A dulcimer is a stringed folk instrument which basically comes in two different varieties: the hammered dulcimer – which has strings stretched over a sounding board with a trapezoidal shape, generally ...

Musical tradition is at times a rather odd element of this popular art. One of those traditions that still holds true for today is that of using Italian terms to instruct a performer in notated scores ...

Tracing the evolution of any instrument is rewarding, informative, and enlightening. It may be particularly so if you have ever played or are interested in learning to play this instrument. Of all the ...

We could say that most indie music is alternative, but not all are indie. Let’s unpack this statement. Many alternative rock bands in the 1980s signed with independent labels, but later moved to one ...

The influence of W.A. Mozart across all areas of culture has been colossal, from the Baby Mozart Project through to contemporary song. You can hardly pass through a day without encountering the music ...

Music is littered with vocabulary. Dictionaries of music list the numerous terms that you have the option to embed into your language if you wish. Many of these terms are Italian as that wonderful ...

Extraordinary as it may sound, there have been bagpipes in a vast array of forms for around 3,000 years. The instruments are known to have been used not only in Europe but in Asia too. These ...

This first extract is taken from a 2015 performance called ‘Bugs Bunny at the Symphony II’. The remarkable achievement here is that the music is performed live to the cartoon that plays on a gigantic ...

Two exhibits from the collection stand out to me as particularly striking and provocative pieces of art. The first is called Blossom by Sanford Biggers and dates back to 2007. Here the piano appears ...

It’s not unreasonable to imagine that classical and folk music are completely separate genres. Never the twain shall meet, however, folk music has played a central role in Western Classical Music for ...

Sacred music broadly covers music that has a religious focus at its heart. This is in opposition to what is termed secular music that tends to be centred around those more down to earth themes like ...

As musical history has developed pieces of music written by composers have gradually been increasing in duration. An early symphony by Haydn or Mozart would have lasted around the twenty-minute mark ...