Now that the rules are safely out the Window!

Music has been described as living math; there are plenty of rules and more importantly, conventions that make for a pleasant listening experience. But what happens when a musician wants to go where music hasn't gone before and break into new territory? In the old days this is where the "Fantasy" came in, like dream sequences in a film, just about anything can happen here and usually does.

On the Piano this Sunday Randy Anderson traces the fantasy/ phantasie/ fantasia/ fancy from the 16th century to the 20th and you will be surprised at the growing freedom composers used in these "fantastic" works.

The Piano, heard Sunday afternoons at 5 on KPAC & KTXI.

host, Randy Anderson

Fancy this!

Music has plenty of rules. First when playing music you have to hit the right notes and hold them for the correct time. Then there are the conventions about harmonies, structure and the expectations of the era you are working in. Bach loved the complexity of fugues and the mathematical precision of his music, but he also yearned to cut loose as well. That explains the Ying and Yang quality of his Well Tempered Klavier. There is no getting around the rules and structure of a fugue, but the preceding prelude only had to be in the same key, otherwise anything goes!

Another work that encourages imagination and wildness without too many of music's rules getting in the way is the Fantasia. Here everything should sound spontaneous and free of convention. On the Piano this Sunday a program that seeks out the wild and free in the piano repertoire. Hear Fantasies, this Sunday afternoon at 5 here on KPAC and KXTI.

host Randy Anderson