Rebekah Romberg

Grab a box of tissues. This episode of Music Blocks is about the powerful and inventive ways musicians take sadness and turn it into memorable music.

Fear is primal. It’s how we react to the unknown. And when composers and songwriters set out to make frightful music, it opens up a world of creative possibilities.

Music Blocks is a music appreciation podcast developed in consultation with music educators. Here’s how to get the most out of Music Blocks, in three steps.

Music Blocks is a music appreciation podcast that spans genres, cultures and decades. It’s about human emotions and the sounds we use to express them. And it debuts this August.

On ‘Good Thing,’ the young singer-songwriter takes his music in new directions.

Composer Benjamin Park felt exhausted during the 2016 election. He remembers the nonstop political coverage and the growing tension within the United States. He decided to write music that embodied the disconnect — and addressed the division. Ben used portions of the melody from “America the Beautiful” to write a piece about the harsh political divide in our country. He also took inspiration from the majestic landscape of Boulder. You’ll hear a recording of Benjamin Parks’s “For Purple Mountains” in the CPR Performance Studio — played by musicians from the Flatirons Chamber Music Festival — on this episode of Centennial Sounds from CPR Classical and Colorado Public Radio.