Math rock

Good morning! Last week, I came across a YouTube channel that totally wowed me, featuring a talented musician banging out tunes on – wait for it – a couple of standard-looking calculators. You know the kind: squarish, numbered keys, more suited for an accountant's office than a concert hall. After watching him play a really respectable Rondo alla Turca on 4 such calculators arranged in front of him like a piano keyboard, I had so many questions I didn't know where to start. How did he get this idea? How do you learn to play a calculator? And most importantly, since the last time I checked, calculators are generally pretty silent, how does it work? That, at least, I was sure the internet could answer, and answer it did. Everything you ever wanted to know about musical calculators at the end of this email -- and if you wind up falling into an internet wormhole about musical calculators like I did, no big deal. We'll be here for you when you start missing the sound of, you know, violins and flutes and regular pianos. Here's what we have for you this week! WCRB IN CONCERT Sunday at 7pm on WCRB In Concert with the Celebrity Series of Boston, guitarist Miloš joins members of the 12 Ensemble for an evening of chamber pieces spanning from the genius craft of Bach, to 20th-century Spanish pieces, to arrangements of modern rock songs! Check out the vibrant and expansive program and hear a preview interview with Miloš here. On demand now: on WCRB In Concert with the Handel and Haydn Society, it's a program dedicated to Mozart, with Harry Christophers leading H+H in Eine kleine Nachtmusik, concert arias, and the dramatic Great Mass in C Minor! See program notes and translations, and learn more about this concert here. Speaking of Handel and Haydn, their final streaming concert of the spring season is coming up on May 23 and 25! They're playing Haydn's "Mercury" Symphony and Saint-Georges's Violin Concerto in G, both of which are H+H premieres. Here's where to register. MORE IN CONCERT While we are pleased to offer episodes of WCRB In Concert on demand, due to rights restrictions we must remove content from time to time. Here are three broadcasts to listen to now, before they expire: The Drama of Handel, in a Timeless Biblical Tale (Expires May 25) A Night of Royal French Music, with Boston Early Music Festival (Expires May 31) BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA In an encore broadcast of opening night 2017, Music Director Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony in Haydn's "Drumroll" Symphony and the colossal "Titan" Symphony by Mahler. It's something special to hear the BSO play Mahler, and Haydn is always a welcome treat – join us Saturday at 8pm! MORE BOSTON SYMPHONY THE BACH HOUR Brilliant trumpets and punchy dance rhythms are usually signs that Bach's music is celebrating something. But that's not entirely the case with the Ascension Oratorio! Experience its range of emotions on this week's episode of The Bach Hour, on demand now. Also on demand: pianist David Fray plays music that reflects Bach's three lives as a composer, teacher, and performer, and Masaaki Suzuki leads the Cantata No. 108. MORE BACH HOUR ATTERBURY SESSIONS Saturday, May 15 at 5pm, violinist Augustin Hadelich is going live from New York's historic Atterbury House! We've had the pleasure of working with Hadelich several times here at CRB, and we have it on good authority that his playing is nothing short of spectacular. Hear him play Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Niccolò Paganini, and more -- you'll find the concert at this link, where, for now, you can also watch and hear the most recent Atterbury House concert, with the Brentano Quartet. Speaking of which... on demand this week only, the Brentano Quartet plays Haydn's String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5, as well as Mendelssohn's heart-wrenching final major work, the String Quartet in F minor, Op. 80, written in memory of his sister Fanny. FROM THE BLOG Sunday was Mother's Day, and in honor of moms everywhere, Laura Carlo rounded up some of her favorite classical pieces about or inspired by the composers' mothers. Read and listen along here. Our latest roundup features the calculator virtuoso mentioned above, as well as insight into the strange daily habits of famous composers, an interview with the guy who runs one of classical music's most popular Twitter accounts, and more! Check it out here. MORE FROM THE BLOG ONE LAST THING As it turns out, the musical calculators I mentioned above are specific models – called the AR-7778 and the AR-8001 – that are built to make sounds. While they do all the other regular calculator-based tasks you'd expect, they're also pre-programmed with several classical tunes you can hear at the press of a button, as well as a function that reads the numbers back to you as you press them. Then there is the option to set each key to play a single note, opening these seemingly-innocuous computing gadgets up to a world of musical possibility that allows virtuosos to play everything from Super Mario to Smash Mouth. But that's not all. If you don't happen to have a musical calculator on hand, enterprising techies have figured out how to transform an ordinary TI-85 graphing calculator into a functioning musical instrument. To be perfectly honest, these instructions went a bit over my head, but if you like gadgets, this just might be the project for you. That's all for this week! I'll talk to you soon. Kendall Do you love The Note? Help us spread the word! If you forward this email to a friend, they can subscribe here. 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