Over the last fifty years, the music of Joji Yuasa has attained the zenith of international musical standards. A study of this great Japanese composer is long overdue. Persuasive and captivating, less "easy" than that of his lifetime friend Toru Takemitsu, Yuasa's music has also been a model for many young composers, both from Japan and further afield, thanks to the long period he spent teaching composition at the University of California, San Diego (1981-1994).This book serves to illuminate aspects of Yuasa's work, intricately linked to deep, native roots which tend to be more opaque for western (and other) ears. It focusses on various aspects of Yuasa's music as well as on the social, anthropological, aesthetic and critical contexts that have informed his compositional practice in the context of the postwar Japanese musical world. In a continual interior dialogue which includes Jean-Paul Sartre and Daisetzu T. Suzuki, Matsuo Basho and William Faulkner, Henry Miller and Motokiyo Zeami, Yuasa's avant-garde aesthetic project, western in conception, encounters the productive thought of an unambiguously Japanese aesthetic, i.e. that of Zen.An analysis of Yuasa's main works will illustrate and complete the picture of Yuasa's world. Yuasa's works are placed at the centre of the most original of creative forces in the contemporary music world - a place where, for Yuasa, "in the same idea of creativity, there has to be an avant-garde component".

Benjamin Britten was a most reluctant public speaker. Yet he was an influential and thoughtful artist and cultural commentator. This book brings together all his published and draft articles, unpublished speeches, transcriptions of important radio interviews, and programme notes.

Despite its short duration, The Peacock Moment holds a central place in Anders Hillborg's worklist. Much of material in this frenetic 1-minute work for clarinet and piano derive from a prime-number series - a common feature in his subsequent work. Particularly striking is the way Hillborg creates the impression of a polyphony of voices within the clarinet's solo lines.

Dark Arteries was commissioned by Rambert Dance Company and first performed in May 2015 with the Tredegar Town Band sharing the stage with Rambert dancers. Dark Arteries is a personal and at times highly wrought response to the Miners' Strike and its aftermath. It is in three movements, the first and last are expansive, with widely contrasting sound worlds, from dark, brooding melodies and the haunting sounds of solo flugel horn to wild syncopations on cornets, suggestive of an imposing, but often bleak mining landscape.In 2016 Higgins re-worked Dark Arteries into a virtuoso concert suite, which captures the essence of the work in three connected movements.Dark Arteries Suite was premiered by the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, conducted by Bramwell Tovey at the Barbican Centre, London, 22 April 2017. A3 score available on request.

Solo Piano Part First performed by Piers Lane and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Carl Vine's vibrant Piano Concerto No.2 (2012) is an attractive 25-minute work comprising three movements. A Rhapsody and Nocturne lead to a finale entitled `Cloudless Blue', a dazzling presto that captures all the brilliance of the Australian summer.

Carl Vine's XX (2009) was commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra to honour the twenty years thatRichard Tognetti had been its Director. A playful 4-minute exploration of the relationship between a chamberorchestra and its leader, this delightful work for solo violin and string orchestra makes the perfect concertopener.This product contains the solo violin part only.

European history has rarely met changes as rapid, dense and radical as those that have taken place in the regions of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire over the past hundred years. This cultural area has experienced political conflicts, the setting and dissolution of borders, and the construction of similarities, differences, and ever-new identities.Being tied to text, vocal music genres reflect such changes especially strongly. Operas and operettas, oratorios and cantatas, choir music, folksongs, and pop and rock hits have all helped to establish identities in many ways, connecting people on national, ethnical, local or social levels.The contributions to this volume represent the proceedings of the Annual Congress of the Austrian Society for Musicology (OEsterreichische Gesellschaft fur Musikwissenschaft - OEGMw) in 2014. They open multiple perspectives on the identity-relevant implications of every kind of vocal music from the last days of the Habsburg Empire to the present day. As such, the book places the extensively discussed concept of Nationalism in music in the wider context of identity building.

Alban Berg: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography concerning both the nature of primary sources related to the composer and the scope and significance of the secondary sources which deal with him, his compositions, and his influence as a composer. The second edition will include research published since the publication of the first edition and provide electronic resources.

This study of the music of a group of important composers of the twentieth century includes Debussy, Webern, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartók, Janácek, Britten, Carter, Birtwistle, Andriessen and Adams. Arnold Whittall explores the cultural contexts and critical perspectives which shed light on certain works by these composers. In particular, he reveals the continuum between the progressive and the conservative underlying the great variety of styles and musical genres in twentieth-century composition.

This is a study of Saint Saens's concertante works - five concertos for piano, three for violin, two for cello, and shorter works.

Bela Bartok is among the most significant figures in the rise of musical modernism, placed alongside Debussy, Stravinsky, and the composers of the Second Viennese School in the pantheon of the 20th century's most influential innovators.

Stockhausen's unceasing curiosity and relentless self-discipline have led to musical discoveries of extraordinary beauty and power. This collection of his writings is a composer's guide to a life and music that has influenced every sphere of present-day musical practice, both classical and popular, live as well as electro-acoustic.

Trevor Wishart looks at the new developments in music-making and musical aesthetics made possible by the advent of the computer and digital information processing. His emphasis is on musical rather than technical matters. The text begins with a critical analysis of the assumptions underlying the Western musical tradition and the traditional acoustic theories of Pythagoras and Helmholtz. It later examines in detail such topics as the musical organization of complex sound-objects, using and manipulating representational sounds and the various dimensions of human and non-human utterance. The author seeks to learn lessons from areas such as, poetry, sound-poetry, film, sound effects and animal communications - not traditionally associated with the field of music.;An audio CD containing many of the musical examples featured in the text is also included.

The musical-historical context of the German composer and his world are discussed from the perspectives of musical-stylistic influences, tonal language, relationships with contemporaries, and political contexts. Specific pieces instrumental and operatic are studied from many approaches: structural a

From the exhilarating impact of Isaac Albeniz at the beginning of the century to today's complex and adventurous avant-garde, this complete interpretive history introduces twentieth-century Spanish music to English-speaking readers. With graceful authority, Tomas Marco, award-winning composer, critic, and bright light of Spanish music since the 1960s, covers the entire spectrum of composers and their works: trends and movements, critical and popular reception, national institutions, influences from Europe and beyond, and the effect of such historic events as the Spanish Civil War and the death of Franco. Marco's penetrating aesthetic critiques are threaded throughout each phase of this rich account. Marco provides detailed coverage of the key figures, including a chapter devoted entirely to Manuel de Falla - Spain's most celebrated twentieth-century composer - and a panoramic survey of recent arrivals on the contemporary music scene. Exploring the rise and fall of the zarzuela, the author highlights innovative works in this authentic Spanish genre. He analyzes the attempts to find an audience for Spanish opera; demonstrates the flowering of symphonic and chamber music at the beginning of this century; traces currents such as romanticism, impressionism, and neoclassicism; and tracks the influence of Spain's distinctive regional folk traditions. Covering musical innovation after Spain's emergence in 1945 from its period of isolation, Marco notes the speed with which many composers absorbed the work of Stravinsky and Bartok, the twelve-tone system, aleatory forms, electronic techniques, and other European developments. English-speaking scholars, musicians, critics, and general readers havefor decades been without full information on the rich and varied work coming out of Spain in this century. This lively history fills a long-felt need and fills it superbly, with the knowledge and insights of a major figure in the musical world.

This volume looks at the creative work of the great avant-gardist John Cage from an exciting interdisciplinary perspective, exploring his activities as a composer, performer, thinker, and artist.
The essays in this collection grew out of a pivotal gathering during which a spectrum of participants including composers, music scholars, and visual artists, literary critics, poets, and filmmakers convened to examine Cage's extraordinary artistic legacy. Beginning with David Bernstein's introductory essay on the reception of Cage's music, the volume addresses topics ranging from Cage's reluctance to discuss his homosexuality, to his work as a performer and musician, and his forward-looking, provocative experimentation with electronic and other media. Several of the essays draw upon previously unseen sketches and other source materials. Also included are transcripts of lively panel discussions among some of Cage's former colleagues. Taken together, this collection is a much-needed contribution to the study of one of the most significant American artists of the twentieth century.

A biography of the Czech composer describes his political and cultural background and discusses the structure and influences of his music.