After 18,000 years of silence, an ancient musical instrument played its first notes. The last time anyone heard a sound from the conch shell trumpet, thick sheets of ice still covered most of Europe.

When you think of classical music, you might imagine a tune from Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," or one of Mozart's piano concertos. These works are considered foundational to the European classical ...

Read Anthony Kuhn's essay about modern variations on China's traditional themes. For many years, music scholars in China and Japan tried unsuccessfully to decipher ancient musical notations that ...

An ancient Greek belief about the most pleasing combinations of musical notes – often attributed to the philosopher Pythagoras – doesn’t actually reflect the way people around the world appreciate ...