The Vintage Guide to Classical Music: An Indispensable Guide for Understanding and Enjoying Classical Music (1st Edition)

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Book Description

The most accessible and in-depth guide to appreciating over 500 years of classical music, from Gregorian chants to Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, all the way up to Johannes Brahms, Igor Stravinsky, and John Cage, and beyond.

A vibrant and opinionated musical history, The Vintage Guide to Classical Music provides an insider's key to the individuals, eras, and genres that make up the Western classical legacy. Among its many attributes are the following: — essays on nearly one hundred composers, ranging from Guillaume de Machaut (circa 1300-1377) to Aaron Copland (1900-1990), that are organized chronologically and combine biographies with in-depth analyses of the composer's major works, all while evaluating the composer's role in the social, cultural, and political climate of their respective eras;

— educational sidebars that elucidate broader issues such as melody, polyphony, atonality, and the impact of the early-music movement; — a lexicon of musical vocabulary, ranging from a cappella to woodwinds; — a step-by-step approach to constructing an excellent classical music library.

The Vintage Guide to Classical Music is a useful resource for music enthusiasts all around the world since it is written with wit and clarity that can be appreciated by both seasoned musicians and those just starting out in the world of music.