Musical Theatre
This broadway musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg is based on an 1862 French novel by Victor Hugo.
Les Misérables
This mode is identical to the natural minor scale, featuring a lowered third, sixth, and seventh scale degree.
Aeolian
Bernstein is renowned for writing the music for this Broadway musical, which reimagines the story of Romeo and Juliet in 1950's Manhattan.
West Side Story
Tchaikovsky used motifs from both the French and Russian national anthems in this piece, written in 1880.
The 1812 Overture
The feud between rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar culminated at the 2025 Super Bowl, where Lamar performed this song, with the moment being described as "the peak of any rap battle, ever."
Not Like Us
This Broadway musical ended a 35-year run in 2023, the longest running show on Broadway to date.
Phantom of the Opera
This mode consists of a raised fourth scale degree, found prominently in the Star Wars film scores.
Following his time at Harvard, Bernstein attended this university where he studied conducting with Fritz Reiner.
Curtis Institute of Music
The American patriotic song "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," takes its melody from this country's National Anthem.
The United Kingdom
This American musical duo broke up over a disagreement on what the twelfth track would be to their album Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Simon and Garfunkel
This song is the first full song sang in the 1999 ABBA jukebox musical Mamma Mia!
Honey, Honey
This mode is featured often in non-classical harmony, such as folk, jazz, and blues, as well as prominently in Irish and Scottish traditional tunes. It can also be heard in Norwegian Wood by the Beatles and Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones.
Mixolydian
Young People's Concerts
This poet wrote the words to the Star Spangled Banner after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812.
Francis Scott Key
A popular myth claims that this famous composer was poisoned and killed by his adversary Antonio Salieri, despite modern medical evidence suggesting he died from an infection.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
This modern Broadway musical follows the lives of four Cuban musicians and the effect communism had on them.
Buena Vista Social Club
This mode, also referred to as the "Russian Minor," can be found in Saint-Saëns's "Royal March of the Lions" from Carnival of the Animals and Miles Davis's So What.
Dorian
Bernstein was a key figure in the revival of this late Romantic composer's works, recording his entire symphony circle with the New York Philharmonic.
The French national anthem acquired this nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching to the capital.
The rivalry between Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. escalated when Shakur signed with this record label, a long-time rival of Biggie's Bad Boy Records.
Death Row Records
The 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof takes place in this small Russian Jewish village.
Anatevka
This mode is also referred to as the "Spanish gypsy scale," given its popularity in Flamenco music.
Phrygian
Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Koussevitzk once encouraged Bernstein to change his name to this more Americanized name.
Leonard S. Burns
The national anthem of this country is credited with having the oldest lyrics of any current national anthem, written between 794-1185.
Japan
Igor Stravinsky had a notorious feud with this younger composer, who described his Firebird Suite as having "no music."
Sergei Prokofiev