The Music of Man
An exploration of the world's music. Yehudi Menuhin has created this expansive survey of musical traditions from five continents. With panoramic vision and infectious enthusiasm, he takes us from primeval rhythms of Africa to the symphonies of Beethoven, from plainsong to jazz, from Swiss yodeling to Irish jig, from steel drum to electronic synthesizer. The Music of Man was a series of eight hour-long specials with host Yehudi Menuhin, following the development of music from its beginnings at the dawn of history to the electronic experiments, jazz and rock of our own time. Menuhin, the renowned violinist, conductor and humanist, participated both as violin soloist and conductor throughout the series, and was also co-writer.
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Cast
Seasons
- Ep 1
1.The Quiver of Life
10-11-1978The first program tells how music began 35,000 years ago with hollowed-out animal bones. In India and China, music was a perfected art long before the birth of Christ. In the weste...
- Ep 2
2.The Flowering of Harmony
17-11-1978With the growth of music from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance came a blending of many voices. Palestrina and Gabrielli are but two of the early composers featured. Yehudi Menuhi...
- Ep 3
3.New Voices for Man
24-11-1978At the height of the Renaissance in Italy Monteverdi wrote the first opera, a form of entertainment instantly popular throughout Europe. Corelli created the sonata form and new ins...
- Ep 4
4.The Age of the Composer
01-12-1978The works of Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert established music as an accessible and popular art form in Western society. The program also examines J.S. Bach's...
- Ep 5
5.The Age of the Individual
08-12-1978The era of Western industrialization and the Romantic movement brought with it the grand piano and the huge symphony orchestra. Verdi, Brahms, Wagner and Tchaikovsky each put their...
- Ep 6
6.The Parting of the Ways
15-12-1978During the pre-World War I era the music of Stephen Foster, Scott Joplin and John Philip Sousa influenced the popular musical tastes of America. Abroad Debussy, Strauss and Mahler...
- Ep 7
7.The Known and the Unknown
22-12-1978Between the two World Wars the pace of life quickened. Jazz became enormously popular in both Europe and America. In classical music, Aaron Copland and Arnold Schoenberg opened new...
- Ep 8
8.Sound or Unsound
29-12-1978The post-war exploration of music, impelled by the LP, the transistor radio and the television, has taken Western music beyond early jazz into folk, rock and electronic music. Yet...
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