First published in 1969, The Sisters d' Aranyi traces the careers, personalities and musical development of Jelly d’ Aranyi and Adila Fachiri, outstanding violinists in Britain and Hungarian great nieces of Josef Joachim, with insight and a wealth of anecdote and description. The book contains fresh lights on figures such as Joachim himself, Elgar, Ravel and Vaughan Williams, Casals, Suggia, and Myra Hess, Aldous Huxley, Einstein and Schweitzer, Balfour, Asquith and Neville Chamberlain. There are illuminating comments on music from Bach to the present day, and also a chapter on the mysterious affair of the Imprisoned Schumann Violin Concerto, and how it was found and liberated. These two consummate musicians were, however, part of a movement towards greater sincerity in music- a tendency not yet sufficiently recorded by musicologists. To set them in their time, this biography contains a most readable history of music in Britain with some original observations on the nature of music itself in performance. This book is an essential read for students of music, music history, literature, performance studies, for violin players and also for general music lovers.

First published in 1969, The Sisters d' Aranyi traces the careers, personalities and musical development of Jelly d' Aranyi and Adila Fachiri, outstanding violinists in Britain and Hungarian great nieces of Josef Joachim, with insight and a wealth of anecdote and description. The book contains fresh lights on figures such as Joachim himself, Elgar, Ravel and Vaughan Williams, Casals, Suggia, and Myra Hess, Aldous Huxley, Einstein and Schweitzer, Balfour, Asquith and Neville Chamberlain. There are illuminating comments on music from Bach to the present day, and also a chapter on the mysterious affair of the Imprisoned Schumann Violin Concerto, and how it was found and liberated. These two consummate musicians were, however, part of a movement towards greater sincerity in music- a tendency not yet sufficiently recorded by musicologists. To set them in their time, this biography contains a most readable history of music in Britain with some original observations on the nature of music itself in performance. This book is an essential read for students of music, music history, literature, performance studies, for violin players and also for general music lovers.

Since the publication of The London Pianoforte School (ed. Nicholas Temperley) twenty years ago, research has proliferated in the area of music for the piano during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and into developments in the musical life of London, for a time the centre of piano manufacturing, publishing and performance. But none has focused on the piano exclusively within Britain. The eleven chapters in this volume explore major issues surrounding the instrument, its performers and music within an expanded geographical context created by the spread of the instrument and the growth of concert touring. Topics covered include: the piano trade and how piano manufacturing affected a major provincial town; the reception of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and Clementi's Gradus ad Parnassum during the nineteenth century; the shift from composer-pianists to pianist-interpreters in the first half of the century that triggered crucial changes in piano performance and concert structure; the growth of musical life in the peripheries outside major musical centres; the pianist as advocate for contemporary composers as well as for historical repertory; the status of British pianists both in relation to foreigners on tour in Britain and as welcomed star performers in outposts of the Empire; marketing forces that had an impact on piano sales, concerts and piano careers; leading virtuosos, writers and critics; the important role played by women pianists and the development of the recording industry, bringing the volume into the early twentieth century.

The violin was first mentioned in a book in the sixteenth century. An abundant and diverse literature on the instrument has grown since then, and a complete general guide to these materials has not been produced in the modern era. The last, Edward Heron-Allen's De Fidiculis Bibliographia , was published in1894. This book fills that void, organizing and annotating information on the violin from a variety of fields and sources. It provides a comprehensive, though selective, guide to all facets of the instrument. The book is divided into 4 main parts: Reference and General Studies; Acoustics and Construction; Violin Playing, Performance Practice, and Music; and Violinists, Composers, and Violin Teachers. It will serve as a ready reference for students and scholars, and is a welcome addition to the esteemed Routledge Music Bibliography series.

The most comprehensive reference book of its kind, with more than 60 new entries in this third edition.

The enthusiastic response to the Dictionary has prompted this second substantially enlarged, revised and updated edition. It now contains essential details of the lives of over 2000 women from all periods, cultures and walks of life - from queens to cooks, engineers to entertainers, pilots to poisoners. The new entries include women who have hit the headlines in the past five years - from Cory Aquino to Madonna - but the historical coverage has also been broadened in response to new research and a special new feature is the extended treatment of women from Third World countries. With subsections for further reading, comprehensive subject index and bibliographical survey, the Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography is an invaluable reference source - and a fascinating bed-time read.