Spanning a thousand years of music from Gregorian chant to works by contemporary composers such as Judith Weir and Wolfgang Rihm, The Rough Guide to Classical Music forms an indispensable guide to composers and key-recordings. The book combines informative summaries of the major compositions in all genres, with incisive reviews of hundreds of CDs, selecting the best of the latest recordings and the pick of the re-issues. Lively articles on such topics as sonata form, the concerto, atonality, and film music are also included.