Before Schubert and Schumann, the role of the piano in lied performances was just as a general support – the vocal line was the star and the piano the nearly invisible support. With Schubert, the ultimate lieder composer, and Schumann,

Alexander Scriabin: Mysterium Acne is an annoying and often embarrassing skin disease that frequently plunges the teenage world into turmoil. If we can trust medical advice, one should never pick, gouge, pop, scratch or squeeze the infected skin as this

One of the famous stories of demonic possession cured by music was David playing his harp to sooth King Saul (I Samuel). Although this is taken in modern times as the first instance of music therapy for the treatment of

Voltaire rightfully called Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) “le premier musicien de France.” Simultaneously looking backward and forward over French musical history, Rameau’s compositions uniquely capture the spirit of the Enlightenment. In all, Rameau published four books of keyboard music. The collections

Trains provide a nice rhythmic basis for music – the old chuga-chuga sound of a steam train might be replaced now with the smooth humming of electrics, but we can find music where the train meets the tracks.

At the end of Part 1 of this article, the countertenor voice was in a sorry state. Gone were the days of the star castrati, Farinelli and Senesino; the changing philosophical landscape of the Enlightenment had allowed the female voice

Franz Liszt famously proclaimed that instrumental music attempting to communicate or carry meanings, messages or concepts that originate from outside music itself, do need to carry a narrative or descriptive program in order to be understood. This program, essentially a

The Devil is incarnate in music! Or so the medieval musicians believed as they worked to develop the basics of sound. Some pitches, when sounded together, just seemed to make an organ howl, hence they were known as wolf tones.