Magic flutes, bells, bagpipes, and ocarina from operas and video games! More powerful than any simple musical instrument, magical musical instruments can change the world around them. Where do we find them? In the opera Die Zauberflöte, both the hero,

When I first started taking music lessons in college, I thought that music theory was one of the most boring subjects in the world. My professors dutifully explained that music theory “is how musicians explain and describe the phenomena heard

Music on Wars and World Crises There is a lot of music that takes place during war, such as the marching songs that help you get your troops in place, the campfire songs to encourage comradery off the battlefield, and

Doctors in the 19th century in opera began to reflect the change in the field – now fewer are allied with the black arts and there are more specialties. Doctors can be heroes in the opera, they can be the

Why is it that some pianists have become so closely associated with specific composers? Is it due to personal preference, that they feel a particular affinity with certain composers, or simply like their music? Or is the association one which

Anna Amalia (1723-1787) of Prussia was the younger sister of Frederick II of Prussia. Eleven years younger, she benefitted from the new musical focus he brought to the court. Anna Amalia played the harpsichord, flute, and violin, with her first

We’re so used to the piano being a large black hole in the middle of the living room, or, perhaps, a smaller black hole on the side of the living room, as an upright piano placed against the wall. In

Put Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe or La Valse, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, or Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances—or pretty much anything by Prokofiev or Mahler—in front of me and I’ll play them happily over and over, and I have. But dear readers