Internationally renowned scholars and performers present a wide range of new analytical, historical and critical perspectives on some of Mozart's most popular chamber music: his sonatas with violin, keyboard trios and quartets and the quintet with wind instruments. The chapters trace a broad chronology, from the childhood works, to the Mannheim and Paris sonatas with keyboard and violin, and the mature compositions from his Vienna years. Drawing upon the most recent research, this study serves the reader, be they a performer, listener or scholar, with a collection of writings that demonstrate the composer's innovative developments to generic archetypes and which explore and assess Mozart's creative response to the opportunities afforded by new and diverse instrumental combinations. Manners of performance of this music far removed from our own are revealed, with concluding chapters considering historically informed practice and the challenges for modern performers and audiences.

This survey of the string quartet by ten chamber music specialists focuses on four main areas: social and musical background to the genre's development; celebrated ensembles and their significance; and string quartet playing. It reviews aspects of contemporary and historical practice, including "mixed ensembles." Informative appendixes and a full chronology of the mainstream repertory complete this compact guide.

Title: Symphony No. 9 Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Original Publisher: Breitkopf & Hartel The complete orchestral score to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Choral," as originally published by Breitkopf & Hartel in 1863. Performer's Reprints are produced in conjunction with the International Music Score Library Project. These are out of print or historical editions, which we clean, straighten, touch up, and digitally reprint. Due to the age of original documents, you may find occasional blemishes, damage, or skewing of print. While we do extensive cleaning and editing to improve the image quality, some items are not able to be repaired. A portion of each book sold is donated to small performing arts organizations to create jobs for performers and to encourage audience growth.

Handel wrote over 100 cantatas, compositions for voice and instruments that describe the joy and pain of love. In "Handel as Orpheus," the first comprehensive study of the cantatas, Ellen Harris investigates their place in Handel's life as well as their extraordinary beauty.

The cantatas were written between 1706 and 1723--from the time Handel left his home in Germany, through the years he spent in Florence and Rome, and into the early part of his London career. In this period he lived as a guest in aristocratic homes, and composed these chamber works for his patrons and hosts, primarily for private entertainments. In both Italy and England his patrons moved in circles in which same-sex desire was commonplace--a fact that is not without significance, Harris reveals, for the cantatas exhibit a clear homosexual subtext.

Addressing questions about style and form, dating, the relation of music to text, rhythmic and tonal devices, and voicing, "Handel as Orpheus" is an invaluable resource for the study and enjoyment of the cantatas, which have too long been neglected. This innovative study brings greater understanding of Handel, especially his development as a composer, and new insight into the role of sexuality in artistic expression.

Regarded by many as Brahms' first real chamber work, the Clarinet Quintet is here placed in the context of chamber music in general, Brahms' own earlier music, and the history and repertory of the clarinet generally. In addition to providing a detailed analysis, Colin Lawson pays special attention to performance traditions and also to the influence of Brahms' music on later composers. This handbook is the first comprehensive study of this work and it reflects the author's wide experience both as performer and scholar.

This volume provides a valuable resource for instrumental conductors, conducting teachers, and students. Most universities offering advanced degrees in instrumental conducting cannot provide a training orchestra or wind ensemble for the conductor. The chamber orchestra, which can be easily organized and requires a smaller instrumentation, provides a reasonable alternative. The chamber ensemble has the potential to offer training for the developing conductor and to expand the repertoire of the professional conductor. A Conductor's Repertory of Chamber Music lists over one thousand original works for chamber ensembles ranging in size from nine to fifteen solo instruments. The work includes three sections: the Repertory, a complete data base of compositions listed by composer and including instrumentation, publisher, the composer's date of birth, and the number of required musicians; the Repertory Classified, which lists compositions according to similar combinations of instruments; and a Title Index.

The Op. 50 string quartets contain some of the purest writing Haydn ever accomplished. In this first full account of the six quartets, Dean Sutcliffe evaluates the Op. 50 in relation to Haydn's more frequently performed quartets and considers their relevance to Haydn's wider output. Each quartet is discussed in detail. The background to these works includes a brief history of the string quartet and an assessment of Haydn's earlier works in this genre and of his role at Esterhaza. The description of the composition and publication of the Op. 50 quartets is based on the evidence of Haydn's surviving letters and the recently discovered autograph copies of nos. 3 to 6--a discovery that is vividly documented here for the first time.

How do four instrumentalists with strong individual tastes and temperaments manage to forge a distinctive approach to the music they play? This extraordinary book ushers readers into the workshop of one of the world's most accomplished string quartets. In rich and probing conversations with their longtime friend and musicologist and conductor David Blum, the members of the Guarneri String Quartet, both individually as a group, tell what it is like to play together.

When it was first performed in October 1960, Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet was greeted with a standing ovation and given a full encore. Its popularity has continued to the present day with over a hundred commercial recordings appearing during the last 40 years. The appeal of the work is not hard to identify; immediately communicative, the quartet also contains rich seams of deeper meaning. This book is the first to examine its musical design in detail and seeks to overthrow the charges of superficiality that have arisen as a result of the work's popular success. The core of this study is the close analysis of the work, but this is placed in context with a discussion of Shostakovich's reputation and historical position, the circumstances of the quartet's composition and the subsequent controversies that have surrounded it. The work was composed during the so-called 'Thaw' years of the Soviet Union, and the cultural and political backgrounds of this period are considered, together with Shostakovich's life and work during this time. David Fanning argues persuasively that the Eighth String Quartet is a landmark in twentieth-century music in its transcendence of the extra-musical meanings that it invokes; that it is 'music that liberates itself from the shackles of its context'. The book features an accompanying CD of the work.