Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Labor Day

Labor Day American Music Celebration

Labor Day is many things to many people. Officially, it is a federal holiday, a celebration of the worker. Unofficially, it holds connotations of the end of summer, a last chance to hit the road and enjoy the beach, have family and friends over for a picnic, or simply kick back for three days and deny the impending, precipitous dash through the autumn and winter holidays. For us, it’s an excuse to flood the air waves with American music.

Join me this Thursday morning on WPRB, as we celebrate the American landscape, with music about natural and man-made wonders. We’ll conjure up the dungareed laborer, with the sounds of rivets and factory whistles. We’ll take a last dance around the firehouse and the gazebo. We’ll even enjoy some musical picnic foods. Plenty of the music will be wondrous in itself.

Put aside thoughts about punching the clock or punching your supervisor, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Hard times come again no more, on Classic Ross Amico.

August 31, 2017
Labor Day Classical Music Tribute on WWFM

As Americans, we work hard, and frequently for too little compensation. This afternoon on WWFM, I’ll be playing selections to honor the integrity of the American worker for Labor Day. We’ll hear Aaron Copland’s “John Henry” and John Alden Carpenter’s construction worker ballet, “Skyscrapers.”

We’ll also have uplifting works in celebration of the American spirit, including Walter Piston’s Symphony No. 4 and Elie Siegmeister’s “American Sonata.” Picnics and the great outdoors will also be a recurring theme, with pieces like John Corigliano’s “Gazebo Dances” and A.J. Weidt’s “Sweet Corn.”

So go ahead, crack open a cool one and enjoy yourself. You’ve earned it. It’s back to the mines tomorrow. Hard times come again no more, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

September 5, 2016
Labor Day Movie Music on WWFM

Heigh ho! I’m pleased to announce that “Picture Perfect” will return to WWFM The Classical Network with music from movies appropriate for the Labor Day weekend. We’ll hear hard-working selections from “The Molly Maguires” (by Henry Mancini), “Modern Times” (by Charlie Chaplin and David Raksin), “Metropolis” (by Gottfried Huppertz) and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Frank Churchill and Larry Morey). Tune in, as home from work you go, this Friday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network or at wwfm.org.

September 2, 2016
Labor Day Music for the Working Class

Who wants to work today? You, you, and you!

Climb aboard this morning and earn your keep, as we listen to music about labor and for the worker in anticipation of Labor Day. This will be an international affair, with Prokofiev’s “Le pas d’acier” (“The Steel Step”), a love story set in a factory, Manuel Rosenthal’s “Les petits métiers” (“The Small Trades”), and Nikolai Medtner’s “Three Hymns in Praise of Toil.”

There will also be two Danish symphonies: Rued Laangaard’s Symphony No. 14, “The Morning,” which culminates in the start of the work day, and Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3, “Sinfonia espansiva,” concluding with “a hymn to work and the healthy activity of living.”

Naturally, it being an American holiday, we’ll have plenty of music by our native composers, as well, including the construction worker ballet “Skyscrapers” by John Alden Carpenter, Frederick Shepherd Converse’s tone poem about automobile manufacturing, “Flivver Ten Million,” and a suite from that quintessential film about violent longshoremen, “On the Waterfront,” by Leonard Bernstein.

We’ll be busting our hump for the man, from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I coulda been somebody; I coulda been a contender, on Classic Ross Amico.

September 1, 2016
Labor Day Music Salute Workers on WPRB

Construction workers seek distraction from their labors with a side trip to Coney Island – right now, we’re listening to the ballet “Skyscrapers” by John Alden Carpenter. In just a few minutes, we’ll have a piano suite celebrating blue collar Brooklyn on a Sunday afternoon, “Sunday in Brooklyn,” by Elie Siegmeister. There will be more music evocative of factory workers, longshoremen, and various other trades, as we look ahead to Labor Day, with a guest appearance by Princeton’s own Paul Robeson, who will sing “Joe Hill.”

It’s music for the working stiff this morning until 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

September 1, 2016

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS