Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovski Frédéric Chopin

Gr 4—8—Divided into two parts, the first half of each book explores key biographical information, stemming from the composer's early years and musical development; the latter half provides a general overview of some key works. Small boxes of text provide study questions and also add explanatory notes about some of the photographs. However, the description of some of the musical concepts, such as a reference to authentic psychological consistency, may be difficult for this audience to grasp. The texts, oddly enough, depict the composers' lives in present tense. Voake's minimalistic watercolor-and-pen illustrations in pale yellows, greens, and browns balance the photographs and art reproductions, creating a collage of cultural aspects from the composers' times, as well as those from modern-day performances of their musical works. The accompanying CDs, with a charming narration on authentic Castilian dialect, follow the texts and are interspersed with samples of the composers' music. These titles will be useful in intermediate Spanish language coursework, particularly for learning musical terms.—Cristi Jenkins Fort Vancouver Library District, WA