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The Unanswered Question

Season 1 1976
TV-G

  • 1976-01-11T05:00:00Z on PBS
  • 7h
  • 1d 18h (6 episodes)
  • United States
  • Special Interest
Leonard Bernstein examines music from every age and place in the search for a worldwide, innate musical grammar. Folk music, pop songs, symphonies, tonal, atonal, well-tempered and ill-tempered works find a place in these discussions. All of them, Mr. Bernstein suggests, are grounded in a universal musical language.

6 episodes

Series Premiere

1976-01-11T05:00:00Z

1x01 Musical Phonology

Series Premiere

1x01 Musical Phonology

  • 1976-01-11T05:00:00Z7h

Explores the origins and development of music and language, with a performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in g minor; K. 550

1976-01-18T05:00:00Z

1x02 Musical Syntax

1x02 Musical Syntax

  • 1976-01-18T05:00:00Z7h

Compares the structures of music and speech, and discusses the multiple transformations of which both are capable, with examples from Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in g minor; K. 550

1976-01-25T05:00:00Z

1x03 Musical Semantics

1x03 Musical Semantics

  • 1976-01-25T05:00:00Z7h

Demonstrates layers of meaning in Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F Major; op. 68

Explorations of new tonal fields by composers of the Romantic era. Musical illustrations include: Berlioz's Romeo Alone and The Ball at the Capulets from Romeo & Juliet, Wagner's Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan & Isolde, and Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

1x05 The Twentieth Century Crisis

  • 1976-02-15T05:00:00Z7h

Arnold Schoenberg's movement toward atonality and Gustav Mahler's anticipation of the crisis in twentieth century music. Includes performances of Ives's The Unanswered Question, Ravel's 'Feria' from Rhapsodie espagnole and Mahler's Symphony No. 9 in D Major; Mvt. 4.

1976-02-22T05:00:00Z

1x06 The Poetry of Earth

1x06 The Poetry of Earth

  • 1976-02-22T05:00:00Z7h

Examines how Igor Stravinsky kept tonality viable while experimenting freely with dissonance. Includes a complete performance of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex.

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