Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s observation “Without music, life would be a mistake,” these presentations will treat the idea of music in many of its aspects during history’s most prominent eras – its intrinsic value to human experience, its often lauded, sometimes criticized, ability to affect emotion via rhythm, melody, harmony and form as well as via pendular changes of style in society and in individual styles emerging from its vastly creative and interpretive minds. Music as the servant of humanity’s needs – sacred, national, civic, domestic and occupational – provides more than entertainment. So powerful is music to life that its study helps us to understand ourselves. Cast of characters includes but is not limited to Ambrose, Aristotle, Augustine, Bach, Beethoven, Borge, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Fitzgerald, Gaga, Schumann, Shakespeare, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and more.