The composer's musical development and growing mastery of orchestration in authoritative editions of three early symphonies: Winter Daydreams, the Little Russian and the Polish. Reprinted from editions originally published separately by Editions de Musique de l'URSS, Moscow, 1946. Lists of instruments.

Why Mahler? Why does his music affect us in the way it does? Norman Lebrecht, one of the world’s most widely read cultural commentators, has been wrestling obsessively with Mahler for half his life. Following Mahler’s every footstep from birthplace to grave, scrutinizing his manuscripts, talking to those who knew him, Lebrecht constructs a compelling new portrait of Mahler as a man who lived determinedly outside his own times. Mahler was—along with Picasso, Einstein, Freud, Kafka, and Joyce—a maker of our modern world. Why Mahler? is a book that shows how music can change our lives.

"Hurwitz describes the emotional extravagance that lies at the root of Mahler's popularity, the consistency of his symphonic thinking, and his dazzling and revolutionary use of orchestral instruments to create an expressive musical language that is varied in content and immediate in impact."--BOOK JACKET.

Ludwig Van Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 1 to 9 in Full Score Completed in 1824, three years before the composer's death, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony occupies a special place at the summit of Classical literature - the peak of Beethoven's orchestral output and, for generations of composers, the supreme model of extended symphonic form. The finale is in itself unique in the orchestral repertory of its time, bringing the power of poetry and song to the symphonic fabric: Beethoven's dramatic choral setting of Schiller's Ode and die Freude - his "Ode to Joy." The work is reproduced here from the authoritative Litolff edition and appears in full score with bar-numbered movements for easy reference. Ideal for study in the classroom, at home, or in the concert hall, this affordable, high-quality, conveniently sized volume will be the edition of choice for music students and music lovers alike.

Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007 Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007 A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007 In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.

In the years spanning from 1800 to 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven completed nine symphonies, now considered among the greatest masterpieces of Western music. Yet despite the fact that this time period, located in the wake of the Enlightenment and at the peak of romanticism, was one of rich intellectual exploration and social change, the influence of such threads of thought on Beethoven’s work has until now remained hidden beneath the surface of the notes. Beethoven’s Symphonies presents a fresh look at the great composer’s approach and the ideas that moved him, offering a lively account of the major themes unifying his radically diverse output. Martin Geck opens the book with an enthralling series of cultural, political, and musical motifs that run throughout the symphonies. A leading theme is Beethoven’s intense intellectual and emotional engagement with the figure of Napoleon, an engagement that survived even Beethoven’s disappointment with Napoleon’s decision to be crowned emperor in 1804. Geck also delves into the unique ways in which Beethoven approached beginnings and finales in his symphonies, as well as his innovative use of particular instruments. He then turns to the individual symphonies, tracing elements—a pitch, a chord, a musical theme—that offer a new way of thinking about each work and will make even the most devoted fans of Beethoven admire the symphonies anew. Offering refreshingly inventive readings of the work of one of history’s greatest composers, this book shapes a fascinating picture of the symphonies as a cohesive oeuvre and of Beethoven as a master symphonist.

Original collection features Liszt's interpretations of his own "Totentanz" plus Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre, " Berlioz's "Dance of the Sylphes" from" The Damnation of Faust, "Weber's "Overtures to Die ""Freischutz" and "Oberon, "and several other pieces.

Influential 18th-century oratorio renowned for the beauty, drama, and brilliant originality of its arias, duets, and choruses. Authoritative German Handel Society edition. Text underlay in English and German.