Choral Monuments provides extensive material about eleven epoch-making choral masterworks that span the history of Western culture. Included are: Missa Pange lingua (Josquin Desprez); Missa Papae Marcelli (G. P. da Palestrina); B Minor Mass (J. S. Bach); Messiah (G. F. Handel); The Creation (Joseph Haydn); Symphony #9 (Ludwig van Beethoven); St. Paul (Felix Mendelssohn); Ein deutsches Requiem (Johannes Brahms); Messa da Requiem (Giuseppe Verdi); Mass (Igor Stravinsky); and War Requiem (Benjamin Britten). The works are presented in separate chapters, with each chapter divided into three basic sections-history, analysis, and performance practice. Discussions of history are focused on relevancies-the genesis of the designated work in reference to the composer's total choral output, the work's place within the musical environment and social climate of its time, and essential features of the work that make it noteworthy. In addition, the compositional history addresses three other factors: the work's public reception and critical response, both at the time of its composition and in ensuing years; the history of score publications, detailing the various differences between editions; and the texts of the composition. The material regarding textual treatment, which often includes the complete texts of the works being discussed, concentrates on primary concerns of the text's usage; also included in the discussion are noteworthy aspects of texts separate from the music as well as biographical details of librettists and poets, if appropriate. The analysis section of each chapter outlines and describes musical forms and other types of compositional organization, including parody technique, mirror structures, and motto repetitions, as well as salient compositional characteristics that directly relate and contribute to the work's artistic stature. Numerous charts and musical examples illustrate the discussions. The discussion of performance practices includes primary source quotations about a wide range of topics, from performing forces, tempo, and phrasing of each work to specific issues such as tactus, text underlay, musica ficta, metric accentuation, and ornamentation.

In The Score, The Orchestra, and the Conductor, internationally-renowned conducting instructor Gustav Meier presents his practical approach to preparing an orchestral score for rehearsal and performance. Well-illustrated with numerous music examples, charts, figures, and tables, Meier's methods, grounded in the rich body of his collected experience as a music director and teacher of conducting students, are explained in great detail. Meier covers all aspects of conducting from experimenting without the orchestra to creating signals that produce the desired sound. The methods he describes offer specific and readily applicable advice for virtually every musical and technical decision that occurs in the important phase between when a conductor first decides upon a specific score and the first rehearsal with an orchestra. And from ear training to working with musicians to programming, he also offers his expertise on the day-to-day aspects of conducting and musical performance. The Score, The Orchestra, and the Conductor will be an indispensable and often-read contribution to the library of every music director and conducting student.

Ralph Vaughan Williams originally wrote three Norfolk Rhapsodies with the intention of turning them into a three-movement Norfolk Symphony. This, the second rhapsody, is a telescoped slow movement and scherzo, which has been completed and edited by Stephen Hogger. The first has long been in the repertoire, but numbers two and three have not been performed since 1914. The third rhapsody unfortunately did not survive.

Bringing together young musicians from Palestine, Israel and other countries of the Middle East, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is both one of the most acclaimed youth orchestras in the world and a rare note of hope in a war-torn region. Founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said in 1999, it aims to promote Arab-Israeli understanding through music. In An Orchestra Beyond Borders, Elena Cheah, a professional musician and assistant to Daniel Barenboim, explores the orchestra's journey through the remarkable stories of the musicians that comprise it. These youthful testimonies are a window into the life of the region. Together, they communicate the musicians' ambitions and hopes, their varied and conflicting views on life and politics, and above all the orchestra's transformative ability to create an atmosphere of musical cooperation away from the implications and hardships of a world full of division and conflict.

This classic study of Mozart's piano concertos is, in the words of Alfred Einstein, `full of penetrating remarks not only about the piano concerto but about Mozart's art in general'. It is here reissued with a new introduction by noted Mozart scholar Cliff Eisen, who, as well as drawing the reader's attention to the virtues of the volume, also examines at the developments in Mozart scholarship since the volume's original publication.

World-wide in scope and focusing on the second half of the 20th century, this work provides biographies and discographies of 500 composers and conductors of light and popular orchestral music, including film, show, theatre and mood music. The book is arranged in two sequences: the first, "Biographies and select discographies", both arranged alphabetically, of the well-known and better-known conductors and composers. These entries include a list of suggested reading for those wishing to further their studies; and secondly "Select discographies" of conductors about whom little or no biographical information is available. The select bibliography at the end of the book covers discographical sources, popular music and film music.

A companion to his The Symphony: A Listener's Guide , Steinberg's new book covers the orchestral concerto repertoire from Bach to the present and featuring all instruments.

Relaxed and accessible in style, this authoritative guide is the first symphony handbook for non-musicians. The book begins with a general introduction to the symphony and short pieces on the orchestra and musical styles. Mordden goes on to describe, chronologically, over 700 pieces-from Vivaldi to twentieth-century composers. Further aids to the reader include two lists of repertory builders and a glossary of musical terms. "Easy and pleasurable to read...a genuinely useful guide for the music lover who has not had a musical education but loves concert music."-John Barkham Reviews

This is a study of Saint Saens's concertante works - five concertos for piano, three for violin, two for cello, and shorter works.