In the Music Museum presents an alternative view of Western classical music, as heard through historical instruments rather than musical works. It provides a fascinating guide to one hundred and fifty instruments preserved in eighty collections around the world. The instruments include the earliest or most representative examples of specific models or shed light on musical practice in a unique way. Some tell a particular story through their connection with individual musicians, fa...

Sébastien Erard and the firm that carried his name are seminal in the history of musical instruments. Erard's inventions - especially the double escapement for the piano and the double-action for the harp - have had an enormous impact on instruments and musical life and are still at the foundation of piano and harp building today. The recently discovered archives of the Erard piano and harp building firm are perhaps the largest and most complete record of musical instrument making anywhere...

Sébastien Erard's (1752-1831) inventions have had an enormous impact on instruments and musical life and are still at the foundation of piano building today. Drawing on an unusually rich set of archives from both the Erard firm and the Erard family, author Robert Adelson shows how the Erard piano played an important and often leading role in the history of the instrument, beginning in the late eighteenth century and continuing into the final decades of the nineteenth. The Erards were the f...

A comprehensive study of the clarinet in use through the classical period, 1760 to 1830, a period of intensive musical experimentation. The book provides a detailed review and analysis of construction, design, materials, and makers of clarinets. Rice also explores how clarinet construction and performance practice developed in tandem with the musical styles of the period.

As featured in the Telegraph and on Radio 4's Today programme.'A magnificent treasury . . . a fascinating tour de force.' Observer**'Year of Wonder is an absolute treat - the most enlightening way to be guided through the year.' Eddie RedmayneClassical music for everyone - an inspirational piece of music for every day of the year, celebrating composers from the medieval era to the present day, written by a...

(Piano Collection). This new volume in Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics presents 26 preludes, 21 nocturnes and 19 waltzes a large amount of music at a value price. There are new urtext editions of seven pieces included, not edited by Joseffy in his original Schirmer editions: Prelude in A-flat Major (1834), Nocturne in C-sharp minor (1830), Nocturne in C minor (1837), and Waltzes in A-flat Major (1830), E-flat Major (1830), E-flat Major (1840), and A minor (1843).

Learn about the world's greatest classical compositions and musical traditions in The Classical Music Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Classic Music in this overview guide to the subject, great for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Classical Music Book brings a fresh and vibrant take o...

The first English paperback edition of the unique collection of documents which reveal Chopin as teacher and interpreter of his own music. From the accounts of his pupils, acquaintances and contemporaries, together with his own writing, we gain valuable insight into Chopin's pianistic and stylistic practice, his teaching methods and his aesthetic beliefs. The documents are divided into two categories: those concerning technique and style, two notions inseparable in Chopin's mind, and those...

*** Accompanies BBC2's major new TV series and The Story of Music in 50 Pieces on Radio 3 ***In his dynamic tour through 40,000 years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, Howard Goodall leads us through the story of music as it happened, idea by idea, so that each musical innovation - harmony, notation, sung theatre, the orchestra, dance music, recording, broadcasting - strikes us with its original force. He focuses on what changed whe...

Debussy's life is of extraordinary interest because, like Wagner and Stravinsky, he crossed artistic boundaries, associating as much with poets and artists as with musicians. His father was active in the 1871 Paris Commune and the composer's childhood was thus unsettled, his musical preparation erratic, and his subsequent lifestyle somewhat bohemian by the bourgeois norms of the French musical establishment. He never went to a proper school, but was enough of a pianist to enter the Paris C...

"A fascinating and genuinely accessible guide....Educating, enjoyable, and delightfully unscary."—Classical MusicWhat if Bach and Mozart heard richer, more dramatic chords than we hear in music today? What sonorities and moods have we lost in playing music in "equal temperament"—the equal division of the octave into twelve notes that has become our standard tuning method? Thanks to How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony, "we may soon be able to hear...

Eminent historian Paul Johnson dazzles with a rich, succinct portrait of Mozart and his musicAs he’s done in Napoleon, Churchill, Jesus, and Darwin, acclaimed historian and author Paul Johnson here offers a concise, illuminating biography of Mozart. Johnson’s focus is on the music—Mozart’s wondrous output of composition and his uncanny gift for instrumentation.Liszt once said that Mozart composed more bars than a trained ...