On the Purity of Music
Music is often claimed to be—and valued as—a “pure” art, one detached from the referents to the external world that we find in painting or literature. Music…
Beethoven’s Fourth: The Underrated Symphony
In the canon of Ludwig van Beethoven’s works, the Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Opus 60, stands as a singularly neglected and underrated masterpiece. Many would…
How to Appreciate Twentieth-Century Music
Twentieth-century classical music is intimidating for many people. I believe this is mainly due to what has been written about it rather than to the music itself.…
Aaron Copland and Musical Americana
Aaron Copland (1900–1990) enjoys a reputation as America’s most esteemed composer of classical music. Much of his music is also said to embody a sense of Americana,…
How to Think About Music History
When I think about classical music, as I often do, I find myself thinking in particular about the way we conceive of periods in musical history. The…
Illuminating Truth & Beauty: The Choral Music of Samuel Adler
As a reviewer for a classical record magazine, I often receive items from off the beaten track that prove illuminating discoveries. Sometimes I am moved to share…
Beethoven’s “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage”
Those who have read previous essays of mine about music and composers know that I enjoy paying tribute to the lesser-known and unjustly neglected. Such undoubtedly is…
Beethoven’s Mass in C
Beethoven’s Mass in C major, Op. 86, is much less well known than his late sacred masterpiece the Missa Solemnis, and a common attitude sees it as…
Music as a Window Into History and Character
I believe that the victory of certain ideas is well worth the suppression of our tranquility and even our lives. —Albéric Magnard Some people regard music as…
The Beauty and Mystery of the Unaccompanied Violin
“Is it not strange that sheep’s guts could hale souls out of men’s bodies?” —William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing I have been involved for a long…
The Music of Harold Shapero: Tradition and Innovation
When American classical composers are discussed, the names Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin come up much more frequently than Harold Shapero (1920-2013). Yet…
Virgil Thomson on Music and Culture
To pass from reading a contemporary essayist to one of the middle decades of the 20th century is often to enter another world, one of succinct elegance and…
What Does Music Express?
Music is a constant part of our lives, yet its nature remains elusive. We tend to take music for granted, like any product or commodity, not realizing…
The God of Philosophy or the God of Faith?
A wise man has written a book called God or Nothing—the title a profoundly pithy expression of the primary choice we must make in our lives. Yet…
Vincent D’Indy’s “Summer’s Day in the Mountains”
Had I to choose a musical summer idyll, my choice would be Jour d’été à la montagne (Summer’s Day in the Mountains), a tone poem by the…