1957 was a momentous year for the Federation of Malaya. After nearly two centuries of British rule it was to become fully independent on 31 August 1957. The constitution was written, all civic and federal laws were in place, and

In 1716, Filippo Bonanni presented the first edition of his Gabinetto Armonico, or Showcase of Musical Instruments. It was revised and expanded in 1723 to include 523 different musical instruments from all over the world. It remained the most comprehensive

At the tender age of 5, Bohuslav Martinů gave his first public performance as a solo violinist in his hometown of Polička. The townspeople immediately recognized his exceptional talent and eventually raised enough money to fund his musical education. Martinů

Would you believe that instrument cases have a history as long as the violins they contained? Instrument owners of yesterday, especially royal proprietors, saw fit to envelope their precious violins in ornate packaging. You wouldn’t dream of putting your priceless

Musical instruments in China were traditionally classified into 8 groups delineated by the material used in the instrument: Silk, Bamboo, Wood, Stone, Metal, Clay, Gourd and Hide. We will look at selected instruments in six of these groups in this

Within the context of fine arts, the term naïve is used to describe artists who work in an unsophisticated style with a child-like simplicity. Frequently such works ignore artistic conventions like the rules of perspective, and employ strong patterns and

Compulsion to Compose Early twentieth-century modernists in music eagerly explored various ways of breaking with the Romantic tradition. For Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959), born in a church tower above the Czech-Moravian Highlands, the initial point of departure was grounded in the