Giovanni Battista Lulli, a young Florentine who settled in Paris, intrigued his way into all the major musical appointments at the court of Louis XIV and--as Jean-Baptiste Lully--created the essentials of what we recognize as French music of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. No one dared to rival Lully as a composer of operas or ballet. But in the chapels, the two most gifted French choral composers of the age, Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Michel-Richard de Lalande, brought French sacred music to a new peak of excellence. The leading instrumental composer around Louis XIV's court was Francois Couperin-le-Grand, master of the keyboard miniature. All these traditions were drawn together in the next generation by Jean-Philippe Rameau, theorist, 'philosophe,' and supreme master of the lyric tragedy. Book jacket.

This volume of essays on Jean-Baptiste Lully and his musical legacy honours the distinguished French baroque scholar James R. Anthony. Jean-Baptiste Lully, court composer to Louis XIV, served as the principal architect of what would become known as the French style of music in the baroque era. The style he created strongly influenced the great musical figures in England (Purcell and Handel) and Germany (Bach and Telemann), but Lully's music itself has received little attention. Recently, through the efforts of scholars and musicians concerned with the performance practices of Lully's time, Lully's own music has begun to come alive in performance and recording. These essays, all by important baroque specialists, cover significant aspects of Lully's life and works and the French tradition he influenced. They constitute the first post-war collection of studies centred on Lully and form a fitting tribute to Professor Anthony whose own French baroque music provided a stimulus for the work of an emerging generation of scholars.

These five biographies provide the first complete survey of Italian opera from the early buffo operas of Rossini to Verdi's great masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, and the verismo operas of Puccini. Andrew Porter has been highly praised for his original and enlightening account of Verdi, and Philip Gossett has received similar acclaim for his treatment of Rossini. Porter, Gossett, William Ashbrooke, Julian Budden, Mosco Carner, and Friedrich Lippmann, all acknowledged experts in the field of Italian opera, combine to offer insight into the traditions and workings of one of the most fascinating periods in the history of opera. Book jacket.

Story of almost a thousand years of song, from the time of the troubadours, to the present day.

Traces the life of Franz Schubert, describes the development of his muscial career, and discusses the composition of his major works.

Named a Library Journal Best Reference of 2023 - "Bravo! An invaluable source for scholars and concertgoers.” - Library Journal In the history of the Western musical tradition, the Baroque period traditionally dates from the turn of the 17th century to 1750. The beginning of the period is marked by Italian experiments in composition that attempted to create a new kind of secular musical art based upon principles of Greek drama, quickly leading to the invention of opera. The ending is marked by the death of Johann Sebastian Bach in 1750 and the completion of George Frideric Handel’s last English oratorio, Jephtha, the following year. The Historical Dictionary of Baroque Music, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 500 cross-referenced entries on composers, instruments, cities, and technical terms. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about baroque music.