This essential guidebook is designed for all travelers interested in exploring the historic musical sites of Paris-in person or from an armchair. Paris is a uniquely rich music capital, its streets echoing with centuries of great music that has been created and performed there. Virtually every neighborhood boasts a concert hall, church, museum, or home that has played a significant role in the extraordinary musical tradition of the city. This gazetteer will guide you to the important musical landmarks in Paris and explain why each is noteworthy. Nearly all the celebrated French composers of...

The French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-92) is a musician about whom most remains to be discovered. More than a decade after his death our knowledge of Messiaen is largely conditioned by what he said about himself in lectures and interviews, in his work as a teacher, and in the monumental seven-volume treatise that encompassed the whole of his composing world. But Messiaen's public documents conceal as much as they reveal, seldom explaining why a work was written or what complexities went into its making. The composer was similarly reticent about his private life.

This is the first book...

This is the fullest catalogue in any language of the works of the great Czech composer Leo%s Jana%cek. The entry for each work includes detailed information on date of composition, source of texts, performing forces, duration, manuscript locations, publication, performances and production, dedication, and literature. The catalogue also includes a complete annotated edition of the composer's writings.
"

One of the Broadway musicals that can genuinely claim to have transformed the genre, West Side Story has been featured in many books on Broadway, but it has yet to be the focus of a scholarly monograph. Nigel Simeone begins by exploring the long process of creating West Side Story, including a discussion of Bernstein's sketches, early drafts of the score and script, as well as cut songs. The core of the book is a commentary on the music itself. West Side Story is one of the very few Broadway musicals for which there is a complete published orchestral score, as well as two different editions...

An extraordinary selection of revealing letters to and from one of the titans of 20th-century music

Leonard Bernstein was a charismatic and versatile musician--a brilliant conductor who attained international super-star status, and a gifted composer of Broadway musicals (West Side Story), symphonies (Age of Anxiety), choral works (Chichester Psalms), film scores (On the Waterfront), and much more. Bernstein was also an enthusiastic letter writer, and this book is the first to present a wide-ranging selection of his correspondence. The letters...