The Pointy End
How long is a piece of music?
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- Monday, 13 May 2013
I wonder if the last bar of Beethoven's First Symphony has ever been heard in public. It only contains rests, but Beethoven would not have written it if he didn't want its silence to be experienced in some sense.
Star Wars theme voted third most popular piece of orchestral music
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- Monday, 13 May 2013
The theme tune to Star Wars has been voted the third most popular piece of orchestral music by Radio 2 listeners, beating Tchaikovsky, Wagner and Grieg in a poll of classical music fans.
Nazi-themed Wagner opera cancelled in Dusseldorf
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- Sunday, 12 May 2013
A controversial production of a Wagner opera at one of the major German opera houses has been cancelled because of harrowing scenes involving Nazis.
Mariinsky 2 opens with a seamless gala
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- Sunday, 05 May 2013
An internet petition called for its immediate demolition, critics likened its shiny glass bulk to 'a shopping mall' but Mariinsky 2, second home to St.Petersburg's legendary opera and ballet companies, opened without protest.
How music plagiarism ruined a composer’s career
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- Saturday, 04 May 2013
Suppose you want to write a brand-new popular tune. A piano has only eighty-eight keys, and the span of the human voice is even narrower. Is it possible to write a new one that doesn't echo an old one?
English National Opera Launches Lottery For Seats
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- Friday, 03 May 2013
The English National Opera is to launch a new seat "lottery" scheme in an effort to draw bigger audiences, with visitors paying £20 for a ticket without knowing where they will end up sitting.
How Are Your Music Tastes Changing As You Get Older?
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- Tuesday, 30 April 2013
As a kid I always assumed I'd listen to classical music when I got older. That's what my parents played all the time and what I assumed all grownups listened to, almost like a right of passage into adulthood.
The world of music is straddled by female Goliaths. Why?
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- Monday, 29 April 2013
Young women are achieving every kind of musical success, while the idea of the "male pop star" seems to have ground to a halt with David Bowie. What's going on with the boys?
Madame Mao's Hollywood Fantasies
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- Monday, 29 April 2013
During the chaos and oppression of China's Cultural Revolution, one curious new theatrical genre was born — and it was the child of the Communist Party.
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