Duke Graduate Student Unlocks ‘Mystery of the Lost Sonata’ – Percolator – The Chronicle of Higher Education

This is so cool!

“It was an unsolved mystery of classical music. An “Easter” sonata, sometimes attributed to the 19th-century composer Felix Mendelssohn, had largely disappeared from history. Scholars suspected the work was actually by the celebrated composer’s sister, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. But the manuscript seemed lost, so how could they prove it?”

via Duke Graduate Student Unlocks ‘Mystery of the Lost Sonata’ – Percolator – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Measuring the Evolution of Contemporary Western Popular Music : Scientific Reports : Nature Publishing Group

This is a perfect example of Humanities Aren’t A Science. Computer programming is used to show that popular music since the 1950s has declined in variability with regard to “pitch, volume, and timbre,” all what reads as a biased attempt to disregard popular music as “inauthentic” or base.

FYI, musicologists have known there is little harmonic variety in popular music for decades. Also, FYI, you missed the point completely. After you read the article, read an ethnomusicologist’s response.

Measuring the Evolution of Contemporary Western Popular Music : Scientific Reports : Nature Publishing Group.