FA340 - Introduction to Music
General Resources for Classical Music
Music Glossaries
Essentials of Music
A partnership between W.W. Norton & Company and Sony Classical Music, this site offers an accessible but not simplistic introduction to classical music. Built around Sony's Essential Classics music series, the site includes almost 200 excerpts in Real Player format. Essentials of Music is composed of three main sections: Eras, Composers, and a Glossary. The first introduces users to the six main periods in classical music history, discussing historical themes, musical context, style, and major composer s. The Composers section includes brief biographies and excerpts from the works of almost 70 composers. Finally, the Glossary features 200 terms, many with examples (recordings or pictures). While constructed with obvious commercial intent, the site itsel f hosts plenty of free content and should appeal to anyone interested in learning about classical music. (quoted from the Scout Report)
Classical Net Home Page
For those who are relatively new to the world of classical music and wish to explore it further, Classical Net is an outstanding site. Its authors offer tips on how to explore classical music and provide recommendations, including a Basic Repertoire List for building a personal music collection, categorized by era (Medieval/Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century). Each listing begins with a brief description of the period in question, followed by a diverse set of recommendations including symphonic, opera, chamber, solo, guitar music, and even Gilbert & Sullivan. The page is also full of tidbits, such as an explanation of a 'historically informed' performance and composer biographies.
Naxos Learning Zone: A to Z of Classical Music
Similar to the Classical Net web pages, this site by the Naxos classical label presents a good introduction for novices and the more knowledgeable alike, with links to an introduction to the history of classical music, to composer's biographies, a glossary of terms, and more.
DW3 Classical Music Resources
A comprehensive website from Duke University, collecting and sorting links to thousands of non-commercial web pages devoted to classical music. Broken into seven principal sections (including composer homepages, chronologies, national and regional pages, journals, and genre specific sites), along with a search engine, this is an excellent storehouse of information.
Composers' Biographies
From "Naxos.com," a collection of biographies of classical composers both famous and obscure.
Dr. Estrella's Incredibly Abridged Dictionary of Composers
A site of mini-biographies provided by Dr. Steven Estrella of Temple University.
Classical Composers Archive
Biographies and pictures of many composers, famous and obscure, and a calendar of musical anniversaries.
A Web Directory of Conductors
An alphabetical list of links to home pages devoted to great conductors, past and present.
Links to Home Pages for Conductors, Singers, Soloists, Orchestras and Opera Houses
A section of a web page devoted to the conductors Erich and Carlos Kleiber. Links for conductors are arranged alphabetically from Abbado to Walter. The list is particularly good for older conductors like Toscanini and Klemperer, less so for contemporary conductors.
The Flying Inkpot Classical Music Reviews
Home Pages for Individual Composers
The J.S. Bach Home Page
The J.S. Bach Archive and Bibliography
George Frideric Handel Home Page
The Mozart Project
Mozart (from Classical Music Pages)
Anthony and Jennifer's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Homepage
Geocities Ludwig van Beethoven Home Page
Classical Net Beethoven Home Page
The Schubert Institute (U.K.)
The Hector Berlioz Website
The Robert Schumann Page
Johannes Brahms WebSource
Brahms' Rules of Musical Composition
Richard Wagner Archive
Wagner Links
Articles on Wagner's Parsifal
The Gilbert and Sullivan Archives
Giovanni Bottesini (an obscure 19th-century composer--find out why he has a web page of his own)
The Gustav Mahler Home Page
The Arnold Schönberg Center
The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society
George Gershwin
Joaquín Rodrigo
Isaac Albéniz
Sergei Prokoviev
Benjamin Britten
Opera Home Pages
Naxos A to Z of Opera (An excellent introduction and overview to opera and its history)
Operabase (Schedules, Houses, Festivals, Reviews, Links . . . )
Opera Company Pages on the World Wide Web
La Scala Opera House
The Metropolitan Opera Home Page
New York City Opera
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
The Vienna State Opera
Opera Singers: Links to official and unofficial home pages for numerous opera singers
Countdown: an "operanetta," the first online opera by Christopher Yavelow
Sacred Choral Music
ChoralNet
Gregorian Chant
Recordings of Early Choral Music
Contemporary Music
IRCAM: the contemporary music center founded in Paris by Pierre Boulez (in French)
G. Schirmer Records: biographies, photos, and articles on Philip Glass, Aaron Kernis, John Adams, and others.
Theodore Presser Co. Composer Gallery: Pictures, biographies, and analysis of contemporary composers, both famous and less well known, from Daniel Asia to Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (including the contemporary Baroque P.D.Q. Bach and his alterego Peter Schickele).
Contemporary Music Links: an extensive list provided by the contemporary classical music group, Ensemble 21.
Home Pages for Instruments
The Piano Education Page
The Steinway Home Page
The Flute: The One and Only Resource You Need (currently under reconstruction)
Trumpet Player Online
The Crumhorn Home Page (honest!)
Miscellaneous
Music Inspired by Dante
Compiled by Dante expert Otfried Lieberknecht in Berlin for the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies, this is a list of classical pieces written with The Divine Comedy in mind. Composers include the famous, like Liszt and Verdi, to the less well known, from Frank Abbinanti to Luigi Zaninelli. There are numerous links to information about the composers and the music, as well.
Humoresque
The Official Peter Schickele/PDQ Bach Home Page
Classical Music Bloopers
Instrument Jokes (no kidding!)