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More than any other composer, Franz Joseph Haydn deserves to be called the father of music's "Classical" style. As he came of age in the mid-18th century, musical thinking was in the midst of profound changes. The compositional forms and procedures of the Baroque era began to seem old-fashioned and composers sought fresh modes of musical expression.

Like all tone poems, "Thus Spake Zarathustra" follows a "program" or story line which, to some extent, dictates its musical form and details. Strauss derived his program from Nietzsche's philosophical allegory or the same name which theorizes the rise of mankind from a primitive natural state to one of moral and intellectual superiority.

Of the many remarkable violinist-composers Italy produced during the Baroque era, the most remarkable of all was Antonio Vivaldi. An artist of astonishing vigor and productivity (he wrote more than 450 concertos, 40 operas, and many solo, chamber, and vocal works over the course of his career), Vivaldi was one of the most innovative and influential musicians of his day.

With J.S. Bach and three of his sons, Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Christian, we find a concentration of familial talent that is unique in history. The elder Bach was certainly the most accomplished member of his clan, but his offspring also attained a high level of musical achievement.

Felix Mendelssohn grew up in an extraordinary family, one distinguished by both worldly success and intellectual achievement. Mendelssohn was, in fact, the greatest child prodigy that music has known, undoubtedly helped by the early nurturing his talent received. Not even Mozart created such mature compositions at so early an age.

The music of Franz Schubert is cherished for its beautiful flow of melody; melody that runs through the composer's songs and instrumental compositions like a clear and inexhaustible stream. But Schubert was more than just a gifted melodist. He was also the creator of exquisite symphonies in the Classical tradition.

One of the great composers of the 19th century, Schumann wrote piano solos, chamber music, choral pieces and opera, dozens of superb songs, and some of the finest works in the orchestral reperotry. Much of this music conveys contented and even joyful sentiments; there is surprisingly little darkness in Schumann's compositions. Yet from the beginning of his career, Schumann was plagued by irrational fears and melancholy. In the end, his personal demons overwhelmed him.

Berlioz had a passionate and idealistic personality, one given to incandescent enthusiasms and uncompromising struggles. Through most of this career he stood in opposition to Paris' entrenched musical establishments, which looked on his innovations in harmony, form, and instrumentation with suspicion or outright indignation. The judgment that Berlioz was a wild-eyed radical contained a certain element of truth.

Beginning in the waning years of the 19th century, Spanish composers turned to the rich tradition of Spanish folk music for materials and inspiration, and in doing so imbued their compositions with a colorful national character. The most brilliant of those composers was Manuel de Falla.

Michael Jackson was once universally acclaimed as a song-and-dance man of genius; Wacko Jacko is now, more often than not, dismissed for his bizarre race and gender transformations and confounding antics, even as he is commonly reviled for the child molestation charges twice brought against him. Whence the weirdness and alleged criminality? How to account for Michael Jackson's rise and fall?

A selection of 1960s sketches from "Round the Horne" featuring the outrageously camp couple, Julian and Sandy. Oozing with innuendo and double-entendre, they engage on a variety of entrepreneurial endeavours, from Guided Tripettes to the Bona Guest House, Bogmouth.

In this first fantabulosa selection of sketches from BBC radio's classic comedy Round the Horne, we find that two infamously outrageous resting thesps from Carnaby Street are game on for a variety of entrepreneurial endeavours.

In 1943, Los Angeles exploded in the infamous Zoot Suit riots, provoked by the Sleepy Lagoon murder case that railroaded young Chicano gang members who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Valdez masterfully synthesizes fact and fiction, using the case to examine Chicano Zoot Suit culture of the '40s, prejudices, the role of the media in the judicial system, and Latino family culture.

This Tony Award-winning play, set in New York City in 1850, centers on the painfully shy Catherine Sloyer, who lives in Washington Square with her father. When Catherine falls in love with a handsome suitor, Dr. Sloyer threatens to disinherit her, convinced that the young man could only be interested in her fortune. The decisions Catherine makes and their surprising consequences mark The Heiress as a complex and satisfying portrait of the American character.

For 6,557 miles, Chuck Klosterman thought about dying. He drove a rental car from New York to Rhode Island to Georgia to Mississippi to Iowa to Minneapolis to Fargo to Seattle, and he chased death and rock 'n' roll all the way. Within the span of 21 days, Chuck had three relationships end, one by choice, one by chance, and one by exhaustion. He snorted cocaine in a graveyard. He walked a half-mile through a bean field.

Gerard Schwarz describes how Bela Bartok developed new rhythmic patterns modeled on Balkan and North African folk music and explored unusual instrumental colors and textures. During the 1920s and early 1930s, Bartok's innovative tendencies earned him a reputation as an uncompromising modernist, making him almost a musical anarchist who was unappreciated and largely unperformed, particularly in his native Hungary.

Susie Essman, star of the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Joy Behar, co-host of The View, discuss Susie's career and personal life, all with a healthy dose of sarcasm, at New York's 92nd Street Y.

Gerard Schwarz explains how Chopin came to embody the Romantic Movement with his rich harmonic shadings, his intense poetic expression, and his attention to the sensual qualities of music. But Chopin did more than just write music imbued with the spirit of Romanticism. In many ways he embodied an archetypal Romantic character: a lonely genius, doomed by that most Romantic disease, tuberculosis; a visionary musician too refined to seek public acclaim.

Gerard Schwarz shares his enthusiasm for the music of Aaron Copland, the quintessential American composer. Born in 1900 into a family of immigrants in Brooklyn, Copland didn't come from a musical family and had to find his own way, even trying to learn harmony from a mail order course. Today, Copland has become a permanent part of our cultural landscape, as important to our national consciousness as Whitman, Whistler, or Melville.

New York Giants star Tiki Barber, who grew up playing football alongside his brother, Ronde, has become one of the most versatile and productive players in the NFL. Hear Tiki interviewed by NY 1 sports anchor Budd Mishkin at New York's 92nd Street Y.