300 years of classical music in 18 minutes | Joshua Bell

0:06You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hume. It's a simple but profound question. Does the world really need classical music anymore? What about orchestras? In this gorgeous talk and performance, violinist Joshua Bell and the Chamber Orchestra of America take to the TED stage to share why music remains a singularly unifying force in our world and why it and the musicians who share it are more crucial now than ever before.

0:48I love you.

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1:56Thank you. Thank you.

2:02Thank you.

2:07Hi, everyone. Well, I am Joshua Bell, and I am joined by a brand new orchestra that I just helped found in New York City called the Chamber Orchestra of America.

2:21So you might ask, do we need orchestras anymore? Oh, thank you. Am I preaching to the choir? Okay, maybe. But do we need classical music anymore? Is it relevant? Well, good. Well, we all agree, I guess. I could go home. Okay, but I'm here really to answer that and say yes. So I want you to imagine walking into your hometown concert hall. You're there to hear the symphony. So what happens there? Okay, you take a seat, and the musicians start filing onto the stage. Each one of those musicians has spent a lifetime, Tens and thousands of hours mastering their craft, and each instrument in their hands is itself a piece of history, a testament to human ingenuity and creativity.

3:15The conductor walks onto the stage and he gives a downbeat, and the room comes alive with the sounds of the symphony. Every note has a direction, every harmony has a purpose, and you sit there in the audience being taken on a journey, not just being entertained passively, but actively listening and using your imagination. And you're doing it alongside thousands of other people from different walks of life, different ages, races, religions, political persuasions. None of those differences at that moment mean anything because you're unified by the music and reminded of your shared humanity. So don't you think we need that in today's world?

3:59Thank you.

4:25same time, across the Alps in Germany, there was another man writing the most glorious music ever, and that was Johann Sebastian Bach. Now, Bach was expanding and experimenting on the idea of what an orchestra could sound like. He created his monumental St. Matthew Passion, which he wrote for two string orchestras on the stage at the same time, double chorus, wind soloists, vocal soloist. It's just the most immense and spiritual piece really ever written and it's three hours long. So we're going to play just a tiny bit of it from its most, really its most poignant moment and that's the moment in this biblical story where Peter has just betrayed Jesus and he's stricken with remorse and regret, begging basically for forgiveness.

5:15This is Erbarma Dich, which means have mercy my God.

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6:35So, just after Bach died, another genius was born, and that was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart wrote 41 symphonies in his lifetime. We're gonna play a little bit from his 25th symphony, which really marks the beginning of his middle period. He was 17 when he wrote it.

7:13Yeah, so you...

7:19So that was Mozart's idea of a storm. And you might remember it from the stormy opening sequence of the movie Amadeus. I don't know if you've seen that movie, but it's one of my favorite movies. It's just a great story, but I also love the film because it portrayed classical music in a wonderful light. When it came out, millions and millions of people bought Mozart records, and many of those people probably had not ever stepped foot in a concert hall. And that really goes to show that classical music really can reach everyone. But unfortunately, you know, classical music sometimes suffers from a bit of an image problem.

7:58You know, in popular culture, classical music is so often portrayed as something boring or something for the elite, or, my favorite, something relaxing, you know, that you listen to in the background while you're doing something else. It reminds me of an ad from many years ago. I don't even remember what the product was, but I really remember the tagline because it really struck me. The tagline was, It's like Beethoven, but with an attitude. So Beethoven doesn't have attitude?

8:50Ah, yeah, Beethoven. Beethoven knows. You know, classical music is just so relaxing.

9:05Well, anyway, everyone knows that's Beethoven's fifth. It's one of the most popular tunes in the world. everyone can hum it. It's almost cliche in classical music, right? But it's if you actually listen to this piece in its proper form with an orchestra live in a concert hall with all the winds and timpani as well, it could be one of the most powerful experiences. We're going to do the last one because I want to show you about what really what the transformative experience is with the Beethoven symphony. And I hope anybody who've only know the first movement should listen into the whole thing.

9:40Beethoven takes you on a journey from the darkness and struggle of what you just heard, the first movement, to redemption in the last movement. C minor becomes C major. We have triumph over fate.

10:23Thank you.

10:40When I think of beauty of melody, just sheer beauty, the composer that comes to my mind is Franz Schubert. I mean, Schubert wrote the most gorgeous melodies. Unfortunately, he died when he was only 31 years old, and most of his music was not performed or published during his lifetime. But he left us with the most beautiful songs, chamber music, and symphonies. So we're going to play just a tiny bit from his now famous unfinished symphony. And you can listen to how this beautiful melody is interrupted by Schubert's idea of fate and the inevitable.

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12:30Sorry to all these composers, we're only playing this tiny bit It's not the way it's supposed to be. I wish we could play the whole thing. But anyway, you might ask, who are the Schuberts of today? I mean, does anyone write beautiful melodies for classical orchestra anymore? Well, I can leave you to be the judge of that. We're going to play a little piece written just two years ago. I commissioned my friend in New York, one of my favorite living composers, Kevin Putz, to write me a piece called Earth. Kevin puts his homage, or you might say his love letter, to our precious planet.

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14:04Thank you.

14:43Thank you.

14:59Thank you.

15:06You know, the beauty of classical music is that the more times you hear these pieces, the better they get. I mean, they take on deeper and deeper meanings for the listener and for the players. You know, these pieces become part of you, they become your friends, they become your soundtrack for your life. So imagine if we didn't have orchestras anymore, and these pieces that we just played and so many other greats could never be heard. It would be like having the Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David locked up in a dark closet. This music would just be a pile of paper with dots on the page, just meaningless, without the orchestras.

15:49Obviously that would be a tragedy, and so what are we going to do about it? Well, I think the answer is, of course, with our children. and music education. I so believe in music education for kids.

16:07There's not a greater gift you could give to a child than the gift of music. And I wish every child had an opportunity to play in an orchestra. In an orchestra, they learn so many things. It's a life-changing experience. In an orchestra, a child learns about beauty, and they learn how to listen to each other. and to be part of something bigger than themselves. They learn discipline, of course, as well, but it's fun. I mean, playing in an orchestra is just a blast, and I wish every town had a youth orchestra, or multiple youth orchestras. I mean, how about as many youth orchestras as we have Little League baseball teams?

16:48Hey, I love baseball. Well, I think we could make that happen. I really hope for that in the future. And on that note, I actually want to welcome a few new musicians to our stage. And these are members of the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra.

17:09They're going to join our Chamber Orchestra of America. And thank you all for our finale here, our little encore, you might say. This is from Tchaikovsky. We'll end the session with this. And this is his serenade for strings. Thanks for listening.

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17:55Thank you.

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18:49That was Joshua Bell and the Chamber Orchestra of America at TED 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at ted.com slash curationguidelines. And that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar, and Tonsika Sarmar-Nivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faze-Bogan. Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Ballarezo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.