OK, recommendation time again. I'm looking biographies of classical
composers but want ones with a "life and times" approach rather than
detailed chronology and musical analysis. Ones that might, say, discuss
the structure of organs in Bach's time or how the cantata developed more
than the names of his children. Something like Barzun's Berlioz and His
Century or the section on Satie in Shattuck's The Banquet Years. Any era,
any remotely recognizable composer but at the moment I'm especially
interested in Bach, Chopin, Satie (again), Sibelius and
Stravinsky. Suggestions?
Thanks, Lang
