The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is the most up-to-date body of musical knowledge ever gathered together. The New Grove composer biographies have been selected from the dictionary to bring the finest of the biographies to a wider audience.

Each has been expanded and updated for book publication and contains a comprehensive work-list, index, and fully revised bibliography, in addition to the definitive view of the subject's life and works.

Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg comprise what is known as the 'Second Viennese School.' Their early 20th-century atonal and 12-tone composition marked the abolition of the traditional tonal functions and heralded an entirely new treatment of dissonance. These three biographies by Paul Griffiths (Webern), Oliver Neighbour (Schoenberg), and George Perle (Berg) provide insight into these developments and offer succinct and illuminating discussions of the composers' lives and works.