Perfect Harmony

How does harmony work its magic?

• 29 mins

Tunes for 'Toons

Tom Service explores cartoon music, from manic Mickey Mouse to moody Batman.

• 30 mins

Leoš Janáček: music is a being come alive

What makes the extraordinary music of Czech composer Leoš Janáček instantly recognisable?

• 29 mins

Is Music Good for You?

The tightly entwined relationship of music and our minds.

• 29 mins

Brass Bands

Tom Service explores the world of brass bands.

• 29 mins

Playing Second Fiddle (and Horn and Trumpet...)

The joys and frustrations of being the unsung heroes of the orchestral world.

• 29 mins

How to listen to... Gilbert and Sullivan

Tom Service enters the topsy-turvy world of Gilbert and Sullivan.

• 29 mins

Money Makes the Music Go Round

Tom Service explores the relationship between money and music.

• 28 mins

Themes and Variations

Tom Service explores the endless potential of musical variations on a theme.

• 29 mins

Fiddles and Fiddle Tunes

Tom Service explores fiddles and fiddle tunes from around the world.

• 29 mins

How to listen to... Arvo Pärt

Tom explores Arvo Pärt's music - what makes it so unique and why is it so popular?

• 29 mins

Out of Tune

Tom Service asks what it really means to be in tune? In tune with what - or who?

• 28 mins

Eat to the Beat

The many long-standing and sometimes surprising connections between food and music.

• 29 mins

The timeless power of contemporary choral music

Tom Service immerses himself in the resonant sound world of 21st-century choral music.

• 29 mins

Klezmer

Tom Service explores the connections between Klezmer and classical music.

• 29 mins

The Borrowers

Is using someone else's music in your own big and clever?

• 29 mins

How to listen to...Erik Satie

Tom Service explores the musical universe of Erik Satie.

• 29 mins

Handel's Messiah: Hallelujah!

Tom Service lifts the lid on Handel's Messiah.

• 29 mins

Playing at sight and playing from memory

Tom Service flexes his musical memory muscles whilst also improving his sight reading.

• 29 mins

Making Overtures

Tom Service explores the rise and fall of the musical curtain-raiser.

• 29 mins

Dancing about Architecture

Is writing about music really like dancing about architecture?

• 29 mins

Recorders

Tom Service explores the music and mystery of that schooldays favourite - the recorder.

• 28 mins

Classical Crossover

Tom Service turns his ears to a musical world where classical and pop converge.

• 29 mins

John Williams - the Force of Music!

Tom Service has a close encounter with the film music of John Williams.

• 28 mins

Finishing the Hat

Tom Service explores the lyrics and legacy of musical theatre composer Stephen Sondheim.

• 29 mins

Song Cycles and Concept Albums

Tom Service explores the connections between song cycles and concept albums.

• 29 mins

What's in a Name?

Tom Service on the often baffling language of classical music naming and numbering.

• 29 mins

The Musical Recycling Plant

From composers to composters: how and why do composers re-use their own music?

• 29 mins

Can music be funny?

Tom Service on the art of classical music comedy. And it's not necessarily about timing.

• 29 mins

Royal Music

Music fit for kings, queens, princes and princesses: but what do we mean by royal music?

• 29 mins

What's the point of cadenzas?

Tom Service explores cadenzas with the American pianist Jeremy Denk at the Hay Festival.

• 28 mins

The Music of Sound

Tom Service on the mutually creative relationship between music and its surroundings.

• 29 mins

TV Themes

Tom Service explores television themes with Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley.

• 28 mins

Abracadabra

Tom Service explores the connections between music and magic.

• 28 mins

The Enchantment of Chant

Tom explores how chant has resonated across a thousand years of music.

• 29 mins

Stormy Weather

Tom explores how storms have inspired composers and musicians from Beethoven to Britten.

• 29 mins

Musical Ecstasy

Tom Service explores musical ecstasy from techno to classical

• 29 mins

Musical Time Travel: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams

Tom Service on one of Vaughan Williams' most spellbinding pieces of music.

• 29 mins

The Hebrides Overture: Mendelssohn's melodious cave

Tom Service explores the story behind the very first orchestral tone poem.

• 29 mins

Steve Reich's Different Trains: Minimalism and Memory

Tom Service explores the minimalist composer Steve Reich's 1988 piece Different Trains.

• 29 mins

Kurt Weill and The Threepenny Opera

Tom Service dives into the decadent sound world of Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera.

• 29 mins

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune: Half Man, Half Myth, All Debussy

Tom Service plunges into the heady sound world of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

• 29 mins

Britten's Choral Christmas

Tom Service explores the stories behind some of Britten's best-loved festive works.

• 29 mins

Also Sprach Zarathustra: Strauss’s New Dawn

Tom explores a piece composed by Strauss, inspired by Nietzsche and made famous by Kubrick

• 29 mins

David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion

Tom Service explores Lang's Pulitzer-Prize-winning secular take on the Christian Passion.

• 29 mins

On the March: Pomp, Circumstance and Dam Busters

Tom Service on musical marches.

• 29 mins

Symphonic Steampunk: Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony

Tom Service dissects Camille Saint-Saëns's Third 'Organ' Symphony.

• 29 mins

Mystery, rumour and deception: Mozart's Requiem

Tom Service dissects Mozart's final, unfinished masterpiece.

• 29 mins

Collage, writ large: Berio's Sinfonia

Tom Service explores Luciano Berio's 1968 Sinfonia for orchestra and 8 amplified voices.

• 29 mins

Bluebeard's Castle: Enter at Your Peril

Tom Service intrepidly explores Bluebeard's Castle, Bartok's one-act symbolist opera.

• 29 mins

Here Comes the Bride

Tom Service with a guide to music written for and performed at weddings.

• 29 mins

Stravinsky, the puppet master: Petrushka

Tom Service delves into the extraordinary world of Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka.

• 29 mins

Wild Isles: Wild Music

Tom Service explores musical evocations of wilderness and the natural world.

• 29 mins

Once upon a time... The Fairy-tale Operas of Judith Weir

Tom Service delves into the deep (and often dark) worlds of Judith Weir's dramatic works.

• 29 mins

All the King's Music

Tom Service assesses the history of the post of master of the king's (or queen's) music.

• 29 mins

Secret Music: Byrd's Masses

How did William Byrd come to compose three mass settings when celebrating mass was banned?

• 29 mins

Ravel's Bolero: A Piece without Music?

Tom Service explores Maurice Ravel's Bolero.

• 29 mins

Artificial intelligence and music

Tom Service programmes himself into the matrix of musical artificial intelligence.

• 29 mins

Surround Sound: Tallis's Spem in alium

Tom Service surrounds himself in Tallis's 40-part Renaissance masterpiece.

• 28 mins

All American Ives?

What links baseball, life insurance and American art music? Charles Ives does!

• 29 mins

What's on the programme?

Tom Service explores the art of concert programming.

• 29 mins

What's the Point of Symphonies?

What exactly is a symphony, and are they just a thing of classical music's past?

• 29 mins

Gloria!

Tom Service immerses himself in the joyous world of Poulenc's Gloria.

• 29 mins

Strange Tuning

An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service.

• 30 mins

The Ethereal

Tom Service explores the ethereal in music.

• 29 mins

Unripe Cherries: Brahms's Symphony No 4

Tom explores one of the most popular works of all time, Brahms's Symphony No 4 in E minor.

• 29 mins

Hitting the High Notes

Tom Service explores the enduring appeal of the tenor voice.

• 29 mins

In it to win it

Tom Service explores the enduring, worldwide appeal of classical music competitions.

• 29 mins

The Old Testament of Music

Tom Service explores JS Bach's extraordinary The Well-Tempered Clavier.

• 29 mins

The Trombone Section

What is the role of the trombone section in orchestras, and why do they come in threes?

• 29 mins

New York, New York!

Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's Tom Service, exploring the music of The Big Apple.

• 29 mins

Resolutions

An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service.

• 29 mins

Jumping Fleas: the rise and rise of the Ukulele

Tom Service explores the world of the Ukulele with virtuoso Taimane Gardner.

• 29 mins

Turangalila!

Tom Service travels deep into Olivier Messiaen's epic Turangalila Symphony.

• 29 mins

'Pathétique'

An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service.

• 28 mins

Songs of the Moon

Tom Service takes us on a musical voyage to the moon (and back).

• 28 mins

Impassioned argument: Elizabeth Maconchy's string quartets

Tom Service surveys the 13 extraordinary string quartets of Elizabeth Maconchy.

• 28 mins

Needle Drop: the power of classical music in film

Tom Service discovers the power of using pre-existing classical music in films.

• 28 mins

What's the point of Listening?

Tom Service reflects on digital listening and how it impacts our relationship with music.

• 28 mins