Power Play: Recent Episodes
WDAV Classical Public Radio
On Power Play, co-hosts Ross Hickman and Alexander Karbo explore stories about the power of music, the music of the powerful, music as a means to power, and what happens when music and power go head to head .
In this episode, Christen identifies the musical characteristics that make up Black Spirituals. See how the American Black community has preserved Spirituals, in spite of its obstacles—acknowledging the transformative impact the art form has made still today.
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In this episode, Christen details the history and significance of Negro Spirituals. Come along as we trace the story through Spirituals' grooving rhythms, cleverly written meanings, and emotional testimonies of the Black community—hearing how this musical genre has survived and transformed.
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In this episode, Christen Crumpler investigates the relationship between music and religion during the Middle Ages. While the musical stylings were under restrictive guidelines, the music still managed to reach artistic creativity – with its purpose changing with the aging period. We look back at western music's development for better clarity on its historical ties to today.
In this episode, Christen Crumpler investigates the relationship between music and religion during the Middle Ages. While the musical stylings were under restrictive guidelines, the music still managed to reach artistic creativity—with its purpose changing with the aging period. We look back at western music’s development for better clarity on its historical ties to today.
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website: https://wdav.org/powerplay
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support: https://donate.wdav.org/pledge/
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When the English government fails to meet the radio needs of its people a group of “pirates” are ready to make their own. Broadcasting from boats, trees, or hidden studios, pirate radio stations would evade the authorities for decades as the inspectors sought to “bring the villains to justice.” Join Karbo and Ross as they tell the story of the DJ outlaws whose rebellion changed English radio forever.
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Resources: London’s Pirate Pioneers by Albert Glinsky The Last Pirates How Pirate Radio Went Digital Radio is My Bomb Music: “Theme One” by George Martin
“flowers in the rain” by the move
“Hotshot” by Scott Holmes
“base” by parallel park
“Just give it time” by pierce murphy
“Counterattack” by parallel park
“lovechances” by mikaih beats
“past the barbary” by Ava Luna
Other Audio: Pirate Radio Afloat
Jackie final Broadcast
LWR sample
Miscellaneous tv news samples
Theremin bleep
Live Jackie broadcast (recorded 8/13 by Karbo)
Foundation FM interview
In this episode, Ross and Karbo become familiar with Chen Yi, a Chinese-American composer who lived through the tumultuous Cultural Revolution in China – and kept her love of music alive despite it. With complex relationships with both China and the United States, Chen's life and work negotiate critical intersections of race, gender, culture, and nationality in the worlds of classical music.
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website: http://wdav.org/powerplay
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support: https://donate.wdav.org/pledge/
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Episode Notes Music:
“cdc1” and “cdc2” by Kosta T
“Thinking of My Home” and “Spring Festival” by Chen Yi
Mozart’s Symphony no. 40
“Red Detachment of Women"
“Veris Bellum Sonus” by Silva de Alegria
“National Spark” by Krestovsky
“Night March” by Dee Yan-Key
“Arctic” by Chad Crouch
Other Resources:
“In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States" by Jennifer Kelly
“Speak It Louder: Asian-Americans Making Music” by Deborah Wong
“Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian-Americans in Classical Music” by Mari Yoshihara
“The Echoes of Chinese Exclusion” by Irene Hsu
In this episode, Karbo and Ross follow Leon Theremin (born Lev Termen) as he invents the Theremin – an instrument most recognizable for its use in sci-fi movies. Theremin navigates the rise and fall of the Soviet Union as soldier, spy, prisoner, scientist, and outcast.
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website: http://wdav.org/powerplay
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support: https://donate.wdav.org/pledge/
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Read: "Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage"
Music from MC Productions
Music from Carolina Eyck
U.N. Spy Debate. Reds 'Bugged' American Embassy Lodge Claims
Neil Armstrong Talks to the Space Center - Audio
In this episode, Ross and Karbo trace the experiences of Karl Muck. A celebrated German conductor who emigrated to Boston struggles against anti-German American elites during the First World War and returns to Germany to support the rise of Adolf Hitler.
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website: http://wdav.org/powerplay
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support: https://donate.wdav.org/pledge/
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Resources
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Burrage, Melissa. The Karl Muck Scandal: Classical Music and Xenophobia in World War I America. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2019.
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Ross, Alex. “The ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ Hysteria of 1917.” The New Yorker. July 2, 2019.
In this episode, Ross and Karbo take a look at Nina Simone’s participation in the ‘politics’ of her time—and not only the Civil Rights or Black Power movements but the broader politics of Black identity in the mid-century. How long until all Americans can take Simone’s political voice seriously?
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website: http://wdav.org/powerplay
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support: https://donate.wdav.org/pledge/
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In this episode, Karbo and Ross examine the political messages of Calypso music from Trinidad & Tobago. The popular genre has perhaps the most vivid and explicitly political words of the series. Calypsonians engage in history and identity with compelling frankness, fusing music, and journalism to speak truth to power.