Mac'nClassicalCheese - Jul 27, 2023

Today's show is all about THEMES! A theme in classical music is like a repeated melody that the music is built around, or it circles back to. It can also be tied to a certain person or thing in a story. Like in a movie, or in a ballet, there are themes (so specific melodies) in the music for certain characters that let you know when someone is coming in and out of the story. Today you'll hear a theme from Henry Purcell that Benjamin Britten used for his Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (also used in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice on solo violin for that one Darcy & Lizzie dance), a fantasia on a theme and variants on a theme by Ralph Vaughan Williams, then two pieces that showcase character's themes – "Gayane's Adagio" from Gayane Suite, and Yumeji's Theme from Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood For Love. Our first ever guitar work, Fantasía para un Gentilhombre by Joaquín Rodrigo which is based on a theme by the earlier Spanish Baroque composer Gaspar Sanz, then 2 movie themes! The Medallion calls from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, because it sounds JUST like that Gaspar Sanz theme...and then the love theme from the Star Wars prequels. Finally, we get to a bit of a cheat, Soarin, which is theme park music, cuz why not, and then finishing with *the* most famous, the romance variation from Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, played by the incredible Arthur Rubinstein.