Introduction
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
Histories & Chronologies Including Bibliographies or Discographies
Journal Articles
Internet sites
Dissertations

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Introduction and scope:
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Introduction and Scope

Rachmaninoff as a composer has been a subject to discussion for long time, both when he was alive and after his death. During his time (1873-1943) there was beginning of a revolution in music, I don't know whether I used the right term or not but there was a transformation. In these kinds of periods, there have always been people who don't like those changes and don't care about them. Rachmaninoff as a pianist was brilliant not only in his period but also before and after that time. This has become a reason that everybody, whether musicians or non-musicians, take his music under consideration. Some critiques say that he was late for his time but we can see his music is being listened by a variety of people. I believe that if anybody loves to write music in Baroque style he is more than welcome. We listen to Baroque music so we like that kind of music. If anybody could attract our attention, he is the one. Rachmaninoff didn't want to be a pioneer of any reformation. Actually, he was an exception in playing piano and undoubtedly it was one of the elements which helped him to be known. So we can see the most important works of him was works for piano or works for piano and orchestra.

This annotated bibliography or better to say web bibliography is divided into five areas:

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
Histories & Chronologies, including Bibliographies and Discographies
Journal Articles
Internet sites
Dissertations

Having access to “Journal Articles” was difficult, because most of the journals were either very old (such as Apollo which I cited one of its numbers) and on microfilm, or not found in the University of California, Irvine libraries.

Dissertations are the same, there is no dissertation on Rachmaninoff in the UCI libraries, but I ordered some through “Interlibrary Loan”. Despite the fact that there were very few dissertations, these few showed that Rachmaninoff’s compositions have been researched. In my opinion, they are good examples for this category.

The most complete area in this bibliography (Web bibliography) is the Internet sites. Because there are very few people or perhaps nobody has worked on this category I decided to work more on that. There were some difficulties on this classification. Most of the sites didn't have author information such as name and profession, so we do not know who created this web site and what their profession is, and information like this. In the citations, this is indicated as “Unknown”. Some of them are not designed professionally, so accessing specific information is somewhat hard. I should include that the citations are based on the Chicago Manual of Style 14th Ed (Ref Z 253 .U69 1993). Because of some restrictions in Internet sites I had to change a little bit of the style but it is not that much so everybody can get use to it.

I visualize this bibliography to be of use to all whom have an interest in Rachmaninoff.  I have tried to include contents that will not exclude people with a limited musical terminology, or certainly those who do not deal with music professionally.

Norris, Geoffrey. "Rakhmaninov, Sergey (Vasil'yevisch)." In New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980, 15:550-558.
ML Ref  ML 100 .N48 1980b v. 15

 
The New Grove entry on Rachmaninoff covers his life, his role as a performer, and his works. It splits the history of his life into 4 periods 1) 1873-92, 2)1892-1901, 3)1901-17 and 4)1918-43. The article presents a sufficient amount of historical facts about his life. It focuses on his professional life, but includes some information about his personal life as well. In the other paragraphs, it tells us about his talents as a pianist, composer and conductor. It also provides brief analyses of his compositional style and his creative process. At the end of the entry, there is a complete list of his works, and a bibliography of additional research sources.

Kennedy, Michael. "Rakhmaninov, Sergei (Vasil'yevisch)." In The Oxford Dictionary of Music. Second edition, Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 1980, 704-705

With a long paragraph on Rachmaninoff, The Oxford Dictionary of Music explains highlights of his life and then a short paragraph provides background about his time. It gives (or in other term quotes) some critical ideas about his life. Like all of the dictionaries, there is a list of his compositions at the end of  the entry. As a quick reference The Oxford Dictionary of Music is very helpful but it doesn't give a complete coverage of Rachmaninoff’s life and professional career.

This entry is very compact but has the all important of composers life history. It gives the name of his compositions when it speaks about their history. Because, the encyclopedia has been written by a council in previous Soviet Union, it is a little bit prejudice (Just a little bit) so it does not give us some information about his accommodation in the USA. But totally speaking it has a compact but complete about Rachmaninoff’s life. The last paragraph is about Rachmaninoff as a pianist. You will see a list of his performances at the end of the entry.

The Encyclopedia covers his life, career and relations. Most like the other Rachmaninoff’s entire life story, this one has also the same high lights and critiques and other facts. One of the examples is Cezar Cuie’s Criticism on his first symphony. The first part of the entry, which is about history of his life, is very emotional. It seems that the author loves the composer and the text, gives us the feeling that every one who criticized his music was wrong. The author divided his life to 3 periods. There is a bibliography in the end of the entry. This entry might be one of the best for anybody who wants to have an idea about Rachmaninoff’s life, because it is not very long and not too brief that, yet highlights the important aspects of the composer’s life.

Bertensson, Sergei and Leyda, Jay with the assistance of  Satina, Sophia. Sergei Rachmaninoff A Life Time in Music. New York: New York University Press, 1957.
ML 410 R12 B47

The above mentioned book is basically about S. Rachmaninoff’s life history. As the author says “His letter has been our chief source”. They worked out the information from nearly 500 letters, which are published, and so many letters from his archive. Author included some of the original letters. This book is very useful for people who are interested in his private life and circumstances of how he creates his compositions. Meanwhile, this book contains some interesting pictures from different periods of his life.

Riesmann, Oskar von. Translated by Rutherford, Dolly. Rachmaninoff’s Recollections. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1934.

The book is a kind of biography in which the composer told his life to an author who is Oskar von Riesmann. The book has 12 chapters, which are illustrated by very old pictures of composer and his relatives. It also includes some of his manuscripts. There is a comprehensive list of his works in the end of the book in opus order or their type. We can say that it is one of the most complete lists of composer’s work. Its style is like a novel full of feelings and very sensitive. The worthiness of this book is undeniable because it is somehow an autobiography, which focuses on his life and feelings during the process of composing.

Many books and biographies, which are written about Rachmaninoff, use this book as the basis for their information. Nearly half of the book is about the composer’s life and career (5 chapters). Other chapters are brief analyses of his works, which are categorized into orchestral music, works for piano, chamber music, the operas, the songs, choral works. The author mainly used primary resources such as letters. Also he used some published sources such as articles in magazines like “Musical Quarterly” and some books like Bertensson’s Rachmaninoff: A life time in music. The book is written for Rachmaninoff lovers, researchers and professionals. It also has excellent appendices and a complete calendar of his life in chronological order. It contains a very comprehensive catalogue of his works, personalia and a bibliography.

Perhaps the reason the author wrote this book could be explained by this sentence: “Yet Rachmaninoff’s music has probably suffered much more from the wild claims of some of its enthusiasts than from the severest critical judgments.” There are several samples of the composer’s music in the book. The author analyzes some of his music to gain insight into the composer’s style. This book is written for musicians. There are 2 chapters about his life history, but the other chapters are a brief analysis of his works. There is an appendix at the end of the book, which includes the composer’s work, bibliography and discography. As an analytical essay, the above mentioned book is a very useful for musicians who want to be familiar with Rachmaninoff’s style. Despite its brevity, it provides a convenient and satisfactory account of the composer’s music.

It is a volume of a series of books each of which dealing with one aspect in a composer’s work. In this volume Patrick Piggott who is a composer and pianist focuses on Rachmaninoff’s orchestral work such as three symphonies, four piano concertos, and other orchestral works like Carg, Capriccio on Gypsy Themes, The Isle of Dead, Symphonic Dances and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The book is a brief analysis on those works. The analysis is not that boring, so everybody can enjoy it.

The whole book is a complete list of Rachmaninoff’s career. The following parts are included in the guidebook. It is divided into 4 groups 1. Rachmaninoff’s composition, which is divided to several parts, is about his publications in all forms of music. In the Rachmaninoff’s repertoire, his repertoire is listed as both pianist and conductor. Then a list of his recording under the name of Discography and finally a Bibliography. As it is shown in its title, it is a very good help for people who want to do a research or find something special about Rachmaninoff.

Again a book about Rachmaninoff’s history of life, but this time the author is a Russian. As a Russian, the author is able to explore some more aspects of composer’s life which is understandable only through culture and it might not be discovered by the authors who were raised in the same culture. The book categorizes Rachmaninoff’s life into different parts based on specific events in the composer’s life. Although, some of them are not that much important, but it makes the book attractive.

The paper has an idea about Rachmaninoff’s early music and its influence on his compositional style. It says that the composer finally realized that his early style of music was the one which he was looking for, and the things that he always wanted to reach. He says a story about a theme in “Alko” which impressed his classmates when he was so young. It uses the composer’s harmonic style as well as his melodic progression to prove his idea so the article is professionally designed and it is well maintained with some musical logic, samples and historical events.

As it could be understood from the title, the book coverage is all the Russian music. The book is an analytical history of Russian history. It means that it talks about the music and its progress, changes, and development. In this way, it uses composers to show how each one developed the Russian music itself and how much influence has had on their culture. In one chapter, which is about Tchaikovsky, Arensky, and Rachmaninoff, the author explained some of the Rachmaninoff’s music aspects.  This book is about music not about composers, and because of this style, it doesn’t give a lot of facts.  Instead it illustrates its points with musical examples. By the way, this book does not provide biographical or stylistic information on Rachmaninoff per se, but instead presents a general overview of Russian music.

As a good research program, they have a good introduction about how they started to work and what kind of problems they faced through the project. The catalogue starts with “Works with opus numbers” and “ Work without opus numbers”, then “Arrangements of other composer’s works”, the important pat of the book which is unique is its appendices. There is a “German and French version of the song titles”. You can also see a lot of illustrations of the original copy of scores when they published for the first time and some photos of the manuscript of his works. In each entry, there is a “Note” which tells us about the history of the piece(s) or entry (ies). It uses primary sources (mostly letters) and sometimes people’s quotes. With this categorized information, you will find you will find the book worth and knowledgeable, which cooperates people through their research or finding anything related to Rachmaninoff. It is also included bibliography.

The thickest book ever written about Rachmaninoff is this book. The book has a variety of aspects of the composer. His life, career as composer, conductor, pianist, it shows some aspects in his style by analyzing his music. There are too many excerpts of composer’s pieces and some statistical facts. It shows that the author survyed the composer comprehensively. This book has almost every statistical information about Rachmaninoff. For instance, it has a chronological summary of his Principal compositions, Concert statistics, Piano repertoire, Discography, Conducting repertoire, and chronological list of his performances. The book includes a lot of good quality pictures, which covers all of his life. Overall, it is a great research on his life and music. You will find both emotional and statistical truth there.

McLean, Anne. Rachmaninoff: The Bohemian. From: Studies in music from the University of Western Ontario vol. 15, 1995, p. 95-106. Article in a symposium ML5U597 V.15 1995

It is about Rachmanninoff’s membership in  New York Musicians' Club (The Bohemians). His activities, personality, attitude, and events related to this club.“Chronicles the establishment of and Rahmaninov's activities within the New York Musicians' Club, called The Bohemians, of which Rahmaninov was a member from 1919 until his death.” (author)

A subject about relationship between Rachmaninoff and Nicolai Medtner (Russian composer and pianist), who was one of the most enduring friend of Rachmaninoff. Because he was a Russian composer and pianist, sometimes it is a comparison between those two, but it gives some facts about their life and style.
“A consideration of one of the most important and enduring friendships in Rahmaninov's musical life. Metner's career in many ways ran parallel with Rahmaninov's own.” (author)

The article in mainly about Rachmaninoff’s music and Italian social reaction to his music as well as the relationship between musicians and him as a non-Italian composer. It reminds some facts about his unsuccessfulness in the beginning. The author tries to show some historical facts, which would be the reason for changing the Italian’s attitude. He uses those facts to explain how the composer has a great influence on Italy, which its result was, honor and reputation. “An examination of Italians' exposure to Rahmaninov's music between the two World Wars. Italian audiences were largely indifferent towards his work, which suggests a substantial critical and aesthetic hostility towards Rahmaninov as a composer.” (author)

This some how paper is talking about Rachmaninoff’s cultural background  and how it can be important in creation of a composer. The article starts with his familly and in their wealthy familly music is a part of their life. There are more other opinins which might be true or not. Generally speaking the whole idea is around how the background factors will be important in creating a composer like Rachmaninoff.  “Sergei Rahmaninov's formative Russian experience can be divided into four phases, each of which took place during a corresponding stage of Russian cultural development in the late 19th and early 20th c. Both Rahmaninov and Russian culture emerged simultaneously to new levels of maturity. Rahmaninov's Russian experience ended with his departure abroad in December 1917, the year Russian cultural development experienced a sharp interruption.” (author)

The following contributions are cited separately in this volume of RILM: David Butler CANNATA, Rachmaninoff's concept of genre (12911); Francesco IZZO, Rachmaninoff in Italy: Criticism, influence, performance (5953); Barrie MARTYN, Rachmaninoff and Medtner (6231); Anne MCLEAN, Rachmaninoff: The Bohemian(6258); Geoffrey NORRIS, Rachmaninoff's reception in England, 1899-1938(6385); Charles A. RUUD, Fin de siecle culture and the shaping of Rachmaninoff (4866); Mary Helen Sault WOODSIDE, Anecdotes of pre-Revolutionary Russia:The memoirs of R.-Aloys Mooser (1876-1969) (8200); Garry ZIEGLER, Rachmaninoff's early voice (12895).” (Author)

This is an article, which has been written on Rachmaninoff’s 100th birthday by his sister. It is a very emotional essay on Rachmaninoff’s life in which author introduce him as a genius or somehow a “god”. It would be useful if I bring you a sample paragraph of the article, (after failure of his first symphony the composer was depressed too much).“In the Bacchanal, Euripidies appointed Penthouse to suffer and die, Penthouse ignorant of his own nature, was the son of the Olympian god Dionisyous. In order to become the god, Penthouse had to die.” The article has some quotes of Rachmaninoff, which are unique because they narrated by his sister. The article covers the history of great works of composer simply and briefly. We can say that it was reminder of Rachmaninoff as a genius at his 100th birthday for people who read the music journal.

This is an article, which has been written by a person who loves Rachmaninoff’s pianistic style and works. It is her feeling about Rachmaninoff and what had happened to her when she went to Rachmaninoff’s performances. She compare the composer with some of great composer’s like Beethoven and Mozart but she believes that only Rachmaninoff and Liszt and Paganini attained the world reputation as giants of their instruments. It also says that he didn't like teaching and was not a good teacher piano. “It is simply too boring to sit and listen to people pick at the piano rather than playing it etc.” In the last part of the article, author gives some examples of Rachmaninoff’s programs and tries to reach to a comparison between Chopin’s sonatas-liszt works and some other composers with him, so in the end she has become somewhat analytical. But it is very simple so that every one can understand it.

This article is about the experience, which the author had with Rachmaninoff. It starts and continues very beautifully, like a novel. Sometimes when it talks about an old Russian custom, (I mean gathering mushroom in the late summer) gives us a very special feeling about that time. The history that author is talking about is after 1920, because the first contact of Rachmaninoff and author was at that time. It has also sample letters and quotes of composer; the whole article has the style of narration with quotes of author so it can be very useful to discover about the composer’s personality. Because of its narrative style, also too many quotes and conversation that the author has brought in his text.

The article is the continuation of the first part and the same style. I am sure that it will grab your attention. The article goes through all the meetings that author have had with Rachmaninoff until his death at 1943.

The article tries to make more of a consideration of Rachmaninoff’s songs. The author thinks that unfortunately, greater attention was paid to the composer’s larger pieces than the songs, perhaps because of its language. It has mentioned some of its songs, has given their name and opus number, by using some sample of text on which Rachmaninoff wrote his song. This might help us to be more familiar with composer’s numerous songs. I also personally believe that his songs are now known as his concertos and piano pieces so it gives an idea that we should know about them more.

The article focuses on Rachmaninoff’s point of view about new style of music. During 20th century, How he used to think about that in his early years and how he used to think about that after appearance of stravinsky or other modern music composers. It has a critical view on Rachmaninoff as a twentieth century composer It critiques some of his work, mostly works he wrote after 1917 like 4th piano concerto, 3rd symphony, Variation on a them of Correlli, Variation on a theme of Chopin, Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, and Symphonic dances. In the middle of the text there is a paragraph that gives a view about the period in which Rachmaninoff lived and compare him with the other composer’s. This critical article sometimes is negative and sometimes is positive. I thin text using of English vocabulary is sophisticated and I personally believe that it could be more friendly and attractive if the author write it in a simple way.

In the first part the author tries explain piano as an important instrument in the hand of composers. Then it shows how the great composers use this facility in two way one to creat their music the other to write some music for this instrument. In the second part he talks about Rachmaninoff as a magnificent instance of inventive temperament to re-define rhetoric of the instrument. There is an idea of Rachmaninoff that it had been much difficult for him to write a piece of music like or a little piece for piano than a concerto or a symphony. The author believes that Rachmaninoff’s critical mind was not at the first of the line as Liszt or Beethoven It is his capability in paying piano that make him a known composer. His fabulous technique should have been using his mind to maintain at top level. The author believes that composer revealed the possibility of the magic in the hand of a pianist.

The article is full of literature and it has been written very sophisticatedly, but in a view of litrature, it is so beautiful. It starts with a narration of author’s contact with composer. As you can see the journal is very old so its literature is somewhat difficult but the authors purpose is not to give us any statistical or critical idea. Even it is not based on a historical story. I can say it is a very good prose, which is written upon the author’s feelings about Rachmaninoff. It seems that he is not a musician or music criticism but its way of writing makes the article itself an artistic document more than its relation ship to Rachmaninoff

Ashkenazy, Vladimir (President) John Lockyer (Administrator). The Rachmaninoff Society. Available: http://www.rachmaninoff.org/

It is an international organization to encourage and bring into contact all those who appreciate the Sergei Rachmaninoff. There are no membership requirements. All, who are interested in Rachmaninoff, are welcome to join. the first publication of articles, an impartial review of many of the new CD releases, advance details of concert performances and, the opportunity to communicate with others who share the enjoyment and appreciation of the Rachmaninoff.

As the title suggests, this is a non-scholarly website for Rachmaninoff devotees. This is a place, where you can chat, read news, see photos, find related links, and make contacts. The function of this site is to be message board for club members' communication. For substantive information on Rachmaninoff, you will need to consult books or other websites.

Robert L. Jones is probably the first author or web page creator to publish reviews of Rachmaninoff the pianist, and conductor on the Internet. The web page has got 4 sections:
Rachmaninoff Reviews: Reviews of Recordings and Concerts, New & Old. There are several reviews in this site you will find some explanation about those recordings.  2) Rachmaninoff Links: A World of Rachmaninoff at Your Fingertips: A list of websites and webpages  3) Rachmaninoff's Legacy:  A Celebratory Essay on Rachmaninoff as Composer 4) Die Web-Seiten Rachmaninow:  This Website in German. Although it is not very scholarly, this website is a very nice both for ordinary people and musicians. Of particular consideration , this website has one of the most complete lists of Websites and links.

Like many other websites it has several parts:

-Introduction
-Biographies: It is brief and divided into five periods of his life. There is an option to view a shorter,   condensed version.
-Anecdotes, A collection of anecdotes, quotes, and stories about Rachmaninoff. Society,
-Works and Analyses: A list of his works and some analyses of them.
-The Dies Irae, it is an old Gregorian songs which Rachmaninoff has used it in his music. “What is the Dies Irae and why was it so important to Rachmaninoff?”
-Multimedia Files: offers audio/video files for downloading or browsing. Sources. News  and Links.

This site doesn’t have a scholastic aim but it is so enjoyable especially “Anecdotes”.

A webring is several web pages which are linked together like a ring. It is an effort to creat a webring for Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is very interesting because you can find several web pages or websites by clicking on the sign of  “Next” and “Previous”. Also you can see a list of those websites. There are some other parts in the webpage including: A little biography, Bibliography, Where can I hear his music? This part is very interesting because, one can search for Rachmaninoff or even more composer’s music with special performances. This is a very good opportunity for people who are searching for some thing special (It guides you to “CD NOW” which is a web site or some how a search engine for finding a CD).

A webpage about Rachmaninoff songs in Cyrillic. It is a web page of a web site in which you can find a very comprehensive list of texts and songs arranged in several ways like: Composers, Poets, First lines, Titles, Random Art Song or Songs in English or in English translation. These are completely translated. Its design shows that it is very reliable and can be used by researchers.

“It features the main piano works by the famous composers ranging from Baroque to Modern periods. This webpage provides not only the brief descriptions of composers' life and piano compositions but also some of their music performed by the webmaster himself on piano. Hopefully Piano Solo's Corner will give you pleasure of listening to piano music as well as understanding the composers' personalities. You will understand why piano has been one of the most popular instrument. That is because of its capability of expressing feelings -- melancholy, joyful, dramatic etc.”(Author) This website guides you to some webpages, which are about composer’s biographies. There is a list of few composers there. Rachmaninoff is one of them. A very brief  biography about Rachmaninoff is given there, but the website is still under construction so we can not disscuss much about it .

Music Timeline "To Influence and Enlighten" Sergei Vassilievich Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Available: http://members.xoom.com/musictimel/rach/rach.html

This webpage has some lines in composer’s biography then a list of recommended works. It  has some links to his pictures (which is not working right now!).   The important point of this webpage is that you can find some of composer’s music in MIDI formation and it is possible to listen to the music online. In the meantime, there is a good list of his works arranged by “Opus”. Generally speaking, it is a useful webpage for people who want to be more familiar with Rachmaninoff and his works, but is not for music professionals.

This is a webpage on the composer’s Second Sonata. It includes some versions of that piece and more information about that. The Horowitz version, authors opinion, audio samples are available on that page. It is not an analytical essay, but you get information and historical background information on this piece. It is somewhat confusing, because it is neither for amateurs nor for musicians. The information which is given is not accurate enough for musicians not attractive enough for music lovers.

“The Segei Rachmaninoff information page” has 8 different pages, 1) Main, which is a list of those pages. 2) New, it explains what is added to the webpage newly. 3) Biog, a brief biography of the composer 4) A list of his works 5) Pictures gallery 6) Quotes, some statements which shows Rachmaninoff’s idea about different aspect of life and music 7) Links, some links to the other websites related to Rachmaninoff 8) Contact, Information
about the author and contact addresses. The information about author is not complete so we don't know whether he is a professional musician or not. It seems that the aim of the web page comes from a personal interest. He has a connection with some important people like Alexander Rachmaninoff. This website like most of the other websites doesn’t give particular information but it is interesting for non-professional approach.

A webpage (or web based discography) regarding a new release of Rachmaninoff’s old recordings. Scientist “Wayne Stahnke” by using a new technique of reproduction of Rachmaninoff’s music heritage (from the historic rolls). These recordings has much better sound quality that the others which we have heard before and shows why Rachmaninoff considered as greatest pianist on his time. In this web page, there are samples of those recordings in realplayer formation. There is also a link for people who want to order those CD’s. It is a great opportunity for people who are interested in Rachmaninoff’s style of playing piano whether his compositions or other’s works.

A historical and analytical multi-media on two border prelude of Rachmaninoff. Prelude No.1 c# minor prelude, op. 3 no. 2 and his last prelude, op. 32 no. 13 in D-flat major. This site is very well designed to interests the audience or reader. In the end of each paragraph there is a key for how to continue in this site. It seems that the writer is a musician (perhaps pianist) and you can see some harmonic analysis on these two preludes and some other works of Rachmaninoff. The website has lots of pictures, which is the link to music and other pages. Totally speaking going through these web pages is somewhat fun also you will learn some point about composer’s music.

A webpage which lists all of Rachmaninoff’s work. Those works are divided and classified into parts regarding the form like Opera, Works for Piano and …
This web page is a repository for the database of the works of Sergey Rakhmaninov. Details are stored in a delimited text file suitable for opening with a spreadsheet (eg Excel) or database program (eg FileMaker Pro). (Author) It could be said that it is perhaps the most comprehensive webbased work list of the composer.

As it is shown in its title, it is a web based Music History about whole history of music form the Middle ages to present. The website presents samples of each musician. Its Rachmaninoff entrance is not a comprehensive history but it gives some historic background and introduces some important pieces of composer.

The web site has pictures of nine Russian composers one of which is Rachmaninoff. Inside each composer’s webpage offers several links. It is a very little site in which you can find links.

A web-based discography of Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is a series of webpages on classical music. It catagorized the classical music to Basic Repertoire List (Available: http://www.classical.net/~music/rep/top.html#basicrep). Then Medieval (before 1450), Renaissance (1450-1600), Baroque (1600-1750), Classicism (1750-1820), Romanticism (1810-1910), 20th Century (1900-present), and Modern (1945-present). The Rachmaninoff’s discography is in the “Romanticism” and it has most of the composer’s works but it is not a comprehensive list of their different performances. Any way it lists most of the good performances and the companies and call number for those recordings

A webpage regarding discography of Rachmaninoff’s third concerto. As the author says, most of the information is based on “Scott Colebank's (of Prairie Village of Kansas, USA) Discography of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, op. 30”. Brief History of the Third Concerto, First Performances, earliest recordings champions of the Third, about the score: cuts and cadenzas, reference, and list of Musicians. This is a page with almost 2000 words (I mean it is not a huge site) and with statistical (not analitical) information about this composition. Authore is a member of the Rachmaninoff society.  I believe that this information is helpful for archives and people who has special archives also for people who wants to find good recordings of this piece.

This is a personal home page, which is designed by a Chinese family. Their names seem to be Chinatom! The page contains historical background of Rachmaninoff life. It introduces a recording of third piano concerto and second piano sonata performed by Frank Wiens, Piano Paul Freeman Slovakia National Orchestra. Then a brief analysis of that concerto. With a biography of the pianist and conductor. In the end there is a list of other links. Although, some of the information in this page are specific but they are not complete. For instance, the discography in this page is in some how strange because it has offered one  recording of composer. It is mostly like an advertisement.

The web site is like a dictoinary about music and musicians. The author is a young conductor“This web site provides you almost everything you need concerning classical music- its history, biographical information about composers (with portraits and short sound examples), explanations of the various musical forms and a dictionary of musical terminologies. It is designed to be of use for everyone from "beginners" to the music professional - decide for yourself how deeply you follow the links.”(Author). The Rachmaninoff entry is extracted from the Grove Concise dictionary of music.

A brief historically written essay of several composers in verity of style and period of time and a historical back ground of impotent works of each one. Rachmaninoff entry includes “CD Reviews: All works, Concertos, Piano music, Symphonies” “CD Listings: All works, Concertos, Piano music, Symphonies” “Sound samples: info: Piano Concerto No. 2, Piano Concerto No. 3, Prelude in C sharp minor. This page seems that provided by “Classical CD online”. Very useful for ordinary people who are searching for Rachmaninoff’s work and a summary of information about them. Even musicians who are searching for his work. The historical information is not designed for professional musician’s but it navigates them to find new and different recording and releases.

A little biography about some composer including midi samples for each composer. Four compositions of Rachmaninoff are available in this site: Flight of the Bumblebee (piano transcription from "Tsar Saltan" by N.Rimsky-Korsakov) Prelude in c-sharp, Op. 3, No. 2
Prelude Op. 23, No. 4, Prelude in g, Op. 23, No.5. As the author mentioned in this site the website is still under construction and we can not estmaite what will it be after completion. Now it is good for ordinary people who are interested in classical piano music and searching for pieces.

Cannata, David Francis Butler. “Rachmaninoff’s changing view of symphonic structure”. Ph.D. Dissertation. New York University 1993
 

A very scholastic dissertation, starts with history of his symphonies, excerpts of some criticism and letters chronologically ordered and starts from the first symphony through all his life (because after the first symphony the composer wrote symphonic pieces till the end of his life). It used several Russian and American sources to obtain a reliable research. The author believes that understanding Rachmaninoff’s music is impossible without paying attention to Wagner, Liszt and Tchaikowsky. In the working materials it detailed every microscopic points of writing music. For example which kind of paper he used to write on! In details it analyze the way he created his compositions (preparing the idea to the end, for instance, orchestration). In the coda it summarizes.... Changing the view of composer in several points. The dissertation is well documented by original sources and reached to its conclusion successfully.

Dissertation is for partial fulfillment of Ph.D. with a major in Structural. Harmonic and tonal aspects of three symphonies of Rachmaninoff are the musical component examined in this dissertation. The formal and tonal structures are examined and concisely presented in a series of charts. But the harmonic analysis is more delicate. The author has reached to a conclusion that composer expanded and alternated his symphonic plans gradually. The author also thinks that composer’s early music has considered progressive but at the end of his life it seems to be more conservative and anachronistic. It has used some tables and figures to show the modulation and sonority. He considered this comparison to represent a harmonic progression of all symphonies. During the analytical investigations author used some letters to show some facts about his music. In the end of each symphony there is a summary of objectives. You can find all the necessary information about those topics which, I mentioned in this dissertation.