Southwest Shuffle documents an important period in country music history. During the '30s and early '40s, hundreds of thousands of "Okies," "Arkies," and other rural folks from around the Southwest resettled in California, in search of work. A country music scene quickly blossomed there, with performers playing Western Swing, Cowboy, and Honky Tonk country. After World War II, these styles rocked country music, leading to the innovations of '60s performers like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in creating the so-called "Bakersfield Sound." These stories are based on original interviews and archival research by one of the most respected writers on this period of country history. Kienzle writes in a vibrant style, reflecting his long-time love for these musical styles.

1956 was a year of transition in Poland, and an important year for Polish music. This year saw the beginning of a political thaw - sometimes called the Polish October - in communist Poland. It was also the year of the establishment of the 'Warsaw Autumn' International Festival of Contemporary Music. This was a time of great artistic ferment in Polish music, which also deeply influenced symphonic thinking. The year 1956 is thus an appropriate starting point for Beata Boleslawska's study of the contemporary Polish symphonic tradition. Boleslawska investigates the influential Polish avant-garde, illuminating the ways in which new musical means and ideas influenced symphonic music and the genre of the symphony in the music of such important composers as Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994), Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki (1933-2010) and Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933). Referring to the main elements of the European tradition, as well as examining briefly the symphonic activity in Poland before 1956, the book concentrates on the symphonic writing in the context of avant-garde trends, represented by the so-called 'Polish school of composers', as well as on its later redefinitions proposed by Polish composers up to the present day.

Southwest Shuffle documents an important period in country music. During the '30s and early '40s, hundreds of thousands of 'Okies', "Arkies", and other rural peoples from around the Southwest resettled in California, in search of work. A country music scene quickly blossomed there, with performers playing Western Swing, Cowboy, and Honky Tonk country. After World War II, these styles rocked country music, leading to the innovations of '60s performers like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in creating the so-called 'Bakersfield Sound'. These stories are based on original interviews and archival research by one of the most respected writers on this period of country history. Kienzle writes vibrantly, reflecting his long-time love for these musical styles.

Serious scholarship on the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams is currently enjoying a lively revival after a period of relative quiescence, and is only beginning to address the enduring affection of concert audiences for his music. The essays that comprise this volume extend the study of Vaughan Williams's music in new directions that will be of interest to scholars, performers and listeners alike. This volume contains the work of eleven North American scholars who have been recipients of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Fellowship based at the composer's own school, Charterhouse, which was created and has been supported by the Carthusian Trust since 1985. This wide-ranging and detailed collection of essays covers the spectrum of genres in which Vaughan Williams wrote, including dance, symphony, opera, song, hymnody and film music. The contributors also employ a range of analytical and historical methods of investigation to illuminate aspects of Vaughan Williams's compositional techniques and influences, musical, literary and visual.

Philip Hale (1854-1934) helped put Boston on the Transatlantic map through his music writing. Mitchell reconstructs Hale's oeuvre to produce an authoritative account of the role the Boston Symphony played in the international world of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music.

Tatjana Goldberg reveals the extent to which gender and socially constructed identity influenced female violinists' 'separate but unequal' status in a great male-dominated virtuoso lineage by focussing on the few that stood out: the American Maud Powell (1867-1920), Australian-born Alma Moodie (1898-1943), and the British Marie Hall (1884-1956). Despite breaking down traditional gender-based patriarchal social and cultural norms, becoming celebrated soloists, and greatly contributing towards violin works and the early recording industry (Powell and Hall), they received little historical recognition. Goldberg provides a more complete picture of their artistic achievements and the impact they had on audiences.

'People are always asking, 'Aren't you proud of your famous brother?' I was, of course, but often wished he was not so famous so that one could see more of this brother who was such a joy to be with. Janet Baker has written that the air crackled when he walked into the room, and she was right...' The younger of Benjamin Britten's two sisters, Elizabeth ('Beth') Britten first published this loving and revealing portrait of their shared childhood in 1986. She evokes the Lowestoft upbringing of the four Britten siblings, their dentist father Robert, and mother Edith, who keenly encouraged the children's interest in music. She recalls the flat they shared in London while Benjamin studied at the Royal College of Music; and tells of 'The Old Mill at Snape', Britten's home/studio after its renovation by Beth's future father-in-law. Of special interest are Britten's letters to Beth from America, where he and Peter Pears emigrated in 1939 then became ensconced after war broke out.

The composer and pianist Michael Finnissy (b. 1946) is an unmistakeable presence in the British and international new music scene, both for his immeasurable generosity as prolific composer for many different types of musicians, major advocate for the works of others, and performer and conductor who has also been a driving force behind ensembles; he was also President of the International Society for Contemporary Music from 1990 to 1996. His vast and enormously varied output confounds those who seek easy categorisations: once associated strongly with the 'new complexity', Finnissy is equally known as composer regularly engaged with many different folk musics, for working with amateur and community musicians, for a long-term engagement with sacred music, or as an advocate of Anglo-American 'experimental' music. Twenty years ago, a large-scale volume entitled Uncommon Ground: The Music of Michael Finnissy gave the first major overview of the output of any 'complex' composer. This new volume brings a greater plurality of perspectives and critical sensibility to bear upon an output which is almost twice as large as it was when the earlier book was published. A range of leading contributors - musicologists, composers, performers and others - each grapple with particular questions relating to Finnissy's music, often in ways which raise questions relating more widely to new music, and provide theoretical foundations for further of study both of Finnissy and other composers.

Contents:
Preface Epigraphs 1. Autobiography 2. Precursors 3. His Own Music (to 1970) 4. His Own Music (after 1970) 5. His Performances 6. His Writings 7. Radio and Audiotape 8. Visual Arts 9. Dance 10. Successors 11. Esthetics 12. Pedagogy 13. Social Philosophy 14. Coda Index

"Masterworks of 20th-Century Music" introduces over 100 of the greatest compositions by world composers that have entered the standard orchestral repertory. The author surveyed dozens of major American orchestras to find which pieces are commonly performed, and has focused on these works that an average audience member is most likely to hear. Among the popular pieces profiled are Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring"; Gustav Holst's "The Planets;" Igor Stravinsky's "Le sacre du printemps;" Samuel Barber's "Knoxville: Summer of 1915;" George Gershwin's "An" "American in Paris"; Charles Ives's "Three Places in New England"; and many more. With each entry is given a wealth of information about: the composer, when and where the piece was first performed, in what "style" it was composed, and a basic analysis of the music. This book serves the general reader interested in 20th-century music, plus students, teachers, and scholars.

Maurice Durufle (1902-1986) is best known as composer of the hauntingly beautiful and moving Requiem of 1947, and as organist during his long tenure at the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont in Paris. He studied composition and organ with Tournemire, Vierne, Gigout, and Dukas among others, and became well known outside France through tours and conferences, often attended with his wife, the late Marie-Madeleine Chevalier. Ebrecht has brought together in this centenary tribute a fine collection of articles on Durufle's life and work that will enthrall all those who have come under the spell of this great master of French Impressionism. About the contributors: Marie-Claire Alain the renowned French organist, recording artist, and teacher was one of Durufles first harmony students at the Paris Conservatoire. James Frazier has studied liturgy and music at several universities, and was a Fulbright scholar in France, where he studied privately with Madame Durufle. Maria Rubis Bauer concluded her doctoral dissertation on Durufle at the University of Kansas. Jeffrey Reynolds is Associate Professor of Humanities and chair of the music department at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Herndon Spillman's landmark recording of the complete works of Durufle won him a Grand Prix du Disque in 1973. He is Professor of Music at Louisiana State University. Eliane Chevalier was the sister of Marie-Madeleine Durufle, with whom she shared a passion for music. Ned Tipton is Director of Music of the American Cathedral in Paris.

The Music of Louis Andriessen is the first English-language collection of interviews and essays about this avant-garde composer. This book presents the musician in dialogue with a Polish-Canadian musicologist amd three of his Dutch friends and collaborators, Reinbert de Leeuw, Elmer Schönberger and Frits van der Waa. Topics include his artistic evolution, his relationship to minimalism, his prevalent interest in mysticism and meaning, the use of quotation and writing for the stage and an introduction to his musical language.

As John Cage once recalled, there were four musicians in the early '50s who, because of their deep interest in art, associated closely with the New York School of painters: Edgard Varèse, Stefan Wolpe, Morton Feldman, and Cage himself. This book explores the interaction and influences of the visual arts on these four seminal composers. Even though each composer stressed that his aesthetic derived mainly from the visual arts, the actual transference of an aesthetic form from one medium to another took many forms, reflecting the individual sensibilities and concerns of the artists involved. The theories of performance and composition that they evolved are still controversial; taking a new and unique perspective, Johnson and his collaborators give fresh insights into the music of our time.

As John Cage once recalled, there were four musicians in the early '50s who, because of their deep interest in art, associated closely with the New York School of painters: Edgard Varèse, Stefan Wolpe, Morton Feldman, and Cage himself. This book explores the interaction and influences of the visual arts on these four seminal composers. Even though each composer stressed that his aesthetic derived mainly from the visual arts, the actual transference of an aesthetic form from one medium to another took many forms, reflecting the individual sensibilities and concerns of the artists involved. The theories of performance and composition that they evolved are still controversial; taking a new and unique perspective, Johnson and his collaborators give fresh insights into the music of our time.

The long-awaited memoir by 'the most prolific and popular of all contemporary composers' (New York Times) Rapturous in its ability to depict the creative process, Words Without Music allows readers to experience that sublime moment of creative fusion when life merges with art. Biography lovers will be inspired by the story of a precocious Baltimore boy, the son of a music-shop owner, who entered college at age fifteen, before traveling to Paris to study under the legendary Nadia Boulanger; Glass devotees will be fascinated by the stories behind Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha, among so many other works. Whether recalling his experiences working at Bethlehem Steel, traveling in India, driving a cab in 1970s New York, or his professional collaborations with the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Robert Wilson, Doris Lessing, and Martin Scorsese, Words Without Music affirms the power of music to change the world. Martin Scorsese on Words Without Music: 'I came to Philip Glass's music very simply, without any critical prodding or guidance. I listened and I was transfixed. The music was dynamic and colorful and mysterious all at once, and it put me in mind of the Zen exercise of sitting before a blank wall and contemplating the question, "What is this?" It's music that seems to go beyond music. It doesn't just stay with you, it infuses and energizes and haunts you, and carries a sense of being alive, a perception of existence itself, the rhythm of living this life. Philip's music has come to mean more and more to me as the years have gone by. I was excited to work with Philip on Kundun, and he exceeded my wildest expectations by giving us a score that was genuinely transcendent. He's exceeded my expectations again with this rich and beautifully written memoir. Who knew that he was as good a writer as he is a composer?'

Serial or 12-tone music has proved to be an enduring twentieth century style that has generated a wide range of writings. This much-needed work provides the only comprehensive up-to-date guide to research on serial music, offering an annotated bibliography with nearly 500 citations from books and journals from 1950 to 1995.

This is a comprehensive guide to research on the American composer Elliott Carter (b. 1908), widely acknowledged as one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. It contains a chronology, complete list of works, detailed discography, and fully annotated bibliography of over 1,000 books, articles, interviews, video recordings, and Carter's own writings. This essential reference book covers the most significant works in English, French, German, and Italian, from the 1940s,when Carter's music first began to attract attention,to the 1990s.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203906551

This first book in English on the French composer Andre Jolivet (1905-1974) investigates his music, life and influence. A pupil of Varese and colleague of Messiaen in La Jeune France, Jolivet is a major figure in French music of the twentieth century. His music combines innovative language with spirituality, summarised in his self-declared axiom to 'restore music's ancient original meaning when it was the magic and incantatory expression of the sacred in human communities'. The book's contextual introduction is followed by contributions, edited by Caroline Rae, from leading international scholars including the composer's daughter Christine Jolivet-Erlih. These assess Jolivet's output and activities from the 1920s through to his last works, exploring creative process, aesthetic, his relationship with the exotic and influences from literature. They also examine, for the first time, the significance of Jolivet's involvement with the visual arts and his activities as conductor, teacher and critic. A chronology of Jolivet's life and works with details of first performances provides valuable overview and reference. This fascinating and comprehensive volume is an indispensable source for research into French music and culture of the twentieth century.

The essays in this collection reflect the range and depth of musical life in the US from 1900 to 1950. Contributions consider the triumph of popular forms such as jazz, swing and blues, as well as the art music of composers such as Ives, Cage and Copland among others. American contributions to music technology and dissemination, and the role of these forms in extending the audience for music is also a focus.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Contents:
Editors' Introduction. Abstract Polyphonies: The Music of Schoenberg's Nietzschean Moment, William Benjamin. Arnold Schoenberg as Poet and Librettist: Dualism, Epiphany, and Die Jakobsleiter, David Schroeder. Androgyny and the Eternal Feminine in Schoenberg's Oratorio Die Jakobsleiter Jennifer Shaw. Von heute auf morgen: Schoenberg as Social Critic,Stephen Davison. Schoenberg in Shirtsleeves: The Male Choruses, Op. 35, Robert Falck. The Prophet and the Pitchman: Dramatic Structure and Its Musical Elucidation in Moses und Aron, Act I, Scene 2, Edward Latham. Schoenberg's Moses und Aron: A Vanishing Biblical Nation, Bluma Goldstein. Schoenberg Rewrites His Will: A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46,David Isadore Lieberman. Texts and Contexts of A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46, Camille Crittenden. Returning to a Homeland: Religion and Political Context in Schoenberg's Dreimal tausend Jahre, Naomi Andr. Schoenberg's Modern Psalm, Op.50c, and the Unattainable Ending, Mark Risinger

A critical re-evaluation of the music of Carl Nielsen which examines its context and relationship to musical modernism. Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is one of the most playful, life-affirming and awkward voices in twentieth-century music. His work resists easy stylistic categorisation or containment, yet its melodic richness and harmonic vitality are immediately appealing and engaging. Nielsen's symphonies, concertos and operas are an increasingly prominent feature of the international repertoire, and his songs remain perennially popular at home in Denmark. But his work has only rarely attracted sustained critical attention within the scholarly community; he remains arguably the most underrated composer of his international generation. This book offers a critical re-evaluation of Carl Nielsen's music and his rich literary and artistic contexts. Drawing extensively on contemporary writing and criticism, as well as the research of the newly completed Carl Nielsen Edition, the book presents a series of case studies centred on key works in Carl Nielsen's output, particularly his comic opera Maskarade, the Third Symphony (Sinfonia Espansiva), and his final symphony, the Sinfonia Semplice. Topics covered include his relationship with symbolism and fin-de-siecle decadence, vitalism, counterpoint, and the Danish landscape. Running throughout the book is a critical engagement with the idea of musical modernism - a term which, for Nielsen, was fraught withanxiety and yet provided a constant creative stimulus. DANIEL M. GRIMLEY holds a University Lectureship in Music at Oxford, and is the Tutorial Fellow in Music at Merton College and Lecturer in Music, Landscape at University College. His previous books include Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Identity (Boydell, 2006) and the Cambridge Companion to Sibelius (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Re-Locating the Sounds of the Western examines the use and function of musical tropes and gestures traditionally associated with the American Western in new and different contexts ranging from Elizabethan theater, contemporary drama, space opera and science fiction, Cold War era European filmmaking, and advertising. Each chapter focuses on a notable use of Western musical tropes, textures, instrumentation, form, and harmonic language, delving into the resonance of the music of the Western to cite bravura, machismo, colonisation, violence, gender roles and essentialism, exploration, and other concepts.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.