The Classical Music Minute
Ever wonder who were the Florentine Camerata? Where did the conductor’s baton come from? Or the difference between Opera Buffa and Opera Seria? These little nuggets of classical music trivia are what this podcast is all about. Come hop around music history with me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!
Episodes
256 episodes
Music After World War I: Art in a Shattered World
DescriptionMusic After World War I: Art in a Shattered World in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun Fact In 1918, Erik Satie described postwar music as needing “fewer perfumes and more reality.” Many comp...
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Season 6
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Episode 255
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1:10
Bartók: When Folk Music Met Modernism
DescriptionBartók: When Folk Music Met Modernism in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactBartók wasn’t just inspired by folk music—he treated it like scientific research. Armed with a phonograph, he re...
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Season 5
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Episode 254
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1:00
The Oratorio: Opera Without the Costumes
DescriptionThe Oratorio: Opera Without the Costumes in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactWhen Messiah premiered in Dublin, audiences were asked to leave their swords at home and ladies were...
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Season 5
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Episode 253
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1:00
Erik Satie: The Unlikely Godfather of Les Six
DescriptionErik Satie: The Unlikely Godfather of Les Six in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactSatie gave his pieces absurd titles like Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear—a jab at critics w...
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Season 5
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Episode 252
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1:00
Les Six: Paris’s Modern Musical Short-Lived Spark
DescriptionLes Six: Paris’s Modern Musical Short-Lived Spark in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactLes Six officially collaborated on only one major project, L’Album des Six (1920), before d...
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Season 5
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Episode 251
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1:00
Francis Poulenc: The Man and His Music
DescriptionFrancis Poulenc: The Man and His Music in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactPoulenc adored Parisian cabarets and often slipped their cheeky harmonic twists into his classical works. After...
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Season 5
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Episode 250
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1:00
Echoes Along the Nile: Music in Ancient Egypt
DescriptionEchoes Along the Nile: Music in Ancient Egypt in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactThe sistrum—a sacred rattle associated with the goddess Hathor—was believed to ward off evil spirits. Pr...
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Season 5
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Episode 249
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1:00
The Musician’s Life in the Romantic Era
DescriptionThe Musician’s Life in the Romantic Era in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactFranz Liszt was the 19th-century equivalent of a rock star. Fans reportedly fought over his discarded gloves a...
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Season 5
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Episode 248
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1:00
Mozart’s Piano: The Enlightenment’s Favourite Sound Machine
DescriptionMozart’s Piano: The Enlightenment’s Favourite Sound Machine in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactMozart loved his personal fortepiano so much he took it on tour. It still survives today i...
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Season 5
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Episode 247
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1:00
Harmony Behind Stone Walls: Life in the Medieval Cloister
DescriptionHarmony Behind Stone Walls: Life in the Medieval Cloister in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactThe earliest Western musical notation emerged in monasteries, where scribes invented “neumes...
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Season 5
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Episode 246
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1:00
Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: A Musical Who’s Who
DescriptionBenjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: A Musical Who’s Who in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactWhen The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra pre...
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Season 5
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Episode 245
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1:00
The Pulse Redefined: Rhythmic Complexity in 20th-Century Music
DescriptionThe Pulse Redefined: Rhythmic Complexity in 20th-Century Music in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactWhen The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris, 1913, its jarring rhythms helped c...
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Season 5
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Episode 244
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1:00
Breaking the Spell: Reaction Against Romanticism in Early 20th-Century Music
DescriptionBreaking the Spell: Reaction Against Romanticism in Early 20th-Century Music” in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactWhen Stravinsky’s Pulcinella premiered in 1920, audiences were ...
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Season 5
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Episode 243
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1:00
Mozart in Miniature: Master of Chamber Music
DescriptionMozart in Miniature: Master of Chamber Music in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactMozart’s publisher worried that his Piano Quartet in G minor (1785) was too difficult for amateu...
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Season 5
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Episode 242
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1:00
Form, Function, and Flourish: The Classical Sonata
DescriptionForm, Function, and Flourish: The Classical Sonata in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactBeethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata wasn’t named by him at all—the nickname came years later, w...
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Season 5
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Episode 241
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1:00
Back to the Future: Neoclassicism in Music
DescriptionBack to the Future: Neoclassicism in Music in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactStravinsky admitted that Pulcinella wasn’t just homage—it was liberation. “It was a backward look,...
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Season 5
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Episode 240
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1:00
Faraway Fantasies: Exoticism in Opera
DescriptionFaraway Fantasies: Exoticism in Opera in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactWhen Carmen premiered, critics complained it was too scandalous and “vulgar” for the Paris stage. Yet t...
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Season 5
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Episode 239
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1:00
Showtime with Strings Attached: The Romantic Concerto
DescriptionShowtime with Strings Attached: The Romantic Concerto in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactFranz Liszt’s piano concertos were so demanding that critics sometimes accused him of showing of...
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Season 5
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Episode 238
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1:00
Bigger, Louder, Wilder: The Romantic Orchestra Arrives
DescriptionBigger, Louder, Wilder: The Romantic Orchestra Arrives in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactWagner was so ambitious he built his own opera house in Bayreuth just to fit the expanded orche...
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Season 5
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Episode 237
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1:00
Berlioz & the Program Symphony: When Music Told the Whole Story
DescriptionBerlioz & the Program Symphony: When Music Told the Whole Story in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactBerlioz claimed Symphonie fantastique was inspired by his infatuation wit...
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Season 5
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Episode 236
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1:00
Small Rooms, Big Genius: Mozart’s Chamber Music
DescriptionSmall Rooms, Big Genius: Mozart’s Chamber Music in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactMozart’s Clarinet Quintet was written for his friend Anton Stadler, whose extended-range clar...
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Season 5
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Episode 235
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1:00
Lutes, Lyrics, and Life on the Road: Meet the Medieval Minstrels
DescriptionLutes, Lyrics, and Life on the Road: Meet the Medieval Minstrels in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactMinstrels had to pass on their songs by memory, since music printing wouldn’t arrive ...
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Season 5
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Episode 234
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1:00
If the Music Fits, Sing It: The Art of Word Painting
DescriptionIf the Music Fits, Sing It: The Art of Word Painting in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactIn Weelkes’ madrigal "As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending", the word “descending” i...
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Season 5
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Episode 233
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1:00
Notes on Repeat: How the Printing Press Changed Music Forever
DescriptionNotes on Repeat: How the Printing Press Changed Music Forever in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactPetrucci’s music prints were so beautifully done that people treated them like prized bo...
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Season 5
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Episode 232
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1:00