Stories Inside the Music

One discovery inside a piece,
every day

One bar, one instrument, one episode. A story a day that makes you want to hear the piece again.

  1. October 31The Symphony Where Players Snuffed Their Candles and LeftIn autumn 1772, in the finale of a Haydn symphony, musicians left one by one. A protest on stage, or a polite request?Haydn · 2 min read
  2. October 30Did Haydn Really Want to Wake a Dozing Audience?A quiet tune, then a sudden crash. The tale attached to the "Surprise" Symphony differs a little from Haydn's own account.Haydn · 2 min read
  3. October 29The Composer Who Couldn't Hear the ApplauseWhen the Ninth Symphony ended in Vienna in 1824, Beethoven stood with his back to the audience. He had to see the applause.Beethoven · 2 min read
  4. October 28A Requiem Ordered by a Nameless ClientIn summer 1791 Mozart received a commission for a requiem from someone who would not give his name. He never finished it.Mozart · 2 min read
  5. October 27A Last Wish to Send His Heart HomeChopin died in Paris in 1849 and was buried there, but his heart was carried to Warsaw by his sister.Chopin · 2 min read
  6. October 26Who Was Elise?The original manuscript of Für Elise is lost, and the name survives only through one scholar's transcription. Elise remains a mystery.Beethoven · 2 min read
  7. October 25Wedding Music That Slept for Two Hundred YearsPachelbel's Canon, now heard at weddings everywhere, was nearly forgotten for centuries. Three violins chase each other over an eight-note bass.Pachelbel · Canon · 2 min read
  8. October 24Vivaldi Reappears From a Box of Old ScoresLong forgotten after his death, hundreds of Vivaldi's works resurfaced at an Italian school in the 1920s. In between, it was Bach who kept his name alive.Vivaldi · 2 min read
  9. October 23Variations for a Sleepless Count: How Much Is True?The Goldberg Variations come with a tale of an insomniac count and a young harpsichordist. Yet the score itself shows no trace of it.Bach · 2 min read
  10. October 22A Sea Drawn Into a LetterWriting home from the Scottish islands at twenty, Mendelssohn sent a few lines of music instead of words. They became the opening of The Hebrides.Mendelssohn · 2 min read
  11. October 21The Animal Concert Its Composer Kept HiddenSaint-Saëns saw The Carnival of the Animals as a joke for friends and blocked its publication in his lifetime, except for one piece: The Swan.Saint-Saëns · 2 min read
  12. October 20The Newspaper Notice That Asked Ladies to Leave Their Hoops at HomeBefore the 1742 Dublin premiere of Messiah, the papers asked ladies not to wear hooped skirts. The reason was charity.Handel · 2 min read
  13. October 19A Symphony That Ends by Fading Very Slowly AwayUnlike most symphonies of its time, Tchaikovsky's last ends quietly with a slow movement. He conducted its premiere and died nine days later.Tchaikovsky · 2 min read
  14. October 18A Love Letter for Strings and Harp AloneIn the fourth movement of Mahler's Fifth, brass and percussion fall silent and only strings and harp sing. One conductor noted it was a declaration of love to Alma.Mahler · 2 min read
  15. October 17Why the Prince Became a Bee and Flew Across the SeaThe Flight of the Bumblebee began as a scene in an opera. Turned into a bee by the Swan Princess, a prince flies off to find the father he has never met.Rimsky-Korsakov · 2 min read
  16. October 16The Troll March Its Composer Couldn't StandAfter writing In the Hall of the Mountain King, Grieg told a friend it was almost unbearable even to his own ears. It became one of his signature pieces.Grieg · 2 min read
  17. October 15The Sound of a River Painted by a Deaf ComposerSmetana wrote Má vlast after losing his hearing entirely. Vltava follows a river from two springs, past Prague and away.Smetana · Má vlast: Vltava · 2 min read
  18. October 14A Slow and Painful Dance by a Cabaret PianistSatie wrote the Gymnopédies at twenty-one while playing piano in a Montmartre cabaret, and marked the first one "slow and painful."Satie · 2 min read
  19. October 13The Symphony That Slept in a Friend's Drawer for 43 YearsThe score of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony passed to his friend Hüttenbrenner and stayed unknown for decades. It was premiered 43 years after it was written.Schubert · 2 min read
  20. October 12The Variation That Called a Friend a HunterEach variation in Elgar's Enigma Variations portrays a friend. The famous "Nimrod" captures a conversation with Jaeger, an editor at his publisher.Elgar · 2 min read
  21. October 11A Hymn Born From Music About the PlanetsHolst's The Planets drew on astrology. The broad melody at the heart of "Jupiter" became, a few years later, a song the British still sing.Holst · 2 min read
  22. October 10A Waltz Meant to Console a Defeated CityThe Blue Danube began as a men's choral piece with words. Meant to lift Vienna's gloom after a lost war, it made no great stir at first.Johann Strauss II · 2 min read
  23. October 9A Four-Hour Concert in a Freezing TheaterBeethoven's Fifth was first heard in winter 1808, one item in a concert of over four hours in an unheated hall. And how far can we trust the name "Fate"?Beethoven · Symphony No. 5 · 2 min read
  24. October 8The Habanera He Thought Was a Folk SongThe tune of Carmen's Habanera was not Bizet's own invention but came from a song by the Spanish composer Yradier. Bizet believed it was a folk song.Bizet · 2 min read
  25. October 7The Threat Hidden in a Tender AriaO mio babbino caro is known as a tender love song, but it is really a daughter wheedling her father in a comic opera. And the father is a cheat from Dante's Inferno.Puccini · Gianni Schicchi: O mio babbino caro · 2 min read
  26. October 6The Man Who Brought the Violin's Devil to the PianoAt twenty, Liszt heard Paganini in Paris and resolved to become the Paganini of the piano. La Campanella is the result.Liszt · 2 min read
  27. October 5New Music Opened by a Single FluteDebussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun opens with a slow melody for flute alone. Born from a Mallarmé poem, it caused an uproar on stage eighteen years later.Debussy · 2 min read
  28. October 4The Turkish Band Sound That Thrilled ViennaMozart's "Turkish March" imitates the sound of an Ottoman military band. The music of an enemy that once besieged Vienna became the city's fashion a century later.Mozart · 2 min read
  29. October 3The Doctor Who Lifted a Broken ComposerAfter his first symphony failed disastrously, Rachmaninoff could barely compose for years. His Second Piano Concerto was dedicated to a doctor.Rachmaninoff · Piano Concerto No. 2 · 2 min read
  30. October 2How a Ballet That Failed at First Took FlightSwan Lake was poorly received at its 1877 Moscow premiere. The ballet found the form we know only after Tchaikovsky's death.Tchaikovsky · 2 min read