In Beethoven’s hands the Classical piano sonata reaches its apotheosis. A fine virtuoso pianist himself, he had a lasting influence on the genre, and the design of the piano, and his piano sonatas reveal the demands he placed on pianist

The North German Schubert Carl Loewe (1796–1869) might no longer be a household name. However, in his time, he was a close friend of Schumann, Weber and Mendelssohn. In fact, he conducted the first performance of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream

On April 24 2019, Xavier Bouvier visited Shanghai and made headlines. A professor of composition at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, he donated a sketch to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. He’d purchased the sketch at an auction in

George Gershwin started on Broadway and finished on the opera stage. Along the way, he wrote the music that seemed to define the spark and light of the early American 20th century. The roaring 20s and Gershwin’s magic were brought

The title of this post is a quote from the British actor Michael Caine‘s memoirs which he read on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week. The phrase was first mentioned when he was describing setbacks in his early career

Composers tend to be a peculiar lot, particularly as it pertains to the best and most conducive circumstances in which they compose their best music. Of course, reports of that nature tend to be highly anecdotal, but more often then

Something that music teachers and composers could learn from people who mix and master music for a living is that music is the rule. Knowing the rules of music is as equally important as knowing the feel of music. Fine