Description:
More than 500 people are involved in the creation of just one of the world's greatest pianos, the Steinway. From the selection and aging of wood to the delicate voicing of the finished instrument, this special reissue of 88 Keys – The Making of a Steinway Piano relates the story behind the instrument's intricate formation, as told by Miles Chapin, a fifth-generation descendant of Steinway's founder, Henry Engelhard Steinway.

Readers will learn about how the piano gets its trademark curve, the “belly men” who fit the metal harp to the wooden frame, the carvers who shape the piano's legs and pedal lyre, and the many other craftspeople who have perfected their specialized contributions to the finished product.

They'll also get an insider's look into the company's history against a timeline of major worldwide music events, and into the roles of piano greats, including Anton Rubinstein and Sergei Rachmaninoff, in contributing to its prominence. A glossary of technical terms is included. For music lovers, aspiring musicians, and pianists everywhere.

 

Description:
This practical guide to the mechanics and evolution of the instrument also offers a survey of its literature. The author discusses touch and technique and the issues involved in historical performance practices. Also includes suggestions on selecting and maintaining a harpsichord.

 

Description:
This lucid guide traces the concerto's evolution over the major periods of music: baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century. The compositions of each important composer are discussed in detail, making this a useful companion to the form.

 

Description:
Created on the occasion of the Juilliard School's 100th anniversary in 2005, this book offers an unprecedented look at Juilliard's historic stringed instrument collection. The collection, assembled over the course of the last century through generous gifts of instruments and funds to the school, is vividly represented by photographic and narrative accounts of 25 instruments (and three bows) of particular historic interest by such illustrious makers as Amati, Bergonzi, Guadagnini, Guarneri, Stradivari, and others, as well as reproductions of historic documents and an annotated list of other instruments and bows. Among the featured instruments are a Stradivarius violin that once belonged to a Russian czar and was later owned by Avery Fisher, a Guarneri del Gesù violin played by a member of the Viennese quartet that premiered many of Beethoven's and Schubert's works in that genre, and a Stradivarius cello previously owned by Hugo Becker, head of the Berlin Hochschule für Musik.



Short essays sketch the history of Juilliard and its illustrious string department, and describe the crucial role of the Instrumental Loan Program, which allows students to borrow instruments for special performances and competitions as well as for longer-term use. The book includes a foreword by renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman, a Juilliard alumnus and holder of the school's Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair since 1999.

 

Description:
These intensely personal and perceptive essays explore the author's life as a pianist – practicing, performing, teaching, and writing – but they could be the thoughts and reflections of any artist. They recount the challenges, rewards, and joys of her experiences in her chosen profession.

 

Description:
Abby Whiteside (1881-1956) developed a revolutionary approach to piano technique, the idea of a “basic rhythm” involving the entire body that allows students to express the essential emotional rhythm of the music, as well as to play without the risk of the injuries that frequently afflict pianists. Her ideas on piano pedagogy remain essential today.

 

Description:
Alma Rosé's tragic story, from her birth and youth in the exalted musical circles of Vienna (her father was leader of the Vienna Philharmonic, her uncle was Gustav Mahler) to her death at Auschwitz, first came to public attention through the 1980 film Playing for Time. As leader of the only women's orchestra in the Nazi camps, by force of her will and spirit, she molded a terrified group of young musicians into an ensemble that became their sole hope of survival. And although Alma herself died of a sudden illness shortly before the liberation of the camps, she saved the lives of some four dozen members of the orchestra. In telling her full story for the first time, Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley honor her and the valiant prisoner-musicians for whom music meant life.

 

Description:
Let's keep our string programs vital, contemporary, and thriving! Alternative Strings: The New Curriculum is the first resource book in the world to offer a comprehensive guide to string educators wishing to step into twenty-first-century inclusive string pedagogy. The “Dear Abby” for string players, Julie Lyonn Lieberman, offers detailed descriptions of over two dozen fiddle, blues, jazz, pop, and world styles; bountiful support materials; a massive discography; musical examples; photographs; and audio from master players and clinicians, far exceeding the scope of other books in the field. ABOUT THE AUDIO CD: Some of today's top alternative string players and clinicians demonstrate rock, jazz, and fiddle styles; present innovative ideas for teaching new generations of string players; and more. Tracks include: 1. Howard Armstrong: My first fiddle 2. Geoffrey Fitzhugh Perry: Zydeco Rock 3. Daryl Silberman: Through Contemporary to Classical and Back 4. Ed Caner: Rock Basics 5. Anthony Barnett: Stuff Smith plays “Body and Soul” 6. Mark Wood: Evolution, Rock, and Musicianship 7. Jesus Florido: Latin and Beyond 8. Randy Sabien: Jazz Stirngs: A Life Inspiration 9. Leanne Darling: Arabic Strings 10. Bob Phillips: Fiddling in the Schools 11. Julianna Waller: Developing Diversity 12: Martin Norgaard: Jazz String Pedagogy 13. Richard Greene: Moving Forward 14. Martha Mooke: Breaking the Sound Barrier 15. Claude Williams: Reminiscences 16. Julie Lyonn Lieberman: “Fiddle, Sing,” excerpt from Mixing America

 

Description:
What's it like to grow up on a small farm in Illinois only to find yourself, some 20 years later, performing on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House? And then to travel the world, singing in historic theaters from La Scala in Milan to Vienna, Paris, London, and beyond? Former Met star Sherrill Milnes tells all in this completely updated, first-time-in-paperback edition of his very successful biography.

 

Description:
Antonio Vivaldi's rediscovery after World War II quickly led him from obscurity to his present renown as one of the most popular 18th-century composers. Heller's biography presents the important facets of his life, his works, and his influence on music history.

 

Description:
Arthur Honegger (1892--1955), Swiss by nationality, French by education and residence, was a major composer of the 20th century. Although he earned popular acclaim early in his career, in his later years his consistently tonal musical language was considered outmoded. His most significant works include five symphonies, a large body of chamber music, and several large-scale oratorios that combine choral and instrumental writing with declaimed narrative in a uniquely effective way. HARDCOVER

Arthur Honegger (Composer)
 

Description:
Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years details Toscanini's magnificent and heroic 17 years (1937-1954) conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The archival broadcast recordings documented and reassessed in this lively account comprise the most complete recorded legacy of Toscanini's orchestral conducting career. The broadcast recordings include his readings of many scores for which he left no approved recording, and his NBC career included performances of works he never conducted before coming to the network. The concerts and the broadcasts were immensely popular, and for generations Toscanini's name became synonymous with conducting. His legendary art and fiery personality also engendered controversy that has yet to subside, but this account takes on the challengers, accepting neither hero worship nor criticism that ignores the evidence.

 

Description:
Astor Piazzolla, brilliant, iconoclastic tango musician and composer, has become a national hero in Argentina and a cult figure for classical and jazz lovers worldwide, but only after a lifetime of controversy and struggle.The outspoken, headstrong Piazzolla told his story to journalist and longtime fan Natalio Gorin in the spring of 1990 in a series of frank interviews.Among the firsthand observations of others who knew Piazzolla well are those of his lyricist Horacio Ferrer, his fellow musicians, and his colleagues. Translator Fernando Gonzalez, an Argentine native and American popular music critic who covered PiazzollaÆs career in the United States, has annotated the Amadeus edition for the widening audience that is rediscovering Astor Piazzolla.

Astor Piazzolla (Composer)
 

Description:
Astor Piazzolla, brilliant, iconoclastic tango musician and composer, has become a national hero in Argentina and a cult figure for classical and jazz lovers worldwide, but only after a lifetime of controversy and struggle.The outspoken, headstrong Piazzolla told his story to journalist and longtime fan Natalio Gorin in the spring of 1990 in a series of frank interviews.Among the firsthand observations of others who knew Piazzolla well are those of his lyricist Horacio Ferrer, his fellow musicians, and his colleagues. Translator Fernando Gonzalez, an Argentine native and American popular music critic who covered PiazzollaÆs career in the United States, has annotated the Amadeus edition for the widening audience that is rediscovering Astor Piazzolla.

Astor Piazzolla (Composer)
 

Description:
This violin virtuoso plays seven pieces from Leclair, Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Sarasate and Kreisler in this DVD including an interview with Strauss and accompanist Carl Cranmer. 64 minutes.

In 1998, violinist Axel Strauss became the first German artist ever to win the Naumburg Violin Award. In the seasons since then, he has been acclaimed equally for his virtuosity and his musical sensitivity. Axel maintains a busy performance schedule and serves as Professor of Violin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He performs on a treasured violin made by J. F. Pressenda in Turin circa 1845, which is on extended loan through the generous efforts of The Stradivari Society in Chicago.

Axel Strauss (Artist)
 

Description:
Available for the first time in English, this biography, published in Prague only a few months after the composer's death, provides a contemporary view of the man and musician. Eminent Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper puts this curious work into perspective, clarifying inaccuracies in the original 19th-century text. HARDCOVER.

 

Description:
The second title in the Amadeus Press Parallel Lives series, this volume examines the lives and work of two giants of 20th century music. Both composers influenced countless others, and their works are performed often in today's concert and opera houses. Felsenfeld gives us a penetrating look into the lives of these two extraordinary men, helping us get to know them and therefore better understand their music. In clear, concise language he examines their major works, helping us to understand their genius and power, which is illustrated by the accompanying full-length CD.



The author points out parallel developments in Britten and Barber's lives and careers. Both came of age in a time of war, a time of political and artistic unrest and upheaval, and both were celebrities in their own time. Both wrote primarily – and most successfully – for the voice, but neither became ghettoized as a strictly vocal composer, and both were possessed of a flawless compositional technique, with a fluency that bordered on wizardry. Finally, both were prolific, involved musical presences on the world stage.



The accompanying full-length CD from Naxos Records includes six complete pieces.

 

Description:
Maria Callas returned to the stage in 1971 to teach master classes at Juilliard. This intriguing forum later inspired Terrence McNally's acclaimed play Master Class. Outspoken and uncompromising in her artistic beliefs, Callas worked through her legendary arias from Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Puccini, and others. John Ardoin brilliantly captures the insights of a thoughtful singer who reveals herself to be not the imperious diva of her reputation, but a supremely self-aware artist concerned with passing along a great musical tradition.

 

Description:
This book explains–in vivid picturesque detail–why we still listen with admiration to the work of these men, and how their personalities and the era in which they lived affected their music. The accompanying CD includes a sampling of their music from masterworks such as Appalachian Spring and The Unanswered Question to less common gems and includes guided listenings of exactly how the pieces work.

Aaron Copland (Composer)
Charles Ives (Composer)
 

Description:
Frédéric Chopin died a famous man with his place in the musical pantheon secure. Yet the works that were once most popular tended to be his lightest and least challenging, leading many listeners and critics to view him as a miniaturist and composer for the salon. The bold pieces now revered as his masterpieces-the epic and tragic structures of the ballades, scherzos, polonaises, and sonatas, and the compact but daring preludes and mazurkas-were rarely played and poorly understood. In fact, a larger proportion of Chopin's pieces are now in the active repertory than that of any composer.

Chopin – A Listener's Guide to the Master of the Piano takes a detailed tour through the life and oeuvre of the sovereign master of the keyboard. The composer's metabolic adaptation of the melodic structures of Italian opera and the folk music of his native Poland for the resources of the piano are examined in detail, as are the originality and boldness he displayed throughout his tragically short, astonishing career.

The book is accompanied by a CD containing 15 complete compositions (and one full movement from his Piano Sonata No. 2) performed by pianist Idil Biret, from her complete survey of the composer's music on the Naxos label.

Frederic Chopin (Composer)
 

Description:
Nick Strimple's all-encompassing survey ranges from 19th-century masters, such as Elgar, to contemporary composers, such as Tan Dun and Paul McCartney. Repertory of every style and level of complexity is critically surveyed and described. This book is an essential resource for choral conductors and a valuable guide for choral singers and other music lovers.

 

Description:
With more than 200 stunning color photographs by noted photographer Wendy McDougall, Classical Destinations takes readers on a tour of the history and geography of classical music, examining the lives of the great composers as related to their places of birth, education, triumphs, and failures. For today's traveler the book comes full-circle, describing how, through their achievements, the great composers came to influence the places where they lived and performed.

In these pages readers can visit Venice when it was home to Vivaldi, Salzburg as Mozart's prodigious talents emerged, Leipzig during the time of Mendelssohn and Schumann, Prague as growing Czech nationalism gripped Smetana, and the Vienna where Beethoven faced incurable deafness. The reader will accompany J. S. Bach through the towns of central Germany and tour St. Petersburg as Tchaikovsky knew it. Beyond the cities, Classical Destinations includes the dramatic landscapes of Norway and Finland that made so much of an impression on the music of Grieg and Sibelius.

 

Description:
A giant of postwar music and the most powerful figure in the contemporary French music scene, Pierre Boulez talks about his career as one of the world's most controversial conductors and daring programmers of musical text. These candid interviews give us vintage Boulez: his bold views, enigmatic wit, practical wisdom, and uncompromising beliefs.

 

Description:
Victor Lederer explores the sophistication, refinement and inspirations of Debussy's music, pointing out subtleties that otherwise could take years of careful listening to fully appreciate. Includes a full-length CD of the maestro's masterworks.

Claude Debussy (Composer)
 

Description:
An anthology of vivid and revealing memoirs, Debussy Remembered includes recollections from a wide range of Debussy's friends, colleagues, and acquaintances.

Claude Debussy (Composer)
 

Description:
This guide aims to unlock the world of Richard Wagner and his works, his monumental achievements, and, ultimately, the great emotional power inherent in his art. Decoding Wagner presents a straightforward, fresh overview of what Wagner attempted to achieve with his “artwork of the future.” Two accompanying full-length CDs illustrate and trace his growth as a composer.

Richard Wagner (Composer)
 

Description:
The predominant lieder singer of his generation, Fischer-Dieskau also had a distinguished career on the operatic stage. This biography provides a comprehensive and frank account of his extraordinary career, from his debut in Verdi's Don Carlos in 1948 to his farewell concert appearance in 1992. Hardcover.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Artist)
 

Description:
The music of Antonin Dvorák defies fashion. He is one of the very few composers whose works entered the international mainstream during his own lifetime, and some of them have remained there ever since. The pieces that historically define his international reputation, however, represent only a small fraction of what he actually composed. They comprise just one facet of his complex and remarkably rich artistic personality. This book/2-CD pack invites readers to celebrate his extraordinary achievement and experience the pleasure of getting to know more than 90 of his most important works. The two full-length CDs from Suprahon Records include 22 works.

Antonín Dvorák (Composer)
 

Description:
Violinist and educator Efrem Zimbalist (1890-1985) led a legendary life in music in an age of violin legends. Of the dazzling stars to emerge from the Russian School at the beginning of the 20th century, Zimbalist earned a special place. David Oistrakh compared him to Heifetz: “While Heifetz conquered by sheer brilliance, Zimbalist captivated people by appealing to profound mysteries of heart and soul.” Zimbalist was also one of the century's great teachers, for 40 years devoting himself to the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, serving as its director from 1941 to 1968.

His was a remarkable journey, fortunately recounted in hundreds of hours of taped interviews with author and Curtis Institute student Roy Malan, longtime concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Malan then waited nearly a decade after Zimbalist's death before seeking publication, so that the story could be told in its entirety.

This definitive biography of the world's first globe-trotting virtuoso also includes a discography and a list of Zimbalist's students.

Efrem Zimbalist (Artist)
 

Description:
Drawing on the personal recollections of the Caruso brothers, archival material preserved by the family, and extensive research, this book is a rare tribute to to the man and his vocal legacy. This abridged edition includes the full original text covering Caruso's life and death, plus a current discography.