Pedagogues, pedants and pedals

Ask if national schools of piano really do exist, and one might be tempted to reply that there are only as many schools as there are pianists. Yet, the idea of a distinctive musical heritage, preserve

In the 19th century there was a widely held belief that technique could be gained by devoting many hours a day to the practice of specially composed exercises and studies, and that the skills gained c

When you’re speaking to someone devastatingly fluent in four tongues (Italian, German, French and English) the subject of language naturally leads to some curiosity. Especially from a somewhat green-e

The decline of classical eloquence and the rise of literary persuasion

When we think of all things Italian, in general terms, what do we think of? And how does that translate into music? As a musician, one might think of the heightened emotions of the Romantic era – spec

The global impact of Roland Barthes’s writing