LUCA ANDREA GIORDANO lives in Italy. He holds doctorate degrees in Foreign Languages, Modern Philology, Vocal Performance (Opera and Chamber music) and Oboe. He is dedicated at being a linguist and interpreter assisting professional departments at various Italian Conservatories in English and French. Also, he is an author of extensive analytical works in musicology, linguistics and composition with various publishers. He also performs frequently as a classical singer and oboist at national and international levels. This music theory introduces learners to the basic concepts of western musical language including pitch, duration, scales, keys, intervals, metre, rhythm, ornaments, tuplets, harmony, cadences and other related areas. The outline is ordered sequentially by topic in order to facilitate a stepwise growing understanding while reading. The intuitive and ground-breaking method is based on effective and intelligible definitions that will clarify even the most convolute topics. In this regards, the book is intended for students with little or no musical background as well as for those who have some familiarity but wish to deepen their knowledge and broaden their musical horizons. The last section contains a basic glossary intended for a quick and practical consultation (syntax of music, forms, and techniques of different genres).

LUCA ANDREA GIORDANO lives in Italy. He holds doctorate degrees in Foreign Languages, Modern Philology, Vocal Performance (Opera and Chamber music) and Oboe. He is dedicated at being a linguist and interpreter assisting professional departments at various Italian conservatories in English and French. Also, he is an author of extensive analytical works in musicology, linguistics and composition with various publishers. He also performs frequently as a classical singer and oboist at national and international levels. This work is intended as a reference source to provide quick, comprehensive explanations to commonly used and, in some cases, less commonly used terms from the music field (theory, history, forms, techniques and styles of different genres). The selected areas covered in these pages include terms and concepts which are unlikely to change in the near future. As with any dictionary, it is conceived to provide definitions and not merely a glossary of terms, nor it is intended to be encyclopedic, with lengthy and unmethodical explanations. It is aimed at either those who will encounter, probably for the first time, unfamiliar technical terms or those who have already mastered the fundamental concepts but may require further clarification in order to broaden their horizons.

One of the most used and abused myths in literature, music, and art in general - and even common discourse - is without doubt that of Don Juan. Revised countless times by diverse artistic personalities, and originating in popular legend, Don Juan was first given literary personality in the tragic drama El burlador de Sevilla (1630), attributed to the Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molina. Through a literary selection composed by the most significant accounts, one participates in a parable in which the myth starts from a seventeenth century conception (in which those who violate the law are condemned), passes to a romantic one in which those who transgress are self-conscious at the same time, and finally funnels through the dawn of the twentieth century (in which the rebellion against social laws is seen as normal). Ethical individualism becomes a tragic but necessary choice - to finally arrive at the mythical contemporary interpretation in which the hero rejects the bourgeois values of society preferring geometric abstraction or neurosis to the real and sensitive universe. However, it is in the transposition to music that the myth of the impertinent libertine acquires a unique fascination, because it has sprung from the familiar, sensual and mysterious fusion of such seemingly different languages but which in substance create, in complete unison, the trait d'union between the living being and the sublime. From the seventeenth century onwards, there are many works inspired by this character, including opera and dance. Without a doubt, the most known work comes from the exceptional nature of the Mozart-Da Ponte. The present work, inspired by some critical reflections, deals with the meeting between an extraordinarily malleable myth, a composer and a librettist capable of recognizing, and lifting to unthinkable heights, the symbolic components of the ancient legend, sealing a unique alchemy able to transmit even the smallest nuances of human nature.

Although most people agree that Mozart's music sparkles brilliantly, no one knows for sure how Mozart created those majestic glimmering sounds. Today, scholars are investigating Mozart's life and work, not only to assess and admire how great a composer he was, but also to find why his music is so outstanding and intricate on one hand and so appealing to all including the common man at the same time. Mozart's best music has a natural flow and irresistible charm, and can express humor, joy or sorrow with both conviction and mastery. His compositions, especially his later efforts, are brilliant examples of a pure art form; even his lesser compositions and juvenile works feature much attractive and often masterful music. Despite such fervor and brilliance, Mozart's life was tormented by many difficulties and mysteries which have not yet been completely revealed. This work aims to offer some reflections about the most debated aspects of his intense existence.

LUCA ANDREA GIORDANO lives in Italy. He holds doctorate degrees in Foreign Languages, Modern Philology, Vocal Performance (Opera and Chamber music) and Oboe. He dedicates his time equally as a linguist and interpreter assisting professional departments at various Italian Music Conservatories in English and French, and as author of extensive analytical works in musicology, linguistics and composition for important publishing houses. He has been associated with the Opera House "Giuseppe Verdi" in Salerno, as chorus member, since 1999. He also performs frequently as classical singer and oboist at national and international levels.

For a long time opera was dominated by larger-than-life characters: kings and queens, gods and goddesses, mythic figures with power over life and death. However, as opera became a more and more popular form of entertainment, the perspective changed. The challenge for composers and librettists was to give these legendary characters common feelings - to put little sorrow in great souls - so that ordinary people could easily identify with on stage dramas. Composers turned to stories about simpler, more realistic characters, creating a whole new set of challenges in the process. Nobody knew that better than Giacomo Puccini whose operas tell us that at some point in their lives, people everywhere, in all walks of life, endure the same trials: love and envy, loss and heartbreak. This is especially true in La Boheme, a drama of everyday events and common people, a story set among struggling artists in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Certain critics have analyzed his music and his stories and concluded that his operas are too easily enjoyable, and maybe not intellectual enough, to justify Puccini's great success. It would be easy to argue that other composers produced operas far more complex and innovative than Puccini's, but that conclusion may also be too simple. Regardless of his methods, Puccini mastered the unique and mystifying synthesis of music, drama and stagecraft that only opera can deliver, and with powerful results. His enduring, popular dramas are graced by appealing and believable characters whose feelings are portrayed so deeply and so vividly that, as we look on, their emotions soon become ours as well, and their heartbreaks seem as wrenching as our own. Luca Andrea Giordano lives in Italy. He holds doctorate degrees in Foreign Languages, Modern Philology, Vocal Performance (Opera and Chamber music) and Oboe. He dedicates his time equally as a linguist and interpreter assisting professional departments at various Italian Music Conservatories in English and French, and as author of extensive analytical works in musicology, linguistics and composition for important publishing houses. He has been associated with the Opera House "Giuseppe Verdi" in Salerno, as chorus member, since 1999. He also performs frequently as classical singer and oboist at national and international levels."

The works of no great composer between the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries have undergone a more spectacular reassessment than those of Giuseppe Verdi. His death brought a crowd of several hundred thousand people to mourn not only the passing of a great artist but also a beloved national hero. It is not surprising that a figure such as Verdi should have inspired an enormous amount of books, articles, essays, and critical evaluation. Today, Verdi scholars build their work on a vast foundation of earlier research. For those who have not spent years with Verdi literature or who may just be starting to explore some aspect of the giant's life and works, this foundation may seem daunting indeed. It is primarily for these researchers that this volume is intended, although it is hoped that specialists will also find it to be useful. Its purpose is to index and describe some of the most significant studies about the composer and his music, presenting enough material - in a sort of stream of consciousness, using annotations that readers may survey the myriad directions Verdi research has gone, ascertain the relevance of individual items to their individual interests, and easily pursue significant patterns and threads in which they are interested. This Verdi biography is dealt with as a simple story to be read in one go - in which thoughts concerning personal and professional events in his life flow in simplicity, while continuing to respect the importance of chronological order.