San Antonio College Library

A biographical sketch combined with a detailed analysis of each of his major types of composition, including vocal music, organ music, keyboard music, and instrumental music. Many Bach compositions are examined and evaluated in relation to the rest of the composer's work, as well as in relation to the music of his contemporaries. More than seventy musical examples enable the reader to understand how Bach worked and to observe his music in various...

"Why produce another biography of Wagner? There are a number of answers to this question. In the first place, the archives are being opened and new documents are appearing all the time. Dr von Westernhagen, a scholar who has devoted his life to Wagner, has produced the only general biography on this scale which is truly up-to-date in making use of this fresh archive material. In the second place, there is a need for a biography which focuses on Wagner's...

"Bach is an entirely new volume in the "Master Musicians" series, replacing the old entry by Malcolm Boyd with updated coverage of the composer's life and works. Tracing the composer's biography from origins in Thuringia to mastery as cantor and music director at Leipzig, the book sets Bach in the cultural context of early modern Europe. Family life, social structure, and court culture are among the topics examined from the perspective of contemporary...

"George Marek's is the first full-scale biography of Richard Strauss--composer of Der Rosenkavalier, Salome, Till Eulenspiegel, Death and Transfiguration and other operatic and symphonic masterpieces--to examine with courage and candor the man behind the music. Strauss composed a self-portrait in Ein Heldenleben ('A hero's life'), but Mr. Marek finds the life anything but heroic. Strauss composed a Domestic Symphony full of sentiment, but Frau Strauss...

Best known for the challenging four-opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung, Richard Wagner (1813-83) was a conductor, librettist, theater director, and essayist, in addition to being the composer of some of the most enduring operatic works in history, such as The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, and Tristan and Isolde. Though his influence on the development of European music is indisputable, Wagner was also quite outspoken on the politics and culture...