A continuing bilingual series approaching Western music through works, forms, composers, performance and listening, with attention to musical structure, historical context and auditory experience.
- Why Bartók Made the Piano Sound Percussive
- Beethoven’s Fifth: How Four Notes Can Organise a Symphony
- Why Beethoven’s “Tempest” Sonata Can Sound Intense Without Being Constantly Loud
- Why a Cadence Is More Than an Ending
- Why Chopin’s Nocturnes Are More Than Beautiful Melodies
- Why Clair de lune Should Not Become a Blur
- How Does a Harpsichord Shape Phrases Without Touch Dynamics?
- How Does a Pedal Point Hold Moving Harmony Together?
- How Can an Organ Crescendo Without a Harder Touch?
- How Did the Natural Horn Change Key Without Valves?
- How Should We Hear Scarlatti on the Modern Piano?
- Why Repetition in Schubert Is Not Stasis
- What Drives Sonata Form Is Tonal Departure and Return
- Was Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Written for Equal Temperament?
- Why Does a B-flat Clarinet Write Its Sounding B-flat as C?
- Why Is a Brass Saxophone Classed as a Woodwind?
- Why Does a Cadential Six-Four Not Sound Like a Resting Tonic?
- Why Is a Cadenza More Than Solo Display?
- Why Does a Cello Use an Endpin on the Floor?
- Why Can a Clavichord Change Pitch After the Key Is Down?
- Why Does a Conductor's Baton Do More Than Mark the Beat?
- Why Does a Da Capo Aria Repeat Its Opening?
- Why Can a Diminished Seventh Chord Open Four Doors?
- Why Does a Fermata Have No Fixed Length?
- Why Does a Flute Use Keys to Cover Its Tone Holes?
- Why Is a Fugue More Than Several Melodies at Once?
- Why Does a Grand Piano Lid Open at Different Angles?
- Why Does a Harpsichord Have Two Manuals?
- Why Is a Minuet More Than a Neat Triple Metre?
- Why Does a Passacaglia Keep Moving over a Repeating Bass?
- Why Does a Piano Need a Soundboard Beneath Its Strings?
- Why Doesn’t a Picardy Third Erase the Minor Mode?
- Why Does a Pipe Organ Have a Pedal Keyboard?
- Why Can a Pivot Chord Lead Music into a New Key?
- Why Can a Prepared Piano Sound Like a Percussion Ensemble?
- Why Is a Sonata-Form Recapitulation Not a Simple Repeat?
- Why Can a Rondo Refrain Return Changed?
- Why Can a Sequence Repeat an Idea Yet Move Music Forward?
- Why Does a Snare Drum Have Wires Under Its Bottom Head?
- Why Does a String Mute Change Colour, Not Just Volume?
- Why Is a String Quartet Often Compared to a Conversation?
- Why Does a Suspension Belong to Two Harmonies?
- Why Does a Timpani Kettle Hang Free of Its Frame?
- Why Can a Timpani Roll Sound Like One Sustained Note?
- Why Does a Toccata Sound Improvised Without Being Structureless?
- Why Does a Trumpet Mute Change Colour, Not Just Volume?
- Why Does a Tuning Fork Give an Almost Pure Pitch?
- Why Does a Violin Bow Need Rosin?
- Why Does a Violin Bridge Have a Curved Top?
- Why Does a Violin Have No Frets?
- Why Does a Violin Need a Chinrest?
- Why Can't an Accordion Key Sound on Its Own?
- Why Does an Appoggiatura Need the Beat to Carry Real Weight?
- Why Can an Inverted Melody Still Sound Related to the Original?
- Why Can an Organ Truly Sustain a Note?
- Why Does an Upbeat Give the First Downbeat Direction?
- Why an Appoggiatura Gives a Note Weight
- Why Do Augmented-Sixth Chords Converge on the Dominant?
- Why Bach Inventions Train Independent Voices
- Why Do Bach’s Trills Often Begin on the Upper Note?
- Why Is Beethoven’s Sforzando More Than Sudden Loudness?
- Why Do Piano Black Keys Form Groups of Two and Three?
- Why Does Bowing Near the Bridge Make Strings Sound Glassy?
- Why Does Brahms Make Triple Metre Sound Like Duple Metre?
- Why Does Chopin’s Mazurka Not Feel Like a Waltz?
- Why Is Concert Pitch a Coordination Standard, Not a Law of Nature?
- Why Does the Concertmaster Coordinate Orchestral Bowings?
- Why Does a Contrabassoon Fold Its Long Bore Twice?
- Why Don’t Cymbals Have One Clear Pitch?
- Why Does Debussy’s Whole-Tone Scale Feel Weightless?
- Why Does a Deceptive Cadence Turn Away at the Door?
- How Do the Diabelli Variations Travel So Far from a Simple Waltz?
- Why Does the Dominant Seventh Resolve So Strongly?
- Why Does the Double Bass Have Two Ways to Hold the Bow?
- Why Do False Relations Make Two Voices Briefly Clash?
- Why Is Figured Bass Not a Complete Accompaniment Score?
- Why Are C and F Strings Marked in Colour on a Harp?
- Why Do Harps Use Red and Blue Strings?
- Why Do Haydn’s Pauses Make Us Smile?
- Why Horn Players Put Their Right Hand in the Bell
- Why Can an Inner Voice Redirect an Entire Phrase?
- Why Are Marimba Bars Carved into an Arch Underneath?
- Why Do Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words Need No Lyrics?
- Why Do the Strings Cross Inside a Modern Piano?
- Why Can’t the Moonlight Sonata’s Pedal Marking Be Taken Literally on a Modern Piano?
- Why Do More Chromatic Notes Not Erase Tonality?
- Why Mozart Should Not Simply Be Played Lightly
- Why Can Music Feel Faster Without Adding More Notes?
- Why Does a Musical Sequence Move While Repeating?
- Why Does Octave Doubling Do More Than Make a Melody Louder?
- Why Do Orchestras Sometimes Separate the Two Violin Sections?
- Why Can Parallel Chords Move Without Traditional Resolution?
- Why Should Parallel Thirds Be Heard as Two Voices?
- Why Are Piano Bass Strings Wound with Copper?
- Why Do Piano Bass Strings Cross Over the Treble Strings?
- Why Can’t Every Fifth on a Piano Be Tuned Pure?
- Why Are Piano Hammers Covered with Felt?
- Why Is Piano Voicing Different from Tuning?
- Why Is Pizzicato Not Just a Shorter Bowed Note?
- Why Is Portamento More Than a Blurred Connection Between Notes?
- Why Does Recitative Sound Like Speech Yet Remain Music?
- Why Does Rubato Still Need a Steady Inner Pulse?
- Why Does Satie’s First Gymnopédie Stay Coherent at a Slow Tempo?
- How Can Seven Harp Pedals Retune More Than Forty Strings?
- Why Is Silence Between Phrases Part of the Music?
- Why Can the Same Six Pulses Suddenly Sound Like Three Groups of Two?
- Why Is the Exposition of a Sonata Often Repeated?
- Why Does Staccato Have No Single Fixed Length?
- Why Do String Players Sometimes Strike with the Wood of the Bow?
- Why Do String Sections Stagger Bow Changes on Long Notes?
- Why Does Syncopation Need a Steady Underlying Beat?
- Why Does the Bassoon Use a Curved Metal Bocal?
- Why Does a Celesta Have a Piano Keyboard but Not Sound Like a Piano?
- Why Does the Clarinet Jump a Twelfth Between Registers?
- Why Is the Concert Flute Played Sideways?
- Why Is the Double Bass Tuned in Fourths?
- Why Does the Double Bass Sound an Octave Below Its Score?
- Why Is the Glockenspiel Written Two Octaves Lower Than It Sounds?
- Why Do the Highest Piano Notes Have No Dampers?
- Why Does the Leading Note Pull Towards the Tonic?
- Why Does the Mandolin Use Four Pairs of Strings?
- Why Does the Middle Pedal Sustain Only Selected Notes?
- Why Does the Neapolitan Sixth Feel Farther from Home Yet Pull Back?
- Why Does the Oboe Give the Orchestra Its Tuning Note?
- Why Does the Orchestra Usually Tune to the Oboe?
- Why Does the Piccolo Sound an Octave Above Its Score?
- Why Does the Same Melody Change When Another Instrument Plays It?
- Why Does the Sustain Pedal Change Harmony, Not Just Lengthen Sound?
- Why Can a Triangle Carry Through an Orchestra Without a Single Pitch?
- Why Does the Trombone Use a Slide Rather than Valves?
- Why Doesn't the Viola Have One Standard Full Size?
- Why Does the Viola Often Use the Alto Clef?
- Why Is a Violin’s Soundpost Held Without Glue?
- Why Do Ties and Slurs Look Alike but Mean Different Things?
- Why Can Timpani Produce a Definite Pitch?
- Why Do Trumpet Valve Combinations Naturally Run Sharp?
- Why Do Tubular Bells Use Metal Tubes to Imitate Church Bells?
- Why Do Two Reed Blades Vibrate Face to Face on an Oboe?
- Why Do Two String Players Share One Music Stand?
- Why Does the Una Corda Pedal Change Colour, Not Just Volume?
- Why Doesn't Una Corda Always Mean One String?
- Why Can We Still Recognise a Theme After It Is Varied?
- Why Are There Rotating Discs Inside a Vibraphone’s Resonators?
- Why Do Violin Bows Use Horsehair?
- Why Is Violin Vibrato More Than a Wavering Pitch?
- Why Does the Waldstein Sonata’s Second Theme Feel So Far Away?
- Why The Well-Tempered Clavier Still Matters for Piano Study