Introduction: a convocation of keen spirits and vivid voices / Scott Burnham
1. One, two, three...infinity / Richard Powers, writer
2. The joy inside sorrow / Pico Iyer, writer
3. Fidelio's echo / Gustavo Dudamel, musician
4. Beethoven invents the species again / C.K. Williams, poet
5. A winter drive / Edward Dusinberre, musician
6. Work song / Jeff Dolven, poet
7. Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa / Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, music critic
8. On Chopin's Ballade No. 2, Op. 38 / Jamie Barton, musician
[Pleyel] / Susan Stewart, poet
10. Jessye Norman sings "Die Nachtigall" by Alan Berg / Alicia Hall Moran, musician, and Jason Moran, musician
11. Wusuli Boat Song" / "Water is Wide": history of a cross-cultural duet / Abigail Washburn, musician, and Wu Fei, musician
12. "Loud dreaming" : of mothers and sisters and lessons in listening / Daphne A. Brooks, scholar
13. Interval/ notation / Maureen N. McLane, poet
14. A change is gonna come / Carrie Mae Williams, visual artist
15. See the music / Brian Seibert, dance critic
16. Edward Elgar, Cello Concerto in E Minor, 1919 / Paul Muldoon, poet
17. Opera is indivisible / Alexander Kluge, writer
18. Music as a family affair / Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court Justice, and James Ginsburg, music producer ; interviewed by Nina Totenberg; chronicled by Melissa Lane
19. Your brother called / Susan Wheeler, poet
20. Holy song of thanks / Elaine Pagels, scholar
21. On Beethoven's Strong Quartet in B-flat, Op 130, with the Grosse Fuge / Arnold Steinhardt, musician ; interviewed by Scott Burnham
22. Adagio / Robert Pinsky, poet
23. A long song log: ten entries on seriality, to the accompaniment of Charles Mingus's Black Saint / Nathaniel Mackey, poet
Ghazal for the end of time / Jane Hirshfield, poet
25. Spaces for music / Frank Gehry, architect ; interviewed by Mark Swed
25. Going spatial / Laurie Anderson, musician, and Edgar Choueiri, physicist