The Vintage Guide to Classical Music: An Indispensable Guide for Understanding and Enjoying Classical MusicThe most readable and comprehensive guide to enjoying over five hundred years of classical music -- from Gregorian chants, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Johannes Brahms, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, and beyond. The Vintage Guide to Classical Music is a lively -- and opinionated -- musical history and an insider's key to the personalities, epochs, and genres of the Western classical tradition. Among its features: -- chronologically arranged essays on nearly 100 composers, from Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377) to Aaron Copland (1900-1990), that combine biography with detailed analyses of the major works while assessing their role in the social, cultural, and political climate of their times; -- informative sidebars that clarify broader topics such as melody, polyphony, atonality, and the impact of the early-music movement; -- a glossary of musical terms, from a cappella to woodwinds; -- a step-by-step guide to building a great classical music library. Written with wit and a clarity that both musical experts and beginners can appreciate, The Vintage Guide to Classical Music is an invaluable source-book for music lovers everywhere. |
Contents
WESTERN MUSIC THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES | 3 |
THE RENAISSANCE CA 14301600 | 20 |
THE BAROQUE 16001750 | 33 |
Giovanni Gabrieli | 40 |
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 1750CA 1825 | 114 |
THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 18251900 | 194 |
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY | 345 |
Other editions - View all
The Vintage Guide to Classical Music: An Indispensable Guide for ... Jan Swafford No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
artists Bach Baroque Bartók became become Beethoven began beginning Brahms called career cello century changed chord Classical composer Concerto dance death Debussy decade died dissonant early effect example expressive father feel figure finally followed four friends German hand harmonies Haydn heard ideas important influence Italy kind later less lived lyrical major March means melody minor move movement Mozart never notes once opera orchestral original Paris performance perhaps period piano pieces played popular premiere produced remains rhythm Romantic Schoenberg Schubert score seems sometimes sonata songs soprano sound spirit story Stravinsky string String Quartet studied style success Symphony theme things third tion tonal tone took tradition tune turned usually violin voice Wagner Western writing written wrote young