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.

    When Goulding first tried to learn about classical music, he found himself buried in an avalanche of technical terms and complicated jargon--so he decided to write the book he couldn't find.The result is a complete classical music education in one volume. Comprehensive, discriminating, and delightfully irreverent, Classical Music provides such essential information as: * Rankings of the top 50 composers (Bach is #1. Borodin is #50) * A detailed and anecdotal look at each composer's life and work * The five primary works of each composer and specific recommended CDs for each. * Further great works of each composer--if you really like him * Concise explanations of musical terminology, forms, and periods * A guide to the parts and history of the symphony orchestra "This book uses every conceivable gimmick to immerse readers in the richness of classical music: lists, rankings, sidebars devoted to lively anecdotes, and catchy leads."--The Washington Post"One terrific music appreciation book...The information is surprisingly detailed but concisely presented. Goulding's writing style is breezy yet mature....[He] has raised music appreciation from a racket to a service."--The Arizona Daily Star

    His taste is consummate; his integrity unswayed by today's musical hype". -- Mitch MillerIn this fully revised and expanded fifth edition of his popular book, Mr. Svejda introduces readers to the latest performances and newest perspectives. Arranged alphabetically by composer, this irreverent, selective, and highly opinionated guide is the only American source book for CD and audiocassette recordings of hundreds of classical compositions, from the standard to the eclectic. Includes a foreword by Mitch Miller.

    But a cloud still hangs over his reputation, despite his undeniable brilliance as a musician, because ofa fatal and tragic decision. Wilhelm Furtw�ngler remained in Germany when thousands of intellectuals and artists fled after the Nazis seized power in 1933. His decision to stay behind earned him lasting condemnation as a Nazi collaborator--The Devil's Music Master. Decades after his death, Furtw�ngler remains for many not only the greatest but also the most controversial musical personality of our time. In The Devil's Music Master, Sam H. Shirakawa forges the first full-length and comprehensive biography of Furtw�ngler. He surveys Furtw�ngler's formative years as a difficult but brilliant prodigy, his rise to pre-eminence as Germany's leading conductor, and his development as a musician, composer, and thinker. Shirakawa also reviews the rich recorded legacy Furtw�ngler documented throughout his forty-year career--such as the legendary Tristan with Kirsten Flagstad and the famous performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1942 and 1951. Equally important, Shirakawa goes backstage and behind the lines to explore how the Nazis seized control of the arts and how Furtw�ngler single-handedly tried to prevent evil characters as Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and Luftwaffe Chief Hermann G�ring from annihilating Germany's musicallife. He shows how Furtw�ngler, far from being a toady to the Nazis, stood up openly against Hitler and Himmler--at enormous personal risk--to salvage the musical traditions of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. Shirakawa also presents moving and overwhelming evidence of Furtw�ngler's astonishingefforts to save the lives of Jews and other persecuted individuals trapped in Nazi Germany--only to be proscribed at the end of the war and nearly framed as a war criminal. But there was more to Furtw�ngler than his politics, or even his music, and we come to know this extraordinary man as a reluctant composer, a prolific essayist and diary keeper, a loyal friend, a formidable enemy when crossed, and an incorrigible philanderer. Numerous musical luminaries sharetheir memories of Furtw�ngler to round out this vivid portrait. Based on dozens of interviews and research in numerous documents, letters, and diaries, many of them previously unpublished, The Devil's Music Master is an in-depth look at the life and times of a unique personality whose fatal flaw lay in his uncompromising belief that music and art must bekept apart from politics, a conviction that transformed him into a tragic figure.

    By the author of Present Perspectives.

    Also included: Nocturne (1892), Piece pour piano (1903–4), Images, Book II (1907), Hommage a Haydn (1910), The Little Nigar (1909), La plus que lente (1910), Berceuse heroique (1914), Six epigraphes antiques (1914), and Elegie (1915).