Books by Roger Nichols

"Francis Poulenc is a key figure in twentieth-century classical music, as well as an unorthodox and striking individual. Roger Nichols draws upon Poulenc's music and other primary sources to write an authoritative life of this great artist. Although associated with five other French composers in what came to be called "Les Six", Poulenc was very much sui generis in personality and in his music, where he excelled over a wide repertoire-opera, songs, ballet scores, chamber works, piano pieces, sacred and secular choral works, orchestral works and concertos. This book fully covers this wide range, while also describing the vicissitudes of Poulenc's life and the many important relationships he had with major figures such as Satie, Ravel, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Cocteau and others."--Provided by publisher.

A biography of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), by one of the leading scholars of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French music, that is based on a wealth of written and oral evidence, some newly translated and some derived from interviews with the composer's friends and associates.

In 1996 the French journalist Claude Glayman conducted a series of interviews with Henri Dutilleux which were published in France in 1997. The translator is the UK's accepted leading translator of French musical writing, Roger Nichols.

This is the first comprehensive guide to Pelleas et Melisande, Debussy's only completed opera, written by three of the leading authorities on French music of the period. Contains discussion of play's literacy roots, the genesis and composition of the opera, and Debussy's musical responses to the text.

No detailed biography of Debussy has been published since 1965. Since that time much new material has come to light, which Roger Nichols incorporates into his biography. He considers the life and music of this seminal figure, placing the life of Debussy within the context of his age.