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An icon in country music, it started as the WSM Barn Dance in the new 5th floor radio studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company in Nashville. It was (and still is) a weekly Saturday night country music radio program, typically broadcast live. It is the oldest continuous radio program in the United States having broadcast since November 28th, 1925

An important Late Romantic period composer of symphonies as well as orchestral song cycles.

A group of songs with a common theme, generally based on a poetic cycle.

Defined as a melancholy or sad feeling; however, to the people that sing or play, it is not limited to one particular feeling. In fact it encompasses all emotion and is expressionistic by nature.

A song which uses the same music for each stanza or verse of poetry is said to be in this form.

This Italian operatic composer was the most popular of his day.  He created most of his works early in life and enjoyed a long retirement.  

A short programmatic work for solo piano that is descriptive of an emotion or feeling made popular by Robert Schumann.

Born in 1923, this singer/songwriter he has become an icon of country music and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. His songbook is one of the backbones of country music and has been covered in a range of pop and rock styles. After his premature death at age 29, his legend reached mythic proportions.

An extension of the symphonic poem, program music composed for orchestra, but in multiple descriptive movements.

The large instrumental ensembles used to play swing music. It included 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 2 alto saxes, 2 tenor saxes, 1 bari sax, and a full rhythm section. Some bands added clarinet, vocalist, even strings. The style limited improvisation and was most popular in the 1930’s and 1940’s.