On 19 November 1828, Franz Schubert died at the age of 31 in his brother’s flat in Vienna. He had been seriously ill for some time, with the primary symptoms of syphilis presenting themselves as early as December 1822. Premonitions

In the Renaissance, the musical score didn’t exist. Each singer received their own part book and sang from it. In this 17th century painting, we see the singers and players gathered around the table, each with a separate book in

I am not a great fan of tabloid or boulevard journalism. Surely you have seen these colourful publications at checkout counters in your local supermarket and elsewhere. Most carry outrageous headlines of alien invasions or some poor souls doing something

The bustling English seaside town of Weymouth, which enjoyed its heyday in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries after King George III visited the town to partake in the health-giving properties of “sea dipping”, is not the most obvious location

Harris Morris Kaplan grew up in Lithuania, and before immigrating to the United States he lived in Scotland for a couple of years. It was in Scotland that he changed his family name “Kaplan” to “Copland.” He had no particular

My two-year old wasn’t feeling well. “Mommy don’t go,” he whined. I had already donned my long black satin dress. Looking nervously at my watch I realized that it was very near concert time. I bent over to pick him

Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) was celebrated throughout Europe, and his operas became fixtures on the most prestigious stages around the world. However, things weren’t all that cheerful in terms of his health. An infection with gonorrhea, the result of his early

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and Prince Albert (1819-1861) were accomplished pianists and singers, and Felix Mendelssohn was their musical hero. The composer first met the Prince on 14 June 1842, hand delivering a letter from Albert’s cousin, Frederick William IV of