Classical Music

Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music (both liturgical and secular). It encompasses a broad period from roughly the 11th century to the present day. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period.

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven
The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph
The Vintage Guide to Classical Music
What to Listen for in Music
The Lives of the Great Composers
Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa
The Violin Conspiracy
The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece
Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times
Mozart: The Reign of Love
Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician
Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist

Most Read This Week

Moscow Nights: The Van Cliburn Story-How One Man and His Piano Transformed the Cold War
Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven
Beethoven: The Man and the Artist, As Revealed in His Own Words (Dover Books On Music: Composers)
Paul Robeson
Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession
Beethoven's Symphonies: An Artistic Vision
Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph
Twisted Emotions by Cora ReillyPiano Lessons by Anna GoldsworthyThe Pole by J.M. CoetzeePlay It Again by Alan RusbridgerNaked on the Bench by Robin Spielberg
Ivories & Ebonies
21 books — 2 voters
The Cello Suites by Eric SiblinJohann Sebastian Bach by Christoph WolffCantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach by William Gillies WhittakerLeaving La-La Land by Robert K. BosschaJohann Sebastian Bach by Maarten 't Hart
Best of: Books on Bach
28 books — 5 voters

The Twisted Muse by Michael H. KaterThe Ghetto-Swinger by Coco SchumannDachau Song by Paul F. CumminsMusic in the Holocaust by Shirli GilbertFrom Day to Day by Odd Nansen
World War II Music
12 books — 4 voters
New Science by Giambattista VicoThe Contest for Knowledge by Maria Gaetana AgnesiBernini's Beloved by Sarah McPheeBernini by Franco MormandoMonteverdi's Voices by Tim Carter
Early Modern Italy (1600-1800)
55 books — 6 voters

Please Kill Me by Legs McNeilJust Kids by Patti SmithChronicles, Volume One by Bob DylanLife by Keith RichardsOur Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad
Best Non Fiction About Music
1,493 books — 1,418 voters
Don't Close Your Eyes by Lynessa JamesComplicated Moonlight by Lynessa LayneMad Love by Lynessa LayneEine Kleine Murder by Kaye George
Mysteries With Musicians
4 books — 6 voters


Related Genres

Music, being identical with heaven, isn't a thing of momentary thrills, or even hourly ones. It's a condition of eternity. ...more
Gustav Holst, Gustav Holst, letters to W. G. Whittaker

Albert Schweitzer
As a contrast to the Bach of pure music I present the Bach who is a poet and painter in sound. In his music and in his texts he expresses the emotional as well as the descriptive with great vitality and clarity. Before all else he aims at rendering the pictorial in lines of sound. He is even more tone painter than tone poet. His art is nearer to that of Berlioz than to that of Wagner. If the text speaks of drifting mists, of boisterous winds, of roaring rivers, of waves that ebb and flow, of lea ...more
Albert Schweitzer, Out of My Life and Thought

More quotes...
Silent World — A discussion group A place to discuss all the unique aspects of Deaf culture as highlighted in the thriller Silent …more
1,664 members, last active 4 days ago
Q&A with Anna Goldsworthy Classical pianist & award winning author Anna Goldsworthy will be available December 1 - 15, 201…more
15 members, last active 15 years ago
Cats and Classical Music It's a group about the love of cats and music. And books. And anything else that you can think o…more
14 members, last active 12 years ago
Sounding History Podcast A group for listening and conversations about listening, from the production team behind the pod…more
7 members, last active 4 years ago