This guide to the orchestra and orchestral life combines orchestral repertory history with critical thought. It includes topics such as the art of orchestration- scorereading- conducting- international orchestras- recording- and becoming an orchestral musician- educator or informed listener.
No musical genre has had a more controversial critical history than the concerto- but has simultaneously retained as consistently prominent a place in the affections of the concert-going public. This volume is one of a very few to deal with the genre in its entirety. Setting the concerto in its musical and non-musical contexts- it examines the concertos that have made important contributions to…
Handel is recognised as one of the principal creative figures in Baroque music. In this Companion acknowledged experts on Handel make their expertise accessible to the interested general reader and music lover. All the genres in which Handel composed are considered including oratorio- chamber cantata- opera- and church music- as well as works for the keyboard and orchestra.The wide-ranging essa…
For a century and a half Chopin's music has been played incessantly- yet the spell remains- and the 'Chopin recital'- whoever the pianist- still fills the concert halls. This Companion is designed to provide the enquiring music-lover with helpful insights into a musical style that recognises no contradiction between the accessible and the sophisticated- between the popular and the significant. …
The Cambridge Companion to Bach goes beyond a basic life-and-works study to provide a late twentieth-century perspective on J. S. Bach the man and composer. Benefiting from the insights and research of some of the most distinguished Bach scholars- this Companion covers cultural- social and religious contexts- surveys and analyses Bach's compositional style- traces his influence- and considers t…
This volume shows how Calvin's germinal political ideas were furthered and spread by his disciples- both in Europe and to the West.