“What? D-Flat Major?” Most string players wail, “that’s a key signature with FIVE FLATS!” I don’t blame them. It’s so much more difficult to play in tune on string instruments without the resonance of the open strings. Pianists, though, will

It’s time to say good riddance to 2021 as we hopefully look forward to a more upbeat 2022. The changing of a calendar year, regardless of culture, nationality or creed has traditionally been cause for celebrations. Expressions of exuberance include

Christmas is once again around corner, and hopefully we can spend some time with friends and family. For many people around the world it is a time of reflection, and a time to celebrate old family traditions or to create

In the Lieder oeuvre of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Franz Schubert, we find a substantial variety of folksongs and folksy carols, but none of them are directly related to Christmas. For these famous composers, Christmas was squarely located in the

If I could take only one style of music to a deserted island it would have to be Baroque music. Music written during that period is full of drama and energy, and it can be very intimate or simply grandiose.

In his seminal study on counterpoint and fugue, Alfred Mann writes, “There is probably no branch of musical composition in which theory is more widely, one might almost say hopelessly, at variance with practice than fugue.” Basically, Mann is telling

Among the most feared course requirements for many aspiring composers and students of music is a class simply labeled “Fugue.” And it’s no wonder, as a good many universities that still teach this kind of skills will ask you to

A famous writer once said, “Music is the most romantic of all arts.” And then he goes on to say that it “unlocks an unknown realm, a word with nothing in common with the surrounding outer worlds of the senses.