Books About Music
Biographies
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Edward MacDowell - An American Master. Alan H. Levy. Rowman & Littlefield. 1999. ISBN 0810834634 (hardcover).
- Edward MacDowell was one of the finest composers of nineteenth-century America. In his lifetime, MacDowell's fame was widespread throughout Europe and the United States; his music was praised by none other than Franz Liszt, Jules Massenet, and Edvard Grieg. While his fame was extensive, MacDowell's place in music began to fade after his untimely and tragic death in 1908, and his music and reputation has since suffered a certain neglect. Alan Levy's biography is the first full-length work on MacDowell and draws extensively on personal papers and letters, largely closed from public access until recently. Levy challenges the omission of MacDowell from most musical histories and returns the spotlight to this long-overlooked composer. Levy covers MacDowell's early life and schooling in New York, his musical studies in France and Germany, and his emergence as a keyboard artist and composer. From there, the biography moves on to MacDowell's successful career in Boston and in Peterboro, New Hampshire. Levy concludes with MacDowell's tenure as the first Professor of Music at Columbia University and his untimely decline and death. There is also discussion of Marian MacDowell's successful establishment of the MacDowell Colony for Artists, which continues to the present day. Alan Levy elegantly captures the story of this composer who enjoyed musical talent and relative popular success during his lifetime. He brings together a great deal of otherwise inaccessible information and material on a somewhat muted voice in American Music History.
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Edward MacDowell, A Study. Lawrence Gilman. Reprint Services. 1909. ISBN 0781290724 (hardcover).
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Guillaume De Machaut. Siegmund Levarie. Da Capo Press. 1969. ISBN 0306718316 (hardcover).
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Guillaume De Machaut: A Guide to Research (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol 996), Lawrence Earp. Routledge (formerly Garland Press). 1995. ISBN 0824023234 (hardcover).
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Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies. Constantin Floros, et al. Amadeus Press. 1997. ISBN 1574670255 (paperback).
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Gustav Mahler: An Introduction to His Music. Deryck Cooke. Cambridge University Press. 1988. ISBN 0521368634 (paperback).
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Gustav Mahler, Volume 1: The Early Years. Donald Mitchell, Paul Banks (Editor). University of California Press. 1980. ISBN 0520202147 (paperback).
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Gustav Mahler, Volume 2: The Wunderhorn Years. Donald Mitchell. University of California Press. 1982. ISBN 0520042204 (paperback).
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Gustav Mahler, Volume 3: Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death. Donald Mitchell. University of California Press. 1985. ISBN 0520055780 (hardcover).
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Mahler, Volume 1 by Henry-Louis de La Grange. Anchor (formerly Doubleday). 1973. ISBN 0385005245 (paperback).
- This is the first of the exhaustive, massive biography of Mahler. This volume is out of print but well worth the search. There will be four volumes in the complete edition.
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Gustav Mahler, Volume 2 - Vienna: The Years of Challenge (1897-1904). Henry-Louis de la Grange. Oxford University Press. 1995. ISBN 0193151596 (hardcover).
- This is volume two of a planned four-volume set contemporary monument in musical biography. Two additional volumes will eventually cover the balance of the Vienna years, and the years in New York. De La Grange's detailed approach, and extensive use of primary sources, acquaints us with Mahler as musician, conductor, and human being.
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Mahler: The Man and His Music. Egon Gartenberg. Macmillan Publishers. 1978. ISBN 0028708407 (paperback).
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The New Grove Turn of the Century Masters. John Tyrrell. W.W. Norton & Company. 1985. ISBN 0393016943 (paperback).
- Comprehensive biographical articles taken from the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians. Included are: Leoš Janáček, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Jean Sibelius.
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Mahler. Michael Kennedy. Schirmer Books. 1991. ISBN 0028713672 (paperback).
- Originally published as part of the Master Musicians Series. Good brief musical biography and introduction to the complete works of Mahler. Excellent appendices.
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Gustav Mahler. Bruno Walter, translated by Lotte Walter Lindt. Quartet Books. 1958. ISBN 0704301199 (paperback).
- Important short memoir written by the conductor who knew and admired Mahler.
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Martinů. Brian Large. Holmes & Meier Publishing. 1976. ISBN 0841902569 (hardcover).
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Mascagni. Mario Pasi. Elite Publishing. 1989. ISBN 0918367301 (hardcover), 091836731X (paperback).
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Pietro Mascagni - A Bio-Bibliography. Roger Flury. Greenwood Publishing. 2000. ISBN 0313296626 (hardcover).
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Massenet: A Chronicle of His Life and Times. Demar Irvine. Amadeus Press. 1994. ISBN 0931340632 (hardcover), 1574670247 (paperback).
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Massenet. James Harding. Da Capo Press. 1987. ISBN 0306797135 (hardcover).
Nikolai Medtner
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Nicolas Medtner - His Life and Music. Barrie Martyn. Scolar Press. 1995. ISBN 0859679594 (hardcover).
- A study of the career, and examination of the works, of this much-neglected Russian pianist, composer, and contemporary of Rachmaninoff. His compositions include 3 piano concertos, more than 100 solo piano compositions, including a cycle of 14 piano sonatas, and numerous songs. The present work tells the story of his life and addresses each of his compositions. Included are over 130 musical examples and 16 pages of photographs.
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Mendelssohn and His World. R. Larry Todd (Editor). Princeton University Press. 1991. ISBN 0691027153 (paperback).
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The New Grove Early Romantic Masters, II. John Warrack, Hugh MacDonald, Karl-Heinz Kohler. W.W. Norton & Company. 1985. ISBN 039330096X (paperback).
- Comprehensive biographical articles taken from the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians. Included are: Carl Maria von Weber, Hector Berlioz, and Felix Mendelssohn.
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Mendelssohn. Philip Radcliffe. Books Britain. 1978. ISBN 0460860291 (paperback).
- This is part of the Master Musicians series, originally published by Dent in 1954. Like its companion books, it is a fine introduction to the life and works of this composer. The appendices feature a calendar, complete catalog of works, personalia and bibliography.
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Mendelssohn - The Caged Spirit. Mary Allerton-North. Prestige Press. 2008. ISBN 1843751305 (paperback).
- Although much has been written about Felix Mendelssohn over the past 150 years, biographers have tended to regurgitate earlier narratives, which have incorporated myths, misrepresentations and even falsehoods about his family. Thus, the word "unique" can be truthfully applied to Mendelssohn – The Caged Spirit. Not only is this the first Mendelssohn biography to be written by a woman psychotherapist (rather than from the usual male musicologist's standpoint), but Mary Allerton-North does not take statements hitherto "set in stone" at face value. She challenges such inaccuracies for the first time, analysing what actually happened in the Mendelssohn chronicle, with regard to both his musical and his personal life. Mendelssohn was in many ways complex and in many ways very simple. He was complex because of his family background: he was born into a wealthy German Jewish family at the beginning of the 19th century and by the age of seven was playing the piano, painting, writing poetry, speaking several languages and starring as a precocious athlete. He helped revive Bach's music in Europe, he knew Goethe and although the poet was seventy and Mendelssohn only twelve when they met, they became friends.
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Reminiscences of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy A Social and Artistic Biography. Elise Polko translated by Lady Wallace. Glenbridge. 1990. ISBN 0944435017 (paperback).
- Fascinating book originally published in 1869 by a contemporary of Mendelssohn (one of his voice students) who became a popular novelist. Personal stories peopled with the famous personalities of the day, from Jenny Lind to Joachim.
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Letters from Italy and Switzerland. Felix Mendelssohn, Lady Wallace. Ayer Co. 1970. ISBN 0836952715 (paperback).
- Reprint of the 1865 collection, written by the very youthful Mendelssohn. There are musical sketches and anecdotes in these fascinating letters to his family and friends.
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Felix Mendelssohn A Life In Letters. Rudolf Elvers (Editor), Craig Tomlinson (translator). Fromm. 1986. ISBN 088064060X (paperback).
- A wider selection of letters from this gifted composer and writer. Illustrated with the composer's own watercolors and sketches.
Peter Mennin
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The Music of William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti, and Peter Mennin: Voices of Stone and Steel. Walter Simmons. Amadeus Press. 1995. ISBN 0810857480 (paperback).
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William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti, and Peter Mennin were three of the most significant American composers of the 20th century, yet their music has largely disappeared from view since their respective deaths. Because they each spent the majority of their careers working at the Juilliard School and Lincoln Center, their music is often viewed as "interchangeable". Walter Simmons provides a thorough examination of the lives and work of these artists, clarifying their considerable individuality both as composers and as human beings. The book begins with a comprehensive introduction summarizing the conventional view of the history of American music, while noting the marginalization of traditionalist composers, those who preferred to work with the musical forms and developmental principles on which the body of Western classical music is based. In the chapters that follow, each composer is presented through a brief overview and a biographical essay, followed by a general description of his style. Extensively researched and including detailed discussions and insights, the sections include lists of the composer's "most representative, fully realized works" and then provide systematic overviews of most or all of their compositions, giving the reader a general understanding of the artist and his work. The overviews contain a description of each composition, information concerning first performance and first recording, excerpts from reviews as well as Simmons' own critical assessment of each, and a statement of its place within the composer's output as a whole. A selected bibliography and essential discography follows at the end of each chapter. With a photo of each composer and a representative sampling of their music on the enclosed CD, readers will find this book a valuable resource. Read the Classical Net Review of this book.
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The Messiaen Companion. Peter Hill (Editor). Amadeus Press. 1995. ISBN 0931340942 (paperback).
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Olivier Messiaen - Music and Color: Conversations With Claude Samuel. Olivier Messiaen, et al. Amadeus Press. 1994. ISBN 0931340675 (hardcover).
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Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time. Paul Griffiths. Cornell University Press. 1985. ISBN 0801418135 (paperback).
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Notes Without Music: An Autobiography. Darius Milhaud. Da Capo Press. 1970. ISBN 0306715651 (hardcover).
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My Happy Life - An Autobiography. Darius Milhaud, with Christopher Palmer (illustrator), Donald Evans (translator). 1994. ISBN 0714529575 (paperback).
- Milhaud is modest when it comes to writing about his life. His memoirs contain touching accounts of his close friends, memories of his various travels, and brief descriptions of the genesis and presentation of his music. The translator provides an biographical summary of Milhaud's life in the introduction.
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Darius Milhaud - Modality & Structure in Music of the 1920s. Deborah Mawer. Scolar Press. 1997. ISBN 1859282490 (hardcover).
Dimitri Mitropoulos
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Priest of Music: The Life of Dimitri Mitropoulos. William R. Trotter. Amadeus Press. October 1995. ISBN 0931340810 (hardcover).
- An ascetic and a mystic who sought to be a monk early in life, Mitropoulos chose music, however, and became one of the greatest conductors of his era. After his death in 1960, Mitropoulos went into eclipse. William Trotter's book puts him back in the spotlight where he belongs. It discusses Mitropoulos' youth in Greece and his move to Minnesota, where the Greek maestro became music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Trotter discusses Mitropoulos' troubled relationship with the young Leonard Bernstein, particularly his steering of the younger man to conducting and away from piano playing. The author also brings to light Mitropoulos' tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Bernstein's role in the cabal that unseated him. The work discusses aspects of Mitropoulos's temperament that stand out, such as his vegetarianism and his homosexuality.
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The Music of E.J. Moeran. Geoffrey Self, with preface by Vernon Handley. Toccata Press. 1997. ISBN 0907689175 (hardcover), 0907689183 (paperback).
- In this first-ever study of the music of Ernst J. Moeran, the author examines all of Moeran's output, setting his analysis in a biographical framework.
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Monteverdi and the End of the Renaissance. University of California Press. 1990. ISBN 0520053486 (paperback).
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The Letters of Claudio Monteverdi. Claudio Monteverdi, with Denis Stevens (Editor). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052123591X (hardcover).
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Monteverdi. Paolo Fabbri, with Tim Carter (translator). Cambridge University Press. 1994. ISBN 0521351332 (hardcover).
- 350 pages.
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Monteverdi. Denis Arnold, with Tim Carter. Oxford University Press. 2000. ISBN 0198164653 (paperback).
- 3rd Edition, 256 pages.
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Monteverdi in Venice. Denis Stevens. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. 2001. ISBN 0838638791 (hardcover).
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Musorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue. Richard Taruskin and Caryl Emerson. Princeton University Press. 1993. ISBN 0691091471 (hardcover), 0691016232 (paperback).
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Musorgsky Remembered (Russian Music Studies), Alexandra Orlova (Editor), et al. Indiana University Press. 1991. ISBN 0253342643 (hardcover).
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The New Grove Russian Masters, I. David Brown, et al. W.W. Norton & Company. 1997. ISBN 0393315851 (paperback).
- Comprehensive biographical articles taken from the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians. Included are: Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Borodin, Mili Alexeyevich Balakirev, Modest Musorgsky, and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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Mozart: Portrait of a Genius. Norbert Elias, et al. University of California Press. 1993. ISBN 0520084756 (hardcover); 0745614108 (paperback).
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Constanze Mozart: After the Requiem. Heinz Gartner, Reinhard G. Pauly (Translator). Amadeus Press. 1991. ISBN 093134039X (hardcover).
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Mozart and Masonry (Da Capo Press Music Reprint Series), Paul Nettl. Da Capo Press. 1970. ISBN 0306719223 (hardcover).
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Mozart Pilgrimage. Vincent and Mary Novello. Da Capo Press. 1982. ISBN 0903873109 (paperback).
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Mozart the Dramatist: The Value of His Operas to Him, to His Age and to Us. Brigid Brophy. Da Capo Press. 1990. ISBN 0306803895 (paperback).
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Mozart and Haydn in London. Carl Ferdinand Pohl. Da Capo Press. 1970. ISBN 0306700247 (hardcover).
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The Mozart Essays. H.C. Robbins Landon. Thames & Hudson. 1995. ISBN 0500016534 (hardcover).
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1791: Mozart's Last Year. H.C. Robbins Landon. Thames & Hudson. 1995. ISBN 0028725921 (hardcover); 0500281076 (paperback).
- It was to be a year in which he wrote The Magic Flute, La Clemenza di Tito, and the Clarinet Concerto, as well as most of the Requiem; it was also a year of mounting disappointment in his career as part of the Viennese musical establishment, and a year of growing debt. Robbins Landon is keen to debunk the myths: Mozart was not poisoned, but died of progressive kidney failure, and Salieri was innocent of his death, though not of promoting his own career at Mozart's expense.
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Mozart: The Man, the Musician. Arthur Hutchings. Macmillan Publishers. 1976. ISBN 0028711408 (paperback).
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Amadeus: A Mozart Mosaic. Herbert Kupferberg. McGraw-Hill. 1986. ISBN 0070356645 (paperback).
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The Creative World of Mozart. Paul Henry Lang (Editor). W.W. Norton & Company. 1991. ISBN 0393002187 (paperback).
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Mozart and the Enlightenment: Truth, Virtue and Beauty in Mozart's Operas. Nicholas Till. W.W. Norton & Company. 1996. ISBN 0393313956 (paperback).
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Mozart: His Character, His Work. Alfred Einstein. Oxford University Press. 1991. ISBN 0195007328 (paperback).
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The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context. Ruth Halliwell. Oxford University Press. 1998. ISBN 0198163711 (hardcover).
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The New Grove Mozart. Stanley Sadie. W.W.Norton and Co. 1985. ISBN 0393300846 (paperback).
- This book, like the other books in the Grove Composer Biography Series, presents a biography with most of the emphasis on the compositions. There is a complete listing of works at the end of the book, and a huge bibliography.
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Mozart. Wolfgang Hildesheimer, Translated by Marion Faber. Farrar Straus & Giroux/Noonday Press. 1983. ISBN 0374214832 (hardcover); 0394715918 (paperback).
- Beautifully written biography, Removes some of the myths from the man. Excellent vivid and non-technical discussion of Mozart's compositions, especially the operas.
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Letters of Mozart. Hans Mersmann (Editor), M. M. Bozman (translator). Dorset Press. 1986. ISBN 0880290870 (paperback).
- Most of the letters were written to his father, sister and wife. Contains brief biographical chronology, a good index and helpful footnotes.
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Mozartiana; Two Centuries of Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Joseph Solman (designer). Vintage Books. 1990. ISBN 0394584457 (hardcover).
