Composers: Their Lives and Works

Introduced with a stunning portrait of each featured composer, more than 90 biographical entries trace the friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired each musical genius and their work.

Profiles offer revealing insights into what drove each individual to create the musical masterpieces - symphonies, concertos and operatic scores - that changed the direction of classical music and are still celebrated as masterpieces today.

Lavishly illustrated with paintings or photographs of each composer, alongside original musical scores and personal correspondence, images of their homes and where they worked, and personal effects and other important artefacts, the book introduces the key influences, themes, and working methods of each individual, setting their works within a wider historical and cultural context.

Charting the development of classical music and music movements across the centuries, Composers provides a compelling glimpse into the personal lives, loves, and influences of the giants of the classical music canon.