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"C” is for Carolina I-house. The I-house is an architectural term first coined in the 1930s to describe the house type identified in the “I” states of Indiana, Illinois, ad Iowa.

“B” is for Batesburg-Leesville. Batesburg-Leesville (Lexington County; 2020 population 5,251).

For composers, mistaken concepts of progress can be downright dangerous.

In the field of music, Progress has at times been a misleading concept.

The ruby-crowned kinglet (Corthylio calendula) is a very small passerine bird found throughout North America. It is a member of the kinglet family. The bird has olive-green plumage with two white wing bars and a white eye-ring. Males have a red crown patch, which is usually concealed. The sexes are identical (apart from the crown), and juveniles are similar in plumage to adults. It is one of the smallest songbirds in North America.

Have you ever wondered how the violin came to play such an important role in the history of classical music? Well, it starts with singing.

Chamber music rehearsals are very different from orchestra rehearsals. In an orchestra rehearsal, it’s the conductor’s job to make the overall musical decisions and to ensure that the members of the orchestra carry them out. A chamber music group, on the other hand, is—ideally, at least—a pure democracy.

Yesterday I spoke about picturesque titles of musical compositions, and I quoted Robert Schumann on what he called the “clumsiness” of taking those titles too literally. Schumann’s friend Franz Liszt, on the other hand, coined the term “program music,” and said that when a piece has a program, or story, the musical ideas should clearly reflect the unfolding of the story.

I’ve been talking this week about vibrato, the vibrato that string players use to warm up their sounds, and the vocal vibrato that’s the natural product of healthy singing. All vibrato consists of small oscillations in pitch, but not all vibrato is a blessing.

The word scherzo, which means “joke,” in Italian, had appeared in music as early as the 1600's, but it was Beethoven who gave the scherzo its modern character, and established a permanent place for it.