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I’m a violist, which means I have problems. The viola, which is bigger than the violin, is too big. It’s too long and too heavy and there’s no way to play…

A Canon, with one "n" in the middle, is a composition with two or more voices or parts in which a melody is first stated in one voice and then imitated in…

There’s no such thing as a “short history of opera.” Well… there is a famous college textbook called A Short History of Opera… but it’s 800 pages long. I…

Many musical works, and many composers, fall into obscurity for very good reasons. My colleagues and I have been known to joke about pieces we call…

In 1816, an Austrian by the name of Johann Nepomuk Maelzel set up a factory in Paris and began manufacturing a clever new mechanical device that he called…

The Trumpet is the highest pitched and most brilliant member of the brass family. Miles Hoffman discusses the history of the trumpet.A Minute with Miles-…

In part 1 of his reed instruments series, Miles Hoffman mentioned that reed players spend many hours making and working on their reeds. In part two of…

“Real music goes beyond the intentions of its author for it nourishes itself from a much deeper and more mysterious source than mere intellect. It represents a synthesis of all the vital forces, of all the hidden instincts of an individual..."

The da capo aria, which I talked about yesterday, was a form that by 1750 had begun to lose its once enormous popularity. It was a form that was…

In operatic singing, there are three principal voice types for women. From high to low, they are soprano, mezzo-soprano—mezzo meaning “middle” in…