Georg Christoph Wagenseil’s (1715–77) concerto for four harpsichords, scored without orchestra, remains the only known work of its kind based on entirely original material. There are no other known works for four harpsichords besides Bach’s concerto in A minor for four harpsichords and strings, BWV 1065, itself an adaptation of Vivaldi’s four-violin concerto in B minor, RV 580. Wagenseil’s concerto provides an interesting footnote in the development of historical keyboard instruments. Alongside a few other Viennese keyboard works, the concerto features large bass intervals necessitating the use of the Viennese short octave—a keyboard configuration with multiply split bass keys unique to mid-18th-century Viennese keyboard building. This fact further establishes the relevance of early Viennese keyboard instruments in historical keyboard performance. Several aspects of performance practice unique to Wagenseil’s concerto are discussed in the introduction to the edition: continuo realization for a keyboard concerto without orchestra, negotiating the requirements of the Viennese short octave on instruments with chromatic keyboards, and interpreting the notational idiosyncrasies of the manuscript source.

A Piano Duet for 2 pianos, 4 hands, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.

A History of the Concerto may be read from cover to cover, but readers may also use the extensive index to focus on specific concertos and their composers. Numerous musical examples illuminate critical points. While some readers may want to study the more detailed analyses with scores in hand, this is not essential for an understanding of the text.

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Offering comprehensive coverage of classical music, this guide surveys more than eleven thousand albums and presents biographies of five hundred composers and eight hundred performers, as well as twenty-three essays on forms, eras, and genres of classical music. Original.

Lists classical and operatic recordings that are specifically available in the new (and desirable) compact disc format. Individual titles are graded for their appropriateness to specific types and sizes of libraries. The main portion covers some 160 composers whose works are important in constituting a nuclear library collection of "serious" music. There are over 1,200 titles included and individually numbered (and fully cross-referenced) and graded. For numerous works, two or more performances are cited in order to provide the librarian with greater choices; monophonic works are specifically indicated. Many of the works are annotated. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The concertos of Vivaldi, Bach, Handel and their contemporaries are some of the most popular, and the most frequently performed, pieces of classical music; and the assumption has always been they were full orchestral works. This book takes issue with this orthodox opinion to argue quite the reverse: that contemporaries regarded the concerto as chamber music. The author surveys the evidence, from surviving printed and manuscript performance material, from concerts throughout Europe between 1685 and 1750 (the heyday of the concerto), demonstrating that concertos were nearly always played one-to-a-part at that time. He makes a particularly close study of the scoring of the bass line, discussing the question of what instruments were most appropriate and what was used when. The late Dr RICHARD MAUNDER was Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.