Here are 100 books that The Mozart Family fans have personally recommended if you like
The Mozart Family.
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I am J.R. Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, elected life member of the Academy for Mozart Research at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and current President of the Royal Musical Association, and I have been writing about Mozart’s life and music for more than 25 years. Across five monographs, my interests have broadened from Mozart’s piano concertos, to stylistic issues in his Viennese instrumental music, to biographical, philological, reception- and performance-related topics in the Requiem and the last decade of his life in general, and (most recently) to a comparative study of his and contemporary Joseph Haydn’s reception in the long nineteenth century.
There are many editions of Mozart’s letters, translated into a number of languages. While Emily Anderson’s Mozart writes more properly and formally than the composer himself actually did, the great value of her book is that it is the most comprehensive among English editions.
It includes all of Mozart’s own letters interwoven with hundreds from his correspondents–above all father Leopold. The ebb and flow of so much of Mozart’s remarkable life is captured in the volume: his views on music, musicians, styles and aesthetics; his dealings with the practicalities of life, including in wide-ranging musical and non-musical interactions with his father; and his emotions and personal and professional relationships. Above all, Mozart–and his correspondents–speak to us directly through their correspondence.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank…
The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.
On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive…
I am J.R. Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, elected life member of the Academy for Mozart Research at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and current President of the Royal Musical Association, and I have been writing about Mozart’s life and music for more than 25 years. Across five monographs, my interests have broadened from Mozart’s piano concertos, to stylistic issues in his Viennese instrumental music, to biographical, philological, reception- and performance-related topics in the Requiem and the last decade of his life in general, and (most recently) to a comparative study of his and contemporary Joseph Haydn’s reception in the long nineteenth century.
The reception of Mozart’s life and works captures our collective fascination with him. Deutsch’s Documentary Biography is a foundational volume in this area. It primarily comprises documents about Mozart published during his lifetime (and shortly after his death on 5 December 1791), detailing among other things his status as a child prodigy, the evolving reputation of his instrumental and vocal works, and crazes for his music in the 1780s.
Rather than a single authorial voice emerging as is standard in biographical work, many voices convey similar and different views of the activities and achievements in Mozart’s remarkable career.
I am J.R. Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, elected life member of the Academy for Mozart Research at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and current President of the Royal Musical Association, and I have been writing about Mozart’s life and music for more than 25 years. Across five monographs, my interests have broadened from Mozart’s piano concertos, to stylistic issues in his Viennese instrumental music, to biographical, philological, reception- and performance-related topics in the Requiem and the last decade of his life in general, and (most recently) to a comparative study of his and contemporary Joseph Haydn’s reception in the long nineteenth century.
This is the first substantial biography of Mozart, published in 1798. It was written by a Czech author, Franz Niemetschek, who probably knew Mozart personally and who certainly attended musical events at which Mozart participated in Prague in 1787 and 1791.
While its tone is hagiographical, it contains important insights on Mozartian aesthetics, as well as invaluable recollections of Mozart in action.
Franz Xaver Niemetschek was born in 1766 in what is now the Czech Republic and came from a musical family, which gave him a deep appreciation and admiration for Mozart's genius. In 1798 he published his biography on Mozart, with a touching dedication to Haydn, the only one written by an eyewitness, and authorized by Mozart's widow Constanze. It is one of the earliest specimens of musical biography which, compared with other branches of biography, was still in its infancy even in the later part of the 19th century. In this sense, it is an important document of music history.…
When Annie Thornton, midwife and apprentice witch, falls through time to a 15th-century Yorkshire village with her telepathic cat, Rosamund, she befriends Will and Jack, two soldiers returning from the French Wars. Mistress Meg, Annie’s ancestral aunt living in the 15th century, is…
I am J.R. Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, elected life member of the Academy for Mozart Research at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and current President of the Royal Musical Association, and I have been writing about Mozart’s life and music for more than 25 years. Across five monographs, my interests have broadened from Mozart’s piano concertos, to stylistic issues in his Viennese instrumental music, to biographical, philological, reception- and performance-related topics in the Requiem and the last decade of his life in general, and (most recently) to a comparative study of his and contemporary Joseph Haydn’s reception in the long nineteenth century.
This is without doubt the greatest Mozart biography of the twentieth century, building directly on the foundation of the nineteenth century’s most important biography (by Otto Jahn).
Abert’s momentous work, exhaustive, incisive, well informed and opinionated in turn, is expertly translated and edited in this eminently readable volume.
Hermann Abert's classic biography, first published in German more than eighty years ago and itself based on the definitive mid-nineteenth century study by Otto Jahn, remains the most informed and substantial biography of Mozart in any language. The book is both the fullest account of the composer's life and a deeply skilled analysis of his music. Proceeding chronologically from 1756 to 1791, the book interrogates every aspect of Mozart's life, influences, and experience; his personality; his religious and secular dimensions; and the social context of the time. In "a book within a book," Abert also provides close scrutiny of the…
I've been a working journalist for 50 years, and as a child of TV, especially in the 1960s, I grew up with some of the most memorable TV themes ever written. I started writing about TV in the 1980s, and since moving to Los Angeles in 1986, have used every opportunity to meet and interview all of my favorite composers of movie and TV music. The result is this book, which looks at the history of TV themes and, in a larger sense, music written for TV generally. Every genre of TV, from crime to sitcoms, westerns to adventure, has had fun, often compelling, and truly memorable music, and I've tried to celebrate it here.
Maybe the last of the great Viennese-born classical composers, Korngold enjoyed enormous success in Europe in the 1920s.
Invited to Hollywood in 1934, he began writing film music for the swashbucklers, costume dramas, and historical pageants of Warner Bros., often starring the likes of Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, and Claude Rains: Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, Kings Row, and others.
Korngold thought of movies as "operas without singing" and wrote lavish, richly orchestrated scores filled with memorable melodies. Fleeing the Nazi tyranny in 1938, he became one of the greatest composers in the Golden Age of movies.
Carroll spent decades researching his life, it's a thorough and compelling read, and it saddens me that the book is now long out of print.
I've been a working journalist for 50 years, and as a child of TV, especially in the 1960s, I grew up with some of the most memorable TV themes ever written. I started writing about TV in the 1980s, and since moving to Los Angeles in 1986, have used every opportunity to meet and interview all of my favorite composers of movie and TV music. The result is this book, which looks at the history of TV themes and, in a larger sense, music written for TV generally. Every genre of TV, from crime to sitcoms, westerns to adventure, has had fun, often compelling, and truly memorable music, and I've tried to celebrate it here.
Bernard Herrmann is revered as one of the movies' greatest composers.
Imagine starting your Hollywood career with music for Citizen Kane!
He enjoyed a very productive 10-year relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock, which produced such masterpieces as Vertigo, Psycho, and North by Northwest; he also worked with Francois Truffaut on Fahrenheit 451, composed the original Twilight Zone theme, and capped his career with music for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
Yet he could be cantankerous and difficult, antagonizing both friends and colleagues with his temperamental behavior and insistence upon the highest standards of music and drama.
I love the fact that Smith writes as well about the music as he does about the composer, and the reader walks away knowing lots about both.
No composer contributed more to film than Bernard Herrmann, who in over 40 scores enriched the work of such directors as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, and Martin Scorsese. In this first major biography of the composer, Steven C. Smith explores the interrelationships between Herrmann's music and his turbulent personal life, using much previously unpublished information to illustrate Herrmann's often outrageous behavior, his working methods, and why his music has had such lasting impact. From his first film ("Citizen Kane") to his last ("Taxi Driver"), Herrmann was a master of evoking psychological nuance and dramatic tension through music, often…
Chasing Light is a lyrical meditation on grief, memory, and the fragile beauty of everyday life. At its core, it is a story of resilience, forgiveness, and the transformational power of human connection. It sheds light on the overlooked realities of homelessness and addiction, while emphasizing the importance of compassion…
My father, a huge Ella Fitzgerald fan, had a bunch of her records, and took us to hear her live once. So I knew mid-century jazz, but I had yet to discover its early origins. From the first, I knew my trilogy was set in the 1920s and one of the main characters had to be a jazz musician. I began collecting dozens of recordings by early jazz and blues artists, reading books about them, and I developed an enthusiasm for these early musicians. I found that the original “jazz maniacs” had the same passion for their music that I felt about rock and roll in the early 1960s.
This book helped me understand the lives of young male jazz musicians in the early 20th century. A wacky, ecstatic, fragmented, kaleidoscopic, memoir—nostalgic always for Bloomington, Indiana, and his college days in the early 1920s. There Carmichael met his pals Monk and Bix, both of whom died too young. He dedicates the book to them and remembers them fondly. Monk, a surrealistic poet, and Bix, a great musical genius, they understood each other immediately. Bix responded to one of Monk’s poems saying, “I am not a swan.” There is a Dadaist flavor to Monk’s writing, as well as some of Hoagy’s: “The years had pants.” Intertwined with these memories is the slow, jerky progress of Carmichael’s journey from a would-be composer to a famous songwriter.
The swing composer relates personal experiences in his musical career includi his association with such personalities as Bix Beiderbecks and William Moenkhaus.
I am Frederick L. McKay, the youngest son of the composer and author George Frederick McKay (1899-1970), and I have re-issued and edited Professor McKay’s theory books and also authored his biography titled McKay’s Music: The Composer Chronicles. George Frederick McKay hoped to have more American music performed in the concert halls of our country and also involved cultural elements from around the world in his musical works, including poetry and whimsical pieces for young people studying music. His other works include Creative Harmony, How Music Begins and Grows, and Workbook for Creative Orchestration.
Penrod reminded the composer of the many adventures he had as a young boy along with his friends in the early decades of the 20th century.
McKay remembered when he helped the son of a doctor who was a boyhood friend as they made placebos for the doctor's practice out of bread and water in the basement of the doctor's home. He also recalled street fights with other boys that did not always turn out well for undersized kids but were considered sporting in those times in frontier towns.
A timeless novel in the spirited tradition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn One of the most popular American authors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Pulitzer Prize winner Booth Tarkington was acclaimed for his novels set in small Midwestern towns. Penrod tells of a boy growing up in Indianapolis at the turn of the twentieth century. His friends and his dog accompany him on his many jaunts, from the stage as the Child Sir Lancelot, to the playground, to school. They make names for themselves as bad boys who always have the most fun.…
I have loved music since childhood. I grew up on a farm in Western Pennsylvania. My loving, hard-working parents gave my three brothers and me the best life possible. I began singing at our little Chewton Christian Church when asked to do so. Piano lessons began, and for 12 years, my sweet teacher, Joann Thurston, taught me piano, but I realized my true love was singing. She always allowed me to sing as well as play the piano. I attended Westminister College, majoring in elementary education with a music minor. Following graduation, my first job was teaching music to 1500 schoolchildren in Blacksburg, Virginia.
This book encourages readers to travel through the ages with our most famous classical composers, big bands, jazz, and popular music innovators. It introduces the reader to time periods beginning with primitive man and ending with the Beatles arriving at Buckingham Palace to receive honors from the Queen of England. Tidbits of information are gleaned as one progresses from page to page through the periods.
Piero Ventura’s fascinating art helps us visualize everyday life and gain insight into our most famous composers. One can almost see the composers walking the streets, attending opening night concerts, operas, and ballets while showing us they were real people, just like us. One never knows what influence these great composers or any one of us might have on society from generation to generation.
The internationally acclaimed artist and author has created a work that helps teach young people about the world's greatest composers and describes the history of music from primitive rhythms to the era of the classical masters
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman
by
Alexis Krasilovsky,
Kate from Jules et Jim meets I Love Dick.
A young woman filmmaker’s journey of self-discovery, set against a backdrop of the sexual liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman, we follow Ana Fried as she faces the ultimate…
I have loved music since childhood. I grew up on a farm in Western Pennsylvania. My loving, hard-working parents gave my three brothers and me the best life possible. I began singing at our little Chewton Christian Church when asked to do so. Piano lessons began, and for 12 years, my sweet teacher, Joann Thurston, taught me piano, but I realized my true love was singing. She always allowed me to sing as well as play the piano. I attended Westminister College, majoring in elementary education with a music minor. Following graduation, my first job was teaching music to 1500 schoolchildren in Blacksburg, Virginia.
The author, Mike Venezia, believes in having fun. If you want to introduce children to composers and music, make it fun for them. While reading the delightful, imaginative story about Aaron Copland play compositions such as Rodeo, Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, and Fanfare for the Common Man.
Mike Venezia has a very interesting, engaging way of introducing art, inventions, and period photography. Visual images bring his numerous children’s classical music books alive. He makes his composers become real people, like you and me.
