Forget Dick Clark...this Labor Day, NPR will be counting down 1000 years of music history, in a special 24-hour broadcast of Milestones of the Millennium, the unique broadcast series first featured on NPR's Performance Today, and the companion CD series from Sony Classical. This two-year series of programs creates a picture in sound of the pivotal events, places, movements, artists and music of the past 1000 years.

The 24 hours are grouped in four six-hour themed blocks, each designed to present some of the great works of Western music in a listener-friendly historical and cultural context. From Chant to Jazz, we'll give you the great composers, the great works, the great movements, and the most important innovations, in 24 highly-produced, music-intensive newscast-compatible hours.

Look for more information on the NPR Web site at the Milestones home page or click on the title of an individual hour in the program listing below. You can also visit the Sony Classical Milestones page as well.

THE PROGRAM

I. Movements and Innovations

HOUR 1: Cathedral
Our survey of the pivotal music of the past 1000 years begins in the church, where the Latin rite from the Roman Catholic Church provides the bedrock of Western classical music. In this hour we'll hear how, from the earliest times, the actual physical size and acoustics of the world's great cathedrals has shaped the creation of the music that resonates inside them. Our survey includes a tour through an American edifice - the Washington National Cathedral - that has all the properties of a great medieval church. We'll also hear music made for such landmarks as St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, the Duomo in Florence, and Notre Dame in Paris.
COMPANION CD: gloria in excelsis deo: Chants, Hymns, and Sequences SMK 60988

HOUR 2: The Age of Enlightenment
The ideals of the Age of Enlightenment are in embedded in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. They also played a major part in shaping the music currents of the 18th century, explains author Nicholas Till, who joins Lisa Simeone to survey how the movement's principles influenced the works of Jean-Phillippe Rame, Christoph Willibald Gluck, and later Haydn and Mozart.

HOUR 3: Melody
It's one of the most basic concepts of music, but also one of the most elusive. What makes a good melody? Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart offers his own definition. A quick survey of how classical composers have treated melodies in different ways, from Bach to Mozart to Puccini and Rachmaninoff. Also, audience members at Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia sing us their favorite tunes, and NPR Commentator Robert Kapilow puts a great melody under the glass: "The Swan" from "Carnival of the Animals" by Saint-Saens, to examine what makes it so memorable. Lisa Simeone hosts.

HOUR 4: Improvisation
A modern-day improvisor and scholar, Harvard Professor Robert Levin, joins NPR's Melinda Whiting from the piano at the studios of member station WGBH in Boston to discuss and demonstrate the history of improvisation in classical music. He'll begin by improvising on and embellishing a sarabande by Bach, and continue on an improvisation course that leads all the way up to Bobby McFerrin, with stops at Mozart, Beethoven, and others along the way.

HOUR 5: The Music of Dance
In this hour, an exploration on how classical music and dance have been inextricably linked through the ages. Terry Teachout, Time magazine critic for music and dance, Terry Teachout, joins Martin Goldsmith and Lisa Simeone for a chronological dance through the hour, beginning with an example of a courtly Renaissance dance and ending with the minimalist music of Philip Glass.

HOUR 6: The Evolution of the Piano
The piano has been around for 300 of the 1000 years of classical music, how it did get to its positions of prominence? Scholar and pianist Charles Rosen, author of "The Classical Style" and "The Romantic Generation" is our guest this hour to explore how the modern concert grand developed, via a "performance-tour" through the Hall of Musical Instruments at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History to sample thousands of keyboard instruments from time of Bach to a "modern" concert grand of 1892. During the first part of the tour, Rosen demonstrates Bach on a harpsichord, Mozart on an early Dulcken piano, and Beethoven and Schubert on an early Broadwood piano. He'll wrap up the first half of the tour with the first movement of Beethoven's "Pathetique" Sonata played on a beautifully-maintained 1832 Graf piano that also includes a bizarre percussion pedal. Then Rosen samples instruments that were products of the industrial revolution: pianos with steel frames, including an 1854 Erard piano - the kind Franz Liszt favored - and an immaculate 1892 Steinway with a colorful history.
COMPANION CD: The Triumph of the Piano: Keyboard Classics from Bach to Bartók SMK 60993

II. The Great Works

HOUR 7: Vivaldi's Four Seasons
Why, at the dawn of the 21st century, is this set of four violin concertos one of the most popular pieces in the entire repertory? NPR's Martin Goldsmith is joined by an expert on the changing seasons, the weatherman on NBC's Today Show, Willard Scott. Scott reads from four sonnets that Vivaldi published as textual narrative for his instrumental works. We are also joined by Harvard University professor and musicologist Thomas Kelly, who explores the extraordinary popularity of "The Four Seasons," and their timeless appeal to both performers and listeners.

HOUR 8: Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
Johann Sebastian Bach is surely the most millennial of all composers, and in this hour we'll explore the universally popular and influential Brandenburg Concertos, six brilliant gems written for small ensembles. We'll start with the opening movement from Concerto No. 1 in F major, with its forceful hunting horn calls worked into the tapestry of the music. It's on to the Concerto No. 2 in F major, dominated by a virtuoso trumpet. From the Concerto No. 3, a shorter work than the others in the set, we'll be carried along by the swift finale. Then it's a selection from the Bradenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major from the set, where the a dazzling solo violin part is supported by two recorders. The Concerto No. 5 in D major is a real heavyweight, and because of the prominent solo harpsichord part - which Bach would have performed himself - it gets the credit as the first keyboard concerto, the forerunner to the modern piano concerto. All six of the concertos get bracing performances by some of the best ensembles around, including the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Academy for Ancient Music, the Academy for Alte Musik, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

HOUR 9: Beethoven's Ninth
NPR commentator Thomas Forrest Kelly, author of "First Nights: Five Musical Premieres," takes us back to the premiere night of perhaps the quintessential piece of Western music: Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Kelly describes the Ninth Symphony in ways you might not have imagined; for example, it was premiered by an ad-hoc assemblage of professional and amateur musicians after only three rehearsals. We'll also hear one of the great recordings of the Ninth, featuring the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by George Szell, with a chorus directed by Robert Shaw.
COMPANION CD: Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 SMK 60987

HOUR 10: Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique
The Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz is one of the masterpieces of Romanticism. The San Francisco Symphony's Michael Tilson Thomas serves as both conductor and commentator in this hour's journey through the musical story of the lonely young musician who is love-struck by the woman of his dreams, and the chaos that ensues. Along the way, Tilson Thomas examines the brilliance and innovations of the music, its impact on the music world, and the psychology of Berlioz.

HOUR 11: Stravinsky's Rite of Spring
Few pieces in the history of music have been as influential or as controversial as "The Rite of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky. Author, Harvard University professor, early music specialist and NPR commentator Thomas Kelly, author of "First Nights: Five Musical Premieres" reflects on the controversial opening-night performance of "The Rite of Spring" at the Champs-Elysees Theatre in Paris on May 29th, 1913. And we'll hear performances both of "Rite of Spring" (Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra), as well as the OTHER ballet music on that opening-night program: "Les Sylphides" based on music by Frederic Chopin.
COMPANION CD: The Music of Stravinsky SMK 64085

HOUR 12: Appalachian Spring
This hour explores the Pulitzer Prize-winning music that Aaron Copland wrote for choreographer Martha Graham's ballet "Appalachian Spring." Copland himself recounts that he never thinking of Appalachia when he wrote this music, we'll hear from letters Copland wrote around the time he was working on the ballet, and composer John Adams and commentator Robert Kapilow reflect on Copland's brilliant idea of using the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts" as an emotional high point in the score. And we'll hear a complete performance of the orchestral suite by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

III. The Great Composers
HOUR 13: Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was from a village outside Rome and became the greatest composer of the Italian Renaissance. Author and Early Music expert Thomas F. Kelly leads us on a musical journey through his life from the modest hilltown named Palestrina to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, where he sang in the choir. Kelly says Palestrina was an avant-garde composer of his time who came to write music of beautiful clarity, the peak of which is his Pope Marcellus Mass, one of the great works of the Renaissance, and the composer's single most performed music.

HOUR 14: Georg Frideric Handel
Conductor and Handel expert Nicholas McGegan is at NPR's Studio 4A piano this hour to reflect on the contributions of this important Baroque composer, to perform and introduce some of Handel's most beloved compositions, including the Music for the Royal Fireworks, the Water Music, and "The Harmonious Blacksmith" variations. We'll hear Handel performances conducted by McGegan as well as Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner, Jeanne Lamon, and Andrew Manze.

HOUR 15: Johann Sebastian Bach
Perhaps no other work captures both the combination of personal faith and professional craftsmanship embodied in Bach's music than his St. Matthew Passion, which has been called the most imposing musical monument ever devoted to one of the gospels. Guiding us on a journey through the Passion are: tenor Ian Bostridge; conductors Ton Koopman, Kenneth Slowik and Joshua Rifkin; Bach scholars Christophe Wolff and Michael Marissen, and soprano Ann Monoyios. Lynn Neary hosts.

HOUR 16: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart's Last Year: He was prolific and in his prime. In this hour of PT, we look at 1791, the final year in the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart scholar and Cornell University Professor Neil Zaslaw takes us through the matchless compositions and the turbulent personal life it masked, with music from his Piano Concerto No. 27, Clarinet Concerto, "The Abduction from the Seraglio," "The Magic Flute," and other works from 1791. Zaslaw also offers some insights into Mozart's mindset and the circumstances surrounding the commission of Mozart's final work, which he was unable to complete, the "Requiem." We'll hear the first two movements (which Zaslaw says are most authentically Mozartean), performed by the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Andrew Parrott.
COMPANION CD: Mozart's Last Year SMK 62957

HOUR 17: Ludwig van Beethoven
Some of Ludwig van Beethoven's most profound and most personal statements are found in his 16 string quartets, a body of work that represents one of the towering achievements in musical history. In this hour, the Orion String Quartet, one of the nation's leading interpreters of this music set up in NPR's Studio 4A to discuss and play selections from the Beethoven Quartets.

HOUR 18: Johannes Brahms
A survey of the man and his music with Jan Swafford, author of the 1997 book "Johannes Brahms: A Biography," who discusses the life and musical legacy of Brahms, a man of masks who assumed a Classical persona in his music while remaining a Romantic at heart, and whose innovations inspired musical revolutionaries of the next century. Musical performances include selections from the Symphony No. 4, A German Requiem, and the Piano Concerto No. 1

IV. The Changes of a Century

HOUR 19: Richard Wagner
William Berger, author of Wagner Without Fear, joins host Lisa Simeone for an extensive look at the life and music of German composer Richard Wagner. Why fear Wagner? As Berger explains, Wagner is among the most revolutionary and controversial composers. The products of his creative genius have been tainted by his frequent, overzealous personal references to militarism and nationalism and his overt anti-Semitism. It's not surprising that his works would later be adopted by Adolf Hitler to symbolize his notion of the Third Reich.

HOUR 20: History of Recordings
What did Thomas Edison have in mind when he invented the phonograph? Record producer and guest commentator Dennis Rooney says you might be surprised by the answers. A music-filled examination of the growth of recorded sound, from the scratchy, indistinct tone of the primitive wax cylinder and gramophone to the warm L-P and crystalline CD.. One of the best things recordings can do is capture moments in history. We'll hear one of them: from the last concert he ever gave, Leonard Bernstein conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Center in a performance from August 19th, 1990.

HOUR 21: Claude Debussy
Commentator and music scholar Jan Swafford takes us through the life and the art of Claude Debussy, from his troubled studies at the Paris Conservatory to the cafes of Paris where he was friends of poets and painters to the cancer that ultimately killed him as the French capital was being bombarded by the Germans in World War I. And we'll hear excerpts from some of his most celebrated and influential scores, including "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair," "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun," and a Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concert performance, led by new music director Yuri Temirkanov, of "La Mer." Lynn Neary hosts.

HOUR 22: East Meets West
In 1889, Claude Debussy heard a Javanese Gamelan in Paris, and European music has never been been quite the same. Music inspired by the mysterious East - as near as Turkey and as far as China, is explored in this hour, beginning with a listen to the the Eastern influences on classical music in Vienna, with Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca" from the Piano Sonata in A, K. 331. It's followed by performances of works by Beethoven, Debussy, Colin McPhee, Ravi Shankar, and Philip Glass. And NPR's Lisa Simeone chats with American composer Lou Harrison, one of the true innovators in the bringing the sounds and sensibilities of the East to America.

HOUR 23: Film Music
Are today's great composers found in the movie house instead of the concert hall? We explore the development of music for films this hour with help from Royal Brown, film music historian and director of the film studies program at Queens College in New York. Our survey of film music begins with the first score ever written for a movie: "The Assassination of the Duke of Guise" by French composer Camille Saint-Saens. We'll also hear memorable early scores by Dmitri Shostakovich, and Sergei Prokofiev. Then we'll move on to the classic Hollywood film scores, from Max Steiner's "Gone with the Wind" to music for the 1940 film "The Sea Hawk" by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and continuing with the film noir classic "Double Indemnity" by Miklos Rozsa and Bernard Herrmann's music for Alfred Hitchcock films such as "Psycho" and "Vertigo." Finally, we'll hear more recent film scores and trends, including John Williams' music for "Star Wars," Danny Elfman's "Batman" score, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" by Ennio Morricone, John Corigliano's music for "Altered States," the surprising score for "Koyaanisquatsi" by Philip Glass, and Jerry Goldsmith's music to "L.A. Confidential."
COMPANION CD: Music in Film SMK 60991

HOUR 24: Jazz
David Baker, a composer, conductor and chairman of the jazz studies department at Indiana University, joins Martin Goldsmith in the studio to examine how classical composers have incorporated jazz into their music. We'll begin with an excerpt from the jazzy ballet "The Creation of the World," and continue with works by Aaron Copland, the phenomenally jazz-talented George Gershwin, and finally, the jazz-influenced works by Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein.