Grove is proud to be publishing extracts from 'The New Grove II' on four of the most prolific and influential composers of all time. Each title is extensively revised or re-written, containing the most up-to-date research on these most interesting and exciting figures in the history of music.
The most controversial musical figure of the 19th century, Wagner was a great literary, philosophical and political activist whose contribution to the development of German Romanticism was unrivalled by any of his contemporaries. His life and works may be said to crown the musical achievements of German Romanticism but they arouse passions like no other composer’s. His works are hated as much as they are worshipped, but none denies their greatness.
