There are countless reasons why composers attached dedications to their scores. In a wonderful study, Emily H. Green has attempted to unravel the complex relationship between composers, publishers, and consumers of music. For one, works might be dedicated to patrons,

English composer Anna Clyne (b. 1980) took Leo Tolstoy’s comment that ‘Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man in music, and in that is its

Women loved Franz Liszt, and Franz Liszt loved women. The pianist and composer is almost as famous for his love life and his effect on women as his music-making. Today we’re looking at ten of the most intense love affairs

Danish composer Else Marie Pade (1924-2016) was a pioneer in electronic music. Her initial music studies were in piano and composition, moving into 12-tone technique. In 1954, inspired by the first electronic composers such as Pierre Schaeffer, she became Denmark’s

If you love The Blue Danube, but didn’t happen to have an orchestra hanging about, there were many options for being able to play the piece at home, either by yourself or with friends. For solo piano, the work is

Austrian composer Johanna Doderer (b. 1969) looked at the Slovenian Lake Bohinj for her second symphony, Bohinj (2015). Lake Bohinj in Slovenia is a remote lake on the edge of Triglav National Park. Ms. Doderer first focused on the magnificent

When I was writing my blog on the Estonian composer Eduard Tubin, I came across a quote that reads, “Eduard Tubin is to Estonia what Jean Sibelius is to Finland.” This struck me as a very insightful statement. Both composers

Filip Runesson’s Hur länge ska hon vara död? (after W.A. Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor, K. 626) Mozart and Death, but not the way you think about it. Swedish musician Filip Runesson took Mozart’s Requiem and rearranged it in klezmer