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Today is December 22, and on this day in 1858 Giacomo Puccini was born. Even a partial list of Puccini’s works reads like an “Opera’s Greatest Hits” list:…

Francis Poulenc didn’t have to depend on composition for his living—he was the heir to the fortune of the Rhône-Poulenc pharmaceutical company—but he…

In this final selection from the three part series, Miles Hoffman discusses why composers choose a certain key over any other.A Minute with Miles - a…

Today is the birthday of the composer Gustav Holst, born in Gloucestershire, England on September 21, 1874. Holst was remarkably prolific: he wrote eight…

From the 1400's to the 1700's, the Italian word viola was the general term for any stringed instrument played with a bow. Viola da braccio, or “arm…

These are the words of Hector Berlioz:“Music…embraces at once the real and the ideal… By suspending the rhythm that gives it movement and life, it can…

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, and I wonder if you knew that our sixteenth president was a great music lover. Not only that, he was an opera lover.…

Musicians, like actors, have to deal with something a drama teacher once called the “paradox of integrity.” On the one hand, you have to be completely “in…

Composers often call for repeats, in their music, for whole sections of their pieces to be played twice. And the question is: what’s the point? One answer…

Today is January 27, and it’s Mozart’s birthday. I know I don’t have to tell you how wonderful Mozart’s music is to listen to… but if you’re not a…