Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) was declared the first million-selling piece of sheet music, but publisher John Stark originally doubted the composition's commercial appeal, complaining that the music was too difficult and no one would be able to play it.

As a young man, Johann Sebastian Bach asked permission from his employers to travel to Lubeck to hear the great Danish organist Dietrich Buxtehude. They weren't happy about it, but gave him four weeks off. It was more than 200 miles, but Bach walked the entire distance.

GF Handel had a rather unique way of dealing with the singers in his operas. When one of them disagreed with the way he wanted her to sing one of his arias, he held her out a window until she saw it his way.

As a young boy, the sound of a solo trumpet would send Mozart screaming from the room. He didn't like the sound of the flute, either.

One of Beethoven's landlords in Baden was glad to have the composer as a tenant. When Beethoven moved out, the landlord auctioned off the window shutters, which were covered with musical notation.

In his too short life (he died at 31), Franz Schubert composed a remarkable amount of music. He wrote 9 symphonies, 19 string quartets, 10 operas, numerous piano sonatas, chamber music of all kinds, and more than 600 songs. He is probably the only composer who could match Mozart's composing speed.

In 1636, the leader of the Russian Church, the patriarch Joseph, banned all music-making in the home. In Moscow, 50 wagon-loads of instruments were burned in a big bonfire and dumped into a river.

"Chopsticks" was written as a piano exercise in 1877 by Arthur de Lully. The title was the pen-name of a 16-year-old girl named Euphemia Allen.

Igor Stravinsky is the only composer in the history of music to write a polka for a troupe of elephants. The first performance was billed as "50 Elephants and 50 Beautiful Girls in an Original Choreographic Tour de Force" at Ringling Brothers' Circus.

On August 29, 1952, John Cage's piece "4'33"" was given its first performance by his friend, David Tudor. It was first performed on the piano, although it was intended for any instrument or group. The performer sits in silence for four minutes and 33 seconds.

Ludwig van Beethoven was deaf for twenty-five years.

People in Mozart's time believed that regular bathing was unhealthy and used perfumes to cover up their body odors. One bath every six months or so was considered to be enough, so the stench in a crowded room must have been overwhelming!

Wigs were popular in Mozart's time because people didn't believe in washing their hair. They put on wigs to cover their own hair and used powders to disguise the smells and dirt.

While he was in college, Robert Schumann had a vision that was sadly prophetic: "The moon was shining on the water. I fell asleep and dreamt that I had drowned in the Rhine." Several years later, he went out for an evening walk, and unsuccessfully tried to drown himself in that same river.

Scott Joplin’s opera, “Treemonisha,” was finally recorded on a two-CD set issued by Deutsche Grammophon in 1993. “Treemonisha” is the only ragtime opera and was given its first full production in the 1970’s - long after Joplin’s death in 1917.

There are more than 500,000 hymns in existence. The most-prolific hymn-writer was Fanny Crosby (1850-1915) who, although blind from the age of six weeks, wrote about 8000 hymns. Charles Wesley (1707-88) wrote about 6000.

Scott Joplin died in 1917 and received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976. During his lifetime, ragtime music was considered by many to be scandalous. Now it is considered to be American classical music.

Chopin’s “Minute Waltz” was actually written for George Sand’s dog. Sand was amused by watching her dog chasing its tail and asked Chopin to set it to music. He did, and the piece is subtitled “The Waltz of the Little Dog.”

Until about 1890, women were not allowed to study music theory. They were thought to be incapable of understanding music theory, and were not allowed into classes.

When the waltz was introduced in Vienna in 1754, it was considered indecent. The word “waltz” actually means “revolving.”

A story is told about Beethoven, a man not known for social grace. Because of his deafness, he found conversation difficult and humiliating. When he heard of the death of a friend’s son, Beethoven hurried to the house, overcome with grief. He had no words of comfort to offer, but he saw a piano in the room. For the next half hour he played the piano, pouring out his emotions in the most eloquent way he could. When he finished playing, he left. The friend later remarked that no one else’s visit had meant so much.