''Music Appreciation Hour'' was a
National Broadcasting Company radio series that offered lectures on
classical music aimed at students. The show was part of a broader mid-20th-century movement to popularize
serious music. From 1928 to 1942,
orchestra conductor
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties ...
Walter Damrosch
Walter Johannes Damrosch (January 30, 1862December 22, 1950) was a German-born American conductor and composer. He was the director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and conducted the world premiere performances of various works, including Geo ...
hosted the show.
''Radio Guide'' (March 18, 1939) commented:
:In this music workshop Dr. Walter Damrosch analyzes types of compositions, illustrates functions and effects of instruments, reviews and compares the works of outstanding composers to promote an enjoyment of good music through an understanding of it.
Except for the West Coast, ''Music Appreciation Hour'' was broadcast during school hours, and NBC provided teachers with supplementary materials.
It also aired on Saturdays; in
Nashville,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, local NBC affiliate
WSM aired the program immediately before its weekly
barn dance broadcast. A comment from Damrosch on a 1928 broadcast about there being no room in the classics for realism prompted host
George D. Hay
George Dewey Hay (November 9, 1895 – May 8, 1968) was an American radio personality, announcer and newspaper reporter. He was the founder of the original ''Grand Ole Opry'' radio program on WSM-AM in Nashville, Tennessee, from which the cou ...
to comment how much the barn dance contrasted with the classics: as opposed to grand opera, Hay's program presented the ''
Grand Ole Opry'', thus offhandedly giving that program the name it has held for nine decades since.
References
{{reflist
Sources
* Joseph Horowitz, ''Understanding Toscanini—How He Became an American Culture–God and Helped Create a New Audience for Old Music'' (Knopf, 1987)
* Theodor W. Adorno, "Analytical Study of the NBC 'Music Appreciation Hour.'" Unpublished manuscript. 1938-40. ''The Musical Quarterly'' 78:2 (Summer 1994): 325-377.
American classical music radio programs
1928 radio programme debuts
1942 radio programme endings