The BBC Proms Guides provide all the background and information you need about some of the most popular works in the repertory. As one of the world's leading music festivals, the BBC Proms has over the years published unrivalled and highly-praised programme notes by some of today's leading writers on music. Choral singing has been a great tradition of this country's music-making, and this volume looks at some of the greatest masterpieces in the repertory, from Allegri and Tallis to Handel and Bach, large-scale nineteenth-century works such as Mendelssohn's 'Elijah' and the 'Verdi Requiem', through to the masterpieces of the twentieth century which reinvented the oratorio: Elgar's 'The Dream of Gerontius', Walton's 'Belshazzar's Feast' and Britten's 'War Requiem'. If you want to know more about how these great works were written and what to listen out for as you encounter these remarkable pieces, this is the place to start.