The Lives Of The Great Composers: Third Edition

Description

The author of this work traces the consecutive line of composers from Monteverdi to the tonalists of the 1990s through a series of biographical chapters. Music is shown as a continually evolving art, with no geniuses, however great, escaping the influence of their predecessors. The great composers are presented as human beings who lived in and related to the real world. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Verdi, Wagner, Mahler and others are included, their lives woven together in detail and anecdote. This new edition extends the book's coverage to later composers.

Harold C Schonberg was born and raised in New York City. He served on the staff of the NEW YORK TIMES for nearly thirty years and was senior music critic from 1960 until 1980. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1971, the first in the field of music to receive this honour.

'Extremely readable... well founded in scholarship and well written' TLS 'Panoramic, wittily detailed... equally pleasing to read from end to end, to dip casually, or to consult' NEW YORK TIMES 'Packed with fruity anecdotes' OBSERVER 'Peerless ... the first book any young music lover should read' GUARDIAN