An authoritative guide to the lives and works of over 100 of the most famous classical composers, encompassing all styles of composition from medieval times to the present day. Including biographies for each composer, and historical information about the musical eras, events and artistic movements of that time, also how the composers influenced or changed the development of their art form.

In the scorching summer of 1976--the hottest since records began--Christopher Norton, his wife Laura and their young daughter Faye settle into their new home in north London. The faded glory of the Victorian house is the perfect place for Norton, a composer of film soundtracks, to build a recording studio of his own. But soon in the long, oppressively hot nights, Laura begins to hear something through the crackle of the baby monitor. First, a knocking...

Beethoven was a genius so universal that his popularity, extraordinary even during his lifetime, has never ceased to grow. It now encircles the globe: Beethoven's most famous works are as beloved in Beijing as they are in Boston. Biographer Morris brings the composer to life as a man of astonishing complexity and overpowering intelligence. A gigantic, compulsively creative personality unable to tolerate constraints, he was not so much a social rebel...

Describes the life of American composer Charles Ives, who wrote music which expressed all the sounds he heard in the world, but which was not well received during his lifetime.

The composer of symphonies, operas, and film scores examines his own life and career. A world-renowned composer of symphonies, operas, and film scores, Glass has, almost single-handedly, crafted the dominant sound of late-twentieth-century classical music. Here his behind-the-scenes recollections allow readers to experience those moments of creative fusion when life so magically merged with art. From his childhood in post-World War II Baltimore to...

Carlisle Sessions Floyd the minister, the father of Carlisle Sessions Floyd the composer (the subject of this biography), graduated from Wofford College.

England, 1923. A gentleman critic named Leslie Shepherd tells the macabre story of a gifted young composer, Charles Jessold. On the eve of his revolutionary new opera's premiere, Jessold murders his wife and her lover, and then commits suicide in a scenario that strangely echoes the plot of his opera---which Shepherd had helped to write. The opera will never be performed.

"Jimmy Webb's words have been sung to his music by a rich and deep roster of pop artists, including Glen Campbell, Art Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Donna Summer, and Linda Ronstadt. He's the only artist ever to win Grammy Awards for music, lyrics, and orchestrations, and his chart-topping career has, so far, lasted fifty years, most recently including a Kanye West rap hit and a new classical nocturne. Now, in his first memoir, Webb delivers a snapshot...