Our Price: $37.46 | You Save: $12.49 (25%)   

2. "Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma"
by Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy undertakes to penetrate Strauss's contradictions and see the man whole. Through his impressive access to diaries, letters, and living relatives, he posits an underlying consistency of attitude that made "art the reality in [Strauss's] life." Kennedy demystifies much of the received opinion that has developed around the composer. He devotes a significant portion of the book to the composer's position as president of the Reich Music Chamber and subsequent fall from grace both with the Nazis and in world opinion. In his view, Strauss becomes a "tragic figure, symbolizing the struggle to preserve beauty and style in Western European culture" against emerging barbarism. Read more

Our Price: $24.47 | You Save: $10.48 (30%)   

3. "Bohemian Fifths: An Autobiography"
by Hans Werner Henze; translated by Stewart Spencer
Hans Werner Henze's autobiography, like his music, is alternately elegant, dense, and humorous, with a clear love of history and classical beauty. Henze covers both his life and work through 1995. Anecdotes about almost all of Henze's music abound, but the most interesting comments are about music in general. Read more

Our Price: $26.25 | You Save: $8.75 (25%)   

4. "The Four and the One: In Praise of String Quartets"
by David Rounds
Why have so many great composers reserved some of their most profound, personal music for their string quartets? David Rounds suggests an explanation: the instrumental combination resembles human voices, and socially the group resembles a family or a gathering of friends carrying on a conversation. The author's premise is that in a quartet, four players and four instruments have to become one unit. The book begins with an introduction to the development of chamber music and ends with a guide to the quartet repertoire. Read more

Our Price: $13.56 | You Save: $3.39 (20%)   

5. "Mozart: A Cultural Biography"
by Robert W. Gutman
Robert Gutman portrays a musical genius who slowly and painfully achieved personal maturity as he emerged from the shadow of his domineering father. The rich cultural life of 18th-century Europe forms a vivid background for Mozart's professional and artistic evolution. Gutman's descriptions of Mozart's work are models of music writing for the lay reader: they capture the brilliance and beauty of the great composer's art in easily accessible language. Read more

Our Price: $28.00 | You Save: $12.00 (30%)   

6. "Maestros of the Pen: A History of Classical Music Criticism in America"
by Mark N. Grant
Mark Grant tells the story of music criticism's evolution in the United States from shallow dilettantism into an enterprise that itself became an art. He considers the influence of critics as evangelists for music and as tastemakers. Grant also considers the now nearly vanished breed of the composer who doubled as critic. He ends with speculations about the current perilous state of music criticism and some of the new possibilities posed by the Internet. This book is indispensable to anyone interested in the practice and significance of critical writing about all of the arts--and it makes for a highly pleasurable read. Read more

Our Price: $28.13 | You Save: $9.37 (25%)   

7. "Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man"
by Howard Pollack
This superb biography elucidates Aaron Copland's background, beliefs, affiliations, and achievements. Howard Pollack depicts Copland as a man whose inner serenity and self-confidence enabled him to encompass "startling dichotomies" in his life and work. The author writes with a clarity and dignity eminently suitable to his subject, who seems as warmly appealing as his music. Read more

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8. "Twentieth Century Opera: A Guide"
by George Martin
George Martin begins with a group of essays on such topics as how World War I was the defining event for the form of opera in this century, the two "revolutions" in opera (12-tone music and electronic amplification), and the literary quality of opera librettos. The bulk of the book offers a chronological series of 90 plot synopses. Martin is a refreshingly honest opera companion, quite free with his opinions. Read more

Our Price: $21.25 | You Save: $3.75 (15%)   

9. "Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism"
by Steven Watson
When "Four Saints in Three Acts" premiered in 1934, it caused a sensation, making it virtually unique among American operas. Forever associated with that first production, "Four Saints" became a cult object and a landmark of the avant-garde. Steven Watson's deft study follows the opera's creation and the cultural constellation whose mission was to see it produced. The opera came to represent the moment when modernism intersected with high society and became chic. Read more

Our Price: $26.25 | You Save: $8.75 (25%)   

10. "New World Symphonies: How American Culture Changed European Music"
by Jack Sullivan
Beginning with the touchstone "New World" symphony of Dvorak, Jack Sullivan takes readers on a tour of music history right up to the present day. His study centers on the American writers, poets, and styles that have influenced the Old World. The book ends with a long consideration of the effects of jazz, which Sullivan views as the American classical music. Read more

Our Price: $22.50 | You Save: $7.50 (25%)   

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