School is underway here on the campus of Indiana University, so this week the Ether Game Brain Trust is giving new meaning to the phrase "taking notes" and playing some academic music in a show we're calling "Back To School."Â Here's our very scholarly playlist:
- Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), Academic Festival Overture, Op. 18 – When the University of Breslau informed Johannes Brahms in 1880 that they wished to give him an honorary doctoral degree, they also informed him that he needed to write a symphony for the occasion. Brahms presented them instead with what he referred to as a "boisterous potpourri of student songs à la Franz von Suppé," his Academic Festival Overture. The humorous work ruffled the feathers of a few of the stodgier academics at Breslau. The overture includes quotations of a banned revolutionary tune, a comic Freshmen hazing ditty, and an over-the-top arrangement of academic tune Gaudeamus igitur at the end. Even though Brahms refused to write that symphony to the University of Breslau, it's still better than what he did to Cambridge University three years earlier. He refused their offer of an honorary doctorate altogether.
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- Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), Candide Overture – Although the plot of Bernstein's operetta Candide revolves around a young man's practical education on the philosophy of optimism by an educator named Professor Pangloss, the educator I want to talk about now is Leonard Bernstein himself. Leonard Bernstein, who was born 100 years ago this Saturday, did not work for a school, but did believe strongly in the value of education. In the 1950s and 60s, he was widely known for giving music lectures on television, first on the CBS educational series Omnibus and then on his own educational television program called Young People's Concerts. Towards the end of his life, he was also a pioneer of the educational idea known as "Artful Learning." Bernstein's Artful Learning concept incorporates the arts into all aspects of the learning process, in order to deepen a student's appreciation for learning, whether it's in reading, writing or math.
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- Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 – Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra was written not for the concert stage, but rather for a film. The 1946 children's educational documentary was called The Instruments of the Orchestra, and Britten's work carried the subtitle "Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell." The theme comes from incidental music Purcell had written for the play Abdelazer, by Aphra Behn. Britten introduces a fully orchestrated version of Purcell's theme, and then proceeds with variations on this theme featuring different families of instruments, giving them all a chance to show off. And of course, the original film had proper British narration, explaining to the children exactly what instruments were being heard. The final fugue re-introduces the instruments in the order they appeared, and the piece ends almost exactly as it had begun, only this time with a more attuned audience.
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- Samuel Barber (1910–1981), Overture to "The School for Scandal" – Barber's overture to The School for Scandal reflects the emotions and plot elements of its source material, the play of the same name by Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Sheridan's play is one of the best comedies of the 18th century, following the gossiping exploits of Lady Sneerwell as she spreads rumors about the people around her. It's the quintessential English "comedy of manners," exploring social issues by placing the characters in hilarious and awkward situations. The play must have made an impression on Barber because this overture was his first work for full orchestra, written while he was still a student at the highly prestigious Curtis Institute of Music. The work put Barber on the map: it won the Bearns Prize of Columbia University in 1933, and it was premiered by none other than the Philadelphia Orchestra that same year! Talk about a good start!
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- Franz Schubert (1797–1828), Mass No. 1 in F Major – Looking at Franz Schubert's entire musical output of 650 choral works, symphonies, string quartets, masses, operas and over fifty piano sonatas, you might forget that his musical career only lasted just under twenty years. On top of that, music composition wasn't always his full time job. In 1814, when Schubert composed this selection, he was working as a school teacher. General education was in Schubert's heritage. His father was head administrator at the St Anna Normal-hauptschule, a well-respected school in Vienna that would be equivalent to American middle school. Franz Schubert spent three years teaching various subjects at his father's school. The main perk of the job was that, alongside having the time to take a commissions from his family church to compose the Mass in F Major, he was able to continue taking lessons with Antonio Salieri. Salieri put Schubert through the most rigorous musical education of his many students, because Schubert was so prolific.
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- Gustav Holst (1874–1934), St Paul's Suite – Holst's tuneful St. Paul Suite is a popular piece of music, especially with school ensembles.  This makes sense since Holst wrote it for the orchestra of the St. Paul Girl's School in Hammersmith, England.  Holst was the music director for the St. Paul Girl's School from 1904 until his death in 1934. At the same time, he was working at the James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich, succeeding Ralph Vaughan Williams in the post. He was a much-beloved teacher at both institution, and also visited the United States several times as a guest lecturer. Most of his compositions during this period were written in the soundproof music room at St. Paul Girl's School. The St. Paul Suite was originally written for the school's all-girl string orchestra, but Holst later added wind parts so it could be played by full orchestra. He also used parts of the St. Paul Suite in his popular suites for military band.
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- Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979) – The claim could easily be made that Nadia Boulanger is the most important composition teacher from the 20th century. Many of the most notable 20th century composers studied with her, including Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Philip Glass, Roy Harris, Astor Piazzolla, Elliott Carter, Michel Legrand, Quincy Jones, John Eliot Gardiner, David Diamond, Daniel Barenboim, Emile Naoumoff and a host of others. She was a gifted composer herself, who placed second for the Prix de Rome, a prize her father won in 1835. In 1913, Nadia's sister, Lili, became the first woman and youngest person to ever with the Prix de Rome. Sadly, Lili's life was cut short in 1918. Lili's death marked the virtual end of Nadia's career in composition, as she felt herself to be an inferior composer. Nevertheless, Nadia prevailed in the world of composition as one of the foremost teachers of it.
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- Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1623–1680), Balletto a 4 in G major "Fechtschule" ("Fencing School") – Schmelzer was one of the leading musicians in Austria before Heinrich Biber, making significant contributions to the development of instrumental music, especially the violin sonata. He was widely regarded as one of the finest violinists in Europe, one of the few Austrians to gain such a reputation in a field that was dominated by Italian string players. He spent his entire musical career as a court violinist at the Habsburg court in Vienna where he composed and performed for Emperor Leopold, an avid patron of the arts. We just heard Schmelzer's Fechtschule or Fencing School, a musical depiction of students learning how to hone their sword play skills. The Courante and Fechtschule movements depict the duel itself, an example of the Battaglia genre of Baroque instrumental music, in which the members of the chamber ensemble musically imitate the sounds of a battlefield.
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- Pink Floyd, "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" – Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" is part of the band's monumental 1979 rock opera/concept album The Wall. The album grew out of their horrible experiences on tour, and the rude audience members who screamed and disrespected the band. Songwriter Roger Waters mused that he wanted to put a wall between themselves and the audience. So he hired Canadian producer Bob Ezrin, who had worked with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, to help him refine this concept. The album is about a person who slowly builds a wall around his life, only to break it down when he becomes depressed. This particular song is about overbearing, abusive teachers, who become just another brick in the wall that's built around him. At Ezrin's insistence, "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" adopted a disco beat and was made into a single. It became Pink Floyd's only number one hit.
