Around the start of the seventeenth century, a new sense of the word “harmony” emerged. To that point, harmony in music had been produced by the pleasing opposition of two melodies according to the principles of counterpoint. In the 1600s, “harmony” began to denote the non-melodic . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus Is King, released on Friday, is Kanye West's first explicitly Christian album, calling into question his role as the nation’s resident “jackass.” Continue Reading »
Toscanini: Musician of Conscience by harvey sachs liveright, 944 pages, $39.95 When the first instruction manual for leaders of orchestras—Johann Mattheson’s Der vollkommene Capellmeister—appeared in 1739, it was a sign that the size of orchestral ensembles and the . . . . Continue Reading »