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The documentary videos produced by Musical Kaleidoscope range in length from 15-minutes to one hour, and they feature important documentation about the music that we feature in the MK project - the great musical traditions from around the world, from all times and places drawn from the KScope music library, a carefully selected music repertoire that is based the culture that surrounds the music and the musicians, composers and singers who have created the music.

Don Robertson and Mary Ellen Bickford, the founders of Musical Kaleidoscope, have created two example videos. The first video documents the important music that arose in the Southeastern USA during the 20th century (Jazz, country, blues and gospel). The second video describes the roots of African-American music: the Negro spirituals that were preserved from the time of American slavery.


Sacred Music From the American South


The Roots of American Music

"Finding Wagner" is a film for affectionados of the great German dramatist Richard Wager. This 1hr-40min video film was created from footage filmed by Don Robertson on a trip to Europe in 1999.


"Finding Wagner" - A Film by Don Robertson


"Notes" Classes with Don Robertson

Below are the first three episodes from my gradually evolving "Notes" series featuring video documentation about the role of music, art and literature in the 21st century.

"In 1967, I made an important discovery when I realized and discussed how there are in reality, two poles that govern the physical, mental and emotional effect that music has on us, on animals and all life as well. One pole is positive, harmonious and concordant, the other is negative, disharmonious and discordant. As the 20th century began unfolding in the early 1900s, classical composers began creating a new style of music based on discord. This gradually made its way into the concert halls and became a mainstay in the film industry, to provide negative emotional resonance for violent and suspenseful scenes in crime and horror films. I discuss this and give examples in Episode One of my "Notes" series..."

In Episode 2 of my "Notes" series I discuss how positive and negative music can effect us, and why:

As negative music entered 20th-century concert halls and finally invaded the world of popular music, a parallel tradition of negative are also emerged. The average person confronted with this new "abstract" and "modern" art as it entered the studios and galleries during the last century did not know what to make of it. Everyone was told that we were not to question it, and instead appreciate it and it, just like the 20th-century's negative "modern music," became something "normal" that we simply became "used to." I will expand on this subject in Episode 3 "Positive and Negative Art"...


 

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