It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a love of history, must be in want of a blog.
Aside from the fact that I am of German stock, I never thought I had that much in common with renowned composer Johann Sebastian Bach. At least not until I visited the Bach Haus in Leipzig several months ago, where I discovered that we had one surprising thing in common: Bach, like myself, was a …
Continue reading J.S. Bach, the most famous housemaster of all time?
The 19th century witnessed the rise of the celebrity musician. Previously, musicians were wholly dependent on aristocratic or ecclesiastical patrons, and their output was determined by the wishes of these sometimes despotic individuals. Bach, for instance, was a mere Kapellmeister, and Haydn was not much more than a court servant. Even Mozart was unhappily dependent …
Continue reading ‘Lisztomania’: Franz Liszt, sex, and celebrity
My choir is singing a lot of Britten this term, as it is his 100th anniversary. Most of our repertoire would be fairly well-known to Britten fans, but one very strange piece came as a surprise to me: 'Advance Democracy'. It was written in response to the Munich Crisis of 1938, when the Allies, in …