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20th Century Greats

20th Century Greats

★ 7.0/10•2004•48m•Documentary
Similars

Howard Goodall examines the work of The Beatles, Cole Porter, Bernard Herrmann and Leonard Bernstein.

David Jeffcock · Director

Francis Hanly · Director

StatusEnded
Runtime48m
LanguageEN
First Air DateNov 27, 2004

Episodes

Episode 1 - Lennon/McCartneyE148m

Lennon/McCartney

John Lennon and Paul McCartney turned themselves into the most influential composers of the late twentieth century. Their music wasn’t just immensely popular. It also proved that traditional western harmony – the main building block of European music – still had plenty to offer. They, more than anyone, saved the western musical tradition from extinction, and gave it a new purpose and a direction.

Nov 27, 2004

Episode 2 - Cole PorterE248m

Cole Porter

Cole Porter was the most gifted of a richly talented generation of composers who transformed popular music in the 1920s and 30s. It had started the century, for the most part, bland, patronising and trite, the gauche, poor relation of classical music. Cole Porter, more than anyone, made it musically, and lyrically sophisticated, emotionally satisfying and subtle. Remarkably, not only did he write some of the best music ever, but was also one of the greatest lyricists in the English language.

Dec 4, 2004

Episode 3 - Bernard HerrmannE348m

Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann wrote some of the most famous film music of the twentieth century, from Citizen Kane to The Day The Earth Stood Still, Fahrenheit 451 to Taxi Driver. He is best known for his scores for Alfred Hitchcock, in particular the masterpieces Vertigo and Psycho. Herrmann completely transformed film music, dragging it out of its reliance on the sounds and textures of nineteenth centuryVienna and into the modern age.

Dec 11, 2004

Episode 4 - Leonard BernsteinE448m

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein was the composer who, more than anyone else in the twentieth century, embodied the trend we now call ‘cross-over.’ A brilliant musician and conductor, he wrote in the ‘classical’ style, but also wrote some of the best known ‘popular’ music of the century, from On The Town to West Side Story. By his own mixing of European classical, pop and Latin styles, Bernstein may have prefigured the next important phase in the music of our own time – the fusion of Western and Asian styles.

Dec 18, 2004

Actors

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Self (archive footage)

Howard Goodall

Howard Goodall

Presenter

George Harrison

George Harrison

Self (archive footage)

Bernard Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann

Self (archive footage)

John Lennon

John Lennon

Self (archive footage)

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Self (archive footage)

Cole Porter

Cole Porter

Self (archive footage)

Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr

Self (archive footage)

Recommendations

American Masters
1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything
American Experience
Jazz
Baseball
Mysteries at the Museum
The World According to Jeff Goldblum
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James May's Cars of the People
This Is Pop
The Andy Warhol Diaries
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Foo Fighters Sonic Highways
Last Chance U
Doctor Who Confidential
Pee-wee as Himself
Top Gear
The New York Times Presents
Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields
Horizon

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