This beautiful book is a celebration of the lives and music of the finest composers of classical music. Some 170 biographies, arranged alphabetically, chronicle the history and personal circumstances of the composers, revealing the social and artistic milieus in which they worked, as well as the influences that helped shape their music. The volume also reveals how developments in the visual arts often found parallel expression in the world of music, and how the two forms of artistic creation frequently sprang from a shared cultural tradition.