Music

W.S. Gilbert: He was an Englishman

Ian Bradley examines the achievements of the surprisingly radical Victorian dramatist and librettist who, in collaboration with the composer Arthur Sullivan, created classic satires of English national identity.

The History of the Arts: Changing Tempos

In our series in which historians look back on the changes that have taken place in their field in the 60 years since the founding of History Today, Daniel Snowman takes a personal view of new approaches to the study of the history of culture and the arts – and of music in particular.

Birth of Ignacy Paderewski

Richard Cavendish remembers the birth of the pianist who was also briefly prime minister of Poland, on 18 November 1860.

All Singing, All Dancing

Sexually explicit jigs were a major part of the attraction of the Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration stage, as Lucie Skeaping explains. 

Hollywood: Breaking the Sound Barrier

Mark Juddery looks at the historical backdrop to the much-loved 1950s Hollywood musical, Singin’ in the Rain in which Hollywood tells its own story of the arrival of sound to the big screen.

The West Finds its Voice

The Western musical tradition of trained and professional performers, conductors and composers can trace its origins to the forms of Christian worship that developed in Europe during the first millennium, argues Christopher Page.

Chopin: The Public Face of Poland

During his brief life, the Polish master of the musical miniature became a living symbol of his troubled nation. Adam Zamoyski looks at the reception given to Chopin by a divided public when he visited Britain in 1848, a year of revolution through Europe.