The first transcriptions of Chopin’s music appeared as early as the 1830s, shortly after the publication of the original compositions. In time, some 1500 composers took up the task, with some popular works transformed hundreds of times for all possible

Béla Bartók had always been interested in young girls. His first wife Márta was only sixteen when they married, and he did have an extramarital affair with the fifteen-year-old poetess Klára. Bartók also vigorously but unsuccessfully pursued the young violinist

The idea that orchestration, the technique of employing instruments to portray any musical aspect, is an integral and creative aspect of the compositional art has only gradually been accepted.

Composed to celebrate the union of the cities of Buda and Pest into the present-day Hungarian capital in 1923, the Dance Suite quickly became one of Béla Bartók’s most popular works. It did more for Bartók’s reputation, in the positive

Did you know that Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889-1977), probably the most famous and most important actor in the silent film era, was a committed amateur violinist who also composed a number of his film scores? Long before Chaplin contemplated

Transcriptions of Bach’s Famous Repertoire — Goldberg Variations Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, hold a special place in music history. Written for Count Kaiserlingk, former Russian ambassador to the court of Saxony, who needed something for those sleepness nights when

We look up at the orb that hangs in our sky and know that it’s been an inspiration for artists of all sorts: authors, poets, painters, and composers. It can be an inspiration for love and for madness – lunacy,

From the weird and wacky world of musical instruments comes a story that will make your stomach turn and your blood curdle. Warning, the reading of this article might cause serious discomfort to some sensitive readers. If you are an