When we think about the great composers, it’s easy to imagine them as super-geniuses isolated in their own little rarefied world. But of course, the great composers were only human, living and working alongside other humans. Almost all of the

The words “violin” and “fiddle” are often used interchangeably to refer to the same thing: i.e., a musical instrument with four strings and played under the chin with a bow. However, even though the instruments are almost identical, that doesn’t

Have you ever experienced nostalgia hearing a piece of music? Perhaps you have “your” song with a sweetheart or recall songs from your graduation, prom, or first dance? Instantly the melody catapults us back to the time and place of

The violin and viola are two instruments that look and sound very similar. Each instrument, however, has its own unique timbre, role, character…and partisans. In this article, we’re looking at the differences between the violin and the viola. We’ll be

When we hear music originating from the ancient shores of the Baltic Sea, we immediately think of the Estonian composers Veljo Tormis and Arvo Pärt. Of course, they are very famous right now, but their successes built on the ground-breaking

I haven’t touched the piano for six months. I have a beautiful early 20th-century Bechstein model A grand piano which has been sitting, untouched, in my piano room/office. There is music open on the stand – Schubert’s Piano Sonata in

If you saw the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final in May, then you saw two different groups with instruments far out of the norm. The Norwegian group Gåte played Ulveham (Wolf Pelt), which is based on a medieval Norwegian

There is an exclusivity to the approaches to composing music, as opposed to all other artistic forms. It is that music can be created through at least two different mediums. The one of the instrument or the one of the