What makes it great?
Subtitle: short masterpieces of great composers
By: by Rob Kapilow
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Hoboken, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 314
ISBN-13: 9780470550922
Subjects: Music appreciation
Description: Anyone who is familiar with the What Makes It Great? series--which airs on NPR's Performance Today at Lincoln Center as well as at other concert halls around North America--knows about Rob Kapilow's special gift for helping listeners of all kinds deepen their understanding and appreciation of classical music. In this book, Kapilow focuses on short masterpieces by major composers to help you understand the essence of each composer's genius and how each piece--which can be seen as well as heard on the book's companion website--transformed the musical language of its time. His down-to-earth approach makes these great pieces easy to grasp no matter what your musical background. You'll explore the musical styles and genius of eighteen great classical composers, including Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Chopin, Puccini, Wagner, Dvoak, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, and more.

You'll delve deeply into some of the most popular music from the classical repertoire, such as Vivaldi's "Spring" from The Four Seasons and Tchaikovsky's "Trepak" from The Nutcracker Suite. With Kapilow's guidance, you'll get to know each short piece measure by measure, phrase by phrase, and layer by layer, and gain a rich, in-depth understanding of its language and style. As you listen to each composition, you'll discover how the piece is put together, what makes it great, and how it exemplifies the composer's style. This combination of close listening--via the easy-to-use website--and historical and musical context will not only foster a deep understanding of these pieces and composers, but also inform and enrich your experience when listening to classical music.

Whether you're a first-time listener, an experienced concertgoer, or a performing musician, What Makes It Great?, along with musical examples on the book's website (with a scrollbar that allows even those who don't read music to follow along), offers an invaluable point of entry into the world of some of Western music's greatest composers and a collection of individual masterpieces spanning almost two hundred years [Publisher description].
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: To know one thing well; title: Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) / Spring from the Four seasons, movement 1; title: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) / Invention no.1 from the Two-part inventions; title: George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) / Hallelujah chorus from Messiah; title: Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) / Haydn String quartet op.76 no. 1 mvmt. 3; title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) / Dove sono from the Marriage of Figaro; title: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) / Waldstein sonata movement 1; title: Franz Schubert (1797-1828) / Erlkönig; title: Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) / A-minor Mazurka op.17 no.4; title: Robert Schumann (1810-1856) / Traümerei from Kinderscenen; title: Franz Liszt (1811-1886) / Transcendental etude in a minor; title: Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) / Scherzo from the String octet; title: Richard Wagner (1813-1883) / Prelude to Tristan and Isolde; title: Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) / De' miei bollenti spiriti from la Traviata; title: Giaccamo Puccini (1858-1924) / Un bel di vedremo from Madama Butterfly; title: Brahms (1833-1897) / A-major intermezzo, op.118 no.2; title: Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) / Slavonic dance op.46 no.8; title: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) / Trepak from the Nutcracker suite; title: Claude Debussy (1862-1918) / Des pas sur la neige (Footsteps in the snow) from Preludes book I.