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Composers
Profiles of the composers whose works shaped the repertoire, and what to listen for first.
Composers
Johann Sebastian Bach: the architect of counterpoint
A working musician of the Baroque, and the reason we still speak of counterpoint as a craft.
Composers
Mozart: clarity, contrast and dramatic timing
Why Mozart sounds effortless, and what is actually happening under that surface.
Composers
Beethoven: from the classical style to a new voice
How one composer stretched the forms he inherited until they carried something new.
Composers
Tchaikovsky: melody, ballet and orchestra colour
A composer whose tunes travel easily, and whose orchestration does the rest.
How to use this portal. Pick a composer or a single work, listen once without reading, then come back to the guide and listen again. Music rewards the second hearing far more than the first, and the vocabulary you pick up here is meant to make that second hearing sharper.