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Playing at sight and playing from memory

Tom Service flexes his musical memory muscles whilst also improving his sight reading.

• 29 mins

Making Overtures

Tom Service explores the rise and fall of the musical curtain-raiser.

• 29 mins

Dancing about Architecture

Is writing about music really like dancing about architecture?

• 29 mins

Recorders

Tom Service explores the music and mystery of that schooldays favourite - the recorder.

• 28 mins

Classical Crossover

Tom Service turns his ears to a musical world where classical and pop converge.

• 29 mins

John Williams - the Force of Music!

Tom Service has a close encounter with the film music of John Williams.

• 28 mins

Finishing the Hat

Tom Service explores the lyrics and legacy of musical theatre composer Stephen Sondheim.

• 29 mins

Song Cycles and Concept Albums

Tom Service explores the connections between song cycles and concept albums.

• 29 mins

What's in a Name?

Tom Service on the often baffling language of classical music naming and numbering.

• 29 mins

The Musical Recycling Plant

From composers to composters: how and why do composers re-use their own music?

• 29 mins

Can music be funny?

Tom Service on the art of classical music comedy. And it's not necessarily about timing.

• 29 mins

Royal Music

Music fit for kings, queens, princes and princesses: but what do we mean by royal music?

• 29 mins

What's the point of cadenzas?

Tom Service explores cadenzas with the American pianist Jeremy Denk at the Hay Festival.

• 28 mins

The Music of Sound

Tom Service on the mutually creative relationship between music and its surroundings.

• 29 mins

TV Themes

Tom Service explores television themes with Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley.

• 28 mins

Abracadabra

Tom Service explores the connections between music and magic.

• 28 mins

The Enchantment of Chant

Tom explores how chant has resonated across a thousand years of music.

• 29 mins

Stormy Weather

Tom explores how storms have inspired composers and musicians from Beethoven to Britten.

• 29 mins

Musical Ecstasy

Tom Service explores musical ecstasy from techno to classical

• 29 mins

Musical Time Travel: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams

Tom Service on one of Vaughan Williams' most spellbinding pieces of music.

• 29 mins

The Hebrides Overture: Mendelssohn's melodious cave

Tom Service explores the story behind the very first orchestral tone poem.

• 29 mins

Steve Reich's Different Trains: Minimalism and Memory

Tom Service explores the minimalist composer Steve Reich's 1988 piece Different Trains.

• 29 mins

Kurt Weill and The Threepenny Opera

Tom Service dives into the decadent sound world of Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera.

• 29 mins

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune: Half Man, Half Myth, All Debussy

Tom Service plunges into the heady sound world of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

• 29 mins

Britten's Choral Christmas

Tom Service explores the stories behind some of Britten's best-loved festive works.

• 29 mins

Also Sprach Zarathustra: Strauss’s New Dawn

Tom explores a piece composed by Strauss, inspired by Nietzsche and made famous by Kubrick

• 29 mins

David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion

Tom Service explores Lang's Pulitzer-Prize-winning secular take on the Christian Passion.

• 29 mins

On the March: Pomp, Circumstance and Dam Busters

Tom Service on musical marches.

• 29 mins

Symphonic Steampunk: Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony

Tom Service dissects Camille Saint-Saëns's Third 'Organ' Symphony.

• 29 mins

Mystery, rumour and deception: Mozart's Requiem

Tom Service dissects Mozart's final, unfinished masterpiece.

• 29 mins