 | Beethoven (Revised Edition) (Omnibus Press) by Maynard Solomon
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $5.99 Maynard Solomon is a wonderful music historian, and provides great insight into this monumental composer. Beethoven didn't have it easy.
|
 | Mozart: A Life by Maynard Solomon
Buy new: $15.61 / Used from: $5.55 Same here. Go beyond "Amadeus".
|
 | Mozart and the Enlightenment: Truth, Virtue, and Beauty in Mozart's Operas by Nicholas Till
Buy used from: $10.49 Mozart, perhaps more than most composers, was a creature of his zeitgeist. This book gives insight into the influence of the Enlightenment and Freemasonry on Mozart's operas.
|
 | The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte--Mozart's Poet, Casanova's Friend, and Italian Opera's Impre by Rodney Bolt
Buy new: $19.77 / Used from: $2.00 What a fascinating man daPonte was! Born into poverty in a jewish ghetto, Lorenzo da Ponte struggled for all that he had. Then he lost it. Then he got it back. And so on. Great book.
|
 | Beethoven: His Spiritual Development by j.w.n. SULLIVAN
Buy new: $9.00 / Used from: $0.79 More on the very interesting Beethoven. This book, however, gets more into the influences of Beethoven's life stages on his compositions.
|
 | Viva LA Liberta!: Politics in Opera by Anthony Arblaster
Buy new: $15.60 / Used from: $19.04 Great analysis and insight into several composers and their compositions/chosen subjects; particularly Mozart, Verdi and Wagner.
|
 | The Lives of the Great Composers by Harold C. Schonberg
Buy new: $23.10 / Used from: $8.99 Fabulous reference book. It's even cited in my fiancee's doctoral dissertation at Indiana University. She used it for interesting facts about Hugo Wolfe.
|
 | What to Listen for in Music by Aaron Copland
Buy new: $7.95 / Used from: $1.52 Learn from a master. You don't get many chances to have a music appreciation lesson from Aaron Copland.
|
 | Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) by Igor Stravinsky
Buy new: $17.10 / Used from: $3.92 Nor do you have many chances to get reprints of lectures at Harvard by one of the greatest composers of all time!
|
| Casals and the Art of Interpretation by David Blum
Buy used from: $24.50 Very helpful to performing musicians. I learned a lot from it.
|
 | Tchaikovsky through Others' Eyes (Russian Music Studies)
Buy new: $27.55 / Used from: $11.70 Fascinating portrait told through anecdotes of friends and family, and letters to and from Tchaikovsky.
|
 | The Mastery of Music: Ten Pathways to True Artistry by Barry Green
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $9.04 Probably useful only to performing musicians, but you will love it! I played violin better after reading this. Great lessons in the "mental game".
|
Listmania!
