The most readable and comprehensive guide to enjoying over five hundred years of classical music -- from Gregorian chants Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Johannes Brahms Igor Stravinsky John Cage and beyond. The Vintage Guide to Classical Music is a lively -- and opinionated -- musical history and an insider s key to the personalities epochs and genres of the Western classical tradition. Among its features: -- chronologically arranged essays on nearly 100 composers from Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377) to Aaron Copland (1900-1990) that combine biography with detailed analyses of the major works while assessing their role in the social cultural and political climate of their times; -- informative sidebars that clarify broader topics such as melody polyphony atonality and the impact of the early-music movement; -- a glossary of musical terms from a cappella to woodwinds; -- a step-by-step guide to building a great classical music library. Written with wit and a clarity that both musical experts and beginners can appreciate The Vintage Guide to Classical Music is an invaluable source-book for music lovers everywhere.