This expanded and completely revised fourth edition is a unique handbook, spanning a thousand years of music from Gregorian chant via Bach and Beethoven to current leading lights such as Thomas Ades and Kaija Saariaho.
There are concise biographical profiles of more than 200 composers and informative summaries of the major compositions in all genres, from chamber works to operatic epics. Topics such as the influence of jazz, notation, conducting, the madrigal, and why Stradivarius made such great violins are covered fully in feature boxes. The Rough Guide has been praised for its mix of well-known composers with more obscure, but interesting, figures (like Antoine Brumel and Barbara Strozzi), and for the way it takes contemporary music seriously.
- ISBN10 1843532476
- ISBN13 9781843532477
- Publish Date 28 July 2005
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 30 November 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher APA Publications
- Imprint Rough Guides
- Edition 4th edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 656
- Language English