Why does a clarinet play at lower pitches than a flute? What does it mean for sounds to be in or out of tune? How are emotions carried by music? Do other animals perceive sound like we do? How might a musician use math to come up with new ideas?
This book offers a lively exploration of the mathematics, physics, and neuroscience that underlie music in a way t ... Show More
Nov 15
Lucy Caplan, "Dreaming in Ensemble: How Black Artists Transformed American Opera" (Harvard UP, 2025)
Recently, musicologists and others have started writing about Black participation in opera. Lucy Caplan’s Dreaming in Ensemble: How Black Artists Transformed American Opera (Harvard UP, 2025) is a major new publication on this topic. Caplan examines what she calls a Black operati ... Show More
59m 59s
Aug 1
Interstellar Winds (Extended Album Version)
Microcosmos Records presents a meditative electronic journey, the album Panta Rhei by Jule Grasz. Jule Grasz (Germany) began composing music in early childhood. In the 1990s, she wrote songs while collaborating with various artists. In 2006, she discovered the world of electronic ... Show More
7m 40s
Apr 2025
The Deaf Composer: How Beethoven wrote music he couldn’t hear
What happens when one of history’s greatest composers begins to lose the very sense he relies on most? In this episode, we explore how Ludwig van Beethoven continued to create groundbreaking music even as his world fell into silence. Along the way, we uncover the myths, invention ... Show More
28m 39s
Jun 2024
111. Production Techniques In Dance Music
<p>Dance music has a unique way of electrifying the atmosphere, but what is it about those beats and pulsing rhythms that makes it so catchy? In this episode, Xylo chats with producer, singer-songwriter & educator, Kerry Leva, about dance music and the important elements and ... Show More
52m 5s
Sep 26
The Dead Composer Whose ‘Brain’ Still Makes Music
In a hauntingly innovative exhibit, brain cells grown from the late composer Alvin Lucier’s blood generate sound. Set in a museum in Perth, Australia, the installation blurs the line between art and neuroscience. Host Rachel Feltman and associate editor Allison Parshall explore t ... Show More
25m 25s
Sep 2024
1The Journey of Music: How It Spreads in Just 5 Minutes | Michael Spitzer - BIGTHINK
Expert Michael Spitzer explains how culture can “tune” your musical taste. Do humans have something like an instinct for music? The musicologist Michael Spitzer thinks so. As he points out, every person is born with an innate ability to recognize rhythm, beat in time to it, and t ... Show More
11m 2s