Classical Music
The Great Composers and Their Masterworks
Published on 15. September 2005
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-1-84533-158-0 (ISBN)
Description
This invaluable reference book explores the background to 800 years of musical history - from 12th-century chanting monks to 19th-century virtuoso performers. This brand new edition has been fully revised to include today's iconoclastic composer-artists - and explains the origins and impact of the great classical masterpieces. At the heart of the book are concise biographies of more than 150 composers, accompanied by portraits and illustrations relating to their works. Lively chapter introductions summarize the historical background to the musical eras and reveal the musical mood of each one through its art. Recommended key recordings of central works by each composer, specially selected by the editors of Gramophone magazine, help the reader to build an enduring classical music collection.
This invaluable reference book explores the background to 800 years of musical history - from 12th-century chanting monks to 19th-century virtuoso performers. This brand new edition has been fully revised to include today's iconoclastic composer-artists - and explains the origins and impact of the great classical masterpieces. At the heart of the book are concise biographies of more than 150 composers, accompanied by portraits and illustrations relating to their works. Lively chapter introductions summarize the historical background to the musical eras and reveal the musical mood of each one through its art. Recommended key recordings of central works by each composer, specially selected by the editors of Gramophone magazine, help the reader to build an enduring classical music collection.
This invaluable reference book explores the background to 800 years of musical history - from 12th-century chanting monks to 19th-century virtuoso performers. This brand new edition has been fully revised to include today's iconoclastic composer-artists - and explains the origins and impact of the great classical masterpieces. At the heart of the book are concise biographies of more than 150 composers, accompanied by portraits and illustrations relating to their works. Lively chapter introductions summarize the historical background to the musical eras and reveal the musical mood of each one through its art. Recommended key recordings of central works by each composer, specially selected by the editors of Gramophone magazine, help the reader to build an enduring classical music collection.
Reviews / Votes
One of the best introductions to music to have emerged... clear, succinct, and refreshingly free of jargon. Highly recommended for both enthusiast and initiate." Classical MusicOne of the best introductions to music to have emerged... clear, succinct, and refreshingly free of jargon. Highly recommended for both enthusiast and initiate." Classical Music
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Octopus Publishing Group
Dimensions
Height: 298 mm
Width: 235 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
1538 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84533-158-0 (9781845331580)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Book
10/1994
Mitchell Beazley
€50.95
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
John Stanley studied fine art in Oxford and then went on to develop careers in photography and film-making, gaining wide experience in the media, broadcasting, and entertainment industries. His life-long interest in music led to involvement in artist management and record production, including the worldwide promotion of violinist Nigel Kennedy and the production of awardwinning television arts programmes and classical concerts. John Stanley has also worked with artists such as Sir Georg Solti, Jose Carreras, and James Galway, and continues to develop multimedia projects for the promotion of classical music.
John Stanley studied fine art in Oxford and then went on to develop careers in photography and film-making, gaining wide experience in the media, broadcasting, and entertainment industries. His life-long interest in music led to involvement in artist management and record production, including the worldwide promotion of violinist Nigel Kennedy and the production of awardwinning television arts programmes and classical concerts. John Stanley has also worked with artists such as Sir Georg Solti, Jose Carreras, and James Galway, and continues to develop multimedia projects for the promotion of classical music.
John Stanley studied fine art in Oxford and then went on to develop careers in photography and film-making, gaining wide experience in the media, broadcasting, and entertainment industries. His life-long interest in music led to involvement in artist management and record production, including the worldwide promotion of violinist Nigel Kennedy and the production of awardwinning television arts programmes and classical concerts. John Stanley has also worked with artists such as Sir Georg Solti, Jose Carreras, and James Galway, and continues to develop multimedia projects for the promotion of classical music.
Content
10 Introduction The Composer in Society; The Voice: the First Instrument; Instruments through the Ages; Ensembles and Orchestras; 38 The Middle Ages and the Renaissance; Hildegard of Bingen; Perotin; Guillaume de Machaut; Guillaume Dufay; Johannes Ockeghem; Josquin Desprez; Thomas Tallis; Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina; Orlande de Lassus; Tomas Luis de Victoria; William Byrd; John Dowland; Carlo Gesualdo; Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli; Additional Composers; 64 The Baroque Era; Claudio Monteverdi; Gregorio Allegri; Heinrich Schutz; Giacomo Carissimi; Jean-Baptiste Lully; Marc-Antoine Charpentier; Johann Pachelbel; Henry Purcell; Arcangelo Corelli; Francois Couperin; Antonio Vivaldi; Tomaso Albinoni; Johann Sebastian Bach; George Frideric Handel; Georg Philipp Telemann; Jean-Philippe Rameau; Domenico Scarlatti; Thomas Arne; 96 The Classical Era; Christoph Willibald Gluck; Franz Joseph Haydn; Luigi Boccherini; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Muzio Clementi; Luigi Cherubini; John Field; Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber; Giacomo Meyerbeer; Franz Berwald; Franz Schubert; Additional Composers; 122 The Romantic Era; Ludwig van Beethoven; Niccolo Paganini; Gioacchino Rossini; Gaetano Donizetti; Vincenzo Bellini; Mikhail Glinka; Felix Mendelssohn; Hector Berlioz; Charles Gounod; Frederic Chopin; Robert Schumann; Franz Liszt; Johann Strauss II; Arthur Sullivan; Alexander Borodin; Georges Bizet; Johannes Brahms; Modest Mussorgsky; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Giuseppe Verdi; Anton Bruckner; Richard Wagner; Additional Composers; 162 The Romantic Legacy; Bedrich Smetana; Edouard Lalo; Leo Delibes; Camille Saint-Saens; Edvard Grieg; Antonin Dvorak; Hugo Wolf; Ruggero Leoncavallo; Giacomo Puccini; Isaac Albeniz; Gabriel Faure; Gustav Mahler; Carl Nielsen; Claude Debussy; Erik Satie; Alexander Scriabin; Ferruccio Busoni; Jean Sibelius; Manuel de Falla; Edward Elgar; Richard Strauss; Maurice Ravel; Ralph Vaughan Williams; Additional Composers; 198 The Early Twentieth Century; Sergei Prokofiev; Sergei Rachmaninov; Leos Janacek; Bela Bartok; Zoltan Kodaly; Frederick Delius; Gustav Holst; Percy Grainger; Charles Ives; Virgil Thomson; George Gershwin; Samuel Barber; William Walton; Ottorino Respighi; Arnold Schoenberg; Alban Berg; Paul Hindemith; Heitor Villa-Lobos; Igor Stravinsky; Arthur Honegger; Francis Poulenc; Kurt Weill; Dmitri Shostakovich; Additional Composers; 232 The Modern Age; Aaron Copland; Elliot Carter; Joaquin Rodrigo; Oliver Messiaen; Benjamin Britten; Michael Tippett; John Cage; Witold Lutoslawski; Leonard Bernstein; Pierre Boulez; Karlheinz Stockhausen; Iannis Xenakis; Luciano Berio; Hans Werner Henze; Robert Simpson; Peter Maxwell Davies; John Adams; Jean Barraque; Harrison Birtwhistle; Sofia Bugaidulina; Gyorgy Kurtag; Gyory Ligeti; Luigi Nono; Arvo Part Steve Reich; Galina Ustvolskaya; Judith Weir; 270 Music in the 21st Century; Glossary; Index of Composers; Index; Acknowledgments