The reproach is commonly brought against musical biographies that they are monotonous: and indeed the life of the musician has not often afforded much scope for incident or variety. If he be a composer he treads the accustomed course of early struggles, hard-earned victories and posthumous fame: if he be a virtuoso his career is one triumphal progress which leaves little to record except the successive trophies that he has planted and the successive laurels that he has won. The concentrati...

Originally published in 1913. The subject itself, and the material for this third volume, were not without their influence on the pace of the work. In one place in her diary, Clara writes: In an artist's life, as in every other, things repeat themselves more or lass, so that there if much on which I barely touch. If she herself is her diary feels a certain monotony in the externals of a life which goes on in the same groove year after year, naturally the biographer, who has to represent fo...

This absorbing and award-winning biography tells the story of the tragedies and triumphs of Clara Wieck Schumann (1819–1896), a musician of remarkable achievements.At once artist, composer, editor, teacher, wife, and mother of eight children, she was an important force in the musical world of her time. To show how Schumann surmounted the obstacles facing female artists in the nineteenth century, Nancy B. Reich has drawn on previously unexplored primary sources: unp...

The German composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was not only a musical genius, but was also one of the pre-eminent geniuses of the Western world. He defined in his music a system of musical thought and an entire state of mind that were unlike any previously experienced. A true child prodigy, he began composing at age 5 and rapidly developed his unmistakable style; by 18 he was composing works capable of altering the mind-states of entire civilizations

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is widely considered to be one of the pre-eminent classical music figures of the Western world. This German musical genius created numerous works that are firmly entrenched in the repertoire. Except for a weakness in composing vocal and operatic music (to which he himself admitted, notwithstanding a few vocal works like the opera “Fidelio” and the song “Adelaide, ”), Beethoven had complete mastery of the artform. He left his stamp in 9 symphonies, 5 piano conc...

SCHUMANN: THE FACES & THE MASKS is a groundbreaking account of a major composer whose life and works have been the subject of intense controversy ever since his attempted suicide and early death in an insane asylum. Schumann was a key figure in the Romantic movement which enraptured poets, musicians, painters and their audiences in the early 19th century and beyond, right up to the present time. He embodied all the contrasting themes of Romanticism - he was intensely original and ...

From the collection of Dr. Ludwig Nohl, also his letters to the Archduke Rudolph, Cardinal-Archbishop of Olmuetz, from the collection of Dr. Ludwig Ritter von Koechel. Translated by Lady Wallace. According to Wikipedia: "Ludwig van Beethoven (16 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers...

The Austrian composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was a pianistic miracle. He could play anything on site and composed over 400 works centered around "his" instrument. Among his key works are his Hungarian Rhapsodies, his Transcendental Etudes, his Concert Etudes, his Etudes based on variations of Paganinini's Violin Caprices and his Sonata, one of the most important of the nineteenth century. He also wrote thousands of letters, of which 260 are translated into English in this first of a 2-vol...

This classic work will be a revelation for fans of Mozart and classicical music in general. The story of the great composer is revealed here from the words of the man himself."The German composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was not only a musical genius, but was also one of the pre-eminent geniuses of the Western world. He defined in his music a system of musical thought and an entire state of mind that were unlike any previously experienced."

First published in 1922. Chapters include: Palestrina, Bach, Handel, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz, Liszt, Verdi, Wagner, Franck, Brahms, Grieg, Tschaikowsky, MacDowell, Debussy, Toscanini, Stokowski, and Koussevitzky.

This series of biographies presents the great composers against the background of their times. Each draws on personal letters and recollections, engravings, paintings and, when they exist, photographs, to present a complete picture of the composer's life.

Clarity of outline, conciseness, and formal beauty are excellent things in musical works, but an exquisite fancy, a noble imagination, and a lofty poetic spirit are of infinitely greater account; and no one ever possessed these inestimable gifts in richer profusion than Franz Schubert. This new edition of Henry Frost’s 1892 biography of Franz Schubert has been edited and revised. The original references to pieces by Opus number have been replaced with the more commonly used D numbers. Many...