Maybe one of the books that might be an SICP type book could be The Classical Style by Charles Rosen but I'm not sure how accessible it is to a nonmusician...
I found biographies helped build my appreciation of the music. A good one will cover both the personal life of the composer and their musical development (which are often intertwined), with some light commentary on specific works.
Something I love doing these days is witnessing the evolution of the composer by listening to their works across their life. At least for Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Chopin I can say that I personally detect this maturity in their late music that experiments more with chromaticism and harmony. The late music also tends to have a slightly more conservative sense of emotion which I feel must be some reflection of how people's emotional range develops as they get older. (early Chopin is this sentimental romantic adolescent, while late Chopin has this refinement and grace about it)
I found biographies helped build my appreciation of the music. A good one will cover both the personal life of the composer and their musical development (which are often intertwined), with some light commentary on specific works.
Something I love doing these days is witnessing the evolution of the composer by listening to their works across their life. At least for Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Chopin I can say that I personally detect this maturity in their late music that experiments more with chromaticism and harmony. The late music also tends to have a slightly more conservative sense of emotion which I feel must be some reflection of how people's emotional range develops as they get older. (early Chopin is this sentimental romantic adolescent, while late Chopin has this refinement and grace about it)