'Renovating' Bach and Handel : new musical biographies and the building of socialism / Toby Thacker -- The nation's property : Chopin's biography as a cultural discourse / Jolanta T. Pekacz -- Maurice Ravel : private life, public works / Steven Huebner -- Lingering legends Liszt after Walker / Michael Saffle -- Fanny in Italy : the female composer as travel writer / Marian Wilson Kimber -- This is (y)our life : (re-)writing women's autobiographies in music in 19th-century Germany / James Deaville -- Unremarkable musical lives : autobiographical narratives, music, and the shaping of the self / David Gramit -- A life on film : Renato Castellani's The Life of Verdi / John C. Tibbetts

Explores the functions musical biographies served in different historical contexts, the relevance for criticism and reliability of archival evidence, demands placed by feminist and gender history, and the possibilities offered by cinema. This book challenges the view that biography has little importance for music history, analysis, and criticism.