( harpsichord music ) man: with the advantages of the example and instruction which you could have in europe, you would be a valuable acquisition to the art, anone of theirst inters in the world, provided you could receive these aids before it is t late in life, and before your manner and taste were corrupted or fixed by working in your little way at boston. narrator: an impressive letter to a young painter and from the distinguished sir joshua reynolds. could he be right? ( harpsichord continues ) john singleton copley loved his country, but he wanted the richer artistic influences of the old world. besides, talk of revolution was everywhere. political contests, he felt, were neither pleasing to an artist nor advantageous to art itself. in 1774, copley left; it would make him a better painter, he thought. sad for him, sad for america: he never returned to his home. at 34, john singleton copley was already one of the best and most popular painters in the american colonies. the young american artist john trumbull said of him, "an elegant-looking man dressed in fine maroon cloth with go

additional funding for this program made possible by the financial support of... ( harpsichord music man: with the advantages of the example and instruction which you could have in europe, you would be a valuable acquisition to the art, anone of theirst painters in the world, provided you could receive these aids before it is too late in life, and before your manner and taste were corrupted or fixed by working in your little way at boston.

the instruments that can actuallplay more than one note at a time-- instruments such as the lute, harpsichordn, and performers became adept at reading these symbols and knowing what notes to add on top of the bass line. [light strumming using chords] all written in this shorthand of figures over the bass line. it probably saved a lot of paper. (zajac) the use of the figured bass adding symbols above these bass notes is really the whole foundation of our modern concept of harmony. [classical piano music plays] (narrator) the harmony that underlies much of the standard classical and popular music we hear today was developed by the 18th century. it involves rules and conventions about how chords are constructed and how they progress from one to the next. (woman) a chord will have certain sounds or colors that give the composer a lot of choices in how he's going to make a piece sound. in fact, it's kind of like a painter's palette. they have a palette of different colors to choose from, and a composer has different chords or harmony to choose from to make his piece come alive. when a composer tak

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