Exploring Music
Encyclopedia
Exploring Music is an internationally syndicated radio program featuring classical music
, with commentary and analysis by host Bill McGlaughlin
. It is a daily, one-hour show with a single in-depth theme each week. The show, which debuted in 2003, is produced by WFMT
Radio Network. Exploring Music is in many ways the heir to the late Karl Haas
' popular long-running show, Adventures in Good Music
, expanded and updated for a 21st-century audience.
As of 2008, Exploring Music airs on over 40 radio stations and has well over 500,000 listeners, and is also listenable online. In Australia
, Exploring Music airs on 4MBS
, at 7 PM.
s, explorations of various cultures, styles, forms, and time periods, and dozens of other topics and areas of exploration.
A very small sampling of weekly topics includes such themes as:
Over two dozen classical composers — running the gamut from Schumann
to Bartok, Grieg, Debussy, Vaughan Williams
, Stravinsky, and Bernstein
— have also had weekly themes devoted exclusively to their lives and music. These programs are intimate biographies which include the composer's early life, education, historical and musical influences, personal lives, and emotional and musical development, plus numerous musical pieces each day. Several composers, including Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Shostakovich, have had a two-week theme devoted to their lives and works. Approximately one week per month is devoted to the life and works of a single composer.
Exploring Music is geared to all ages and to any level of musical knowledge. Host Bill McGlaughlin guides the listener into the music through various means: revealing the stories behind compositions, adding analysis and illustrations at the piano, exploring the interlocking nature of music and ideas, and also giving his insight as a professional musician, conductor, and composer.
Each week McGlaughlin aims to weave an intriguing, ever-deepening tale around the topic at hand, and to make exploring classical music fun. "Drawing people inside the music seems the clue to me," he says. "Human beings are wired for delight when we figure something out." Occasionally music from other genres — such as jazz, ethnic/world music, folk/traditional music, or pop standards — is aired, to liven up the discussion and illustrate points.
The piano is another tool McGlaughlin frequently employs to get concepts across. Of his original decisions about the show's format, McGlaughlin says, "It’s very hard to talk about music on the radio unless you can hear a sound, so I said I need a piano. Instead of saying 'a minor third
,' I can play it. I wanted to make certain that what you could hear was prominent."
Radio Network, approached Peabody Award
-winner Bill McGlaughlin
to host a new daily radio show, which would showcase and explicate great works of classical music
. McGlaughlin had spent 22 years as host and music director of Saint Paul Sunday
, the nationally syndicated weekly chamber music
performance and interview show. His credentials also included decades as a professional musician, conductor, and composer. Regarding his choice of McGlaughlin as host, Steve Robinson states, "As far as I'm concerned, no one can top Bill in the way he conveys his passion for music on the radio."
Development of the new program was funded by a special grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
, in November 2002. The show debuted nationally on October 6, 2003. Exploring Music in essence replaced Karl Haas
' long-running show, Adventures in Good Music
, since the aging and retired Haas had recorded no new episodes of his show after 2002. When encore broadcasts of Adventures in Good Music ceased entirely on June 29, 2007, Exploring Music gained an even wider national listenership, as it was then scheduled in the retired show's time slot on many radio stations.
McGlaughlin's highly informed, yet relatable and enthusiastic presentation has proved a hit with audiences, including younger listeners. Executive Producer Steve Robinson reports:
Media response echoes this:
As of 2008, Exploring Music has over 500,000 listeners. Acclaim and appreciation for the show has garnered host and music director Bill McGlaughlin the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 from Fine Arts Radio International, which stated that, "Exploring Music, with its weekly thematic concept, provides the classical radio listener with both in-depth education and compelling radio listening, a balance that is rarely achieved." The show has also garnered Bill McGlaughlin and producer Steve Robinson the Dushkin Award from the Music Institute of Chicago, in 2008.
, and the WFMT
production studio is in Chicago
, production of Exploring Music occurs in two locations. After choosing a topic, McGlaughlin does extensive public library research in New York. The Chicago producers collect 30 to 50 hours of relevant music selection samples (with their liner notes), from WFMT's extensive library in Chicago, and send them to McGlaughlin, by making MP3
(low-resolution) files of them, burning them onto DVDs, and Fed-Exing them to McGlaughlin. In New York, the team at radio station WQXR
also combs their music library for more possibilities, and places the audio into iTunes
for McGlaughlin to review.
After sorting through and choosing which music selections to present, and finalizing his research and ideas, McGlaughlin then records the voice-track portion of the week's five one-hour shows, in the studios of WQXR in New York. The recording session is monitored in real time in Chicago via either ISDN or telephone. This allows McGlaughlin, his New York recording engineer, and the Chicago producers to interact freely, as if they were all in the same recording studio. McGlaughlin often voices the same narration section multiple ways, attempting to find the most concise and entertaining way to present the information, which also gives the producers editing options when they finalize each show.
The voice-track audio files for the week's five shows are then sent to Chicago, where they are edited for time, and the high-resolution music selections are added in. This post-production
process involves making artistic choices regarding which of Bill's narration samples to use, and how to present and place Bill's piano examples, snippet examples from CDs, and the musical pieces themselves. Choices are also made with timing in mind; extra movements or an extra unannounced musical snippet at the end of the show are added if a show runs short.
Once each program is completed, a CD is made and given to the WFMT uplink
department. The show is then distributed to radio stations around the country three ways: Physical duplicates are made of the master CD and shipped; the show is uploaded to the Content Depot server for automatic Internet distribution; and the show is also uplinked over satellite. Listeners nationwide and even worldwide are then able to hear Exploring Music, either broadcast on their local radio station, or via the Internet through any one of 36 online radio stations.
, Exploring Music airs on 4MBS
, at 7 PM.
Playlists for every episode of Exploring Music since its inception are available on the program's official site. Composer biographies and recommended recordings for over one hundred featured composers are also listed on the site. The official website also has a blog, which includes audio excerpts from the show, and a message board.
Topics and Composers
Production
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, with commentary and analysis by host Bill McGlaughlin
Bill McGlaughlin
William "Bill" McGlaughlin is an American composer, conductor, music educator, and Peabody Award-winning classical music radio host...
. It is a daily, one-hour show with a single in-depth theme each week. The show, which debuted in 2003, is produced by WFMT
WFMT
WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk and jazz). The station is managed by Window To The World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, one of Chicago's two Public Broadcasting Service ...
Radio Network. Exploring Music is in many ways the heir to the late Karl Haas
Karl Haas
Karl Haas was a German-American classical music radio host, whose distinctively sonorous voice and humanistic approach to making music appreciation contagious made him well-received by many...
' popular long-running show, Adventures in Good Music
Adventures in Good Music
Adventures in Good Music, hosted by Karl Haas, was radio's most widely listened-to classical music program, and aired nationally in the U.S. from 1970 to 2007. Adventures in Good Music was also syndicated to commercial and public radio stations around the world...
, expanded and updated for a 21st-century audience.
As of 2008, Exploring Music airs on over 40 radio stations and has well over 500,000 listeners, and is also listenable online. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Exploring Music airs on 4MBS
4MBS
4MBS Classic FM is a Brisbane community radio station that broadcasts classical music, jazz and nostalgia throughout South East Queensland. It is broadcast at a frequency of 103.7 MHz....
, at 7 PM.
Program description
Exploring Music delves into a wide variety of topics in classical music, and each five-program (one week) series has a single theme. Weekly themes have included weeklong studies of the music of dozens of composerComposer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s, explorations of various cultures, styles, forms, and time periods, and dozens of other topics and areas of exploration.
A very small sampling of weekly topics includes such themes as:
|
Musical instrument classification At various times, and in various cultures, various schemes of musical instrument classification have been used.The most commonly used system in use in the west today divides instruments into string instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments... Metronome A metronome is any device that produces regular, metrical ticks — settable in beats per minute. These ticks represent a fixed, regular aural pulse; some metronomes also include synchronized visual motion... The Five The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie , refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin... |
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
to Bartok, Grieg, Debussy, Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
, Stravinsky, and Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
— have also had weekly themes devoted exclusively to their lives and music. These programs are intimate biographies which include the composer's early life, education, historical and musical influences, personal lives, and emotional and musical development, plus numerous musical pieces each day. Several composers, including Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Shostakovich, have had a two-week theme devoted to their lives and works. Approximately one week per month is devoted to the life and works of a single composer.
Exploring Music is geared to all ages and to any level of musical knowledge. Host Bill McGlaughlin guides the listener into the music through various means: revealing the stories behind compositions, adding analysis and illustrations at the piano, exploring the interlocking nature of music and ideas, and also giving his insight as a professional musician, conductor, and composer.
Each week McGlaughlin aims to weave an intriguing, ever-deepening tale around the topic at hand, and to make exploring classical music fun. "Drawing people inside the music seems the clue to me," he says. "Human beings are wired for delight when we figure something out." Occasionally music from other genres — such as jazz, ethnic/world music, folk/traditional music, or pop standards — is aired, to liven up the discussion and illustrate points.
The piano is another tool McGlaughlin frequently employs to get concepts across. Of his original decisions about the show's format, McGlaughlin says, "It’s very hard to talk about music on the radio unless you can hear a sound, so I said I need a piano. Instead of saying 'a minor third
Minor third
In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. The minor quality specification identifies it as being the smallest of the two: the minor third spans three semitones, the major...
,' I can play it. I wanted to make certain that what you could hear was prominent."
Inception and history
In 2002, Steve Robinson, Vice President of WFMTWFMT
WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk and jazz). The station is managed by Window To The World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, one of Chicago's two Public Broadcasting Service ...
Radio Network, approached Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
-winner Bill McGlaughlin
Bill McGlaughlin
William "Bill" McGlaughlin is an American composer, conductor, music educator, and Peabody Award-winning classical music radio host...
to host a new daily radio show, which would showcase and explicate great works of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
. McGlaughlin had spent 22 years as host and music director of Saint Paul Sunday
Saint Paul Sunday
Saint Paul Sunday is a Peabody Award-winning weekly classical music radio program, hosted by Bill McGlaughlin. It is America's most widely listened to weekly classical music program produced by public radio, and airs on approximately 200 stations nationwide. Programs since 1997 are also available...
, the nationally syndicated weekly chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
performance and interview show. His credentials also included decades as a professional musician, conductor, and composer. Regarding his choice of McGlaughlin as host, Steve Robinson states, "As far as I'm concerned, no one can top Bill in the way he conveys his passion for music on the radio."
Development of the new program was funded by a special grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, in November 2002. The show debuted nationally on October 6, 2003. Exploring Music in essence replaced Karl Haas
Karl Haas
Karl Haas was a German-American classical music radio host, whose distinctively sonorous voice and humanistic approach to making music appreciation contagious made him well-received by many...
' long-running show, Adventures in Good Music
Adventures in Good Music
Adventures in Good Music, hosted by Karl Haas, was radio's most widely listened-to classical music program, and aired nationally in the U.S. from 1970 to 2007. Adventures in Good Music was also syndicated to commercial and public radio stations around the world...
, since the aging and retired Haas had recorded no new episodes of his show after 2002. When encore broadcasts of Adventures in Good Music ceased entirely on June 29, 2007, Exploring Music gained an even wider national listenership, as it was then scheduled in the retired show's time slot on many radio stations.
Popular and critical reception
- The e-mail is always over the top. In my 40 years doing classical music radio I've never seen anything like it.... The letters range from a person who had never heard a string quartet before and wanted to know where to buy one, to a listener who graduated from Juilliard and found [Bill's] comments on Ravel to be enlightening!
Media response echoes this:
- Bill McGlaughlin's folksy but informed manner as host of the popular radio series Exploring Music has pulled thousands of listeners into the classical experience.
- — John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune music critic
As of 2008, Exploring Music has over 500,000 listeners. Acclaim and appreciation for the show has garnered host and music director Bill McGlaughlin the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 from Fine Arts Radio International, which stated that, "Exploring Music, with its weekly thematic concept, provides the classical radio listener with both in-depth education and compelling radio listening, a balance that is rarely achieved." The show has also garnered Bill McGlaughlin and producer Steve Robinson the Dushkin Award from the Music Institute of Chicago, in 2008.
Production and distribution
Since McGlaughlin lives in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and the WFMT
WFMT
WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk and jazz). The station is managed by Window To The World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, one of Chicago's two Public Broadcasting Service ...
production studio is in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, production of Exploring Music occurs in two locations. After choosing a topic, McGlaughlin does extensive public library research in New York. The Chicago producers collect 30 to 50 hours of relevant music selection samples (with their liner notes), from WFMT's extensive library in Chicago, and send them to McGlaughlin, by making MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
(low-resolution) files of them, burning them onto DVDs, and Fed-Exing them to McGlaughlin. In New York, the team at radio station WQXR
WQXR-FM
WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...
also combs their music library for more possibilities, and places the audio into iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
for McGlaughlin to review.
The voice-track audio files for the week's five shows are then sent to Chicago, where they are edited for time, and the high-resolution music selections are added in. This post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
process involves making artistic choices regarding which of Bill's narration samples to use, and how to present and place Bill's piano examples, snippet examples from CDs, and the musical pieces themselves. Choices are also made with timing in mind; extra movements or an extra unannounced musical snippet at the end of the show are added if a show runs short.
Once each program is completed, a CD is made and given to the WFMT uplink
Uplink
A telecommunications link is generally one of several types of information transmission paths such as those provided by communication satellites to connect two points on earth.-Uplink:...
department. The show is then distributed to radio stations around the country three ways: Physical duplicates are made of the master CD and shipped; the show is uploaded to the Content Depot server for automatic Internet distribution; and the show is also uplinked over satellite. Listeners nationwide and even worldwide are then able to hear Exploring Music, either broadcast on their local radio station, or via the Internet through any one of 36 online radio stations.
Listening
Exploring Music airs daily on over 40 public and commercial radio stations in the U.S. It can also be listened to worldwide at various times of the day and night via the numerous radio stations that offer free live streaming audio online. In AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Exploring Music airs on 4MBS
4MBS
4MBS Classic FM is a Brisbane community radio station that broadcasts classical music, jazz and nostalgia throughout South East Queensland. It is broadcast at a frequency of 103.7 MHz....
, at 7 PM.
Playlists for every episode of Exploring Music since its inception are available on the program's official site. Composer biographies and recommended recordings for over one hundred featured composers are also listed on the site. The official website also has a blog, which includes audio excerpts from the show, and a message board.
External links
ListeningTopics and Composers
Production
- The Making of an Exploring Music Program including audio examples of the post-production process
- Technical specs and engineering, recording, production info