Classical Opera category: 1804 books

More than 500 people are involved in the creation of just one of the world's greatest pianos, the Steinway. From the selection and aging of wood to the delicate voicing of the finished instrument, this special reissue of 88 Keys – The Making of a Steinway Piano relates the story behind the instrument's...

Every year, Johann Sebastian Bach’s major vocal works are performed to mark liturgical milestones in the Christian calendar. Written by a renowned Bach scholar, this concise and accessible book provides an introduction to the music and cultural contexts of the composer’s most beloved masterpieces,...

The tango is the king of the Latin dances. The captivating rhythms and seductive melodies of the tango have captured the imaginations of musicians and composers for many years. The tango has even found its place in the world of concert musical literature due to the fine works of composers such as...

The greatest Renaissance creator of liturgical music, the revered sixteenth-century composer known as Palestrina wrote works that served for centuries as models of counterpoint. Until The Style of Palestrina and the Dissonance, theoreticians seldom closely analyzed the composer’s work to discover its...

Tango: A ballroom dance of Latin-American origin characterized by long pauses and stylized body positions. This musical form was subsequently adopted by other countries, primarily France, Spain and Italy. Many prominent composers have applied it to a wide variety of compositions. Using piano scores...

In history we find certain names associated with great movements: Luther with the Reformation, or Garibaldi with the liberation of Italy. Luther certainly posted on the door of the church at Wittenberg his famous Theses, and burnt the Papal Bull at the gates of that city; yet before Luther there lived...

Listening to Art Song: An Introduction offers an easy-to-read, fresh perspective on the remarkably diverse musical genre of art song. As the ultimate expression of the human singing voice, song has provided succor and entertainment to humanity in many forms since the dawn of civilization. Margaret...

The latest volume in the Music Library Association's Index and Bibliography series, Analyses of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Music, 1940-2000, features over 9,000 references to analyses of works by more than 1,000 composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. References that address form,...

This is original music for students or professional players based on mostly original compositions with a few arrangements of works in the public domain.

Considered by some music historians to be the "father" of piano technique, Muzio Clementi (1752–1832) is also regarded by many as the first composer to achieve the fully matured piano sonata of the late Classic period. Beethoven admired Clementi's sonatas and studied them closely. Indeed, according...

In this original study, Christopher Alan Reynolds examines the influence of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on two major nineteenth-century composers, Richard Wagner and Robert Schumann. During 1845–46 the compositional styles of Schumann and Wagner changed in a common direction, toward a style that...

One of the composer's most popular, accessible works, the 7th has neither a "program" or folk-song theme. It is a purely instrumental composition, both hopeful and romantic in feeling. Reprinted from the authoritative German edition of 1909. List of instruments. Glossary of German terms.

This third edition is a basic textbook on the development of pipe organ composition in geographically diverse schools. Its nineteen chapters include charts of organ composers and a historical background of contemporary events and figures for each organ composition school. Chapter bibliographies cover...

From the tender "My heart's love is he" to the bitter "Hag, you've killed me," this extraordinary compilation of melodies ranks among the most important 19th-century collections of traditional Irish music. Out of print for many years, these selections have become extremely rare and sought-after items.