Beethoven and Friends

Description

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Calcutta-based Kishore Chatterjee is a painter, cartoonist, short story writer, filmmaker, and a grand passioné of Western classical music. Since 1970, he has given talks and anchored programmes on Western classical music , including a series on Wagner, Bach, Beethoven, opera and well-known music critics, and another light-hearted one titled ‘Who is afraid of the Bach tribe?’ over All India Radio. During a visit to London and Europe on a music scholarship, he also lectured on record collecting over the BBC. He is regularly invited to speak on Western classical music at Max Muller Bhavan, British Council, Jadavpur University, Calcutta University and many other cultural and academic institutions.
Since 1997, he has been a regular columnist on Western classical music, contributing two milestone series: ‘Classical Gas’ and ‘Strings Attached.’ The grandson of Sunayani Devi, sister of Abanindranath and Gaganendranath Tagore, and the first modern Indian woman artist, his mission in life is to win friends over for Western classical music and communicate its enjoyment through the written word, lectures, films, drama and painting.

ABOUT THE BOOK

What were monophonic Gregorian Chants? Who codified them and when were they composed? Why did Western classical music become polyphonic during the Renaissance? What kind of music did Bach, Handel and Vivaldi compose during the Baroque period? When was opera as a musical composition born? In how many languages were operas composed and which are some of the most memorable operas? Is Western classical music associated with only the Classical period? Which European city was the hub of Western classical music at the time? What was the contribution of the Romantics to Western classical music? What are some of Chopin’s most famous compositions? How did the 20th century impact Western classical music? Who were the famous conductors, tenors, divas or music critics of the last century? What is the fate of Western classical music today? Beethoven and Friends by Kishore Chatterjee, presents the history of Western classical music through the unusual stories of the many lives that shaped it.