One of my favourite memories from my kids’ early childhood is watching from the kitchen… Read the postWeek 778: “Jeunes Filles au Jardin” by Federico Mompou
Looking at an accordion, it’s hard to imagine how anyone came up with the idea… Read the postWeek 774: “Après la Pluie” by Jean-Louis Matinier and Kevin Seddiki
Like many spirituals with roots in the era of slavery in the United States, this… Read the postWeek 737: “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” arr. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
No, it’s not a glitch with your device and you’re not having some kind of… Read the postWeek 721: “Intermezzo” by Giacomo Puccini
Generally speaking, I’m not really into opera. The last time I featured anything from an… Read the postWeek 720: “Intermezzo Sinfonico” by Pietro Mascagni
December is the shortest month. Okay, technically, February is the shortest month. It’s just that… Read the postWeek 656: “A Spotless Rose” by Herbert Howells
I sang in a church choir as a kid, and this was one of the… Read the postWeek 636: “Sicut Cervus” by Giovanni da Palestrina
Like most things humans do, crying is really weird when you think about it. Why… Read the postWeek 595: “Weep, O Mine Eyes” by John Bennet (performed by Attacca Quartet)
I’m not too familiar with famous people from the Middle Ages (perhaps you’re not either)… Read the postWeek 587: “O Virtus Sapientie Alio Modo” by Stevie Wishart
We’ve all got our contradictions. I, for example, will diligently rinse out food cans before… Read the postWeek 571: “Salve Regina” by Francis Poulenc
Up here in the northern half of the world, today is the winter solstice. And… Read the postWeek 554: “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Gustav Holst (arr. Gjeilo)
It’s pretty unlikely that anyone will build a statue of me when I die, but… Read the postWeek 551: “Elegy” by Edward Elgar
George Gershwin was a musical turning point. He was born in 1898, a year after… Read the postWeek 533: “Lullaby for String Orchestra” by George Gershwin
One of Camille Saint-Saens’ best-loved works is his 1886 suite, The Carnival of the Animals.… Read the postWeek 513: “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saens
Here’s an interesting (if slightly morbid) thing I learned recently: the “Birthday Effect.” Since there… Read the postWeek 505: “Qui Tollis” by Antonio Lotti
It’s tempting to look at the lives of composers and turn them into parables. Mozart’s… Read the postWeek 495: “Impromptu V” by Jean Sibelius
Summing up Bach’s legacy and influence on following generations of composers, Mozart once said, “Bach… Read the postWeek 474: “Solfeggio in C Minor” by CPE Bach (Eugen Cicero cover)
When I was nine, I joined a church choir. I wasn’t especially religious or prodigiously… Read the postWeek 472: “Serenade For Clarinet and Strings” by Derek Holman
Robert Schumann’s lifelong struggle with mental and physical illness has been written about and analyzed… Read the postWeek 471: “Child Falling Asleep” by Robert Schumann
There are three people behind this beautiful and tantalizingly brief piece of music, and two… Read the postWeek 465: “Spring 1” by Antonio Vivaldi (recomposed by Max Richter and Daniel Hope)