Composers Books

This was a great book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I highly recommend it to everyone, especially those who like country music and country music artists. I love reading about the older country artists and their experiences in the industry etc. It was a funny and entertaining book. Bill Anderson has a great sense of humor too and has a way with words.

I AM A country music buff, the stories and mishaps of the older country singers are so funny.....well written and easy to read.....

I took a graduate music history survey course under the instruction of the author, Douglass Seaton, at Florida State University in the Fall semester of 1997. Though I hold no degree in musicology (all my degrees are in trombone performance), I have found this text to be the perfect reference, both in the context of a survey course, and especially in preperation for diagnostic/preliminary exams.

The book is somewhat smaller than either the Grout/Palisca or the Stolba texts (as the book was authored with a one-semester survey course in mind), and perhaps doesn't contain all of the minutia for which the Grout/Palisca "A History of Western Music" is known. The benefit is an extremely readable source, tongue-in-cheek at times, that is still highly detailed, but compelling enough to gain a thorough perspective of the history of western music (historical contexts, performance practices, transitions between defined periods).

I have recommended this book to everyone who has asked for my advice for graduate-school entrance/preliminary exam preparation.

This was my music history textbook when I was an undergrad, and I found it so fascinating that I changed my major to musicology and reread the book from cover to cover on my own time.

It's such a great buy you should not miss out if you are a classical fans
Super value for money.
I bought a few for friends who shared the same delight..and actually amazement.

This book presents hundreds of beautiful photographs of some of the world's greatest musicians. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in classical music. It makes a terrific gift!

I would be able to write a more erudite review of this book if I had my copy beside me, citing examples of wonderful writing, interesting anecdotes and illuminating images. Unfortunately, I loaned it to my piano teacher, and she won't give it back! She has fallen in love with it. I think I may have to give her a copy as a gift if I ever want to see my copy again. Paul Roberts was here in Portland last June for the first Piano Festival Northwest. He gave a lecture, a master class and a piano recital. His abilities in all three areas are distilled into this book. He has studied Debussy and the cultural "stew" of Paris during Debussy's life. He has studied Debussy's piano works and performs them sensitively. And finally he can explain all of this in a most entertaining manner, in person and in his writing. The book is not easy to read in a summertime-beachy way, but it is certainly not academic or pedantic. It is lively but thorough, engaging and thought provoking. It also contains many examples and musical excerpts which can be studied with a view toward performance of the pieces. As an amatuer pianist, I can appreciate these sections without being able to perform the works, and my teacher takes the examples as points of departure or new interpretive ideas for works which she has performed in the past, but can now see in new ways. Of course, if you've never heard of Debussy, I suppose you might have no use for this book. Otherwise, buy it. (I have no connection, family or business, with Paul Roberts.)

Images: The Piano Music Of Claude Debussy Paul Roberts (professor of piano, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London) is a meaningful, superbly presented, in-depth analysis of the French piano music of artist and visionary Claude Debussy. Chapters focus in depth upon Debussy's individual songs and go into minute, deconstructive and comparative analysis, observing common threads in Debussy's work and that of other masters such as Chopin. A scholarly book deftly written at the college-graduate level, Images is highly recommended as the perfect companion book for a true connoisseur of Debussy's music. Two music CD's of Debussy's work, performed by Images author Paul Roberts, are intended as companions to Images but are sold separately.