If you are looking for a piece of piano music that will test your skill and patience, you would be hard-pressed to find anything that compares to Opus Clavicembalisticum. Written by English […]
Listen to One of the Hardest Piano Pieces Ever Written
The Hated Inventor and the Dreaded Thing He Created
Adolphe must have been the most unfortunate boy ever. He was certainly the most accident-prone. His mother concluded that he was “condemned to misfortune” and concluded that “he won’t live.” It seemed […]
Listen to the Song Written to Usher in the End of the World
In the movie Bill & Ted Face the Music, all of space and time is unraveling, but one song manages to correct the catastrophe and restore order. Alexander Scriabin was a composer […]
Singing These National Anthems Will Leave You Speechless
Readers of Commonplace know about the world’s shortest national anthem, and the longest national anthem. When it comes to learning the official lyrics for national anthems, there are four countries that make […]
Melodious Meandering Through Mystifying Musical Muses
If you have difficulty remembering the lyrics to complicated songs, then “Duetto buffo di due gatti” (“Humorous Duet for Two Cats”) is for you. The song consists of just one word — […]
Life Lessons from Tchaikovsky: Don’t Lose Your Head Over Music
Nineteenth-century Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky suffered from a strange delusion. He believed his head would fall while he was conducting if he did not secure it to his body by holding on […]
Tuning the Helicopters
Musical instruments can be costly, and any band student who has had to lug a tuba or bell set on a school bus knows they can be unwieldy, too. The Sousaphone or cello […]
Have Yourself a Jewish Little Christmas
Many of the most popular Christmas songs were written by Jewish songwriters:
Commonplace Fun Facts 