TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE


PROMO FOR "Why Do We Love Sad Songs?"
*Are you a sucker for a sad song? "Greensleeves." "Yesterday" by the
Beatles. For some reason, we love a melancholy tune. But why?  In this
hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll explore our love of sad
music. We'll look into the effects the minor third has on our brains and
we'll delve into the saddest music ever written: Barber's Adagio for
Strings.  


PROGRAM RUNDOWN:"Why Do We Love Sad Songs?"

0:00 - 13:58        SEGMENT 1: (13:59)
            Why do we love sad songs?  It's true, we do, and it's not
            just "Greensleeves" and "Yesterday."  There's a language
            of melancholy worth exploring.  The saddest music of all
            to many people is Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings." 
            Thomas Larson is the author of "The Saddest Music Ever
            Written: The Story of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings"
            and he tells Anne Strainchamps how it earns that name.
            Segment One Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

13:59 - 14:28  LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

14:29 - 25:37       SEGMENT 2: (11:10)
            Sad songs are just part of the story.  Anyone who has
            suffered a broken heart knows the satisfaction of
            listening to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" or Paul
            McCartney singing "Yesterday."  According to psychologist
            Meagan Curtis, the inherent sadness of the minor third is
            what we hear in music.  She tells Steve Paulson that a
            recent study at Tufts University's Music Cognition Lab
suggests it is also what we hear in speech.  
            Segment Two Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

25:38 - 26:07       LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

26:08 - 53:00       SEGMENT 3: (26:52)
            There are sad songs in rock, and sad songs in jazz, but
            the resting place for the saddest songs is clearly in
            country music.  There are so many we just didn't how to
            choose, so we put the question to the foremost historian
            of country music in America, Bill Malone.  He tells Steve
            Paulson a thing or two about sad country music.  Also, no
            matter what genre you're writing for, adding a cello can
            increase the melancholy.  It's true now, and it was true
            a couple of centuries ago when J.S. Bach was writing his
            suites for unaccompanied cello.  Journalist Eric Siblin
            had written about rock for years, but he tells Jim
            Fleming about his discovery of Bach, and how he came to
            write "The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the
            Search for a Baroque Masterpiece."
            Segment Three Outcue: PRI Audio Logo


For a copy of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for program number
12-12-B.

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