Born March 4, 1950 in Manhattan, New York

Born September 6, 1925 in Dunleith, Mississippi
Died August 29, 1976 in Oakland, California

Mathis James “Jimmy” Reed, musician and songwriter popular during the 1950’s and ‘60’s, was noted for his electric blues guitar sound, lowdown harmonica, and slack-voiced, twangy singing style (which was his charm and trademark sound which many musicians imitated). He composed a string of hits, often popularized by others including the Rolling Stones (who cite Reed as a major influence), Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley, and Etta James.  Some of his hits include Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby, Baby What You Want Me to Do,  Big Boss Man, and Bright Lights, Big City (the latter 2 were included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock Music).

Jimmy Reed battled alcoholism and died of respiratory illness at age 51. He was inducted posthumously to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

Hear Jimmy Reed sing Down in Mississippi, and enjoy classic blues, with a  twist of Southern humor:

In case you didn’t understand Jimmy Reed’s lazy diction (which is what I love most about him!), here are the lyrics:

Down in Mississippi

by Jimmy Reed

Down in Mississippi where cotton grow tall,
get arrested for trouble you got to call the hound dog
Oh uh, down in Mississippi, whoa yeah, where the cotton grow tall
Yes, and on the other hand, baby, boll weevil wearing overalls

Go to work in the morning, you know, ’bout 4 o’clock
Uh, if the mule don’t holler, yeah, I don’t know when to stop
Down in Mississippi, baby, uh whoa yeah, where the cotton grow tall
Well, and on the other hand, baby, boll weevil wearing overall

I go to church in the morning, baby, you know, down the railroad track
Late over in the evening they bring, bring the preacher back
He eat up all the chicken now but uh right to the neck
Look over at my baby and he eat up all the rest ’cause he was uh down in Mississippi
Uh oh yeah, where the cotton grow tall
Well now, and on the other hand, baby, boll weevil wearing overalls

Born Sept. 5, 1912 in Los Angeles, California
Died Aug. 11, 1992 in Manhattan, New York

“There are two things that don’t have to mean anything;
one is music, and the other is laughter.”
- John Cage, paraphrasing Immanuel Kant. (Cage agreed with Kant that music and laughter don’t have to mean anything in order to give us deep pleasure.)

Avant garde composer, writer, artist, and philosopher, John Cage was a unique figure whose influence on 20th century music, art, and dance was perhaps even more important than his own artistic output. In fact, his most famous work was 4’33”, a piece composed for piano (or any other instruments!) that consisted of
4 minutes and 33 seconds of absolute silence, divided into 3 movements. So obviously this minimalist loved a good laugh, and the joke doesn’t stop there: 4’33”  has even been included on several CD collections! Cage shared a lifelong partnership, both personally and professionally, with choreographer Merce Cunningham, and the two of them made a lasting impact on contemporary dance. As an artist and printmaker himself, Cage also influenced fellow artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, and others in the art world.

Cage studied with Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg, radical composers in their own right.  He taught experimental music at Wesleyan University, where he was affiliated until his death in 1992.  He also taught at Mills College, UCLA, the Cornish College of the Arts, and The New School. Cage was influenced by Indian philosophy, Zen Buddhism, and I Ching, the Chinese classical text on changing events, which he used as a tool for composing chance or aleatory music. As a minimalist composer, he also experimented with found sounds, electronic music, and “prepared” piano (which consisted of sticking nuts, bolts, rubber, plates, etc. between the strings of the piano to create the effect of an entire percussion orchestra). Prepared piano often produced exotic effects resembling mbiras, marimbas, bells, gamelan, wood blocks and other percussion. Listen to Cage’s Sonata for Prepared Piano:

John Cage’s Sonata X for Prepared Piano

Now meet the humorous, iconic John Cage near the end of his life, as he expresses his thoughts about listening, music, sounds. . . and silences:

Born Sept. 4, 1892 in Aix-en-Provence, France
Died June 22, 1974 in Geneva, Switzerland

“Don’t be afraid of writing something people can remember and whistle. Don’t ever feel discomfited by a melody".  Milhaud to his student Burt Bacharach

Milhaud was a student of Charles Widor, Vincent d’Indy, and Paul Dukas.  A member of Les Six (“Group of Six” avant garde French composers), Milhaud was prolific and composed with apparent ease in many genres including operas, ballets, symphonies, concertos, solo and chamber works. Polytonality, jazz idioms (after his visit to Harlem), and Brazilian rhythms (after living in Brazil) are found in some of his works. His jazz ballet The Creation of the World and his ballet Le Boeuf sur le Toit (Ox on the Roof) were two of his most famous works. He also was a master of counterpoint, composing two string quartets (No. 14 and 15) which can also be performed as an octet (quite a contrapuntal feat!). While in Brazil he worked with French Ambassador and famous poet and playwright Paul Claudel, for whom he later wrote incidental music.

Composer, pianist, and eminent teacher, Milhaud taught alternate years at Mills College in California and the Paris Conservatory from 1947-1971.  Among his famous students are Dave Brubeck, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Burt Bacharach, Morton Subotnick, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis.

Enjoy Milhaud’s exuberant Brasileira from Scaramouche for 2 Pianos:

Educator Guides to the Operas

Plan an opera study unit for your students based on one of the operas in the
2010-11 Metropolitan Opera season, climaxing with a Night at the Opera in a local movie theater or at your school. The Met Live in HD series offers free opera-specific educational guides you can use to prepare students for viewing the opera performance, including classroom activities, story synopsis, background on the opera and composer, musical highlights with audio clips, post-opera activities, and more.

Note to Teachers: Have your kids write a paragraph on their “Night at the Opera,” and we’ll share some on our blog or website.

Opera in the Classroom Program

 The Metropolitan Opera has partnered with some school districts around the country to bring their HD Live opera productions into schools. Please check to see if your school district participates, as this brings opera free to students. If your school is not participating, contact the Met to see how you can bring the program to your school.

The fifth season of the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series is coming to a movie theater near you! Enjoy front row seats at these live opening night productions. It is so easy to feel more engaged with opera on a large screen, where you can see everything “up close and personal.”  Feel the pre-performance tension as the audience gathers before the conductor appears and the orchestra begins the overture. Then enjoy backstage interviews with the stars during intermission, or take a refreshment break yourself, get a popcorn refill, and mingle with other opera-g0ers in the theater lobby.  What an exciting night of music and drama is in store for you with each performance. And the price of the theater ticket is usually only $15 to $20.  Check the link for the theaters where you can see opening night or Encore performances (subject to change, so verify with your local theater):

Movie Theaters where you can see the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series (listed by state/city, last updated 8/25/2010)

If you miss the simulcast live opening night Metropolitan Opera performances at a theater near you, you can catch the Encore screenings at other movie theaters. These are the Movie Theaters where you can see the Metropolitan Opera Encore performances (listed by state, city).

Educator Guides to the Operas

Plan an opera study unit for your students based on one of the operas in the 2010-11 Met season, climaxing with a Night at the Opera in a local movie theater. The Met Live in HD series offers free opera-specific educational guides you can use to prepare students for viewing the opera performance, including classroom activities, story synopsis, background on the opera and composer, musical highlights with audio clips, post-opera activities, and more.

Note to Teachers: Have your kids write a paragraph on their “Night at the Opera,” and we’ll share some on our blog or website.

Opera in the Classroom Program

 The Metropolitan Opera has also partnered with school districts around the country to bring their HD Live opera productions into schools. Please check to see if your school district participates, as this brings opera free to students in certain districts. If your school is not participating, contact the Met to see how you can bring the program to your school.

METROPOLITAN OPERA: Live in HD in Movie Theaters

                                2010-11 Schedule

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Wagner’s Das Rheingold

October 9, 2010 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours

Two unparalleled artists join forces to create a groundbreaking new Ring for the Met: Maestro James Levine and director Robert Lepage. The cycle launches with Das Rheingold, the prologue to Wagner’s epic drama. “The Ring is not just a story or a series of operas, it’s a cosmos,” says Lepage, who brings cutting-edge technology and his own visionary imagination to the world’s greatest theatrical journey. Bryn Terfel sings the leading role of Wotan for the first time with the company, heading an extraordinary cast.

James Levine; Wendy Bryn Harmer, Stephanie Blythe, Patricia Bardon, Richard Croft, Gerhard Siegel, Bryn Terfel, Eric Owens, Franz-Josef Selig, Hans-Peter König

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Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov

October 23, 2010 at 12:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 5 hours

René Pape takes on one of the greatest bass roles in a new production by Stephen Wadsworth. Valery Gergiev conducts Mussorgsky’s epic spectacle that captures the suffering and ambition of a nation, with Aleksandrs Antonenko, Vladimir Ognovenko, and Ekaterina Semenchuk leading the huge cast.

Valery Gergiev; Ekaterina Semenchuk, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Oleg Balashov, Evgeny Nikitin, René Pape, Mikhail Petrenko, Vladimir Ognovenko

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Donizetti’s Don Pasquale

November 13, 2010 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Anna Netrebko revives her sensational turn in this sophisticated bel canto comedy, opposite Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, and John Del Carlo in the title role. Music Director James Levine conducts. When Otto Schenk’s production premiered in 2006, the New York Times called it “brilliant” and “wonderful.”

James Levine; Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, John Del Carlo

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Verdi’s Don Carlo

December 11, 2010 at 12:30 pm ET
Expected Running time: 4 hours, 30 minutes

Director Nicholas Hytner makes his Met debut with this new production of Verdi’s profound, beautiful, and most ambitious opera. Roberto Alagna leads the cast, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, and Simon Keenlyside also star. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, back after his triumphant debut leading Carmen, conducts. “I think Don Carlo is the quintessential Verdi opera,” Hytner says. “Right through this opera there is, on the one hand, an implacable expression of impending doom and, on the other hand, a succession of the most gloriously open-throated arias, the most fantastically determined music.”

Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, Roberto Alagna, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Eric Halfvarson

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Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West

January 8, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Puccini’s wild-west opera had its world premiere in 1910 at the Met. Now, on the occasion of its centennial, all-American diva Deborah Voigt sings the title role of the “girl of the golden west,” starring opposite Marcello Giordani. Nicola Luisotti conducts.

Nicola Luisotti; Deborah Voigt, Marcello Giordani, Lucio Gallo

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Adams’s Nixon in China

February 12, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 4 hours

“All of my operas have dealt on deep psychological levels with our American mythology,” says composer John Adams, who conducts the Met premiere of his most famous opera. “The meeting of Nixon and Mao is a mythological moment in world history, particularly American history.” Acclaimed director and longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars makes his Met debut with this groundbreaking 1987 work, an exploration of the human truths beyond the headlines surrounding President Nixon’s 1972 encounter with Communist China. Baritone James Maddalena stars in the title role.

John Adams; Kathleen Kim, Janis Kelly, Robert Brubaker, Russell Braun, James Maddalena, Richard Paul Fink

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Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride

February 26, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo reprise their starring roles in Gluck’s nuanced and elegant interpretation of this primal Greek myth. Tenor Paul Groves also returns to Stephen Wadsworth’s insightful production, first seen in 2007. Patrick Summers conducts.

Patrick Summers; Susan Graham, Plácido Domingo, Paul Groves, Gordon Hawkins

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Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor

March 19, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 4 hours

Natalie Dessay triumphed as the fragile heroine of Donizetti’s masterpiece on Opening Night of the 2007–08 season in Mary Zimmerman’s hit production. Now she returns to the role of the innocent young woman driven to madness, opposite Joseph Calleja, who sings her lover Edgardo.

Patrick Summers; Natalie Dessay, Joseph Calleja, Ludovic Tézier, Kwangchul Youn

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Rossini’s Le Comte Ory

April 9, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours

Rossini’s vocally dazzling comedy stars bel canto sensation Juan Diego Flórez in the title role of this Met premiere production. He vies with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, in the trouser role of Isolier, for the love of the lonely Countess Adèle, sung by soprano Diana Damrau. Bartlett Sher, director of the Met’s hit productions of The Barber of Seville and The Tales of Hoffmann, describes the world of the opera as, “a place where love is dangerous. People get hurt. That can be very funny and very painful. Rossini captures both—with the most beautiful love music Rossini ever wrote.”

Maurizio Benini; Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Susanne Resmark, Juan Diego Flórez, Stéphane Degout, Michele Pertusi

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Strauss’s Capriccio

April 23, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours

On Opening Night of the 2008–09 season, Renée Fleming dazzled audiences when she sang the final scene of Strauss’s wise and worldly meditation on art and life. Now she performs the entire work, in which the composer explores the essence of opera itself. Joseph Kaiser and Sarah Connolly also star, and Andrew Davis conducts.

Andrew Davis; Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen, Peter Rose

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Verdi’s Il Trovatore

April 30, 2011 at 1:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 3 hours

David McVicar’s stirring production of Verdi’s intense drama premiered in the 2008–09 season. James Levine leads this revival, starring four extraordinary singers—Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky—in what might be the composer’s most melodically rich score.

James Levine; Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky

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Wagner’s Die Walküre

May 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm ET
Expected Running time: 5 hours, 15 minutes

A stellar cast comes together for this second installment of Robert Lepage’s new production of the Ring cycle, conducted by James Levine. Bryn Terfel is Wotan, lord of the Gods. Deborah Voigt adds the part of Brünnhilde to her extensive Wagnerian repertoire at the Met. Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek star as the twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde, and Stephanie Blythe is Fricka.

James Levine; Deborah Voigt, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Stephanie Blythe, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, Hans-Peter König

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Don’t Forget to Support Live Music Events in Your Community!

Even though the Met is coming to your neighborhood theater, don’t fail to subscribe to and support your local opera, symphony, ballet, theater, and other performing groups. The experience of attending live musical events is not replaceable by screened performances. The Live in HD series is a boon for those who have no live opera in their communities, but for those who do have local opera companies the Met series should enrich and not replace your live opera-going experiences. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PERFORMANCE COMPANIES, whether in music, dance, or theater, or you may one day find yourself without them. The Met series will hopefully attract a new and bigger audience, who will also become active supporters of their local musical companies.

Don’t underestimate the power of either sports or music when it comes to exciting a crowd. Even as a tormented composer writing under the harsh restrictions and demands of Communism, in his 1929 ballet  The Golden Age big-time soccer fan and sometime soccer referee Shostakovich recreated a soccer match. In this ballet, a communist soccer team travels to the West to compete against the evil “capitalists” (real boiler-plate geo-political plot!).  Listen to his brilliant recreation of a fast-paced soccer match:

I would love to have seen this ballet scene. Wonder if the choreographer was a soccer fan too? Probably so. . .

Tips for Music Teachers:

1. Play this musical soccer match for your students, and see how many can guess what sport is being depicted. 

2. Ask students to guess why the composer chose to include this work in a ballet, rather than a symphony, opera, or choral work.

3. Ask students to choreograph & perform in teams their own interpretation of Shostakovich’s soccer match.

4. Ask students to research other examples where composers have depicted sports events in their music (and share them with us!).

5. Ask students to describe what music and sports have in common.

6. Show students the vuvuzela, the obnoxiously loud, monotone horn used at this year’s World Cup.  This is a great seque to open the discussion on noise pollution and hearing protection! (Hope they ban the horn for the next World Cup!)

There’s a lot more to World Cup soccer music than national anthems and the penetrating blare of “vuvuzela” horns.  WQXR classical FM station, highlights the top 5 soccer pieces from 100 years of soccer-inspired classical music.

A scholar in England just announced his discovery of a secret music code in the writings of Plato.  As a closeted follower of Pythagoras, whose heretical beliefs threatened traditional religion, Plato believed that music and mathematics were closely related, and that music was a reflection of the mathematical principles that governed the universe. Pythagoras codified the mathematical ratios of the musical intervals in the 12-tone Greek scale. Plato, like his mentor Pythagoras,  believed the “harmony of the spheres” resulted from movement of the stars and planets, which orbited according to mathematical equations that created musical pitches. 

Jay Kennedy of Manchester, England, has discovered that every 12th line of Plato’s original manuscript scrolls includes a passage or reference to music, that possibly sent a hidden code to other followers of Pythagoras. Thus the 12-tone Greek scale underpinned Plato’s writings, just as music and mathematics laid the philosophical foundations of the Pythagorean universe.

Read more about this fascinating discovery and its implications on the relationship of music, science, and philosophy that resonate today.

When famed Broadway songwriter Jason Bert Brown discovered his songs were being “traded” freely online by those who had never purchased a legal copy, he thoughtfully requested that the traders stop the illegal trading. Read this fascinating exchange with a recalcitrant yet extremely bright and articulate teenager. Eleanor’s teenage sense of entitlement is absolutely breathtaking. Her arguments are devoid of any sense of morality (other than her own moral outrage at being asked to remove the illegal songs), yet her rationalizations at stealing other people’s music without paying the $3.99 download fee are worthy of a silver-tongued trial lawyer.  

Please read this exchange in it’s entirety, and more importantly, read it to your own kids and students. I would love to hear from you on how Eleanor’s slippery moral and “aesthetic” arguments for copyright theft either resonate with or repel other teens. The technology is in place for easy illegal “trading” of music: now it’s time to work on how to instill in teens (and adults, I might add) the sense of responsibility, ethics, and control needed to understand and appreciate why copyright violation, though easy, is both illegal and immoral.

This dramatic battle between the composer and the teen is itself worthy of a Broadway play, and a Pulitzer. Read it now:

  FIGHTING WITH TEENS: A Copyright Story