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From Mozart to Mendelssohn, this comprehensive guide to classical music history and classical music biography is the perfect latest addition to the bestselling Big Ideas series.

Easy to understand and clear to follow, this history of classical music explores and explains music theory and the impact of seminal pieces, while also providing fascinating stories about the lives of crucial composers and performers.

Including an insightful foreword by Katie Derham, The Classical Music Book analyses over 90 works by famous composers. From Thomas Tallis in the early period to baroque masters like Bach and Handel, to the classical genius of Beethoven and Wagner and beyond to the modern day, The Classical Music Book explores the key ideas underpinning the world´s greatest classical compositions and musical traditions, and defines their importance to the musical canon, placing them into their wider social, cultural, and historical context.

The unique approach to the subject makes this book the perfect classical music guide for everyone. Regardless of whether you are relatively new to the subject and want to learn or if you are a classical music aficionado, there is plenty to discover in The Classical Music Book.

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It really is a fantastic book. Steve Wright BBC Radio 2

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Katie Derham (spokesperson) is a presenter on BBC Radio 3 and one of the station´s best known voices, having presented Afternoons on 3 and more recently taking on the mantle of drive-time programme In Tune, fronting the show on rotation with Sean Rafferty. Other Radio 3 credits include Sound of Dance on Saturday afternoons. She has also been the face of the BBC Proms since 2010 and hosts the weekly magazine show Proms Extra every Saturday on BBC2 during the season. Katie spent the first 15 years of her broadcasting career in news and current affairs, first at the BBC then as ITV´s youngest ever newsreader. She also fronts television documentaries, most recently presenting The Girl from Ipanema: Brazil, Bossa Nova and the Beach for the BBC. She was the host of All Together Now: The Great Orchestra Challenge for BBC4, and Fine Tuned in 2016 and 2017, in which she discussed music with Alexander Armstrong alongside exclusive performances from his latest album. In 2015 Katie was a finalist on Strictly Come Dancing, and also won the Christmas Special in 2017.

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