Popular stories | Page 8 | Music Tales

Music Period

Country

Songwriter
Dos Gardenias: romantic lyrics of the famous Cuban bolero

Dos Gardenias is a well-known Cuban song with soulful and gentle lyrics composed in the form of bolero—a vocal style…

June 19, 2021
Orchestra
The Skaters' Waltz: subtle harmonies of romantic dance music by Emile Waldteufel

Les Patineurs Valse or the Skaters' Waltz is arguably the most famous of Émile Waldteufel's works. A late Romantic…

November 24, 2019
Sitar
Early 1930s recordings of classical sitar by Enayat Khan

Enayat Khan was an iconic musician of the early 20th century, representing the fifth generation of the Etawah gharana…

May 3, 20201 comment
Electric Guitar
Adrian Belew's spellbinding guitar tricks saturate prog music with the sounds of space

American multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Adrian Belew managed to extract entirely extraordinary sounds from his…

September 15, 2019
Songwriter
The timeless tragedy of Molly Malone

Not many songs can boast international recognition of being so deeply and fondly Irish the way Molly Malone does. Also…

October 12, 2018
Violin
The fifth string of the Maihar school lead violin

For more than a century, the tiny town of Maihar—now the de facto cradle of the Indian Classical—has been breathing…

November 23, 20181 comment
Classical Guitar
Moreno Torroba as the first-ever Spanish non-guitarist who composed for solo guitar

Federico Moreno Torroba was a Spanish composer adored by his contemporaries largely for his stage works, especially the…

September 13, 20207 comments
Piano
Suite bergamasque: did Debussy record his best-known piano piece?

Suite bergamasque is one of the best-known piano works of the French impressionist Claude Debussy written in 1890 and…

March 12, 20211 comment
Piano
La fille aux cheveux de lin: Parnassian poem behind Debussy's most recorded piece

La fille aux cheveux de lin or The Girl with the Flaxen Hair is the best-known piano prelude by the French…

August 11, 2021
Songwriter
Salma Ya Salama: historical record by Sayed Darwish, the father of Egyptian popular music

Salma Ya Salama is a famous song written by songwriter Sayed Darwish who is considered to be the most influential…

April 19, 2020
Technologies
Gauhar Jaan: India's first-ever recorded musician

The first-ever recording of Indian music was made by Fred Gaisberg, an American musician and engineer traveling around…

January 7, 20201 comment
Ney
Ottoman heritage captured in music manuscripts of Bobowski

The oldest known examples of Ottoman music notation can be found in a few manuscripts compiled by composer and polyglot…

February 19, 2019
Piano
The American boom of Cécile Chaminade's Romantic piano

French Romantic composer Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade enjoyed considerable success, touring as a pianist and…

December 11, 2018
Songwriter
Sugaree: Jerry Garcia's song referencing his lyricist's criminal past

Sugaree is a 1972 track that first appeared on Jerry Garcia's debut solo album, the guitarist who is widely regarded as…

February 5, 2021
Piano
Kinderszenen and Schumann's metronome mystery

Kinderszenen or Scenes from Childhood is a set of short piano pieces written by Robert Schumann in 1838. Although these…

January 10, 2021
Orchestra
Grosse Fuge: Armageddon or the birth of atonality featured in Beethoven’s last major work

The Grosse Fuge is one of Beethoven’s most controversial works which he finished shortly before his death while being…

April 1, 20201 comment
Violin
Edouard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole brought to life by the best violinists of the 20th century

Symphonie Espagnole is an iconic work by the French composer Edouard Lalo, which is believed to have launched the…

June 25, 2020
Band
Tinariwen: 40 years of nomadic desert music driven by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib's guitar

Formed by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib in the late 1970s, the African band Tinariwen always had a clear mission to preserve the…

June 19, 2019
Songwriter
La Gota Fría: vallenato music masterpiece refashioned by Carlos Vives

La Gota Fría is one of the best-known examples of the vallenato genre that originated in the early 19th century in the…

August 7, 2021
Songwriter
De Música Ligera: the inspiration and meaning of Soda Stereo's hit

De Música Ligera is one of the best-known songs by the Argentine rock trio Soda Stereo. It was released in 1990 as part…

August 4, 2023
Film
Hedwig’s Theme: magical mood cast by the celesta melody

Hedwig's Theme, also known as the main theme of all eight Harry Potter films, was the first piece written by John…

April 28, 2021
Violin
Ma Sicong sentenced to exile after seeking Chinese harmony for his violin

One of the most gifted Chinese violinists, Ma Sicong endured a challenging fate when he was forced to flee the Cultural…

March 19, 2019
Piano
Gymnopédies: the ambient genre predicted by piano gems of late Romanticism

The term ambient music was introduced in the 1970s by the famous English experimenter Brian Eno who used newly invented…

June 2, 2019
Sitar
Bhatkhande: the man who canonized music theory that introduced Indian classics to the West

Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande was an Indian sitarist and major musicologist who, in the early 20th century, developed a…

June 7, 2020
Lute
Da Vinci's painting process depended on music

Leonardo Da Vinci was a master of many skills: architecture, astronomy, painting, sculpture, mathematics, anatomy,…

April 13, 2018
Film
Concerning Hobbits: portraying home with the penny whistle

Concerning Hobbits is a two-minute tune originally composed by Canadian composer Howard Shore for Peter Jackson's 2001…

May 31, 2021
Music Theory
Peace Frog: the only Doors song featuring Lydian mode

Peace Frog, released by the Doors on their 1970 album Morrison Hotel, has been met by a near-unanimous approval from…

September 6, 2021
Songwriter
The Bells of Rhymney: two major modal modes of famous protest song

The Bells of Rhymney is one of the best-known protest songs of the past century, first recorded in 1958 by the American…

June 29, 2021
Songwriter
Smokestack Lightning: the eternal Howlin' Wolf blues of the passing trains

Smokestack Lightning is a song written by the Chicago blues singer Chester Arthur Burnett better known under his stage…

September 6, 2020
Film
Accordion for Amélie was discovered by a lucky accident

Amélie is a 2001 French romantic comedy classic directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet that depicts a contemporary yet dream…

July 19, 2018