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Secret Lives of Great Composers: What Your Teachers Never Told You about the World's Musical Masters

Secret Lives of Great Composers: What Your Teachers Never Told You about the World's Musical Masters

Current price: $16.95
Publication Date: August 1st, 2009
Publisher:
Quirk Books
ISBN:
9781594744020
Pages:
288

Description

True tales of murder, riots, heartbreak, and great music.
 
With outrageous anecdotes about everyone from Gioachino Rossini (draft-dodging womanizer) to Johann Sebastian Bach (jailbird) to Richard Wagner (alleged cross-dresser), Secret Lives of Great Composers recounts the seamy, steamy, and gritty history behind the great masters of international music. You’ll learn that Edward Elgar dabbled with explosives; that John Cage was obsessed with fungus; that Berlioz plotted murder; and that Giacomo Puccini stole his church’s organ pipes and sold them as scrap metal so he could buy cigarettes. This is one music history lesson you’ll never forget!

About the Author

Elizabeth Lunday is a journalist specializing in music, architecture, and culture. She writes the “Masterpieces” column for mental_floss magazine and lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

Praise for Secret Lives of Great Composers: What Your Teachers Never Told You about the World's Musical Masters

“Far from dead, [the composers] jump off the pages of Lunday's book with all the life of a good story.”—WOSU Public Radio