Musicians Who Shaped History. How Great Composers are Connected to Repressions, Freemasons, and Revolutions

Mozart, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Verdi, Debussy... Listening to their music means feeling the breath of the French Revolution, experiencing the luxury of empires, or sensing the horror of dictatorship. Their talent became their way of expressing their attitude towards the world, inspiring people to achieve great things and giving them hope. In this book, you will learn how the great masterpieces of classical music were created and what helped them gain centuries of fame.
In the book "Musicians at the Epicenter of History", the fates of 13 composers caught in the whirlwind of political and social events of their time are gathered. Despite all the hardships, they did not break and were able to take this time under control, gifting us with living testimonies of what was happening in their works.

Here we:
• will see Lully's life at the Versailles court;
• will spend the last seven years of Mozart's life with him, which he devoted to freemasonry;
• will find ourselves next to Richard Strauss, caught in the vortex of Nazism;
• will learn how Shostakovich created music, persecuted by Stalin.

Note by note, you will feel what they felt. Thanks to this book, you will not only understand the context of the creation of famous masterpieces better but also realize that music without words can sometimes be louder than any speeches from the podium.
The author of the book, Laura Dotrice, is a French writer, journalist, musicologist, and violinist.