Yesterday, parents over the world celebrated the start of the school year (while teachers mourned). How about another school-themed overture?

The School for Scandal is an 18th century English play, which foreshadows BBC costume comedies and all their predictable characters. There isn’t exactly a school in the play; however, Samuel Barber wrote an overture for it while he was still a student – he was a mere 21 years old. Not bad for a college project! It has since remained one of his most-popular and most-performed works.

Labor Day has come and gone. This is a time of great celebration to those of us with school-aged kids … because we can finally be rid of them again. School’s in!

Johannes Brahms was awarded an honorary doctorate degree when he was 47; as a “thank-you”, he composed the Academic Festival Overture. By using a number of popular college songs, Brahms captures all the important elements of university learning – beer, wine, and hazing rituals.