Valéry’s complete writings for the theaterThis volume gathers all of Paul Valéry’s writings for the theater. It includes My Faust, Valéry’s last major work, which is composed of two unfinished Faust plays, Luste, or the Crystal Girl and The Only One. Plays also presents three allegorical verse plays that were written for music and performed at the Paris Opera: Amphion and Semiramis, with music by Arthur Honegger...

Timeless lessons on the pleasures of listening, the dilemmas of composition, and the meaning of artistic freedom from a founder of musical modernism.In October 1939, Igor Stravinsky took the stage at Harvard not as a conductor but as a speaker. Invited to deliver the prestigious Norton Lectures, he had departed Europe just days after the outbreak of war, leaving behind not only a growing political maelstrom but also his life in France, where his wife, eldest daught...

Finally available, a high quality book of the original classic edition of An Autobiography.This is a new and freshly published edition of this culturally important work by Igor Stravinsky, which is now, at last, again available to you.Enjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside An Autobiography:When I got into touch with some of the members of this group, its transformation into a new school had alre...

This "monumental" portrait of the man, his music, and the world in which he lived is "a truly remarkable biography" ( The Christian Science Monitor).Jan Swafford's biographies of Charles Ives and Johannes Brahms have established him as a revered music historian, capable of bringing his subjects vibrantly to life. His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, more than a decade in the making, peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathi...

This excellent ebook introduces the reader to a wide range of the world's greatest composers, including interesting facts about not only their musical styles but the men themselves. This edition has been specially formatted for today's e-readers, and will appeal to all those looking for a fascinating read about the history of classical music.

Eminent historian Paul Johnson dazzles with a rich, succinct portrait of Mozart and his musicAs he’s done in Napoleon, Churchill, Jesus, and Darwin, acclaimed historian and author Paul Johnson here offers a concise, illuminating biography of Mozart. Johnson’s focus is on the music—Mozart’s wondrous output of composition and his uncanny gift for instrumentation.Liszt once said that Mozart composed more bars than a trained ...

A completely new edition of the definitive biography of Chopin, unavailable for many years, by one of the finest of contemporary European historians.Two centuries have passed since Chopin’s birth, yet his legacy is all around us today. The quiet revolution he wrought influenced the development of Western music profoundly, and he is still probably the most widely studied and revered composer. For many, he is the object of a cult. Yet most people know little of his life, of the man, ...

In "Haydn," J. Cuthbert Hadden offers a comprehensive exploration of the life and works of the eminent composer Joseph Haydn, placing him in the broader context of the Classical era. Hadden employs a scholarly yet engaging prose style that deftly intertwines biographical details with a critical analysis of Haydn's music, illuminating the innovative contributions of this pivotal figure in Western music. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and historical documents, the narrative not only ...

A biography of the greatest musical mind in Western historyMozart's unshakable hold on the public's consciousness can only be strengthened by historian and biographer Peter Gay's concise and deft look at the genius's life. Mozart traces the development of the man whose life was a whirlwind of achievement, and the composer who pushed every instrument to its limit and every genre of classical music into new realms.

'This book distils what, at my advanced age, I feel able to say about music, musicians, and matters of my pianistic profession.'Ever since Alfred Brendel bid farewell to the concert stage after six decades of performing, he has been passing on his insight and experience in the form of lectures, readings and master-classes. This reader for lovers of the piano distils his musical and linguistic eloquence and vast knowledge, and will prove invaluable to anyone with an interest in the ...

Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular composers who ever lived. He is also one of the most misunderstood, as both man and musician, and looks destined to remain among the most controversial. Widely misrepresented as an emotional voluptuary and typecast as a crazy Russian genius, he was, in fact, a highly disciplined and masterly craftsman of pronounced classical leanings, and a man whose volatile and hypersensitive temperament was as much his friend as his enemy. His life was lived at the...