Sir Harrison Birtwistle (born 1934) is one of the most challenging, original, and controversial musicians of his generation. Though angular and modern, his work nevertheless is indebted to tradition. Birtwistle composes music for a variety of...

Musicologist Richard Taruskin, in his brilliant new Oxford History of Western Music, observes that the notion of "great music" is a relatively recent one, dating from the end of the 18th century, when Mozart began aiming his sights toward a realm of human contemplation that...