Classical category: 3244 books

Composer, conductor, and pianist, Thomas Adès is one of the most diversely talented musical figures of his generation. His music is performed by great opera companies, symphony orchestras, chamber groups, and music festivals throughout the world. But Adès has resisted public discussion of the creative...

The Middle Ages began with the collapse of the Roman world. This left a military and political system in ruins but a cultural world-view largely intact. Artistically rich and varied in themselves, the medieval centuries also sparked both the artistic Renaissance and the religious Reformation that followed....

Handel is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of western music. His compositions form one of the peaks of creative achievement in the Baroque period, and cover a remarkable range: full-scale Italian operas and English oratorios (including Messiah), but also shorter works such as the...

Who does not ponder what inspires creativity? Why does one person excel as a doctor, another as an artist, and yet a third as a composer? Why do some fortunate people seem overly endowed with an abundance of creativity—this most precious of gifts—and others with little or none at all? Can creative...

Believe Your Ears: Life of a Lyric Composer is the memoir of composer Kirke Mechem, whose unorthodox path to music provides a fascinating narrative. He worked as a newspaper reporter, a touring tennis player and a Stanford creative writing major before studying composition and conducting at Harvard....

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra: Grace, Grit, and Glory details the history of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as seen through the prism of the city it has called home for nearly 130 years. Now one of America’s finest orchestras, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra began in 1887 as a rather small ensemble...

What little-known son of a famous genius has been called: "A musical blight" "A one-man plague" "History's most justifiably neglected composer" "The worst musician ever to trod organ pedals" "A pimple on the face of music" In...

Ook dit jaar nóg meer van de Matthäus-Passion genieten en begrijpen met dit toegankelijke boek Geen enkel ander land ter wereld is zo dol op één muziekstuk als Nederland op Bachs Matthäus Passion. Elk jaar wonen tienduizenden Nederlanders in de weken voor ­Pasen een van de ruim 500 uitvoeringen...

Richard Wagner’s “total work of art,” the monumental, gripping, and fathomlessly deep story of the ring of the Nibelung, is here translated and narrated in a completely new fashion: breathless and distilled, it becomes the most exciting suspense novel of the opera world. The author follows the...

Conducting for a New Era fills in a lacuna by offering guidance and practical advice for conducting twentieth-century and contemporary repertoire. The book begins with a look at the development of the art of conducting during the first half of the twentieth century. Distinctions are made between conductors...

How did Brahms conduct his four symphonies? What did he want from other conductors when they performed these works, and to which among them did he give his approval? And crucially, are there any stylistic pointers to these performances in early recordings of the symphonies made in the first half of...

This beautifully engraved collection of 26 all-time holiday favorites is arranged with tablature for players on all levels. A wonderful addition to gatherings of friends and family, it includes: "The Boar's Head Carol," "The First Nowell," "Good King Wenceslas," "O...

"This is an immensely valuable book and one which is clearly designed to appeal to all musicians—not just string players...Mr. Blum has captured in great detail the little things that so often make a great teacher. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Art of...

In Schoenberg and His School, René Leibowitz performs a threefold task. He relates the music of Schoenberg and his followers to the age-old tradition of Western polyphony, of which, he says, it is but the latest product. He discusses, with numerous musical examples, all known major works of Schoenberg...