To comprehend the holy and inspire the believer, the world's religions have always incorporated music as a form of prayer. This award-winning documentary takes an ecumenical look at a diverse selection of these traditions as performed at the Festival of World Sacred Music held in Fez, Morocco. Along with commentary from festival director Dr. Faouzi Skali and music anthropologist David Lynch, the program features dynamic performances from the Christian,...

For the past several years, classical music composers have gathered to share their more eclectic scores at the Bang on a Can festival in North Adams, Massachusetts. Jeffrey Brown explores the origins of the event.

The final Movement IV - Allegro con fuoco, begins with a very short but ominous introduction, probed by Maestro Maull for Dvorák’s use of the elements of music. Two new melodies, one heroic and the other nostalgic, are introduced. Dvorák later recalls musical themes from all the previous movements, weaving them into a commanding synthesis of everything that has come before. We might expect another intense coda or extra ending for this final movement,...

In this final episode, we offer listeners an uninterrupted opportunity to enjoy the Symphony No. 9 by Dvorák in its entirety. The on-screen ‘Listening Guide’ helps you and/or your students to remain focused in the music and recaps highlights explored in the previous four programs of this series.

Linking three centuries of music, this collection spotlights performances of arias by composers from all over Europe.

Opening with Toscanini's performance of the Forza del Destino overture, this program observes how destiny, as it were, drove many of the great European conductors to America, where they built extraordinary new orchestras in their own image: the NBC Symphony, the Philadelphia, the Boston. The program contains footage of Toscanini rehearsing the "Coro di Zingarelle" from Traviata (including one of his famous tantrums) and performing Respighi's "Pines...

This program focuses on an Italian island with a peculiar geography and history: Sardinia. Its people are mountain dwellers, who live surrounded by the sea. They take pride in their identity having survived an endless succession of invasions over the centuries; always conquered, but never subdued. Their music was inspired by the bleating of the sheep and the wind in the bulrush. It may have changed in form, but very little in content, as it still...

In Andalusia and all around the world, the sensual rhythms of flamenco ignite the blood with joy and sorrow. This program helps make accessible the mysterious, intimate, plaintive form of music known as flamenco, promoting a deeper appreciation of Spanish culture. Background information on Moorish Spain and a chronology of Gypsy history provide the context for generous footage of a juerga-an informal flamenco performance-that includes a full complement...

There is no music more beautiful, more compelling, more American than Black Sacred Music. It is the soul of the Black Church and the Black Church is the foundation of the Black Community. This program from Tony Brown's Journal is the second part in the Thank God four-part series that started out as a documentary on the African oral tradition which manifested on these shores largely as America's indigenous music. As the scenes unfolded and research...

There is no music more beautiful, more compelling, more American than Black Sacred Music. It is the soul of the Black Church and the Black Church is the foundation of the Black Community. This program from Tony Brown's Journal is the final part in the Thank God four-part series that started out as a documentary on the African oral tradition which manifested on these shores largely as America's indigenous music. As the scenes unfolded and research...