Composers and songwriters

In Crossing Paths, John Daverio explores the connections between art and life in the works of three giants of musical romanticism.

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Since John Lennon composed Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in early 1967, fans and music critics alike have argued over the meaning of the song.

In the 1950s, New York City's Birdland was the center of the world of modern jazz--and a revelation to Bill Crow, a wet-behind-the-ears twenty-two-year-old from Washington State.

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) was one of the most important and honored American composers of the twentieth century.

On January 16, 1938 Benny Goodman brought his swing orchestra to America's venerated home of European classical music, Carnegie Hall.

In Elvis Presley: A Southern Life, one of the most admired Southern historians of our time takes on one of the greatest cultural icons of all time.

Winner of the 2015 Music in American Culture Award from the American Musicological SocietyWhen Leonard Bernstein first arrived in New York City, he was an unknown artist working with other brilliant twentysomethings, notably Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green.

Leonard Bernstein was arguably the most highly esteemed, influential, and charismatic American classical music personality of the twentieth century.

In the late fifteenth century the newly built Sistine Chapel was home to a vigorous culture of musical composition and performance.

Bright Star of the West examines the life, repertoire, and influence of Ireland's greatest sean-nos (old-style) singer, Joe Heaney (1919-1984).

Bright Star of the West examines the life, repertoire, and influence of Ireland's greatest sean-nos (old-style) singer, Joe Heaney (1919-1984).

Few musical works loom as large in Western culture as Richard Wagner's four-part Ring of the Nibelung.

An extraordinary prodigy of Mozartean abilities, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a distinguished composer and conductor, a legendary pianist and organist, and an accomplished painter and classicist.

Forced by a hand injury to abandon a career as a pianist, Robert Schumann went on to become one of the world's great composers.

Samuel Barber: A Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Works is the first publication to list the entire musical output of Samuel Barber, one of the most beloved and frequently performed American composers.

Robert Schumann is one of the most intriguing-and enigmatic-composers of the nineteenth century.

Sergey Prokofiev was one of the twentieth century's greatest composers--and one of its greatest mysteries.

Robert Schumann is one of the most intriguing-and enigmatic-composers of the nineteenth century.

Funeral Games in Honor of Arthur Vincent Lourie explores the varied aesthetic impulses and ever-evolving personal motivations of Russian composer Arthur Lourie.

A provocative re-examination of a major romantic composer, Rethinking Schumann provides fresh approaches to Schumann's oeuvre and its reception from the perspectives of literature, visual arts, cultural history, performance studies, dance, and film.

When people hear the name "e;Clooney,"e; they automatically think of George Clooney, one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Rethinking Britten offers a fresh portrait of one of the most widely performed composers of the 20th century.

Arnold Schoenberg was a polarizing figure in twentieth century music, and his works and ideas have had considerable and lasting impact on Western musical life.

Today Georges Bizet is most immediately recognized as the composer of the acclaimed opera Carmen.

Handel is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of western music.

Handel is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of western music.

In a career that spanned nearly five decades, Dorothy Fields penned the words to more than four hundred songs, among them mega-hits such as "e;On the Sunny Side of the Street,"e; "e;I Can't Give You Anything But Love,"e; "e;The Way You Look Tonight,"e; and "e;If My Friends Could See Me Now.

Edited by prominent musician and scholar Leonard Brown, John Coltrane and Black America's Quest for Freedom: Spirituality and the Music is a timely exploration of Coltrane's sound and its spiritual qualities that are rooted in Black American music-culture and aspirations for freedom.

Keith Jarrett ranks among the most accomplished and influential pianists in jazz history.

A mesmerizing figure in concert, Charles Munch was celebrated for his electrifying public performances.

Modest Musorgsky was one of the towering figures of nineteenth-century Russian music.

Although he died in a tragic car accident at twenty-five, Clifford Brown is widely considered one of the most important figures in the history of jazz, a trumpet player who ranks with Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis, and a leading influence on contemporary jazz musicians.

In June of 1964, three young, white blues fans set out from New York City in a Volkswagen, heading for the Mississippi Delta in search of a musical legend.

Show Tunes fully chronicles the shows, songs, and careers of the major composers of the American musical theatre, from Jerome Kern's earliest interpolations to the latest hits on Broadway.

Mendelssohn and the Organ is the first comprehensive historical-critical study in any language to examine the role of the organ in Mendelssohn's personal and professional career.

Here is an exciting collection of writings about The Grateful Dead, offering both classic and hard-to-find essays, reporting, and reviews.

Each entry in this New Grove series of composers and their operas is based on articles in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, that feature information on the lives of individual composers, their works, their librettists and interpreters, and the places where they performed.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great icons of Western music.

Published in its first edition in 1983, Boyd's treatment of this canonical composer is essential reading for students, scholars, and everyone interested in Baroque music.

Gioachino Rossini was one of the most influential, as well as one of the most industrious and emotionally complex of the great nineteenth-century composers.

In the 1930s, Aaron Copland began to write in an accessible style he described as "e;imposed simplicity.

In a career that spanned nearly five decades, Dorothy Fields penned the words to more than four hundred songs, among them mega-hits such as "e;On the Sunny Side of the Street,"e; "e;I Can't Give You Anything But Love,"e; "e;The Way You Look Tonight,"e; and "e;If My Friends Could See Me Now.

Clad in white tie and tails, dancing and scatting his way through the "e;Hi-de-ho"e; chorus of "e;Minnie the Moocher,"e; Cab Calloway exuded a sly charm and sophistication that endeared him to legions of fans.

Granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and sister of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel (1805-1847) was an extraordinary musician who left well over four hundred compositions, most of which fell into oblivion until their rediscovery late in the twentieth century.

Sergey Prokofiev was one of the twentieth century's greatest composers--and one of its greatest mysteries.

This book makes a substantial collection of Vaughan Williams's writings widely available to music lovers, students, and researchers alike.

Joni Mitchell is one of the foremost singer-songwriters of the late twentieth century.

Camille Saint-Saens is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen observer of the musical culture in which he lived.

Setting the stage for a most intriguing journey into the world of minimalism, Robert Carl's Terry Riley's In C argues that the work holds its place in the canon because of the very challenges it presents to "e;classical"e; music.