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There were great men before Bach. Ancestors of western music ; Dunstable and the English polyphonists ; The Flemings ; Josquin hints for preferment ; A bad influence ; Palestrina the God-intoxicated ; Saves music from decadence and extravagance ; The Improperia and the Missa Papae Marcelli ; Wife and money troubles ; Di Lasso, dramatist in tone ; A success story ; Mixed motives ; Seven penitential psalms ; Victoria the devout ; Spanish rhythms ; The climax of unaccompanied vocal polyphony in Palestrina, Di Lasso, and Victoria ; Close of a period -- Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach's fame ; A musical clan ; Childhood ; Foreign influences ; Stubbornness ; Life in Weimar ; Appearance ; An epitomizer of forms ; A duke's servant ; Cantatas ; The greatest organist ; Cothen ; The Well-Tempered Clavichord ; The "Brandenburg" concertos ; Leipzig ; The Magnificat ; The St. Matthew Passion ; A stickler for rights ; The B minor mass ; More cantatas ; Secular compositions ; Bach's sons ; Frederick the Great and his theme ; Musical puzzles ; Blindness and death -- George Frideric Handel. A child prodigy ; Johann Mattheson ; Almira, Handel's first opera ; Italy ; Domenico Scarlatti ; Success ; Hanover and London ; Purcell, England's greatest composer ; George I and a false legend ; The Water Music ; Cliques and stage battles ; Big box office ; Handel clings to tradition ; Esther, the first English oratorio ; Alexander's Feast ; Misfortunes and illness ; Handel as clavier composer ; Failure after failure ; A chain of masterly oratorios ; Messiah ; The Firework Music ; Twelve thousand people attend a rehearsal ; Blindness and death ; Handel as a British vice and glory -- Christoph Willibald von Gluck. The Renaissance produces operas ; It degenerates in France and Italy ; Opera as a social gathering ; Gluck's childhood ; He writes conventional successes ; Visits Handel in London ; Marries well ; Is knighted by the Pope ; Reforms ballet ; Meets a librettist with ideas ; Orfeo ed Euridice ; Relapse ; Alceste ; The importance of the overture ; Iphigenie en Aulide ; Marie Antoinette and Sophie Arnould ; Armide and a famous feud ; Iphigenie en Tauride ; Reforms ; Failures ; Social old age ; Entertains the Mozarts ; Disobeys the doctor's orders -- Franz Josef Haydn. Parliament pays a bill ; St. Stephen's and a brutal dismissal ; A famous singing teacher ; Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach ; Haydn marries the wrong wife ; The Esterhazys ; A phlegmatic genius ; Excellent working conditions ; An indiscretion ; Haydn meets Mozart ; And loses his job ; Goes to England ; Becomes the idol of London ; The "Salomon" symphonies ; Haydn teaches Beethoven ; As a symphonist ; Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser ; The Creation ; Its fading luster ; The Seasons ; Apotheosis and death ; The rediscovery of Haydn ; His string quartets ; His lasting greatness -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The rococo ; Most dazzling of child prodigies ; Leopold Mozart ; Maria Theresa ; Tours ; A boy writes operas ; Finds Salzburg intolerable ; Grows up ; Violin concertos ; Mannheim and the Webers ; Back to imprisonment in Salzburg ; The archbishop kicks him out ; He marries ; Die Entfuhrung ; Gluck ; Poverty and extravagance ; Mozart as a piano composer ; The concertos ; Symphonies ; Freemasonry ; Plays quartets with Haydn ; Le Nozze di Figaro ; Success in Prague ; Don Giovanni ; A triumph ; Hints of the coming century ; The three master symphonies ; Die Zauberflote ; A mysterious visitor and the Requiem ; Death ; Mozart's overtowering greatness and limitations -- Ludwig van Beethoven. The French revolution ; A hero ; Childhood ; Helpful friends ; Escape to Vienna ; Beethoven's notebooks ; Noble patrons ; Slow development ; Early piano sonatas ; The first symphony ; The nineteenth century opens ; The "Heiligenstadt" testament ; Physical afflictions ; The mystery of the "Immortal beloved" ; Piano concertos ; Napoleon and a symphony ; More piano sonatas ; Strange career of Fidelio ; Its overtures ; Beethoven writes the fifth symphony ; The violin concerto ; M. Lesueur cannot find his head ; Overtures ; The Seventh Symphony ; Goethe ; Beethoven as puritan ; Wellington's victory ; Apotheosis ; Last piano sonatas ; The Missa solemnis ; The ninth symphony ; Death ; The string quartets -- Carl Maria von Weber. Relation to Constanze Mozart ; Trouping childhood ; Wild oats ; Early operas ; Life in Prague ; Captures Germany with patriotic songs ; Der Freischutz, the first Romantic opera ; The Conzerstuck as program music ; Spontini stages a spectacle ; The failure of Euryanthe ; Beethoven speaks ; Weber learns English ; Composes Oberon ; Ill treatment in London ; Triumph of Oberon ; Dies away from home -- Gioacchino Antonio Rossini. Wagner visits a retired dictator ; Childhood in eighteenth-century Italy ; Early operas ; Writes a smash-hit song ; An impresario and his mistress ; The Barber of Seville ; Rebellion in Naples ; Rossini marries ; Advice from Beethoven ; Semiramide ; The siege of Paris ; Balzac likes Moise ; High finance ; William Tell ; The monarch of opera abdicates ; Olympe Pelissier ; Stabat Mater ; A gay old age ; Death -- Franz Peter Schubert. Unconscious tragedy ; Genius and intellect ; Astersongs and doggerel ; Limitations ; Poverty and adoring friends ; Masterpieces at eighteen ; The "Schubertians"; The "Forellen" quintet ; Schubert fails with opera ; Syphilis ; The "Unfinished" symphony ; Tales of romance ; Composes for the piano ; The song cycles ; The C major symphony ; Sees Beethoven ; Death and a monument -- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. A happy life ; The wonder child ; A Midsummer Night's Dream ; The rediscovery of Bach ; Mendelssohn conquers England ; Fingal's Cave ; Writes the "Italian" symphony ; Renovates Dusseldorf ; Leipzig, the Gewandhaus, and Robert Schumann ; St. Paul ; Mendelssohn listens to Rossini ; A romantic marriage ; The King of Prussia is difficult ; The "Scotch" symphony ; Again A Midsummer Night's Dream ; The Violin Concerto ; Elijah ; Queen Victoria ; Death ; Mendelssohn rejudged -- Robert Schumann. Hereditary and romanticism ; Studies law ; Quarrels with Friedrich Wieck ; Papillons ; Romance and obstacles ; Founds a journal ; The Davidsbundler ; Carnaval ; Arrival of Mendelssohn ; Wieck is obdurate ; Schumann visits Vienna ; Finds Beethoven's pen and a Schubert symphony ; Marries Clara ; Fantasiestuck and Kreisleriana ; The great songs ; Flaws as a symphonist ; Fails as a pedagogue ; Signs of mental decay ; Genoveva ; The Piano Concerto ; Tragedy and death ; Schumann's reputation -- Frederic-Francois Chopin. Fame and self-limitation ; Childhood in Poland ; Weltschmerz ; Paris in the 1830s ; Noble patrons ; Valses ; Liszt and polonaises ; Another Polish dance ; Pedagogy ; Etudes ; Mendelssohn's criticism ; Chopin's failure as a pianist ; Liaison and romance ; Nocturnes ; Scherzos ; George Sand ; Hell in Majorca ; A vigorous corpse ; Preludes ; Four mad children ; The masterly fantasie ; Break with George Sand ; Doting women ; Purgatory in England ; Death from consumption -- Franz Liszt. A figure of legend ; The master virtuoso ; Early amours ; Chopin and Paganini ; Love and Mme d'Agoult ; Swiss interlude ; Liszt conquers Thalberg ; Triumphal tours ; Creates the piano recital ; Lola Montez et al. ; Liszt's children ; Weimar and the princess ; He renounces the world ; Becomes an international celebrity ; A fine conductor ; Enthusiasm for Wagner ; Almost marries ; Becomes an abbe instead ; A vie trifurquee ; Ten thousand pupils ; Death ; An estimate -- Richard Wagner. Social position of composers ; Biography as detective story ; Admiration for Weber ; Wagner writes a bloodcurdling libretto ; Composes two operas ; Begins to attract creditors ; Marries Minna ; Das Liebesverbot finishes an opera company ; Composes Tannhauser, which is tepidly received ; Quuarrels with Minna ; More creditors ; Writes the Lohengrin libretto ; Toys with revolution ; Exiled ; Fails to conquer Paris ; More love affairs ; Lohengrin fails ; The Ring librettos ; Wagner leads musical life of Zurich ; Pamphleteering ; Mathilde Wesendonck and the Asyl ; Enter Cosima von Bulow ; The Ring progresses ; Tristan ; The Paris Tannhauser fiasco ; More wanderings ; A fairy prince ; Revolution in Munich ; Wagner composes Die Meistersinger ; Marrises Cosima ; Completes the Ring ; Builds the Festspieltheater ; The first Ring ; Parsifal ; The Wagner legend -- |
