Discusses the life of composer, performer, and band leader Duke Ellington, discussing his upbringing, his artistic talent, his decision to concentrate on music, and his rise to fame in the early twentieth century, despite racial prejudice.
Presents a short biography of eighteenth-century European composer, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, who began as a priest and went on to write hundreds of concertos, operas, and sacred works, including "The Four Seasons.".
Chronicles the troubled life of the nineteenth-century Russian composer. Includes sidebars about such topics as serfs, Leo Tolstoy, and the invention of the phonograph.
A biography of the famous band leader and composer who was known as the March King. Includes sidebars on such topics as ragtime music, the Civil War, and trapshooting.
Chronicles the life of nineteenth-century composer Felix Mendelssohn, who wrote the "Wedding March, " describing his childhood in Germany, his close relationship with his sister, Fanny, and his prosperous career.
A biography of the nineteenth-century German composer of many works for individual instruments, voices, orchestras, and choirs, including "Wiegenlied, " or "Cradle Song, " popularly known as "Brahm's Lullaby.".
Chronicles four centuries of music drama, starting with seventeenth-century bel canto, then proceeding to the operas of Gluck and the eighteenth-century classicists, and ending with the modern operas of the twentieth century.
