On this episode, we take a deep dive and look at one scene from Mozart's Magic Flute, the quintet from Act 1. We examine Mozart's unique ability to change musical characters quickly, his use of text painting, and his progressive approach to harmony that was far ahead of his time.  Remember to rate, review, and subscribe! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On this episode, we continue our opera SparkNotes series with a review of Mussorgsky's great Russian epic, Boris Godunov. We highlight all the great music from the opera, including the famous Coronation Scene, and summarize the plot in a way that will help anyone looking to learn a bit about this incredible piece, without committing the full three hours! www.attentiontodetailpod.com Remember to rate, review, and subscribe!

We continue our breakdown of Strauss's striking masterwork Salome, looking at the second part of the opera, including the Dance of the Seven Veils and the famous (or infamous!) final scene! www.attentiontodetailpod.com Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to the podcast! It helps us to get out to as many listeners as possible, and we really appreciate it.

On this episode, we break down the first half of Richard Strauss' groundbreaking and controversial Salome, an opera premiered in 1905. Based on a play by Oscar Wilde, Salome is one of the first works of musical modernism, paving the way for much of the music of the 20th century. Just like actual SparkNotes, we highlight all the key musical and narrative moments, to provide framework of understanding that helps when listening to the entire opera! Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to...

On this episode, we look at the incredible film composer John Williams, ranking our favorite pieces from his body of work. We are joined by Josh Joyce, brother of Jacob, to break down all of the music from Star Wars, Harry Potter, and much more! Remember to rate, review, and subscribe! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

In celebration of 100 episodes of the podcast, we fashioned a fun musical quiz designed to test our hosts' and audience's knowledge of classical music! Jacob tries to identify pieces from ClassicalFM's Top 100 Pieces, and Hannah answers Jacob's questions that use pieces as clues. We hope you will play along, and remember to celebrate with us by rating, reviewing, and subscribing! Also, check out our new blog!! Found here: https://www.attentiontodetailpod.com/blog

We conclude our series on what to expect from symphonic movements with finales! We look at the history of last movements, spanning from Mozart to Mahler, and listen to some epic finishes. www.attentiontodetailpod.com Keep an eye out for our new blog, coming soon to our website, and remember to rate, review, and subscribe to the pod!

On this third episode in our mini-series on what to expect in standard symphonic movements, we supplement our breakdown of third movements with a fun game: Minuet or Scherzo? www.attentiontodetailpod.com Remember to rate, review, and subscribe if you like the podcast!

On this episode we continue our breakdown of symphonic form, now looking at slow movements! We highlight some of the most common types of slow movements and trace their development through musical history. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On this episode, we begin a series where we break down the main characteristics of each movement of a standard symphony, starting with the first! We discuss what to expect from first movements, listen to some famous examples, and explore how first movements evolved over time! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

After a long hiatus, we are back (!!) with a breakdown of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. This piece is heard on July 4th concerts around the United States, and has a fascinating history and layout. We talk about how the overture was actually originally meant to celebrate Russian victory over the invading French, Tchaikovsky's fusion of the absolute and programmatic styles of composition, and the famous ending!

We continue our series on returning to live concerts with a discussion of how to prepare for attending a performance. Should you listen to the pieces beforehand, should you read program notes, and should different pieces be approached in different ways? We tackle all of these questions, and more, in this discussion! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

As live concerts start to come back, we discuss some of the tricky questions surrounding the daunting world of concert etiquette. Many traditions of the classical concert-going experience can be intimidating and confusing to newcomers, so we try to break those down, examine what is important and what is unnecessary, and share some personal experiences! Resources on ending gun violence: https://www.everytown.org/ https://www.newtownactionalliance.org/ Stats on gun violence

On this episode, we are joined by violinist Kevin Lin and cellist Stephen Hawkey to play a game we are calling Mozart, Haydn, or Other! Kevin and Stephen listen to several clips of music from the Classical era and attempt to identify whether the composer is one of the two great masters, or some other lesser-known composer writing in a similar style. To watch the ISO's Baroque Series mentioned in the episode, click here! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On today's episode, we continue our exploration of winter-themed pieces with Schubert's dark and gloomy Winterreise. The quintessential unappreciated artist, Schubert's music is now at the center of the classical repertoire, and Winterreise is seen as one of the iconic works of German romanticism. Although the music is dreary, we hope you get enjoyment out of listening, with a little assistance from us along the way! www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Winter is here! With many of us in the U.S. buried under feet of snow, we thought we would review some pieces of music inspired by winter, starting with Haydn's The Seasons! This little-known oratorio is a real gem, so we hope you enjoy listening! www.attentiontodetailpod.com  

Over the years, it seems that performances of classical music have steadily been getting faster. Why is this, and how does it affect the way we listen? Jacob and Hannah discuss this trend in classical music and the parallels in other genres, comparing recordings of the same piece that take different tempi. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/even-classical-music-is-getting-faster-these-days-748385/ www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Today we explore the phenomenon of re-listening to music. All of us listen to certain songs over and over, which can help us relax, fuel a workout, or provide a nice background to a party. But listening to music repeatedly can also be an attentive and meaningful process, something that Hannah and Jacob explore in this episode. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On this episode of our Musical Blind Tasting series, we focus on music of the Baroque era! Hannah chooses four excerpts for Jacob to listen to and discuss, and then he attempts to try to guess the correct composer. We hope you'll play along, and if you're interested in some helpful techniques for listening to Baroque music, check out our episode on listening tips!

To usher out the challenges of 2020 and ring in what we hope to be a healthier and happier year, we put together a musical listening guide! Our guide consists of four selections based on our reflections on 2020, and four selections highlighting our aspirations for 2021. We want to thank all of our listeners for joining us this year, and look forward to more exciting, fruitful, and music-filled times! New Year Playlist: Here www.attentiontodetailpod.com

On today's episode, we attempt to bring the world of blind wine tasting to music! Like expert wine tasters, who can determine grape varieties, regions, vintages, and even specific wines just by tasting, Jacob and guests challenge each other to figure out the region, composer, and time period of little-known pieces of music, listening to short clips blindly and talking us through their process of deduction. On this first part of our blind tasting series, we focus on pieces from the Romantic...

Continuing with our explorations of what music actually is, we examine another key element of music: randomness. We discuss if music needs to be constructed from organized notes, tempos, rhythms, and/or repetitions, or if music is actually everywhere, from the traffic noises outside to the concert hall. www.attentiontodetailpod.com

Music is filled with silence. But is that silence actually part of the music? And more importantly, can silence itself be music? We tackle these (and other) interesting questions on this special episode, using John Cage's avant-garde piece 4'33", a silent piece of music, as our jumping off point.  www.attentiontodetailpod.com

We finish our series on era-specific listening tips by exploring the most challenging and diverse sub-genre of classical music, Modern/Contemporary music! Modern music often proves to be especially challenging for new listeners, and can be a big turn-off at classical concerts, but we are here to give you five tips that will help to better understand and appreciate listening to music from this fantastic era! Tip 1: Listen with an open mind (4:06) Tip 2: Appreciating the tonality-atonality...