Music

Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle

Q&AWho wrote the French national anthem?

Portrait of Carlo Broschi (stage name Farinelli), the most famous opera singer of the 18th century. (Photo By DEA/A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Castrated Georgian opera stars: the stars of the 18th century

An Australian Sea Shanty band, c1988

A brief history of sea shanties

When British pop invaded America

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' (2020): Viola Davis as Ma Rainey. (Photo by David Lee/Netflix)

Who was Ma Rainey, “mother of the blues”?

A bust of Ludwig van Beethoven before the original handwritten score for his Piano Sonata no. 28 in A major, Op. 101. The composer stood at the vanguard of a new artistic movement that celebrated emotion and nature. (Getty Images/Alamy/Dreamstime)

The soundtrack of Beethoven’s life

On the trail of the lost pianos of Siberia (Photo by Michael Turek)

Russia’s musical journeys

Charles Manson stares out from fabric on sale in San Francisco

The afterlife of Charles Manson

Photo of a gramophone

Q&AWho do we say 'put a sock in it'?

Ballerina Margot Fonteyn in a tutu

Q&AWho invented the tutu?

Courtiers dancing La Volta in a scene from 1953 film The Sword And The Rose

Strictly shocking: the dances that shook the world

Emperor Nero and the fire in Rome

Q&ADid Emperor Nero really play the fiddle while Rome burned?

Q&A'God Save The Queen': how old is the British national anthem?

Revealed: the history of America’s national anthem

Live Aid stage at Wembley, London, in 1985

When Live Aid rocked the world

Record producer Joe Meek

Joe Meek: the life and legacy of the British record producer

A c1830 portrait of the scandalous but sublimely talented Lorenzo da Ponte. (Photo by Alamy)

My history hero: Katie Derham chooses Lorenzo Da Ponte

John Simpson. (Photo by Chris Williamson)

War and music

Singer Paul Robeson rehearses at a piano in 1958. He had a unifying outlook, observing that "neither suffering nor compassion is confined to one face." (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)

My history hero: Paul Robeson (1898–1976)

Jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis, shown here in 1969, was central to the story of jazz. (Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images)

My history hero: Miles Davis (1926–91)

Music and revolution

Bowie’s Berlin: the city that shaped a 1970s masterpiece

Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton: the man behind the hit musical

The Royal Opera House. (Getty Images)

History Explorer: Opera in Britain

What happened when the Rolling Stones rocked Warsaw?

The Beatles arrive in Japan

1966: the Beatles' tumultuous world tour

The history of London’s 10 greatest live music venues

A prodigy in England: Lucy Worsley on Mozart’s London odyssey

A section of the Seikilos epitaph, the oldest surviving complete musical composition in the world

Q&AWhat is the oldest-known song?

Music used 'to torment victims of torture in Pinochet’s Chile'