The nineteenth-century German view of British music can be summarized by the notorious statement "A land without music." During the twentieth century British musicians of outstanding talent have emerged and regained for themselves an honorable place on the map of musical nations. From Elgar to Britten, from Vaughan Williams to P. Maxwell Davies, this book charts out and surveys the development of modern music in Britain. It also provides background...

"The last decade and a half has seen the emergence of more composers of real and demonstrable talent in Britain than almost any previous period. Their work is reaching an increasingly wide and keen audience in concert hall and opera house, through national and local radio, festivals amateur and professional, and even children's performing groups. In this timely book a team of experts provides a much-needed survey and assessment of these new composers--all...

"From Sir Edward Elgar to Adele, great composers and songwriters have been at the heart of the musical landscape of the last 100 years. This lavish photo book has been specially commissioned by PRS for Music in commemoration of a century of support for music's creators. Showcased here are composers of film music, opera, symphonies and stage shows, as well as the writers behind the greatest hits of rock and pop, in superb new photographs by Lucy Sewill...

Based on Michael Hall's many interviews with leading British composers of the genre, this book looks at the heyday of the British Music Theatre in the 1960s and 70s, a period when the author as a BBC radio producer was actively involved with the contemporary music scene. Music Theatre - a composite of music, singing, dancing and speaking distinct from traditional opera and ballet - has its roots in works by Monteverdi, Schoenberg, Satie, Stravinsky,...