Composer Cliff Masterson knows how to make sorrow sublime. Take his regal, mournful adagio Beautiful Sadness, for example: "When I wrote it, the feeling of the music was sad, but yet there was this ...

Source: David S. Soriano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Emotion, in particular sadness, has played an important role in art and music throughout human history and across human cultures. Music, ...

A woman washes clothes in a tub, her face obscured by a black scribble. She evokes working-class resilience. As she works, words from John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery” swirl around her — “If dreams ...

Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves, spread from “Shadows” (2016) (image courtesy Steidl) Here, selections from Shadows. Read on a bench with a sandwich. Alexandra Grant and Keanu Reeves, spread from ...

My husband and I spent several nights this summer watching the HBO mini-series Chernobyl. If you haven’t seen it, it’s extremely well made and also extremely miserable, telling the story of ...

Composer Cliff Masterson knows how to make sorrow sublime. "When I wrote it, the feeling of the music was sad, but yet there was this beautiful melody that sat on top," Masterson says. Written for a ...