 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Oct 20, 2016 - 5:05 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
|
BBC4's "In Their Own Words: 20th Century Composers"
Episode one: Radical Movements (1912-1941)
Remarkable rare footage of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Copland, Walton, Elisabeth Lutyens, Richard Strauss, Shostakovich, Messiaen and Tippett gives a first-hand account of the revolution that classical music underwent in the first half of the century. As we see Schoenberg play tennis, Strauss and Shostakovich play with their grandchildren and hear Messiaen tell the story of how he wrote his most significant work in a German PoW camp, we get a vivid picture of what it took to be a composer during the most turbulent time in modern history.
Episode two:But Is It Music? (1945-1989)
We discover how the crisis of writing music in a post-war world was met in very different ways by the likes of Britten, Bernstein, Cage, Boulez, Stockhausen, Maxwell Davies, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Tavener, Reich, Adams and Glass. Tavener plays badminton whilst drunk, Cage defends his 4'33" of 'silence' and Delia Derbyshire, co-creator of the Doctor Who theme tune, reveals how British techno music has its roots in the bowels of the BBC.
I've seen this a couple of times now and was fascinated throughout. Still available on BBC iPlayer if available to you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I am a huge fan of Howard Goodall's Big Bangs, a five-part series written and presented by Goodall (an accomplished classical and TV composer in the UK -- he composed the themes for Blackadder, Red Dwarf, The Vicar of Dibley, etc.). Goodall explores five "big bangs" which changed the course of music history -- Notation, Equal Temperament, Opera, The Piano and Recorded sound.
Goodall's 20th Century Greats is also fabulous, it's four segments profiling musicians whose contributions to the art have been undervalued -- Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein, The Beatles and (of most interest to us folks here) Bernard Herrmann.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6kv9gVBWDo
Goodall proves a charismatic, informed (and comprehensible) presenter, and his programs are as entertaining as they are informative.
Nearly forty years on, I don't think any series has managed to examine human physiology quite as effectively (and entertainingly) as Dr. Jonathan Miller in 1978's The Body in Question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVwFqGSGBCU
I've also become quite a fan of Professor Niall Ferguson in recent years, who has presented several excellent series based on his books, the best of which I'd say are Civilisation, and War of the World.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5AbQF1jJ_A&list=PLC46CE7D51E1F77B5
And I don't know if this counts -- I think it may have been produced in the US -- but British anthropologist Desmond Morris presented a fascinating series in the 90s, The Human Sexes, which explored its topic in a scientific and engaging manner (yet never succumbed to being sensationalistic or titillating). Sadly, this series has never even been released on DVD, but someone happily uploaded it to Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvsmD5OqO0w
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.jpg)
