Debussy’s Clair de Lune, meaning ‘moonlight’, is one of the most easily recognised pieces of music, but its origins are complex. The piece was influenced by poetry, Baroque music and the Impressionist movement.
Is birdsong simply a hard-wired, functional, primitive sound – or could we call it ‘music’? Australia’s pied butcherbirds show there are surprising overlaps between birds’ and humans’ musical abilities.
Composer John Burge speaks of his drive to create a musical piece to mark Canada’s 150th year of confederation and to capture our collective experiences.
Two of South Africa’s finest musicians, Johnny Mekoa and Ray Phiri, died recently. The permeable terrain between genres their careers negotiated, is being replaced by rigid marketing categories.
Musicians who learned how to play through a state-funded program called El Sistema are taking their instruments to the streets to protest the government.
Women are disturbingly under-represented in Australian jazz, with relatively few female composers and instrumentalists. What’s holding them back? And what can be done about it?
Because of the way our brains work, we can remember songs and rhymes much more easily than just words or letters. The ABC song teaches kids the basics of the English language.
Banned from the BBC, denied its rightful place on the charts, ‘God Save the Queen’ – released 40 years ago this month – remains one of the most controversial protest songs of all time.
Does musical taste even matter anymore? Or does a data-driven feedback loop – where what you enjoy in the past shapes what you hear today – influence what you’ll like in the future?