At age 34, Shea discovered that he had been deaf since childhood despite somehow maintaining a prestigious legal career.

These 48 pieces were composed over a period of two decades, beginning in 1832, and published in eight groups of six each. Many of these songs were dedicated to the women in Mendelssohn's life and reflect the sunniest qualities of his melodiousness, spontaneity and invention. Maurice Hinson has skillfully researched and edited these works back to their original form and provides a very informative introduction, which includes many detailed suggestions for a stylistic interpretation and performance, as well as biographical information on the composer's life.

In a first-ever publishing event, the remarkable photography and writings of Countess Sophia Tolstoy reveal the unfolding of her life with her famous husband--and evocatively portray a glittering world that soon would fade away. 120 photographs.

We proudly add this collection of Mendelssohn songs to our highly respected Piano Masters Series. From his fifty songs in the complete set we have selected twelve of the most often taught and performed pieces, spanning all opus numbers in the set. This new collection offers a wide variety of writing styles to help introduce this composer to your students.

Nothing can quite compare to the satisfaction, pleasure and joy of learning and playing the finest pieces of classical music and this terrific volume gives you the opportunity to do exactly that! Inside there are more than 60 easy pieces and Keyboard miniatures by master composers, selected and edited by Dennis Agay. All the pieces are printed in their original form though have had sensible expression marks and fingerings added. There is a wonderful range and diversity to these pieces with works by the likes of Bach, Haydn, Mozart and also lesser-known composers, set for Piano solo.

Songs without Words (Romances sans paroles) is the book in which, unabashedly, Paul Verlaine becomes himself and, in so doing, becomes the iconic poet of the French nineteenth century. A book of musical sequences, it seeks and finds exquisite purity of expression, best exemplified by Il pleure dans mon coeur, the most famous and most inimitable of all French lyric poems. And it is a book of intertwining narratives also, each of which entertains abasements and ecstasies, crises, crimes and expiations. These, in their separate ways, detail the shadowlands of artistic purity. Verlaine adores and defiles his child-bride, Mathilde. He takes to the road with Arthur Rimbaud, the love of his life, his muse, his captive and captor. Exhaustion is everywhere counterpoised with exaltation, squalor with splendor. And yet, in nearly every syllable, the dignity of Poetry and of human affections, proves inviolable.