The hard numbers of sales, downloads, streams, and billboard charts seem to do all the work for us. But do these measures tell us anything meaningful about music’s nature and value in 2015?
The carol ‘Silent Night’ has been translated into 140 languages and renditions have been sung by everyone, from Bing Crosby to Chewbacca. This is the story behind its success.
Jazz evolved from the fringes of American society into one of the most influential, and enduring, musical movements of the 20th century. How did it get from what it was to what it is now?
A Latin song takes centre stage at graduation ceremonies around the world, including in South Africa. Isn’t it time the continent used its own methods to celebrate major events?
Victorian Opera this week stages The Seven Deadly Sins, the final collaboration between Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. First staged in 1933, it is a masterpiece by two of the most revolutionary artists of Weimar Germany.
Technological advances in music production have all but obliterated the need for popular music to be transcribed into musical notation. So why is musical literacy still important?
Award-winning documentary film On the Banks of the Tigris explores the influence of Iraqi Jewish musicians in the cultural life of Iraq and paints a portrait of a country that was once a thriving multicultural centre.