As part of the series dedicated to the history of and legends on musical instruments, we'll talk today about the bells that are considered to be the  heaviest and biggest ones in the world.

Today's episode is dedicated to the history of creation of bells and to their significance in the life of humans.

During this episode of our program, we'll take you to Ancient China to get acquainted with some details of the history of its music.

In our last broadcast, we talked about the music of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Continuing the theme, today we will present the music of Ancient Rome and of Ancient Armenia.

In our previous broadcast, we learned how and why primitive people created the first music and musical instruments.
Today we will talk about music and its role in the Ancient world, particularly in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome.

Whith the new season of our broadcast, we are going to introduce you into the history of music and of the creation of the first musical instruments. Today we will try to understand why and how first humans created music, more precisely, primitive sounds.

Our today's special holiday broadcast is dedicated to the great Italian composer, violinist, teacher, conductor, and priest of the Catholic Church, Antonio Vivaldi, and particularly to his concert series "The Four Seasons."

The Heroic Symphony by Beethoven initiated a notable era for  European symphonism, which was elevated by this work to a new innovative level. The Symphony was created in a psychologically very hard period for the composer. 

At the end of the broadcast, you'll listen to the 1st and 2nd parts of the Symphony performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

In 1878, the Bartholf Senff publishing house in Leipzig printed Spanish composer Pablo de Sarasate's Opus 20, the Gypsy Melodies (Airs). After five years, in 1883, Sarasate received a strange letter from the Hungarian composer Elemér Szentirmay, who wrote that he was the author of one of the parts in Gypsy Melodies.

Today’s broadcast is dedicated to the history of creation of Slavonic Dances by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. You can listen to this work performed by Cleveland Symphony Orchestra at the end of the broadcast (conductor George Szell).

Since ancient times, people have woven legends and myths about swan, considering it a symbol of purity and grandeur.  Its beauty inspired a number writers, artists and composers, including the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Today's broadcast is about the movement "Swan" from his Suite "The Carnival of the Animals."

Polish composer Michal Oginski's polonaise "A Farewell to the Homeland" is considered the musical symbol of modern Poland. Some even proposed to choose it as the Polish national anthem but abandoned this idea because this polonaise is very difficult for singing.

In 1735, composer, violinist and organist Giovanni Battista Pergolesi moved from Naples, where he lived and worked, to a Franciscan monastery in the nearby small town of Pozzuoli. The reason was tuberculosis. After a year, on March 16, 1736, the sickness caused the death of the 26-year-old composer.  During this year, Pergolesi created his most significant work, the Stabat Mater cantata in F minor.

Benediktbeuern Abbey (or Beuern), a medieval monastery of the Benedictine Order, in Benediktbeuern in Bavaria, Germany. For many years, its monks have collected and preserved books of different content. The most popular among these books is perhaps "Carmina Burana," which, translated from Latin, means "Songs from Beuern." The poems of the collection became popular especially thanks to the famous cantata "Carmina Burana" by German composer and educator Carl Heinrich Maria Orff.

Lullabies are an ancient genre of music folklore that comes from human prehistory.  Each nation has had lullabies peculiar to its mythology, world view and philosophy, and almost nothing has changed in these lullabies so far.

The most wonderful, "singing" cave is in Scotland, on the Isle of Staffa…

In the 14th-15th centuries, Western culture was entirely saturated with the theme of death. This direction in art soon received its name – "Danse macabre " or "Dance of death."

The Vltava is the longest river of the Czech Republic (about 430 km), the left tributary of the Elba. In the entire history of the Czech lands, this river has played a unique role in the country's life. The symphonic poem "Vltava" by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana is considered to be the unofficial anthem of the country. 
Today's broadcast is dedicated to the history of creation of this brilliant work.

Bolero is a national Spanish dance, whose initial types originated in the second half of the 18th century. In the 19th century, bolero became so popular that  became a part of musical theater and was taught with the rules of classical ballet.

We continue the topic covered in our latest episode dedicated to the Catholic prayer "Ave Maria." Today we present another interesting story about one more song called "Ave Aria," which is a result of the so-called cooperation between 18th-century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and 19th-century French composer, music critic Charles Gounod.

"Ave Maria" is one of the most famous Catholic prayers dedicated to the Holy Virgin Mary. In different periods, musical masterpieces were created on the basis of this prayer.
Today we present Franz Schubert's "Ellen's Third Song" that is often wrongly called "Ave Maria."

The ability to see creative dreams is one of the unexplained mysteries inherent to geniuses. Many stories have reached us that tell how the author of an important invention or the creator of a wonderful art work received a hint for it in a dream.

Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn spent about three decades in the palace of the Esterházy princes, which was so rich and luxurious that was not inferior to the palace of the Emperor.

About 300 years ago, in 1732-1734, the German Baroque composer, organist and violinist Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his famous Coffee Cantata, which is considered to be the first music composition that advertises coffee.