Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers

Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers

Author: Patrick Kavanaugh

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 0310208068

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This is a compelling and inspiring look at spiritual beliefs that influenced some of the world's greatest composers, now revised and expanded with eight additional composers.


Secret Lives of Great Composers

Secret Lives of Great Composers

Author: Elizabeth Lunday

Publisher: Quirk Books

Published: 2014-04-08

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1594747466

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Discover little-known stories from music history—including murder, riots, and heartbreak—in this entertaining tour through the fascinating (and surprising) lives of classical music masters With outrageous anecdotes about everyone from Gioachino Rossini (draft-dodging womanizer) to Johann Sebastian Bach (jailbird) to Richard Wagner (alleged cross-dresser), Secret Lives of Great Composers recounts the seamy, steamy, and gritty history behind the great masters of international music. Here, you’ll learn that Edward Elgar dabbled with explosives; that John Cage was obsessed with fungus; that Berlioz plotted murder; and that Giacomo Puccini stole his church’s organ pipes and sold them as scrap metal so he could buy cigarettes. This is one music history lesson you’ll never forget!


The Lives of the Great Composers

The Lives of the Great Composers

Author: Harold C. Schonberg

Publisher: W. W. Norton

Published: 1981-01-01

Total Pages: 653

ISBN-13: 9780393013023

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Biographies of the important composers from Monteverdi and Bach to Bartok and Webern are designed to show the history of music.


The Steinway Collection

The Steinway Collection

Author:

Publisher: Amadeus Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 1574671154

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(Amadeus). Music lovers will delight in the beautiful color paintings and eloquent prose portraits in The Steinway Collection: Paintings of Great Composers. Chopin, Wagner, Liszt, Beethoven, Berlioz, Mozart, Verdi, Mendelssohn, Handel, and Schubert are among the composers celebrated in this historic book, which was originally printed in 1919 as an in-house publication of Steinway & Sons but has never before been released to the public. The paintings by esteemed American artists and accompanying essays by the brilliant critic James Gibbons Huneker are intended, in Mr. Huneker's words, to "evoke musical visions; for music is visionary, notwithstanding its primal appeal to the ear." An introduction by acclaimed broadcaster and writer David Dubal, Juilliard professor of piano literature, gives the book historical perspective.


The Pianist's Craft

The Pianist's Craft

Author: Richard P. Anderson

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0810882051

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No pianist can experience the full flowering of her art without eventually grappling with those great musical minds who composed specifically for piano. In The Pianist's Craft, Richard Anderson collects from his fellow pianist-scholars 19 articles on the teaching, preparation, and performance of works by the greatest composers in the standard piano repertoire. This collection ranges in subject matter from Inge Rosar's meditation on playing Bach on the modern keyboard to Gary Amato's assessment of Haydn's sonatas, from Christie Skousen's review of tone production in Chopin to GwenolynMok's foray into recreating Ravel's works on an Erard piano, the same used by Ravel himself. Readers will find essays as well on Mozart's piano compositions, Beethoven's sonatas, the influence of Schubert's lieder on his piano works, and works by Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Bart k, Gershwin, and Crumb. The contributors--all recognized nationally and internationally for their contributions as performing artists, teachers, recording artists, and clinicians--write thoughtfully about the composers whose work they have studied and played for years. Each author addresses issues unique to the individual composer they have chosen to explore, examining questions of phrasing, tempo, articulation, dynamics, rhythm, color, gesture, lyricism, instrumentation, and genre. Valuable insight is provided into teaching, performing, and preparing these great works. In The Pianist's Craft these great artists and teachers answer questions for readers that are otherwise only addressed in conferences, master classes, and private lessons. In this collection of essays, key points of information and instruction are offered with over 200 musical examples included as illustration. The Pianist's Craft is intended for teachers and students of the intermediate and advanced levels of piano, instructors and performers at the university level, and those who love piano and piano music generally.


Beethoven

Beethoven

Author: John Suchet

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2013-12-02

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0802192912

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“An ideal ‘first book’ on Beethoven” from one of the world’s most eminent classical music aficionados (Booklist). Beethoven scholar and classical radio host John Suchet has had a lifelong, ardent interest in the man and his music. Here, in his first full-length biography, Suchet illuminates the composer’s difficult childhood, his struggle to maintain friendships and romances, his ungovernable temper, his obsessive efforts to control his nephew’s life, and the excruciating decline of his hearing. This absorbing narrative provides a comprehensive account of a momentous life, as it takes the reader on a journey from the composer’s birth in Bonn to his death in Vienna. Chronicling the landmark events in Beethoven’s career—from his competitive encounters with Mozart to the circumstances surrounding the creation of the well-known “Für Elise” and Moonlight Sonata—this book enhances understanding of the composer’s character, inspiring a deeper appreciation for his work. Beethoven scholarship is constantly evolving, and Suchet draws on the latest research, using rare source material (some of which has never before been published in English) to paint a complete and vivid portrait of the legendary prodigy. “A gripping and thought-provoking read.” —Howard Shelley, pianist and conductor “By exercising a genuine authority in identifying how Beethoven, the man, manifests himself in our appreciation of the music, Suchet brings an incisive freshness to an extraordinary life.” —Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Principal of the Royal Academy of Music


The Indispensable Composers

The Indispensable Composers

Author: Anthony Tommasini

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 1594205930

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The chief classical music critic of "The New York Times" explores the concept of greatness in relation to composers, considering elements of biography, influence, and shifting attitudes toward a composer's work over time.


Great Composers

Great Composers

Author: Piero Ventura

Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 9780399217463

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Briefly introduces the greatest composers over the centuries and the contributions they made to the development of music.


Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Author: Georg Knepler

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1997-03-13

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9780521588232

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Described in Germany as the 'most thought-provoking' book of the bicentennial year, Georg Knepler's acclaimed study of Mozart is now available in paperback. The book explores Mozart's life and works from many new perspectives, providing fresh insights into his music and the tempestuous times through which he lived. Based on a close reading of the family correspondence and a careful consideration of Mozart's entire musical output, the book sheds new light on the composer's creative psyche, his political leanings, his relation to the thoughts and currents of the Enlightenment, and the underlying basis of his musical expression.


Meet the Great Composers, Bk 1

Meet the Great Composers, Bk 1

Author: Maurice Hinson

Publisher: Alfred Music Publishing

Published: 1996-04

Total Pages: 38

ISBN-13: 9780739010440

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Contains information on 17 composers who range from the Baroque period to the Contemporary period. Book contains a picture with relevant facts and suggested listening, a brief biography, a study of his music (or time he lived) and a question and answer page for each composer. The accompanying CD includes the suggested listening for each composer; the activity sheets contain the picture with facts and question and answer page for each composer in a reproducible format.