Midday host Tom Hall's guest for the hour today is Anna Harwell Celenza, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and the Peabody Institute. She is the author of eight children's books about music and has written numerous scholarly works examining music's role in shaping culture and politics.
Her new book chronicles how popular songs and symphonic masterpieces helped move the needle on a variety of fundamental issues that Americans have confronted in our two-and-half-century history.
Celenza contends that music has often been the animating force behind major legislation and social change in our country. By examining a series of iconic pieces — including Francis Scott Key’s Star Spangled Banner, Billie Holiday’s haunting ballad, Strange Fruit, Paul Simon’s Graceland album, Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question and many other works — Celenza makes the case for why music has always mattered in American politics.
Her new book called On the Record: Music That Changed America.
Anna Harwell Celenza and Tom will be speaking about the book tonight (Tuesday, March 24) from 7-8pm at The Enoch Pratt Central Library. For more information and to register for this free event, click here.
But first, she joins Tom in Studio A.
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Music copyright laws prevent us from including in this post the songs Tom and Dr. Celenza discussed today, but you can find the songs on these YouTube links:
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Paul Simon - Graceland (Official Audio)
Lin Manuel Miranda: "The Room Where It Happens" from HAMILTON
Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra - Strange Fruit (Audio)
Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story - America (1080p HD)
