This lyric American master is celebrated in comprehensive collections of some of the greatest achievements in setting words to music in the 20th century. Fascinating, extensive essays by the composer give fresh insights into these masterworks.

Songs about Spring:Who knows if the moon's a balloon - Spring is like a perhaps hand - In Just-spring - In Spring comes - When faces called flowers float out of the ground -Six Elizabethan Songs:Spring - Sleep - Winter - Dirge - Daiphenia - Hymn - Letters from Composers:Fréderic Chopin - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Franz Schubert - Johann Sebastian Bach - Claude Debussy - Giacomo Puccini -Robert Schumann - To Be Sung Upon the Water:Prologue: Shadow and substance - The lake at evening - Music on the Water - Fair is the swan - In remembrance of Schubert - Hymn near the rapids - The lake at night - Epilogue: De profundis - Miss Manners on Music:Prologue - Manners at a concert - Manners at a ballet - Manners for contemporary music - Manners at a church recital - Manners at the opera - Envoi