideal. And it really becomes a kind of turning point for the music industry in terms of these big live events. Featuring clips Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Grateful Dead, The Who, The Mamas & the Papas. Journalists/critics include Will Hodgkinson (The Times), Sunta Templeton (Radio X), John Aizlewood (Evening Standard).

G.F. Handel

Off the Fence

George Frideric Handel, travelled much more widely after his birth in Halle in the Southern part of Saxony. As a young firebrand, he went to Italy where he created a sensation before settling in London for the last 40 years of his life. There a series of superb concertos, operas, and oratorios poured out of him: Messiah is simply one of dozens of immortal vocal masterpieces he produced there.

Beethoven's Ghost (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 2)

PBS

Scott and friends make a landmark recording, centered around Beethoven’s famous Ghost Trio. This summons the ghost of Beethoven, who’s trailed by Sigmund Freud, intent on analyzing him, in this witty mix of documentary and ghost story.

Pioneers of the Middle East

CNN

Meet an artist, a comedian, and a composer who are pushing boundaries—whose creative process begins every day confronted by that blank piece of paper to fill.

Sounds of Jazz

Eagle Rock Entertainment

Jazz was perhaps the first great American art form of the 20th Century. In this informative and enthralling program, award-winning actor Morgan Freeman tells the story of the first few decades of jazz, beginning at the mouth of the Mississippi in the city widely acknowledged as its birthplace, New Orleans. We follow jazz’s journey from its origins as a mixture of African, Classical European and blues ingredients; through the great Dixieland days of Louis Armstrong and King Oliver; to the swing and big band eras of Duke Ellington and Count Basie when it became the most popular music in the country. The musical trip then continues to take in the explosion of bebop and other postwar developments such as mainstream, third stream and cool jazz, and closes with footage of one of Miles Davis’s final performances. Throughout this engaging history, each style of jazz is illustrated by top-notch performances recorded at the world famous Montreux Jazz Festival.

Soul Stirrings

Eagle Rock Entertainment

In this program, full of live performances and lively opinions, actor Morgan Freeman traces the ancestry and growth of sweet soul music. Soul had its roots in the 1950s when two forms of African-American music came together in a rather unlikely alliance. These were the gospel sounds of the Southern Baptist church, and the more worldly approach of rhythm & blues. Freeman presents footage from singers in both houses: Ernestine Anderson and LaVern Baker from R & B; and the Mighty Clouds of Joy from gospel. The program then takes an in-depth look at the man who is often hailed as the father of soul, Ray Charles. In 1954, Charles took an old gospel song and gave it an R & B makeover to come up with I Got A Woman. Another giant figure in the early history of soul was Solomon Burke. He joined Atlantic Records just as Ray Charles was leaving in 1959. The program also features Aaron Neville and his brothers from New Orleans, who brewed their funky version of R & B and early soul from the late ‘50s onwards. Nelson George – America’s foremost black music critic – and soul music historian, Rob Bowman, impart their expert knowledge, while musicians such as Sweet Honey In The Rock and Speech from Arrested Development describe what soul means to them.

The Riddle of Bach (Great Performances: Now Hear This, Season 1)

PBS

Yoo goes to Germany to learn Bach’s solo violin works, and discovers a riddle that Bach left in his portrait. In trying to solve it, Yoo and his wife Alice Dade, a leading flutist, discover Bach’s true character.