When the Austrian Emperor Joseph II declared war on Turkey in 1788, a new tax mechanism was put into place to fund the war machinery. Citizens had to prepare an official tax declaration and hand the paperwork to the relevant

In 1901, when critics heard the Eberfeld and Berlin premieres of Paris: The Song of a Great City by Frederick Delius (1862–1934), they agreed that it wasn’t a portrait of the city as much as ‘the morning after a night

We all have the image of the suffering and tormented artist in our minds. Constantly in money troubles and frequently neglecting personal hygiene, such artistic geniuses are all alone in a shallow world that does not understand nor appreciate them.

A Musical Journey of Passion and Obsession Valentine’s Day is here, and love is once again in the air. While I hope that I will get lots of chocolates and flowers this year, I am also intrigued by how love,

Swiss composer Joachim Raff (1822–1882) is barely known today, and if you do remember him, it’s most probably in relation to Liszt. While Liszt was in Weimar, Raff was his assistant for a while and was responsible for the orchestration

The American poet Hart Crane committed suicide en route from Mexico to New York by uttering a brief ‘Goodbye, everybody!’ and jumping overboard from the steamship Orizaba. His body was not recovered. He was only 32 years old. At the

Joan of Arc, also known as the “Maid of Orléans,” was declared a national symbol of France by Napoleon in 1830. Her story had a profound effect on French society as the old societal order gave way to new ideas

The German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) wrote a book titled Harmonice Mundi (The Harmony of the World) in 1619. He had been working on the book for roughly 20 years, establishing celestial-harmonic relationships. He also abandoned the Pythagorean