Kategoria BISAC: Music >> Printed Music - Opera & Classical Scores

Francesca Caccini (1587-ca.1640) was an accomplished composer, singer, and instrumentalist in the tradition of the Florentine Camerata. Her 1618 volume Il primo libro delle musiche was dedicated to her patron the Cardinal de' Medici (1596-1666).

This modern critical edition presents 17 secular monodies for one and two voices with figured bass accompaniment from this landmark collection. The book includes text translations, biographical and stylistic essays, recommendations on performance practice, and other commentary.

Music example and charts illustrate the analyses, and each essay is fully annotated by the editor. In some cases, the results of original research by the editor or by others working in the field are published here for the first time. Much of the material has never before appeared in English.

A score embodying the best available musical text.

Historical background-what is known of the circumstances surrounding the origin of the work, including (where relevant) original source material.

A detailed analysis of the music, by the editor of the volume or another well-known...

Music examples and charts illustrate the analyses, and each essay is fully annotated by the editor. In some cases, the results of original research by the editor or by others working in the field are published here for the first time. Much of the material has never before appeared in English.

A score embodying the best available musical text.

Historical background-what is known of the circumstances surrounding the origin of the work, including (where relevant) original source material.

A detailed analysis of the music, by the editor of the volume or another well-known...

"From the purely artistic and musical points of view the Requiem is certainly Verdi's greatest work to this date and an astounding manifestation of ... continual progress and inner development. The stream of melodic invention is unfailing and of the highest quality. Most impressive of all is the mastery of form, of constructive power on the largest scale." -- Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Composed in 1874 for the first anniversary of the death of Alessandro Manzoni, Verdi's Requiem reveals the composer at the height of his powers. The work, immensely...

The tone poems of Richard Strauss rank with the finest orchestral compositions ever created. This volume conveniently brings together for the first time three of these major works, reproduced from complete and authentic first editions. Never before have these important works been available in a full-sized, inexpensive edition. Included in this volume are Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks); Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra); and Ein Heldenleben (A Hen's Life).
Also included are new English translations of the preamble to Also sprach...

The music historian Sir John Hawkings recorded that his friend Handel's keyboard improvisations "stole on the ear in a slow and solemn progression; the harmony close wrought, and as full as could be possibly be expressed; the passage concatenated with stupendous art, the whole at the same time being perfectly intelligible, and carrying the appearance of great simplicity." Such fecund spontaneity generated the few published pieces Handel wrote specifically for the keyboard. The first set of suites appeared in 1720, perhaps composed and published for the instruction of Princess Anne, to whom...

Much esteemed for its charm and purity, Dvo ak's chamber music is considered among his best work, and the five string quartets in this volume rank among his finest chamber compositions. Reproduced directly from the reliable, well-engraved Simrock editions, published under Dvo ak's own supervision, the selections include: Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 51; Quartet No. 11 in C Major, Op. 61; Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, "The American"; Quartet No. 13 in G Major, Op. 106; and Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105.
Now available in one inexpensive, durable Dover volume, these...

"He Wagner] has been much criticized for this strongly personal statement of a religious subject, which mingles the concepts of sacred and profane love; but in the light of modern knowledge, his insight into the relationship between religious and sexual experience can only seem much in advance of his time." "Encylopaedia Britannica"
Completed in 1882, "Parsifal" is Wagner's last opera and one of his finest, renowned for its splendid music and glowing orchestration. With its deeply personal treatment of the legend of the Holy Grail, and the subtle intensity and depth of compassion of...

The piano music of Beethoven is an indispensable part of the repertoire of any serious pianist. Especially appealing are the variations, magnificent compositions second only to the sonatas and concertos in importance, and among the most recorded and performed music in the piano literature.
This volume contains all 21 sets of Beethoven's solo piano variations, including the extremely popular "Diabelli Variations," Op. 120, which, in the view of many critics, accomplished for the piano what Bach's "Goldberg Variations" did for the harpsichord. Also included are the perennially admired...

-La Boheme is perhaps Puccini's most nearly perfect opera.- -- Hughes, Famous Puccini Operas.
It has long been one of the world's most beloved musical works -- an instantly enchanting blend of charm, warmth, gaiety, and pathos, brought to vibrant life by Puccini's sparkling, lighthearted score. La Boheme, based on Henri Murger's novel Scenes de la Vie de Boheme, was first performed at the Teatro Regio, Turin, in 1896. It soon became a staple of the operatic repertoire and has remained so ever since. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians notes...

In The Flying Dutchman, finished in 1841 and first presented at Dresden in 1843, Wagner achieved the first true representation of his mature style as a German Romantic composer. As in his later works, the opera is based on legend, with a simple outline and a small number of profoundly significant characters. There is also a greater reliance on the use of leitmotivs than in his previous operas, and a textual and musical unity new to the composer's work.
This edition has been directly reproduced from a limited edition prepared by the great conductor Felix Weingartner in 1896. It...

Stravinsky's score for the ballet "Petrushka, " commissioned by Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes, was first performed in Paris in 1911 and was an immediate sensation with the public and the critics. It followed by a year the great success of his score for "The Firebird, " also produced by the Ballets Russes, and it confirmed Stravinsky's reputation as the most gifted of the younger generation of Russian composers.
The ballet had begun in Stravinsky's mind as a "picture of a puppet suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of...

Brahms's twenty-four chamber works include a number of the most acclaimed masterpieces in the repertoire, and his piano trios including the famous Horn and Clarinet Trios are among the most admired, performed, and recorded of all. This edition, reprinted from the definitive one prepared by Hans Gal for Breitkopf & Hartel, presents all five of these brilliant works in an inexpensive yet fine-quality volume.
Included are the B Major, C Major, and C Minor Trios (Opp. 8, 87, and 101) for violin, cello, and piano; the E-flat Major Trio (Op. 40) for violin, horn (or cello or viola), and...

Jean Cocteau labeled this revolutionary work "a pastorale of the prehistoric world" at its premiere in Paris in 1913, when interest in primitivism was at its zenith among the avant-garde. These "Scenes of Pagan Russia" did indeed inspire primitive reactions among their opening night audience, who were so vociferous in their protests that the dancers could scarcely hear the music.
Yet this powerful work, with its novel rhythms and hitherto unheard-of chordal combinations and orchestral effects would change forever the elements of musical language and exert an enormous influence on three...