Radio Moment

I had a lovely radio moment driving home from my afternoon class today. In preparation for an exam on Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, I like to play a variety of random movements by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and ask the students to try to identify the composer, the form, the meter, the tempo, and the instrumentation. It is always fun, and I find that for many students it is a real ear-opening experience.

Today's class was particularly lively, and after listening so carefully for all the above elements for 75 minutes, my brain had turned to highly spiced mush. I got in the car, and whaddya know! There was a Haydn Symphony waiting for me on the radio. It was one that I didn't know, number 95, and it has a last movement filled with "exalted reigns." I had to sit in the driveway and listen all the way to the end.