David Cooper— Béla Bartók, the great Hungarian composer, pianist, ethnomusicologist, and pedagogue, died in Manhattan’s West Side Hospital on 27 September 1945 at the age of sixty four. The final five years of his life had been spent in the United States of America, a stranger in a strange land.
This month, the music world celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of its most intriguing, mysterious, and undeniably talented figures, Robert Schumann. Yet for many, Schumann’s legacy of greatness is clouded by the oft-propagated legends of his crippling depression and mania. For generations, any interest in
John Cage’s silent masterpiece 4’33” is one of classical music’s most controversial compositions. In his new book, No Such Thing as Silence, musician and critic Kyle Gann not only explains why the piece incited such a stir but also why it is still best experienced live. “Cage didn’t believe in
Writer and composer Mike Heffley, author of the acclaimed Northern Sun, Southern Moon: Europe’s Reinvention of Jazz, has been named one of this year’s recipients of a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded to “men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative