Think Stravinsky. “The Rite of Spring” awakens every cell in the listener’s body, as it evokes primitive sensibilities that are at once altogether new. Many pieces of contemporary classical music may ...

The word “symphony” is ultimately from Greek “symphonia,” concord of sounds, harmony, a meld of “syn-,” together (as in synchronize, synthesis) and “phōnẽ,” sound (as in phonetics, telephone). The ...