Men of Music P

by Wallace Brockway

Biographical sketches and evaluation of the works of 22 men of music including Bach and Stravinsky

Genres: Music

Paperback

First published January 28, 2001

Reviews

[James Henderson]

I acquired this biographical compendium while I was in undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin. It was my introduction to the lives of some of the composers I already knew both from listening to and playing their music. But it was also a doorway to new names like Palestrina, Gluck and Weber. Wallace Brockway and Herbert Weinstock blend the lives and achievements of the greatest of composers with the context of their times in short readable essays. Only slightly detracting from the value of this collection is the absence of the great twentieth century composers. For that I would recommend Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise. Brockway and Weinstock's work remains a classic reference work for the essential lives of the greatest classical composers.

[John]

This one goes back to 1939. I have been looking at this slowly for the last couple of months. It is a book (one of many)I picked up in Charleston at the annual book sale downtown. It is a collection of many great men of music ranging from Bach to Stravinsky.

[Iris]

read chapters on beethoven and schumann, forced to put it down due to the insulting tone of the authors- beethoven ”uninspired?” schumann ”repulsive?”. that's too bad. these authors have been godawful company.