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Since ancient Greece, the discipline of music theory has offered explanations for the nature of musical phenomena and the fundamental principles governing their use. As early as the...

Active engagement with music often triggers a curiosity to know how compositions work and what distinguishes various styles and genres from one another. In some cases the goal is to...

Antonio Vivaldi (b. 1678–d. 1741) was a prolific composer and celebrated violinist whose reputation and stylistic influence spread across Europe, particularly during the 1710s and 1720s....

Arcangelo Corelli (b. 1653–d. 1713) composed just six published opuses of instrumental music (trio sonatas, solo sonatas, and concerti grossi), plus a handful of pieces published without...

“Baroque” is a style-period in music conventionally identified as the 17th century and the first half of the 18th, i.e., from Claudio Monteverdi (b. 1567–d. 1643) to J. S. Bach (b....

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) was a British composer, performer, and conductor. To some extent, he resisted the avant-garde musical trends of his time in favor of a more accessible...

The general heading “brass instruments” is better, if less elegantly, described by the common organological definition “lip-vibrated” wind instruments or aerophones (in brass...

Brazil is commonly represented as a land of music. Indeed, the soundscapes of this vast country are rich and enticing, highlighting, among other things, the diversity in the nation’s...

The life and works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (b. 1714–d. 1788) occupy a peculiar position in music historiography. Bach is arguably the most imaginative German composer of the...

Chamber music is music for a small ensemble of solo instruments that is sophisticated and performed in an intimate setting. This excludes almost all vocal music, unaccompanied solo...