Book details

Book description

This superbly authoratitive new work provides a comprehensive A-Z guide to some 1000 years of Western music. It explores in detail the lives and achievements of a vast range of composers, as well as looking at such key topics as music history (from medieval plainchant to contemporary minimalism), performers, theory and jargon. Throught Griffiths skilfully blends lightly worn scholarship with personal insight, whether examining the emotional colouring that different musical keys achieve or charting the rise and development of the symphony. Paul Griffiths has been writing about music professionally for more than 30 years. He was chief music critic of The Times and The New Yorker, has contributed to many other publications, and is a recipient of the Commonwealth Prize.