Classical Music

Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music (both liturgical and secular). It encompasses a broad period from roughly the 11th century to the present day. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period.

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven
Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph
The Vintage Guide to Classical Music
What to Listen for in Music
The Lives of the Great Composers
Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa
The Violin Conspiracy
The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece
Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times
Mozart: The Reign of Love
Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician
Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist

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David Hurwitz
Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov considered Haydn to be the most accomplished symphonic orchestrator who ever lived, and as the creator of such colorful works as -Sheherazade- and the -Capriccio espagnol-, he should know.
David Hurwitz, Exploring Haydn: A Listener's Guide to Music's Boldest Innovator

... and this man, the greatest musical poet and the greatest musical rhetorician that has ever existed, and probably that ever will exist, was a German. Be proud of him, oh Fatherland, be proud of him, but also be worthy of him!
Johann Nikolaus Forkel

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