hello and welcome to the young people's
concerts I'm Ted whip rude and I'll be
your host at our next concert Saturday
March 19th a concert titled babble and
verse but do you think that means well
babble nonsense sounds verse poetry can
you imagine a poem made up entirely of
nonsense sounds maybe you could make one
up yourself if you do you're the only
one who knows what it means now imagine
music to go with that poem where the
music actually expresses what you mean
even though the words don't does this
sound kind of crazy well maybe it is but
it's something we're going to hear at
the concert a piece called caravan a try
saying it caravan a it's the title and
the first word of a poem written a long
time ago by a man named Hugo ball and
people have been wondering ever since
what mr. ball may have meant by this
nonsense poem or whether he meant
anything at all the composer essa Pekka
salonen thought it would be fun to
compose music for caravan a that
suggests meanings that may or may not be
there in the poem at all mr. Salonen his
composure and residents here at the New
York Philharmonic so he's friends with
all of us here and this is a very
special chance for us to share his music
with you and see whether you think
Caravan a actually means something
the question of meaning does meaning
come from words does it come from music
is really interesting because the sounds
that come out of people's mouths words
and the sounds that come out of
instruments music can actually imitate
each other they can even trade places if
a trumpet is playing music that sounds
like someone arguing that music might
have more meaning than the words
themselves work or if a lot of
instruments are chattering like a big
crowd you might almost think you can
hear the gossip on the other hand if a
lot of voices are making sounds that
don't make real words they might be
making music that instruments can't
so that's what our concerts about in
addition to the whole new york
philharmonic you'll hear the new york
coral artists 80 professional singers on
stage with us you'll hear some
stupefying music from a piece called
Carmina Burana by the composer Carl Orff
you'll hear a couple of the pictures at
an exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky and
of course part 2 of caravan a by essa
Pekka Solomon it's going to be a concert
unlike anything we've done before you
have to be here to check it out be sure
to come early for ypc overtures you'll
be able to meet members of the New York
Philharmonic try out different kinds of
instruments and hear music newly
composed by very young composers around
your age sound fun it will be I'll see
you there
you