The run-up to the United States presidential election of 1844 was dominated by the controversial issue of slavery expansion through the annexation of the Republic of Texas. The Democratic Party was looking to expand America’s territory by any means. In

Claudio Monteverdi: Vespers of the Blessed Virgin The musicologist Denis Arnold once famously suggested that to perform the Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin), composed by Claudio Monteverdi is “to court disaster.” Arnold further asserts, “To write

Saint-SaensPiano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22 The American pianist Philippa Schuyler made her concert debut while still a child, giving piano recitals and frequently appearing on the radio. Born in 1931, the mixed-race child was the daughter

Stephen Collins Foster grew up in Alleghany City, a Pennsylvania municipality located at the junction of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. The Foster’s shared a large two-family house with the family of a retired Army Officer. Captain Pentland was a

František Kočvara (1730-1791), who thankfully changed his spelling to Frantisek Kotzwara after settling in London, originally hailed from Bohemia. He was a talented performer, equally versed on the viola, double bass, piano, violin, cello, oboe, flute, bassoon and cittern. He

In his 2010 novel, The Elephant Keepers’ Children, Danish author Peter Høeg uses Schubert songs to very practical end. One of the major characters in the book is a sonic engineer – she creates mechanisms that operate through speech or

Wait, what? This guy wrote film music as well as classical stuff? Pfft… Sound familiar? It’s interesting nowadays how film composers are often sneered at in relation to their more ‘serious’ counterparts. However, there was a whole generation of composers

Starting in the 16th century with small albums created by fellow classmates and continuing into the 20th century with the rise of musical groupies (actually, this started much earlier), the autograph book is an interesting view into the relationship between