Music & art
From the mysteries of famous paintings to the number of piano keys: a detour into pictures and sound.
32 articles
What is the original song behind Japan’s “Hotaru no Hikari”?
In Japan, it’s the farewell tune of graduation ceremonies and the music that tells shoppers the store is closing. Across the sea, though, it is sung on a very different occasion.
What is Rodin’s “Thinker” thinking about?
A man sits hunched, chin on hand. Everyone knows the pose for “deep in thought,” but surprisingly few people know what he is actually pondering.
Did Picasso really have an extremely long name?
The name of the 20th century’s defining painter is just three syllables. But read out the official name in the church records, and you can’t get through it in one breath.
Who wrote the “Happy Birthday” song?
It’s sung at birthday parties all over the world. But did you know the song has authors, and that until recently it was the subject of a copyright fight?
Why do orchestras tune to an A?
Just before a concert begins, a single note stretches out through the chatter. That ritual-like moment holds both the design of the instruments and 300 years of history.
What makes a Stradivarius so special?
A single violin can fetch more than a billion yen. Everyone knows the name, yet what makes it so special is surprisingly hard to pin down.
Did Michelangelo paint the Sistine ceiling lying down?
Stories from the Old Testament spread across a ceiling some 20 meters overhead. The way most of us picture Michelangelo painting this masterpiece turns out to be wrong.
Why does a piano have 88 keys?
Rows of black and white keys stretch across every piano, and the count is almost always the same, whoever made it. So who decided?
What is the figure in Munch’s “Scream” screaming about?
Under a blood-red sky, a figure presses its hands to its face, mouth wide open. What that famous pose means is spelled out in a note the painter wrote himself.
What is actually shown in Hokusai’s “Great Wave”?
The blue wave from the famous Japanese print is known all over the world. It is easy to be swept up by the wave, but there is more in the picture than that.
Where is Chopin’s heart?
The “poet of the piano” died in Paris at just 39. Yet part of him rests to this day in another country, far from his grave.
Did Van Gogh really sell only one painting in his lifetime?
Today a single Van Gogh can fetch tens of millions of dollars. But while the artist was alive, the world saw his work very differently.
Where do the names “do, re, mi” come from?
Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti: almost everyone learns these seven syllables in music class. But where did the names actually come from?
Did Beethoven name the “Moonlight” Sonata?
A quiet rocking accompaniment, a slow melody rising above it: the famous first movement. Where its lovely title came from has been the subject of a recent discovery.
Why doesn’t the Mona Lisa have eyebrows?
Study the world’s most famous portrait closely and you notice something missing. What could have happened to it over 500 years?
What is the G string in “Air on the G String”?
Bach’s serene melody turns up at weddings and in commercials. But what exactly is the “G string” in its title, and why did it end up in the name at all?
Why is “The Last Supper” so badly damaged?
On a monastery wall in Milan is the world’s most famous supper scene, and its surface is astonishingly battered. What happened to it over 500 years?
Did the paint tube give birth to Impressionism?
Unscrew the cap, squeeze, and the paint is ready to use. This everyday tool is often said to have changed the history of art. How true is that?
What kind of piece is 4′33″?
A pianist walks on stage and sits at the keyboard, and then no note ever sounds. What was the twentieth century’s most notorious piece of music really asking us to hear?
What was Vermeer’s blue made from?
That deep, clear blue is one of the first things people notice in Vermeer’s paintings. Where did a seventeenth-century Dutch painter get it? The journey starts in mountains far to the east.
Is Japan the only country that sings Beethoven’s Ninth at year’s end?
Every December, the “Ode to Joy” rings out in concert halls all over Japan. It looks like a uniquely Japanese year-end ritual, but its model came from somewhere unexpected.
Why did ukiyo-e become so popular in Europe?
Woodblock prints bought casually in Edo captivated Monet and Van Gogh. And the famous “packing paper” story of how it all began—is it true?
Did Mozart write “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”?
Children everywhere sing this melody, and a rumor says Mozart composed it. Trace its real origins and some surprising lyrics appear.
How many Sunflowers paintings did Van Gogh make?
London, Amsterdam, Munich, Tokyo: museums around the world display Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. So just how many of them are there?
Why did Leonardo da Vinci write backwards?
A genius who filled thousands of pages with reversed writing. You may have heard it was a secret code to keep his ideas safe. What is the real story?
What happened to the Venus de Milo’s arms?
Armless, she became one of the most famous sculptures in the world. Where did the Venus de Milo’s arms go—and what were they doing in the first place?
Who was the “Elise” of Beethoven’s Für Elise?
Almost everyone who has taken piano lessons has played it. Yet the identity of the woman whose name is in the title has puzzled scholars for 200 years.
What is the “curse of the ninth”?
Beethoven, Bruckner, Dvořák, Mahler: one great composer after another left a Ninth Symphony as his last. Is it really a curse?
Why was the Mona Lisa stolen?
In the summer of 1911, the world’s most famous painting vanished from the Louvre. Except that, before it was stolen, it wasn’t yet the world’s most famous painting.
Did the name “Impressionism” begin as an insult?
The bright paintings of Monet and Renoir are loved all over the world. Yet on the day their group got its name, a newspaper was laughing at their work.
How did Beethoven compose when he couldn’t hear?
For a musician, the ears are everything. So how did Beethoven, who lost his hearing little by little, manage to write huge works like the Ninth Symphony?
Who was the model for Girl with a Pearl Earring?
A girl glances back over her shoulder, straight at us. For more than 350 years she has held viewers spellbound, yet she has no name—and, in a sense, not even a pearl.