Every once in a while, a single instrument arrives and rewrites the rules. Not just for music, but for culture itself. Think about it. A strip of brass and a few keys gave birth to jazz. A solid block ...

The saxophone can be as beautifully melodic as a violin or a clarinet – but the classical music world hasn’t always seen eye to eye with the instrument. We asked saxophonist Jess Gillam to explain why ...

Adolphe Sax made this alto saxophone in 1857, long after he had switched to brass. The sax is still a woodwind instrument, though. Photo courtesy National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota The ...

“Musical Bodies,” a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, revels in the blurry boundaries between humans and instruments. By Joshua Barone Visuals by Ye Fan Clap your hands. Tap a foot.

Many of today’s symphony orchestra instruments have been around for centuries. The violin, for instance, dates to the 1500s and as a result has an enormous repertoire spanning 450 years. The saxophone ...