The Lives of the Great Composers - Softcover

Schonberg, Harold C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349103402 ISBN 13: 9780349103402

Publisher: Time Warner Books UK, 1991

Synopsis

This history of classical music, from Bach to Schoenberg, not only unravels the evolutionary patterns of musical development, but reveals the composers themselves - their lives and states of mind, their private defeats and public triumphs. From Schumann, who believed angels were dictating his harmonies, to J.S. Bach who had a cantata deadline to meet every Sunday in order to feed nine children, we can discern the various sources of inspiration. This book is designed to be used as a reference to many of the major composers and their music, but is also a source of relevant biographical detail.

About this title

About the Author:

Harold C. Schonberg, senior New York Times music critic for twenty years, was the first in his field to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (1971). He is the author of many articles and eight books, including one on chess. Schonberg lives in New York City.

From Library Journal:

This third edition of a work that has become a standard resource since its publication in 1981 includes brief but significant changes. A new chapter brings the work up to date, covering later serialists such as Stockhausen and Carter, minimalists Philip Glass and John Adams, and Alfred Schnittke and Peter Maxwell Davies. Schonberg discusses the recent phenomenal success of recordings of Gregorian chant and the search for styles of composition that combine originality and complexity with audience appeal. Women composers Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Amy Beach, Cecile Chaminade, Ethel Smyth, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich are now included. Though each has been given only one paragraph, it is valuable to see them placed in the context of their contemporaries and their predecessors. Schonberg writes for the lay reader. His intention is to humanize the composers and the writing, always highly readable, emphasizes biographical information rather than musical analysis. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.?Kate McCaffrey, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Time Warner Books UK
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0349103402
• ISBN 13: 9780349103402
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4