Chamber Music: A Listener's Guide

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Introduction
Anton Arensky
Johann Sebastian Bach
Samuel Barber
Bela Bartok
Ludwig van Beethoven
Alban Berg
Alexander Borodin
Johannes Brahms
Benjamin Britten
Elliott Carter
Aaron Copland
Ruth Crawford Seeger
George Crumb
Achille-Claude Debussy
Ernst von Dohnanyi
Antonin Dvorak
Edward Elgar
Georges Enesco
Gabriel Faure
Cesar Franck
Mikhail Glinka
Osvaldo Golijov
Edvard Grieg
Franz Joseph Haydn
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
Paul Hindemith
Jacques Ibert
Charles Ives
Leos Janacek
Zoltan Kodaly
Gyorgy Ligetti
Bohuslav Martinu
Felix Mendelssohn
Olivier Messiaen
Wolfgang Amade Mozart
Carl Nielsen
Francis Poulenc
Sergei Prokofiev
Maurice Ravel
Steve Reich
Silvestre Revueltas
Camille Saint-Saens
Arnold Schoenberg
Franz Peter Schubert
Clara Wieck Schumann
Robert Schumann
Dmitri Shostakovich
Jean Sibelius
Bedrich Smetana
Igor Stravinsky
Karol Szymanowski
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky
Joan Tower
Carl Maria von Weber
Anton Webern
Hugo Wolf

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About

Oxford's highly successful listener's guides--The Symphony, The Concerto, and Choral Masterworks--have been widely praised for their blend of captivating biography, crystal clear musical analysis, and delightful humor. Now James Keller follows these greatly admired volumes with Chamber Music. Approaching the tradition of chamber music with knowledge and passion, Keller here serves as the often-opinionated but always genial guide to 192 essential works by 56 composers, providing illuminating essays on what makes each piece distinctive and admirable. Keller spans the history of this intimate genre of music, from key works of the Baroque through the emotionally stirring "golden age" of the Classical and Romantic composers, to modern masterpieces rich in political, psychological, and sometimes comical overtones. For each piece, from Bach through to contemporary figures like George Crumb and Steve Reich, the author includes an astute musical analysis that casual music lovers can easily appreciate yet that more experienced listeners will find enriching. Keller shares the colorful, often surprising stories behind the compositions while revealing the delights of an art form once described by Goethe as the musical equivalent of "thoughtful people conversing."

Reviews

Writing a good programme note is a difficult and delicate art, and this collection of short programme-note length essays shows James Keller has it down to a T...The book is a treasure trove of learning, which Keller deploys with a wonderful lightness of touch

The mantle of America's leading program-note writer would appear to have passed to James Keller...The tone is always inviting, enthusiastic, sincere, and enlivened with touches of humor...Keller succeeds admirably in the often elusive aim of every good program-note writer of satisfying the needs of both the novice and the expert...The book might well serve as the impetus for a yearlong project to become familiar with the entire repertoire he covers. This is recommendation enough to award Keller's work a standing ovation

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