Book excerpt: This book consists of articles that were originally written for my classical music blog Musical Musings. This first volume is a mix of the familiar and the less familiar works of well-known composers and some not so well known. You'll not find the Big Three (Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms) in this book. That isn't to say that I do not listen to their works. Indeed, major composers are well represented on my blog Musical Musings. But I do appreciate lesser-known works from the famous and no so famous. On occasion it's good to hear works that are fresh on the ear. Some of those works are included in this collection. But I've also included a few ringers, such as Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Béla Bartók's Concerto For Orchestra, works that are far from being unknown to classical listeners. The 50 works included in this volume run from the early Baroque composer Heinrich Schütz to the 20th century composer Aaron Copeland. It's a varied mixture of works for piano, chamber music, symphonies, tone poems and whatnot. The articles are varied also, with some detailed in analysis, in lives of the composers, on my impressions of the music, or a hodge-podge of information. Modern technology has created a great way to not only gather information about music, but to offer up actual performances of the music in question. Reading about music is all well and good, but it is like describing in words a painting by a great master. As the visual arts are meant to be seen, the aural arts are meant to be heard. No amount of description can do either art form justice. I have included the original links to the article on my blog that also has a performance of the work discussed. This of course works better in ebook form, as a link can be clicked to the site. That isn't possible in a print book, but it will give the reader an idfea of where to go to find a performance. Youtube is a treasure trove of all kinds of music. Search for the piece of music on google or youtube, chances are you'll find one. To my mind, with so many books and articles available about music, there should be a good reason or purpose for yet another. My purpose in this book is to help the curious listener to increase their enjoyment of music. If this book helps someone discover the beauty of music, or increase their knowledge and enjoyment of it, I will feel my humble efforts have not been in vain.