Sometimes, the voice of an outsider provides a fresh perspective that adds richness to the status quo and pushes things in new directions. This was certainly the case with Ethiopian jazz. Over the last two decades, the music – sometimes referred to as Ethio-jazz – has proliferated via the internet, dissolving geographic boundaries around sounds […]
The most common defense for insisting on genre classifications is that it “simplifies” discussions about music. According to Kelefa Sanneh, author of Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres (Penguin, 2021), “Devotion to a sound is essentially about community and belonging.” In this sense, one can see adherence to genre norms as […]
The popular perception of time is linear. One thing leads to another and then to another. But the passage of time is better viewed as a cyclical path, with shadows of the past and hints of the future emerging throughout. As Marcus Aurelius notes in Book VI of Meditations, “Each thing is of like form […]
On December 12, 2025, the world lost a truly innovative voice. When any accomplished artist passes, there is a natural inclination to list the other artists that person once called collaborators, as if to provide necessary context to the loss by reference to names perhaps better known. Certainly, one can write a piece about Marilyn […]
Folk music is often broadly defined as being a music “of the people.” But what does that really mean? Of course, the generally understood definition implies that it is music not of the conservatory or the upper strata of society, but from the average person, one of the commoners. But the descriptor of the music […]
Over the last half-century, a growing number of artists and theorists have explored the concept of ecomusicology, a theoretical approach to music that emphasizes the relationship between man and nature as manifested through sound. Initially developed from the environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s, ecomusicology focuses less on whether a particular sound comes from […]
Music has always pulsed through Montréal’s DNA, from its origins to the present. Legend tells that when the city’s founder, Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, battled loneliness in the then-frontier outpost by picking up a lute. Seventeenth-century missionaries spread faith through the territory by relying upon choral singing and notation. After the British conquered […]
Often, emphasis on genre improperly discards the lines of influence that transcend imposed stylistic segmentations. No artistic expression exists solely in isolation or in a neatly maintained silo. This is especially evident with Jimi Hendrix. Most would categorize the guitar great’s music as “rock.” In reality, his shadow – particularly his use of feedback, distortion, […]
We continue our conversation with Patricia Brennan on ‘Of the Near and Far’ by delving deeper into her compositional process for the album, writing for strings, graphic scores, and more. You can read the first part of our conversation here. PG: This is your first time recording your work for strings, correct? PB: That’s right. […]
For eons, humanity has looked up at the vastness of the night sky in wonder. The pinholes of light shining through the darkness evoke feelings of comfort and familiarity, even as things seem so distant and mysterious. The stars leave us facing some of the greatest existentialist inquiries: Who am I in the broader picture? […]
