A Guide to Orchestral Music

A Guide to Orchestral Music PDF Author: Ethan Mordden
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195040414
Category : Music appreciation
Languages : en
Pages : 588

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Book Description
This authoritative guide gives the non-musician the fundamentals of orchestral music. It begins with a general introduction to the symphony and various musical styles and then describes, chronologically, over seven hundred pieces--from Vivaldi to twentieth-century composers. Mordden also includes a glossary of musical terms and other useful aids for the music lover.

A Guide to Orchestral Music

A Guide to Orchestral Music PDF Author: Ethan Mordden
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195040414
Category : Music appreciation
Languages : en
Pages : 588

Get Book Here

Book Description
This authoritative guide gives the non-musician the fundamentals of orchestral music. It begins with a general introduction to the symphony and various musical styles and then describes, chronologically, over seven hundred pieces--from Vivaldi to twentieth-century composers. Mordden also includes a glossary of musical terms and other useful aids for the music lover.

The New Penguin Opera Guide

The New Penguin Opera Guide PDF Author: Amanda Holden
Publisher: Penguin USA
ISBN: 9780140514759
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 1142

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Book Description
Provides biographical sketches for nearly 850 composers along with articles on approximately 2,000 works.

A Night at the Opera

A Night at the Opera PDF Author: Sir Denis Forman
Publisher: Modern Library
ISBN: 0307807827
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 980

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Book Description
“Delightful and anti-reverential”—Sunday Times (London) With an encyclopedic knowledge of opera and a delightful dash of irreverence, Sir Denis Forman throws open the world of opera—its structure, composers, conductors, and artists—in this hugely informative guide. A Night at the Opera dissects the eighty-three most popular operas recorded on compact disc, from Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. For each opera, Sir Denis details the plot and cast of characters, awarding stars to parts that are “worth looking out for,” “really good,” or, occasionally, “stunning.” He goes on to tell the history of each opera and its early reception. Finally, each work is graded from alpha to gamma (although the Ring cycle gets an “X”), and Sir Denis has no qualms about voicing his opinion: the first act of Fidelio is “a bit of a mess,” while the last scene of Don Giovanni “towers above the comic finales of Figaro and Così and whether or not [it] is Mozart's greatest opera, it is certainly his most powerful finale.” The guide also presents brief biographies of the great composers, conductors, and singers. A glossary of musical terms is included, as well as Operatica, or the essential elements of opera, from the proper place and style of the audience's applause (and boos) to the use of subtitles. A Night at the Opera is for connoisseurs and neophytes alike. It will entertain and inform, delight and (perhaps) infuriate, providing a subject for lively debate and ready reference for years to come.

Opera 101

Opera 101 PDF Author: Fred Plotkin
Publisher: Hyperion
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
Written by an opera insider and featuring an introduction by Placido Domingo, here is a thorough, friendly, and truly complete guide to learning how to love and appreciate the opera. After a brief history of opera, the book includes a guide to operatic terms, a minute-by-minute listener's guide to 11 central works, a list of recommended books and recordings and much more.

The Metropolitan Opera Guide

The Metropolitan Opera Guide PDF Author: Mary Ellis Peltz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Opera
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description


The Viking Opera Guide

The Viking Opera Guide PDF Author: Amanda Holden
Publisher: Viking Adult
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 1338

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Book Description
The book, which was published early this year and is available unbundled from the CD-ROM for $69.95, contains information on more than 800 composers and examines some 1,500 operas in detail. Each composer's musical career is outlined, with an assessment of his or her overall contribution to opera. Opera entries include cast lists and orchestral forces, a commentary on the background of the work, a synopsis of the plot, and a musical analysis identifying musical highlights and points of interest. Recording and edition information is included. For those who don't like to turn pages, prefer to read from the screen, or just like the click-click of the mouse, the CD-ROM provides computer access via Windows to the information and pictures (small black and whites) of the book. The CD-ROM holds some enhancements: notably, three hours of music excerpts (unheard by this reviewer who lacks the needed 16-bit sound card; some, according to the press release, are as long as three to five minutes). Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Guide to Operatic Roles & Arias

Guide to Operatic Roles & Arias PDF Author: Richard Boldrey
Publisher: Pst Records
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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Book Description
This text features works from 350 composers in 16 different languages and 30 voice categories - all sorted and cross-referenced. This one-of-a- kind reference allows you to search by: Roles, voice categories, aria titles, singers, composers, operas

The Good Opera Guide

The Good Opera Guide PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781480450318
Category : Opera
Languages : en
Pages : 902

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Book Description
Here is an excerpt of what The Good Opera Guide has to say about Cilea & rsquo;s Adriana Lecouvreur : & ldquo;The one about the star of stage and screen whose rival sends her a bouquet of poison gas violets. She sniffs it: snuffs it. & rdquo; The Good Opera Guide is not only for regular operagoers but also for people who are new to the world of opera, or indeed people who want to bluff their way through a performance! It is written with humor and is entertaining as well as informative. Where else would you find a & ldquo;dagger count & rdquo; for La Gioconda, and have Hansel and Gretel categorized as a & ldquo;Gingerbread Opera & rdquo;? From Adriana Lecouvreur to Mozart & rsquo;s Die Zauberfl & ouml;te, for each opera, Sir Denis details the plot and cast of characters, awarding stars to parts that are & ldquo;worth looking out for, & rdquo; & ldquo;really good, & rdquo; or, occasionally, & ldquo;stunning. & rdquo; He goes on to tell the history of each opera and its early reception. Finally, each work is graded from alpha to gamma, and Sir Denis has no qualms about voicing his opinion. The guide also presents brief biographies of the great composers, conductors, and singers. A glossary of musical terms is included, as well as & ldquo;Operatica, & rdquo; or the essential elements of opera, from the proper place and style of the audience & rsquo;s applause (and boos) to the use of subtitles. & ldquo;The first guide to take the sensible decision of separating comments on the music (serious and helpful) from descriptions of the plot (invariably flippant and often funny). & rdquo; & mdash; The Sunday Telegraph Sir Denis Forman (1917 & ndash;2013) was for many years chairman and chief executive of Granada Television. He was also deputy chairman of the Royal Opera House for nine years. Other works include The Good Wagner Guide.

Italian Opera Since 1945

Italian Opera Since 1945 PDF Author: Raymond Fearn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134419252
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
First published in 1988. Italy, the birthplace of opera in the late sixteenth century, has in recent decades seen remarkable and vital musical growth, with composers as diverse as Luciano Berio and Nino Rota, Luigi Nono and Sylvano Bussotti, Giacomo Manzoni, Bruno Maderna and Salvatore Sciarrino. The musical theatre has figured prominently in the work of Italian composers during this period, ranging from operas conceived in a traditional mode to works of a Music Theatre variety, and in style from popular to avant-garde. In this book Raymond Fearn surveys this Italian musico-theatrical phenomenon in the period since the Second World War, examining a wide range of works such as Nono's Intolleranza and Al Gran Sole Carico d'Amore, Berio's Passaggio and Un re in ascolto, Manzoni's Atomtod and La Sentenza and Castiglioni's Oberon and The King's Masque, and places these developments within a cultural and theatrical context

A History of Opera

A History of Opera PDF Author: Carolyn Abbate
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393089533
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 648

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Book Description
“The best single volume ever written on the subject, such is its range, authority, and readability.”—Times Literary Supplement Why has opera transfixed and fascinated audiences for centuries? Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker answer this question in their “effervescent, witty” (Die Welt, Germany) retelling of the history of opera, examining its development, the musical and dramatic means by which it communicates, and its role in society. Now with an expanded examination of opera as an institution in the twenty-first century, this “lucid and sweeping” (Boston Globe) narrative explores the tensions that have sustained opera over four hundred years: between words and music, character and singer, inattention and absorption. Abbate and Parker argue that, though the genre’s most popular and enduring works were almost all written in a distant European past, opera continues to change the viewer— physically, emotionally, intellectually—with its enduring power.