At one time a star in her own right as a singer, Anna Magdalena (1701-1760) would go on to become, through her marriage to the older Johann Sebastian Bach, history's most famous musical wife and mother. The two musical notebooks belonging to her cont...

In the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, the complex interplay between anticolonial resistance and accommodation resounds in its music. Guadeloupean gwoka music – a secular, drum-based tradition – captures the entangled histories of French colonization...

"Five Years Ahead of My Time: Garage Rock from the 1950s to the Present" tells of an explosive musical phenomenon whose continuing influence on popular culture is dramatic and deep. The tale begins in 1950s America, when classic rock 'n' roll was rea...

"Stories of Tonality in the Age of Francois-Joseph Fetis" explores the concept of musical tonality through the writings of the Belgian musicologist Francois-Joseph Fetis (1784-1867), who was singularly responsible for theorizing and popularizing the...

A celebrated figure in myth, song, and story, the nightingale has captivated the imagination for millennia, its complex song evoking a prism of human emotions – from melancholy to joy, from the fear of death to the immortality of art. But have you ev...

Play It Loud celebrates the musical instruments that gave rock and roll its signature sound – from Louis Jordan's alto saxophone and John Lennon's Rickenbacker to the drum set owned by Metallica's Lars Ulrich, Lady Gaga's keytar, and beyond. Seven en...

The Rolling Stones: Still going strong and defying the doubters, over 55 years since their formation, they possess a longevity almost unheard of in popular music – especially with three of the five original members still present. The majority of peop...

"Playing in an orchestra in an intelligent way is the best school for democracy" – Daniel Barenboim The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been led by a storied group of conductors. And from 1994 to 2015, through the best work of Daniel Barenboim, Pierr...

David Rowell is a professional journalist and an impassioned amateur musician. He's spent decades behind a drum kit, pondering the musical relationship between equipment and emotion. In "Wherever the Sound Takes You", he explores the essence of music...

Unless you lived through the 1970s, it seems impossible to understand it at all. Drug delirium, groovy fashion, religious cults, mega corporations, glitzy glam, hard rock, global unrest – from our 2018 perspective, the seventies are often remembered...