Table of Contents
Author's Note xiii
Introduction: The Greatness Complex 1
1 Creator of Modern Music: Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) 19
2 Music for Use, Devotion, and Personal Profit: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) 39
3 "Vast Effects with Simple Means": George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) 65
4 The "Vienna Four": An Introduction 91
5 "I Had to be Original": Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) 97
6 "Right Here in My Noodle": Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1 791) 113
7 The Gift of Inevitability: Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) 145
8 "When I Wished to Sing of Love it Turned to Sorrow": Franz Schubert (1797-1828) 175
9 An Unforgettable Day in 1836: Fryderyk Franciszek (Frédéric François) Chopin (1810-1849) Robert Schumann (1810-1856) 205
10 The Italian Reformer and the German Futurist: Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) Richard Wagner (1813-1883) 247
11 The Synthesizer: Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) 307
12 The Refined Radical: Claude Debussy (1862-1918) 339
13 "The Public Will Judge": Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) 369
14 New Languages for a New Century: Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Béla Bartók (1881-1945) 397
Epilogue 433
Recommended Recordings 441
Acknowledgments 447
Notes 449
Illustration Credits 465
Index 467