Music

Der fliegende Hollander is the first of Wagner's operas considered to be representative of his mature style. It embodies one of the major themes that recur throughout his work, that...

Otello, Verdi's penultimate opera, was composed more than a dozen years after Aida, which he had intended to be his last work for the stage. He was persuaded by his...

A Midsummer Night's Dream was Benjamin Britten's seventh major opera and had its premiere at Aldeburgh in 1960. Britten and his partner Peter Pears prepared a condensed version of Shakespeare's...

Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg is the only comedy among Richard Wagner's mature works. Unusually for Wagner, it is set in a historically specific time and place, sixteenthcentury Nuremberg, and tells...

Puccini's masterpiece "La boheme" is one of the most beloved and enduring operas of all time. In this guide, William Ashbrook evaluates the opera's initial reception, the reasons for its...

Tosca, one of Puccini's greatest and most popular operas, is a supreme example of music's power to enthrall the audience. In his introductory essay to this guide, Bernard Williams discusses...

Verdi's Simon Boccanegra exists in two versions: that of the 1857 original and that of the 1881 revision. The texts of the libretto of both versions are included in this...

Mozart wrote Idomeneo when he was twenty-four years old, and the opera was described by Albert Einstein as 'one of those works that even a genius like Mozart could write...

Following the great successes of Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte was the last of the three operas that Mozart wrote with the librettist Lorenzo Da...

'Carmen' is one of the most enduringly popular of all operas and the most powerful of Georges Bizet's works. Following its premiere at the Opera-Comique in Paris in 1875, it...

Rossini's success in Italy in the early 1820s was certainly not echoed in France, where he was regarded as "an ill-bred parvenu, whose cheap popularity was an insult to a...

Unlike any other book of its kind, "Hit Singles" gives both the US and UK top 20 chart listings, side-by-side, to show at a glance what was happening in the...

From the romantic agonies of Hector Berlioz to the lonely labours of Anton Bruckner, and from the cosmopolitan triumphs of George Frideric Handel to the politically fraught career of Dmitri...

WINNER OF THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZE 2018In the 1950s and 1960s, Memphis, Tennessee, was the launch pad of musical pioneers such as Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Al...

The Beatles' hair changed the world. As their increasingly wild, untamed manes grew, to the horror of parents everywhere, they set off a cultural revolution as the most tangible symbol...

The art of music-making has existed for thousands of years. This fascinating book begins with a history of music-making, posing the questions "What is music?" and "What is a musical...

'He achieves the miraculous,' the sculptor Auguste Rodin wrote of dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. 'He embodies all the beauty of classical frescoes and statues'. Like so many since, Rodin recognised that...

A breathtaking, never-before-seen glimpse into life on tour with David Bowie, by the late singer's official tour photographerIn 1983 David Bowie set out on the Serious Moonlight Tour, his biggest...

No photographer in the world took more - or better - shots of Iron Maiden than Ross Halfin. Having worked with the group since their emergence in the late 1970s,...

So much more than another best-ever roundup, here you'll find the reasons why these 100 albums deserve recognition for the way in which they transformed music. This work includes incisive,...

In his enthralling and revelatory This is Your Brain on Music Daniel Levitin unpicked the pathways of the brain to reveal how human beings have been hard-wired for music. Now,...

With sales of over 200 million albums, AC/DC is not just the biggest rock band in the world, it's a family business built by three brothers: George, Malcolm and Angus...

Lifting the lid on Lady Gaga aka Stefani Germanotta, find out all you ever wanted to know about the eccentric star. After being signed to and quickly dropped from Def...

Born out of West African and Western music traditions and rooted in the music of Blues, Jazz has, as Wynton Marsalis put it, 'all the elements, from the spare and...

This practical, easy to use new book covers every aspect of learning to play the guitar and will help every player of any discipline to make their way through the...

Recorded at Olympic Sound Studios, London, The Rolling Stones' seminal album of 1968, "Beggars Banquet", was regarded as marking a return to form for the group - going back to...

Featuring 360 chords, organised as a chord per page, this is a flexible, comprehensive solution for anyone learning or playing the guitar at any level. This no-nonsense, easy to carry,...

Multi-award winning artist and indisputable queen of R&B, Rihanna is one of the most recognisable and successful singers in the world. With hits such as 'Umbrella', 'Take a Bow' and...

The unique story of the Clash by the Clash.The Clash were a band like no other. Pioneers of British punk rock, their incendiary gigs, intelligent songwriting, definitive style and passionate...

The Beatles are the ultimate band - the most popular, the most respected, the most influential. This new edition of The Rough Guide to the Beatles covers every aspect of...

From trashed hotel rooms to cars in swimming pools, all rock 'n roll excesses are here, including murder and sexual deviancy, surprising brushes with law; early and tragic deaths, drug...

Alex Ross's sweeping history of twentieth-century classical music, winner of the Guardian First Book Award, is a gripping account of a musical revolution. The landscape of twentieth-century classical music is...

An intensely beautiful, profound and poetic biography of the formative years of the dark prince of rock 'n' roll, Boy on Fire is Nick Cave's creation story, a portrait of...

One of the biggest names in the musical landscape of the 1970s, Steely Dan released a string of albums that pushed the boundaries of what was possible in a recording...

Formed in 1964 and still going strong in 2019, the Moody Blues are one of the most enduring bands in the history of rock. R&B, pop, psychedelic, symphonic, prog rock,...

As a band, The Beatles released over 200 songs in the eight years between 1962 and 1970. After they split, each commenced a solo career to varying degrees of commercial...

Late on 8 December 1980, the world stopped turning for millions when news broke that its best-loved rock star had been gunned down in cold blood in New York City....

In 1987, four friends from London, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway and Johnny Walker, took a week-long holiday to Ibiza. What they saw there, and brought back home, would...

FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED, THE STORY OF DUSTY SPRINGFIELD TWENTY YEARS ON.`Provocative and deadly accurate' - Time OutDusty Springfield was one of our greatest pop singers. From 60s hits like...

We live in an electronic world. Electronic sounds and electronic music have long permeated our sonic landscape. What began as the otherworldly sounds of the film score for the 1956...

Dmitry Shostakovich was one of the most successful composers of the twentieth century - a musician who adapted as no other to the unique pressures of his age. By turns...

Their fan base continues to grow, over 25 years on from the death of Freddie Mercury, Queen's flamboyant, unforgettable front man. Georg Purvis's meticulous, session-by-session, song-by-song, album-by-album, tour-by-tour record of...

'Before the sixties, you were a child and then you were a man. You went to school and then you went to work. That changed. Our generation changed it.'Roger Daltrey...

A collection of Ireland's greatest and best-loved ballads, including the lyrics, music and chords, along with an introductory piece on each song. Illustrated with photographs and woodcuts. A beautiful guide...

The colourful story of the 80-year-old saxophone player and singer affectionately know as The King of The Swingers. Paddy Cole has taken his style of Jazz, Dixieland and Swing band...

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is the ultimate critical guide to history's greatest music. You'll find a mouthwatering choice of listening here: from Miles Davis's jazz landmark...