The New Grove Mozart

by Stanley Sadie and Cliff Eisen

Book Overview

A child prodigy who performed throughout Europe in his early years, Mozart excelled in every medium of his time, including chamber music for strings, the piano and concerto and opera. Along with his contemporaries Haydn and Beethoven, he is one of the composers who brought the Viennese Classical style to its height. His mature music, distinguished by its melodic beauty, formal perfection and richness of harmony is rooted in both Austrian and German traditions. He is widely regarded as the most universal composer in the history of Western music.This biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one in a new series of composer biographies, derived and adapted from the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. These newly written biographies bring the best of the book-length pieces in The New Grove to a wider audience.Each title provides fresh new insights into the life and works of a major composer, derived from the most recent scholarship. In addition to a detailed and informative view of the subject's life and works, written by an expert in the field, each book includes comprehensive, tabular work-lists and a fully revised and updated bibliography.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393300846
• ISBN13: 9780393300840
• Release Date: February 1983
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 247 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.9" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Very useful overview of Mozart's life and work

This is the first book I reach for when I want basic information on Mozart. It is compact enough to read straight through in a few hours; it is also well-organized for reference by subject. There is succinct coverage of everything you'd want in a composer's biography: dates, events, family, colleagues, works; there is a good amount of musical analysis, a few pages of autograph manuscript, portraits of the composer, a lengthy bibliography, and a work list. This includes dates, key, forces required, title where applicable, and Koechel number(s). There is no mental analysis or minute examination of the Baesle letters or anything of the sort here, just the "hard facts" on Mozart--and plentiful guidance on where to look next if you need more information on a great composer.