Music was an integral part of statecraft and identity formation in the Third Reich. Structured thematically and semiotically around the Wagnerian tetralogy of the Ring cycle, Hitler’s Twilight of the Gods: Music and the Orchestration of War and Genocide in Europe (U Toronto Press, 2025) provides a sonic read of the Second World War and the Holocaust.
Alexand ... Show More
Aug 15
Inna Faliks, "Weight in the Fingertips: A Musical Odyssey from Soviet Ukraine to the World Stage" (Backbeat Books, 2023)
Adventurous and passionate” (The New Yorker) Ukrainian-born pianist Inna Faliks has established herself as one of the most communicative, and poetic artists of her generation. She has made a name for herself through commanding performances of standard piano repertoire, as well ge ... Show More
45m 38s
Aug 13
Richard Mainwaring, "What the Ear Hears (And Doesn't): Inside the Extraordinary Everyday World of Frequency" (Sourcebooks, 2022)
What do the world's loneliest whale, a black hole, and twenty-three people doing Tae Bo all have in common? In 2011, a skyscraper in South Korea began to shake uncontrollably without warning and was immediately evacuated. Was it an earthquake? An attack? No one seemed quite sure. ... Show More
1h 10m
May 28
Palestinian Resistance Music & Cultural Heritage | With Legendary Composer Issa Boulos
In this episode of Quartertones, we're joined by Palestinian composer and musician, Issa Boulos who tells us about his deep connection to Jerusalem and Palestine, and how his upbringing influenced his approach to music and life. Boulos recounts his unique experiences growing up i ... Show More
1 h
Dec 2024
Richard J. Evans, "Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich" (Penguin, 2024)
Richard Evans, author of the acclaimed The Third Reich Trilogy and over two dozen other volumes on modern Europe, is our preeminent scholar of Nazi Germany. Having spent half a century searching for the truths behind one of the most horrifying episodes in human history, in Hitler ... Show More
1h 5m
Mar 2025
Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe, "Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist: Fascism, Genocide, and Cult" (Ibidem Press, 2014)
Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist (Ibidem Verlag, 2014) is the first comprehensive and scholarly biography of the Ukrainian far-right leader Stepan Bandera and the first in-depth study of his political cult. In this fascinating book, Grzegorz Rosso ... Show More
58m 45s
Jun 2023
La musique dans les camps nazis
C’est un chapitre peu exploré dans l’histoire du XXe siècle : la musique dans les camps nazis. À travers près de 300 objets et témoignages du monde entier – instruments, partitions, dessins et photographies -, le Mémorial de la Shoah à Paris dévoile les multiples fonctions et ton ... Show More
3m 36s
Aug 2024
Metallica: Thrash Metal, Murder, and the Death of Cliff Burton
In the early days of Metallica, their bass player carried a hammer on tour and had a gun that shot knives – or so the story goes. Their former lead guitarist was a drug dealer who kept two pitbulls for protection. They were blamed when a teenager, high on LSD, murdered a man in c ... Show More
43m 27s