Every masterpiece has a past.

All music has a past. Nothing comes from nowhere.

The great composers—and the great popular artists—listened backward before they moved forward. They borrowed melodies, inherited traditions, stole ideas, broke rules, and transformed what they found into something unmistakably their own.

Across three centuries, our season has traced that endlessly fascinating conversation. Folk dances find their way into concert halls. Popular songs are dressed in orchestral colors. Old forms are bent, stretched and reinvented. Music crosses borders and generations, carrying pieces of its past into something entirely new.

Because originality doesn’t mean starting from scratch. It means hearing what already exists—and imagining what else it might become.

For our summer Pops finale, we bring the idea full circle.

All music has a past. This summer, you’ll hear the origin stories behind some of the best-known music ever written.