Click on Classical: A 'Horrible' composer, string-quartet pop songs, and keeping up with 'Serial'

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Every Monday morning at 9:15, I join John Birge on Classical MPR to talk about stories we're featuring on our website. Here are the stories we'll be talking about today.

This week Garrett Tiedemann interviewed Christopher Lennertz, a film and video game composer best known for Medal of Honor and Horrible Bosses. Among the stories Lennertz shared was how he became a film composer by way of a backhanded compliment that led to a meeting with Henry Mancini.

Garrett also interviewed Mark Henry Phillips, one of two composers who wrote the music for the wildly popular podcast Serial​. Phillips told Garrett​ about how he'd have only one day to write and record music for each episode, and explained why the music had to become increasingly percussive.

We've had a couple of essays recently where classical musicians talk about why they (alternately) love or hate arranging pop songs to be played at weddings, so I thought I'd hit YouTube and tune in ten pop songs commonly arranged for string quartet. Grab a hanky and take a listen.