Music

Death of Thomas Tallis

One of the first – and greatest – composers of English Protestant church music died on 23 November 1585.

A Musical Riot

Igor Stravinsky’s ‘shockingly contemporary’ The Rite of Spring ​​​​premiered on 29 May 1913.

An Acceptable Hero

Josephine Baker’s induction into the Pantheon is both a cause for celebration and a prompt to explore France’s progressive values.

Beethoven’s 250th Symphony

As music became an art for all the people of Europe, Ludwig van Beethoven, born 250 years ago this year, became the hero and the symbol of an aspiring German nation.

The Lost Classics

Though originally set to music, we almost always encounter the Ancient Greek epics as mute texts. But now their songs can be heard again.

Slips of the Tongue

Historians set great store by what people heard in the past, but what about those things they misheard?