CATEGORIES

Composer of the month - Bohuslav Martinů - Though the Czech absorbed many influences from his exile abroad, his colourful music was always distinctively his own

The youngest of six, Bohuslav was a sickly child, and his father or older sister often had to carry him the 193 steps up to the tower. He was shy at school, too, though showed an early talent for the violin and gave his first concert at 14. By the following year, the future composer was off to the Prague Conservatoire to take the first, if faltering, steps towards a career in music.

Richard Morrison- Do Classical Works About Mortality Reveal More To Us As We Get Older? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise?

As we get older do we respond differently to that vast canon of music dealing with mortality? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise? Or do human beings possess such a flexible sense of empathy that we can relate to virtually any state of mind if it is evoked convincingly enough by a composer?

Do Notes Win Votes? - There are multi-dimensional ways that music is used by political campaigners and their supporters today.

It was a little bit of history repeating when Rishi Sunak announced the UK General Election to the heckling of his political opponents blasting out D:Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better'.

Discovering Donizetti - Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day

Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day. For most people, undertaking a lockdown project meant learning to bake sourdough bread, getting fit with Joe Wicks, or taking up a language. But Professor Roger Parker, the eminent historian of Italian opera and emeritus professor at King's College London, had something far more ambitious in mind. He set about unearthing songs by Gaetano Donizetti - many of which had been lost since the composer's lifetime - and the enterprise turned into a two-year labour of love.

Symphonies Beside the Sea- Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction

Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction. It's a dimension of music-making that once was integral to many a British holiday experience, yet now has all but vanished. The tide went out, you might say, on the professional seaside (or pier, or spa) orchestra many decades ago. In their glory days, though - perhaps a quarter-century on either side of 1900-these ensembles were everywhere, from Bridlington to Eastbourne, New Brighton to Worthing, Blackpool to Bexhill-on-Sea, Cleethorpes to Brighton... the list is astonishing.

MARTIN MILLER

Another fabulous JTC guitarist demonstrates his impressive techniques for us, focusing on an approach called Rythmically Dependent Alternate Picking.

FERDINANDO CARULLI Andantino In G (Opus 241)

This month Declan Zapala goes back to basics to explore core classical technique with this emotive miniature by the pioneer of classical guitar playing.

THE CROSSROADS Steely Dan's Mu Chord

This month John Wheatcroft shows us how Donald Fagen and Walter Becker dressed their harmony to the 'nines, as he explores their trademark chord voicings.

JEFF HANNEMAN

This month Charlie Griffiths Shows No Mercy as he lays down the gauntlett with five shred licks from Slayer's undisputed master of attitude.

10CC

This month Martin Cooper checks out Eric Stewart and Lol Crème, whose distinctive styles helped give this UK band its unique sound.

T-BONE WALKER

From the heart of Texas to the cool West Coast, join David Gerrish on the journey of this hugely influential electric blues guitar innovator.

PAT METHENY

Nick Mellor offers an insight into the jazz great's 16th-note lines, and his approach to improvising over static Minor and Dominant 7th chords.

THE KINKS' RAY DAVIES

This month Stuart Ryan takes a virtual trip into to North London to get to grips with the acoustic style of the original Muswell Hillbilly.

STEVE LUKATHER

This month Andy G Jones looks at the fluent soloing style of the LA guitarist who co-founded Toto in 1977 then ruled the 80s session scene.

"It Gives Me Physical Satisfaction To Play Funk Riffs!" - Into the groove with Giacomo Turra, the Italian guitarist who made his name covering classics by Stevie Wonder, Bruno Mars and more...

Into the groove with Giacomo Turra, the Italian guitarist who made his name covering classics by Stevie Wonder, Bruno Mars and more... Born in Milan, his funk guitar sensibility can be traced back to the dance studio where his mother taught, and the tunes he heard blasting out of her boombox. "I like to experiment with a lot of genres, but the really interesting thing for me is I really grew up on funk, and a little bit of jazz and fusion music," he says.

Sweet Sixteen

As The Sixteen celebrates its 45th birthday, founder Harry Christophers speaks to Andrew Stewart about directing a choral powerhouse

Federico Colli

\"At this moment in time we don't need more virtuosi. We need musicians to engage with the philosophy of music

Harmonic Progression

What happens when classical music-style levels of ambition, invention and sheer length are brought to pop? The answer, as Meurig Bowen explains, is Prog Rock

Golden years

Young musicians may be physically fit, but with age come the advantages of wisdom and experience

Västra Karup Sweden

The spirit of soprano Birgit Nilsson is alive and well in the town of her birth, home to a festival dedicated to her memory

I was seen as an outsider– Marc Almond's new album I'm Not Anyone is out on 12 July on BMG

It's 43 years since Soft Cell's cover of Gloria Jones' Tainted Love turned singer Marc Almond and his synth-playing partner Dave Ball into overnight stars, and 42 years since Almond kicked off a solo career that continues to this day. The nervous kid that we first saw on Top Of The Pops on 13 August 1981 is now one of the longest-performing artists of his generation, with his 27th solo album, I'm Not Anyone, about to land. Addiction and a near-fatal road accident couldn't stop him, he tells Joel McIver, although a nice fruit garden just might...

HOOD VIBRATIONS

There's a shimmering, otherwordly quality to The O'Jays' music, a gossamer lightness to their gospel fervour. It's there on their hits -Love Train, Put Your Hands Together and especially on their 1972-3 albums, Back Stabbers and Ship Ahoy, which, argues Philly soul expert Tony Cummings, merit contention alongside What's Going On and There's A Riot Goin' On in the annals of conscious R&B

DON'T STREAM IT'S OVER

While many bands of a certain age struggle to balance the desire to keep moving with their audience's demand to hear the hits, Neil Finn and Crowded House remain as passionate about their back catalogue as they are their latest recorded work. Besides, streaming exposes their songs to new generations and they're happy to go with the flow. As Finn tells Pete Paphides: \"You can't be angry with an algorithm.\"

CAUGHT BY THE BUZZ!

Every generation gets the music epoch it deserves whether that's psychedelia, glam, punk, new pop, Madchester... In the 90s it was the turn of Britpop. For a period, there was a range of activity under that banner, most notably from the colossally popular likes of Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Supergrass and Elastica, but also from the lesser-known likes of Marion, Menswe@r and My Life Story... Over the next 12 pages we reacquaint ourselves with some of Britpop's stars, Joel Mclver looks at Britrock and Joe Muggs at Brit-dance to affirm the era's rampant eclecticism, Wesley Doyle recalls life in a band on the scene and meets the next generation of Britpoppers, we reassess the era's best albums and the \"runners-up\", consider the notable singles, remember the Blur-Oasis rivalry, David Stubbs offers an Alternate View Of Britpop, and John Coleman compiles a hefty Oasis discography.

anchoress away

Catherine Anne Davies on the ethics of vinyl production

33½ minutes with...Dana Gillespie

Dana Gillespie was the 60s It Girl who hung out with a pre-Bowie David Jones at Soho cafe La Gioconda and sang at the Marquee alongside Julie Driscoll. Jimmy Page produced her 1965 single, D Thank You Boy, and played on her 1968 debut album, Foolish Seasons. Its follow-up, 1969's Box Of Surprises, paired her with producer Mike Vernon and Savoy Brown while 1973's Weren't Born A Man saw her working with Bowie and Mick Ronson. First Love, her covers album out now, is produced by Marc Almond and Tris Penna. \"Marc said to me, 'I'm fed up with you being the biggest undiscovered secret on the planet,\"\" she says on the motivation behind what will be her 74th album. \"He said we've got to change that. I've never even been asked to perform on Jools Holland's Later. I'm too old to be pissed off but I have been overlooked.\"

JERSEY ROYAL

Overcoming critical derision to sell 130 million albums, Bon Jovi have celebrated their 40th anniversary with a career-spanning documentary series and a return to their trademark feelgood rock after a decade of troubles. Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan and Tico Torres tell John Earls why they refuse to play live again until they're fully fit, why they're the people's choice, their hopes to be reunited with Richie Sambora... and of secret road trips with Bruce Springsteen.

OVERCOME BY SADNESS

\"Look at me! I've lived!\" declares Joe Pernice. Few contemporary American songwriters can do weathered ennui like him, albeit with a nod and a wink. The Pernice Brother talks Rob Hughes through nearly three decades of studio output, album by gorgeously sorrowful album.

BAD BLOOD AND BURIED HATCHES

After a slow start, by the end of the 70s Canadian trio Triumph were living up to their name. Then came the falling-out, the split, and 20 years of toxicity before they shared a stage again.

AHEAD OF THE GAME

Too punk for punk in the late 70s, Oi! elder statesmen in the early 80s, living-legend role models in the early 90s, Cock Sparrer never got credit for what they started. Today, after all these years, they're as strong as they've ever been.