Paint me a sound

For Bach, it was a subtle game. For Beethoven, it was trash. How could musical illustration cause so much argument, asks Jan Swafford

Ghosts of Terezin

In one Nazi concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, musical life flourished - and this year, says David Herman, it is finally being given the exposure it deserves

Finding oneself in pieces

Lucasta Miller takes hard lessons in playing the piano from some literary heroines

A musical journey

Wordless singing has enormous power and resonance, says James Fenton

The joy of sadness

Dürer's Melencolia I is about more than insomnia and depression. Its themes of geometry, cosmology and even politics have influenced artists from Grass to Birtwistle. By Patrick Wright

Textual healing

James Fenton on overcoming problems of translation and interpretation in opera

Ghost written

When composer Simon Holt heard the strange tale of a corpse discovered in a tree in 1943, he knew he had to turn it into an opera. But who could put his obsession into words?

Vive la révolution

The early music movement has revitalised Handel, dispelling the image of a worthy Victorian. Now it is time for the revolution to spread, starting with French baroque opera, says Ian Bostridge

Undercover agent

Painter, publisher, revolutionary and provocateur - Dutch artist Jacqueline de Jong has done it all. By Adrian Dannatt

I think, therefore I write

Bryan Magee has been a poet, academic, critic and MP. But the former cockney boy who brought philosophy to television just wants to keep writing. With publication of his memoirs, he talks to Nicholas Wroe about Wagner, Popper and growing up in the east end of London