Portrait of Mozart family

Talking Mozart with Robert Marshall – Mozart Speaks, Part II (MITA Lesson)

Known perhaps best for his incisive and illuminating Bach scholarship, Robert Marshall’s lifelong love for Mozart produced a volume—the real Mozart Speaks—that only a deep and humane understanding of the composer’s character and music could allow. Based on his unique organizing of Mozart’s 1,000+ pages of letters and contemporary observations, Marshall holds us captive while
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An oil painting of Mozart in his twenties, by an unknown artist. Mozart wears the medallion awarded him by the Pope.

Mighty “Jupiter” – Mozart Speaks, Part I (MITA Lesson)

In this first of a multi-part series exploring Mozart using Music in the Air (MITA), lead author and master teacher/entertainer Robert Winter uses MITA’s powerful interactive tools to dive right into the first two movements of Mozart’s final symphony, in C Major, K. 551—dubbed within only years of its composition as the “Jupiter.” We try
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John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa: Patriotism, Power, and Race (MITA Lesson)

We celebrate and examine the life and music of the March King, John Philip Sousa. Sousa lived at a time of unprecedented changes in American life, from the Civil War to the Nineteenth Amendment that gave women the right to vote. His achievements and attitudes reflect many of the social and cultural issues with which
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The Musical Frame in Western Music (MITA Lesson)

Writers have traditionally claimed features such as polyphony, the symphony orchestra, or chamber music as markers of Western music. Drawing upon everything from Chinese and Indian art to a Mahler symphony, Music in the Air lead author Robert Winter invokes nine varied works spanning a millennium to suggest that the musical frame is the feature
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Musical Shapes and Sizes (MITA Lesson)

In this fast-paced and entertaining video, Music in the Air lead author Robert Winter introduces beginners to the world of hearing music over time. Nine examples from dance music around the world offer a colorful but secure springboard. Come on in: the water’s fine. This MITA Lesson was recorded as part of a live webinar.
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Joseph Haydn performs string quartets

Joseph Haydn’s Amazing Ascension, Act II (MITA Lesson)

Music in the Air lead author Robert Winter tracks the twists and turns of Joseph Haydn’s second London sojourn in 1793-94, which was about as perfect and satisfying an experience as any human could ever hope for—and in this case one most richly deserved. This MITA Lesson, recorded via a live webinar, is part 2
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Portrait of Joseph Haydn by the great English portraitist Thomas Hardy

Joseph Haydn’s Amazing Ascension, Act I (MITA Lesson)

In the first of two videos about a seriously underrated composer, MITA lead author Robert Winter traces Joseph Haydn’s modest roots from a corner of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to his gradual but inexorable ascent to the most famous composer in all of Europe. The session is capped off with an exploration of the first movement
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A performer plays the Chinese guzheng, part of the vast string instrument family

String Instruments, an Introduction (MITA Lesson)

Music in the Air (MITA) lead author Robert Winter introduces a wide range of Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Western string instruments that illustrate not only the variety across the world but the logic by which the Western string family came to be the foundation of the modern symphony orchestra. (We’ll be taking up the symphony
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