WESTERN EUROPE

While so many music-lovers worldwide are familiar with Western European classical compositions and have heard our share of British pop and rock, there are so many wonderful traditional musical genres in Western Europe and the Nordic countries that may have eluded our college dorm room CD collection.

In class we dig a bit beneath the surface–just a hair beyond Beethoven and the Beatles–to get an idea of the many wonderful forms of music Western Europe have to offer.

The songs in the All Around This World Western Europe season ask us many important questions, such as “how will this whole ‘American revolution’ think work out, Mr. Benjamin Franklin?”, and, more pressing, “what do you do when you’re bitten by an Italian tarantula?” It also gives us important answers, such as “Ah ca ira–everything will turn out fine.”