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Books > Music > Western music, periods & styles > 20th century music

German Song Onstage - Lieder Performance in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Paperback): Natasha Loges, Laura... German Song Onstage - Lieder Performance in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Paperback)
Natasha Loges, Laura Tunbridge
R749 Discovery Miles 7 490 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

A singer in an evening dress, a grand piano. A modest-sized audience, mostly well-dressed and silver-haired, equipped with translation booklets. A program consisting entirely of songs by one or two composers. This is the way of the Lieder recital these days. While it might seem that this style of performance is a long-standing tradition, German Song Onstage demonstrates that it is not. For much of the 19th century, the songs of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms were heard in the home, salon, and, no less significantly, on the concert platform alongside orchestral and choral works. A dedicated program was rare, a dedicated audience even more so. The Lied was a genre with both more private and more public associations than is commonly recalled. The contributors to this volume explore a broad range of venues, singers, and audiences in distinct places and time periods-including the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Germany-from the mid-19th century through the early 20th century. These historical case studies are set alongside reflections from a selection of today's leading musicians, offering insights on current Lied practices that will inform future generations of performers, scholars, and connoisseurs. Together these case studies unsettle narrow and elitist assumptions about what it meant and still means to present German song onstage by providing a transnational picture of historical Lieder performance, and opening up discussions about the relationship between history and performance today.

Suite Lyrique (Book, Study score): John Rutter Suite Lyrique (Book, Study score)
John Rutter
R1,168 Discovery Miles 11 680 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

for solo harp and strings Suite Lyrique is a work in six movements for harp and strings, with music taken from the composer's Suite Antique of 1979 for flute, harpsichord, and strings. The six movements - Prelude, Ostinato, Aria, (Jazz) Waltz, Chanson, and Rondeau - explore different moods and exploit the harp's sound world and capabilities to the full to create a highly attractive and joyful concert work. The harp part and full score are available on sale and string parts and scores available on hire.

Schoenberg's Models for Beginners in Composition (Paperback): Gordon Root Schoenberg's Models for Beginners in Composition (Paperback)
Gordon Root
R1,099 Discovery Miles 10 990 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Originally published in 1943, Models for Beginners in Composition represents one of Arnold Schoenberg's earliest attempts at reaching a broad American audience through his pedagogical ideas. The novelty of this book was its streamlined approach, basing all aspects of composition including motivic design, harmony, and the construction of themes on the two-measure phrase. This newly revised edition by Gordon Root incorporates many of Schoenberg's corrections to the original manuscript. It also includes a significant commentary elucidating the evolution of Schoenberg's pedagogical approach. In its function as a practical manual for the American classroom, Models for Beginners in Composition is unique among Schoenberg's texts. The current Commentary explores Schoenberg's experience as a teacher at UCLA while tracing the development of the two-measure phrase as the main component of his pedagogical method. It demonstrates the way in which Schoenberg simultaneously preserved and adapted European ideas about tonal theory and pedagogy when he came to America, a give and take that allowed for increased theoretical originality and scope. Models for Beginners in Composition established the two-measure phrase as one of the most significant of Schoenberg's contributions to American music education. This new edition, with Schoenberg's corrections and newly added commentary, allows readers to utilize and explore the text in greater depth. Students of composition, Schoenberg scholars, music theorists, and historians of music theory alike will no doubt welcome this new edition.

Schoenberg's Early Correspondence (Paperback): Ethan Haimo, Sabine Feisst Schoenberg's Early Correspondence (Paperback)
Ethan Haimo, Sabine Feisst
R1,293 Discovery Miles 12 930 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Early in his career, the composer Arnold Schoenberg maintained correspondence with many notable figures: Gustav Mahler, Heinrich Schenker, Guido Adler, Arnold Rose, Richard Strauss, Alexander Zemlinsky, and Anton von Webern, to name a few. In this volume of Oxford's Schoenberg in Words series, Ethan Haimo and Sabine Feisst present English translations of the entirety of Arnold Schoenberg's early correspondence, from the earliest extant letters in 1891 to those written in the aftermath of the controversial premieres of his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 7, and the Kammersymphonie, Op. 9. The letters provide a wealth of information on many of the crucial stages in Schoenberg's early career, offering invaluable insights into his daily life and working habits. New details emerge about his activities at Wolzogen's Buntes Theater in Berlin, his frequently confrontational interactions with his first publisher (Dreililien Verlag), the reactions of friends and critics to the premieres of his works, his role in the founding of the Vereinigung schaffender Tonkunstler, his activities as a teacher, and his (all too often unsuccessful) attempts to convince musicians to perform his music. Presented alongside the editors' extensive running commentary, the more than 300 letters in this volume create a vivid picture of the young Schoenberg and his times.

Schoenberg's New World (Paperback): Sabine Feisst Schoenberg's New World (Paperback)
Sabine Feisst
R1,204 Discovery Miles 12 040 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The first full-length study dedicated to Schoenberg's life and music in the United States, Schoenberg's New World dispels many myths and fills significant gaps in the existing literature on Schoenberg. Drawing on much new information, the book traces early Schoenberg pioneers in America, who set the stage for Schoenberg's arrival in 1933. The volume addresses in detail how Schoenberg while coming to terms with his German and Jewish identities, thoroughly adapted to American society both privately and professionally. New light is cast on Schoenberg's relations with Americans, his interest in American culture, and changes in his religious and political thinking and lifestyle. As Schoenberg was committed to the advancement of American music and composed music inspired by and composed for American musicians, his American works are examined anew with regard to their contexts and the history of their performance and publication. Schoenberg's many interactions with performers and publishers in the United States are explored as well. Illustrating how Schoenberg adjusted to the American educational system, the book delves into Schoenberg's American teaching career, teaching methods and materials and features some of the many remarkable students he taught in Boston and Los Angeles. Finally the impact of Schoenberg's music and ideas on American performers, composers and scholars after World War II is gauged in the light of major political and cultural changes during the Cold War era. Schoenberg's New World contributes to a new understanding of one of the most important pioneers of musical modernism and most polarizing figures in twentieth-century music.

String Quartet in A minor (Sheet music, Set of parts): William Walton String Quartet in A minor (Sheet music, Set of parts)
William Walton; Edited by Hugh MacDonald
R1,252 Discovery Miles 12 520 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

This is a performing edition of Walton's String Quartet in A minor, based on the edition published in the Walton Edition Chamber Music volume. The work was first performed in 1947 and later revised as the Sonata for String Orchestra.

Electronic Music - Cambridge Introductions to Music (Book, New): Nick Collins, Margaret Schedel, Scott Wilson Electronic Music - Cambridge Introductions to Music (Book, New)
Nick Collins, Margaret Schedel, Scott Wilson
R804 R704 Discovery Miles 7 040 Save R100 (12%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This accessible Introduction explores both mainstream and experimental manifestations of electronic music. From early recording equipment to the most recent multimedia performances, the history of electronic music is full of interesting characters, fascinating and unusual music, and radical technology. Covering many different eras, genres and media, analyses of works appear alongside critical discussion of central ideas and themes, making this an essential guide for anyone approaching the subject for the first time. Chapters include key topics from synth pop to sound art, from electronic dance music to electrical instruments, and from the expression of pure sound to audiovisuals. Highly illustrated and with a wide selection of examples, the book provides many suggestions for further reading and listening to encourage students to begin their own experiments in this exciting field.

Schoenberg's Program Notes and Musical Analyses (Hardcover): J. Daniel Jenkins Schoenberg's Program Notes and Musical Analyses (Hardcover)
J. Daniel Jenkins
R4,275 Discovery Miles 42 750 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

In 1950, as Arnold Schoenberg anticipated the publication of a collection of 15 of his most important writings, Style and Idea, he was already at work on a second volume to be called Program Notes. Inspired by this idea, Schoenberg's Program Notes and Musical Analyses can boast the most comprehensive study of the composer's writings about his own music yet published. Schoenberg's insights emerge not only in traditional program notes, but also in letters, sketch materials, pre-concert talks, public lectures, contributions to scholarly journals, newspaper articles, interviews, pedagogical materials, and publicity fliers. The editions of the texts in this collection, based almost exclusively on Schoenberg's original manuscript sources, include many items appearing in print in English for the first time, as well as more familiar texts that preserve musical and textual information eliminated from previous editions. The book also reveals how Schoenberg, desirous to communicate with and educate an audience, took every advantage of changes in technology during his lifetime, utilizing print media, radio broadcasts, record jackets-and had he lived, television-for this purpose. In addition to four chapters in which Schoenberg illuminates 42 of his own compositions, the book begins with chapters on his development and influences, his thoughts about trends in modern music, and, in a nod to the importance of the radio in providing a venue for music analysis, a chapter about Schoenberg's radio broadcasts.

Prokofiev's Soviet Operas (Hardcover): Nathan Seinen Prokofiev's Soviet Operas (Hardcover)
Nathan Seinen
R2,837 Discovery Miles 28 370 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Prokofiev considered himself to be primarily a composer of opera, and his return to Russia in the mid-1930s was partially motivated by the goal to renew his activity in this genre. His Soviet career coincided with the height of the Stalin era, when official interest and involvement in opera increased, leading to demands for nationalism and heroism to be represented on the stage to promote the Soviet Union and the Stalinist regime. Drawing on a wealth of primary source materials and engaging with recent scholarship in Slavonic studies, this book investigates encounters between Prokofiev's late operas and the aesthetics of socialist realism, contemporary culture (including literature, film, and theatre), political ideology, and the obstacles of bureaucratic interventions and historical events. This contextual approach is interwoven with critical interpretations of the operas in their original versions, providing a new account of their stylistic and formal features and connections to operatic traditions.

The Collected Letters of Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) [4 volume set] (Hardcover, New): Barry Smith The Collected Letters of Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) [4 volume set] (Hardcover, New)
Barry Smith
R8,593 Discovery Miles 85 930 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

These letters cover all aspects of Warlock's music, and give a vivid glimpse of the early 20th-century musical and artistic world. The composer Philip Heseltine (1894-1930), better known by his pseudonym 'Peter Warlock', is one of the most fascinating characters in twentieth-century English music. Educated at Eton and Oxford, yet musically largely self-taught, he is considered by many to be one of the great English song-writers. But besides being a composer, he was also an important pioneer editor of early music as well as the author of a number of books and numerous articles for newspapers and journals. His eccentric life-style, his outspoken comments and writings about music, as well as the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, have all ensured that the 'Warlock legend' has not lost its fascinationover the years. During his short life he was a prolific and highly articulate letter writer and some thousand of his letters have survived. These the Warlock scholar and authority Barry Smith has edited with copious annotations and footnotes as well as generous background material.

Ernest Bloch Studies (Paperback): Alexander Knapp, Norman Solomon Ernest Bloch Studies (Paperback)
Alexander Knapp, Norman Solomon
R1,054 Discovery Miles 10 540 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Ernest Bloch left his native Switzerland to settle in the United States in 1916. One of the great twentieth-century composers, he was influenced by a range of genres and styles - Jewish, American and Swiss - and his works reflect his lifelong struggle with his identity. Drawing on firsthand recollections of relatives and others who knew and worked with the composer, this collection is the most comprehensive study to date of Bloch's life, musical achievement and reception. Contributors present the latest research on Bloch's works and compositional practice, including studies of his Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service), violin pieces such as Nigun, the symphonic Schelomo, and the opera Macbeth. Setting the quality and significance of Bloch's output in its historical and cultural contexts, this book provides scholarly analyses as well as a full chronology, list of online resources, catalogue of published and unpublished works, and selected further reading.

Sounding the Gallery - Video and the Rise of Art-Music (Paperback): Holly Rogers Sounding the Gallery - Video and the Rise of Art-Music (Paperback)
Holly Rogers
R1,251 Discovery Miles 12 510 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Sounding the Gallery explores the first decade of creative video work, focusing on the ways in which video technology was used to dissolve the boundaries between art and music. Becoming commercially available in the mid 1960s, video quickly became integral to the intense experimentalism of New York City's music and art scenes. The medium was able to record image and sound at the same time, which allowed composers to visualize their music and artists to sound their images in a quick and easy manner. But video not only provided artists and composers with the opportunity to produce unprecedented forms of audiovisuality; it also allowed them to create interactive spaces that questioned conventional habits of music and art consumption. Early video's audiovisual synergy could be projected, manipulated and processed live. The closed-circuit video feed drew audience members into the heart of the audiovisual experience, from where they could influence the flow, structure and sound of the video performance. Such activated spectatorship resulted in improvisatory and performative events in which the space between artists, composers, performers and visitors collapsed into a single, yet expansive, intermedial experience. Many believed that such audiovisual video work signalled a brand-new art form that only began in 1965. Using early video work as an example, this book suggests that this is inaccurate. During the twentieth century, composers were experimenting with spatializing their sounds, while artists were attempting to include time as a creative element in their visual work. Pioneering video work allowed these two disciplines to come together, acting as a conduit that facilitated the fusion and manipulation of pre-existing elements. Shifting the focus from object to spatial process, Sounding the Gallery uses theories of intermedia, film, architecture, drama and performance practice to create an interdisciplinary history of music and art that culminates in the rise of video art-music in the late 1960s.

Michael Tippett - The Biography (Paperback): Oliver Soden Michael Tippett - The Biography (Paperback)
Oliver Soden 1
R473 R434 Discovery Miles 4 340 Save R39 (8%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

'A delight to read' Philip Pullman 'Essential reading ... a genuine landmark publication' Tom Service A BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' The music of the British composer Michael Tippett - including the oratorio A Child of Our Time, five operas, and four symphonies - is among the most visionary of the twentieth century. But little has been written about his extraordinary life. In this long-awaited first biography, Oliver Soden weaves a century-spanning narrative of epic scope and penetrating insight. His achievement is to have enriched our understanding not only of Tippett but of the twentieth century. Figures such as T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Barbara Hepworth, and W.H. Auden jostle in the cast list. An Edwardian world of gaslight and empire cedes to turmoil and warfare and his operas' game-changing attitudes to gay and civil rights, against a backdrop of the Cold War and the Space Race. The result is a landmark in the study of twentieth-century culture, simultaneously an astonishing feat of scholarship and a story as enthralling as in any great novel.

Foreground Music - A Life in Fifteen Gigs (Paperback): Graham Duff, Mark Gatiss Foreground Music - A Life in Fifteen Gigs (Paperback)
Graham Duff, Mark Gatiss
R570 Discovery Miles 5 700 Ships in 9 - 17 working days

A chronicle of a lifetime's passion for gig-going, by one of British television's most respected writers. "Foreground Music is an absolute gem. Charming, very funny and often achingly melancholy, Graham Duff's memoir is suffused with a genuine passion for live music and its (occasionally eccentric) power. -Mark Gatiss The result of a lifetime's passion for gig-going by one of British television's most respected writers, Foreground Music is at once enthusiastically detailed and tremendously illuminating-of both the concert moment and its place in popular culture. It is an engaging memoir of a life lived to the fullest, and a vivid, insightful, and humorous exploration of what music writing might be. Foreground Music describes music performances that range from a Cliff Richard gospel concert, attended by Duff at the age of ten, to the fourteen-year-old Duff's first rock show, where the Jam played so loudly he blacks out, to a Joy Division gig that erupted into a full-scale riot. Duff goes on pub crawls with Mark E. Smith of the Fall, convinces Paul Weller to undertake his first acting role, and attempts to interview Genesis P. Orridge of Throbbing Gristle while tripping on LSD. Foreground Music captures the energy and power of life-changing gigs, while tracing the evolution of forty years of musical movements and subcultures. But more than that, it's an honest, touching, and very funny story of friendship, love, creativity, and mortality, and a testimony to music's ability to inspire and heal. Illustrated with photographs and ephemera from the author's private collection.

John Cage and Peter Yates - Correspondence on Music Criticism and Aesthetics (Hardcover): Martin Iddon John Cage and Peter Yates - Correspondence on Music Criticism and Aesthetics (Hardcover)
Martin Iddon
R2,838 Discovery Miles 28 380 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The correspondence between composer John Cage and Peter Yates represents the third and final part of Cage's most significant exchanges of letters, following those with Pierre Boulez and with David Tudor. Martin Iddon's book is the first volume to collect the complete extant correspondence with his critical friend, thus completing the 'trilogy' of Cage correspondence published by Cambridge. By bringing together more than 100 letters, beginning in 1940 and continuing until 1971, Iddon reveals the dialogue within which many of Cage's ideas were first forged and informed, with particular focus on his developing attitudes to music criticism and aesthetics. The correspondence with Yates represents precisely, in alignment with Cage's fastidious neatness, the part of his letter writing in which he engages most directly with the last part of his famous tricolon, 'composing's one thing, performing's another, listening's a third'.

Britten on Music (Paperback): Paul Kildea Britten on Music (Paperback)
Paul Kildea
R1,959 Discovery Miles 19 590 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Benjamin Britten was a most reluctant public speaker. Yet his contributions were without doubt a major factor in the transformation during his lifetime of the structure of the art-music industry. This book, by bringing together all his published articles, unpublished speeches, drafts, and transcriptions of numerous radio interviews, explores the paradox of a reluctant yet influential cultural commentator, artist, and humanist. Whether talking about his own music, about the role of the artist in society, about music criticism, or wading into a debate on soviet ideology at the height of the cold war, Britten always gave a performance which reinforced the notion of a private man who nonetheless saw the importance of public disclosure.

Das Musikalische Auffuehrungsrecht in Deutschland Im 19. Jahrhundert (German, Hardcover): Felix Rasch Das Musikalische Auffuehrungsrecht in Deutschland Im 19. Jahrhundert (German, Hardcover)
Felix Rasch
R1,533 Discovery Miles 15 330 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Das Auffuhrungsrecht ist das erste unkoerperliche Recht des Urheberrechts. Dessen Entstehung stellt diese Arbeit anhand der Gesetzesentwicklung von 1837 bis 1901 dar. Der Autor stellt fest, dass die deutsche Entwicklung des musikalischen Auffuhrungsrechts vergleichsweise langsam und spat erfolgte. So bezog sich die gesetzgeberische Diskussion zunachst nur auf das dramatische Auffuhrungsrecht, wahrend die Schutzwurdigkeit musikalischer Werke noch nicht anerkannt war. Der Autor untersucht die Ursachen fur diese spate Entwicklung anhand der gesellschaftlichen Vorbedingungen fur ein musikalisches Auffuhrungsrecht. Dabei zeigt er insbesondere die Kausalitat zwischen dem Bestehen eines oeffentlichen Konzertwesens und einer lohnenswerten Rechteverwertung durch die Komponisten auf.

Electronic and Computer Music (Paperback, 4th Revised edition): Peter Manning Electronic and Computer Music (Paperback, 4th Revised edition)
Peter Manning
R1,915 Discovery Miles 19 150 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

In this new edition of the classic text on the history and evolution of electronic music, Peter Manning extends the definitive account of the medium from its birth to include key developments from the dawn of the 21st century to the present day. After explaining the antecedents of electronic music from the turn of the 20th century to the Second World War, Manning discusses the emergence of the early 'classical' studios of the 1950s, and the subsequent evolution of more advanced analogue technologies during the 1960s and '70s, leading in turn to the birth and development of the MIDI synthesizer. Attention then turns to the characteristics of the digital revolution, from the pioneering work of Max Mathews at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1950s to the wealth of resources available today, facilitated by the development of the personal computer and allied digital technologies. The scope and extent of the technical and creative developments that have taken place since the late 1990s are considered in an extended series of new and updated chapters. These include topics such as the development of the digital audio workstation, laptop music, the Internet, and the emergence of new performance interfaces. Manning offers a critical perspective of the medium in terms of the philosophical and technical features that have shaped its growth. Emphasizing the functional characteristics of emerging technologies and their influence on the creative development of the medium, Manning covers key developments in both commercial and the non-commercial sectors to provide readers with the most comprehensive resource available on the evolution of this ever-expanding area of creativity.

Symphony No.6 - Hardback (Sheet music, Full score): Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No.6 - Hardback (Sheet music, Full score)
Ralph Vaughan Williams; Edited by David Lloyd Jones
R4,121 Discovery Miles 41 210 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Vaughan Williams's 6th Symphony was composed immediately after the Second World War and its dramatic and at times violent musical language was long felt to be a comment on that conflict (though the composer denied it had any programmatic intent). Its power and invention were immediately recognized and it has remained part of the concert repertoire ever since. For this newly engraved edition, editor David Lloyd-Jones has consulted all extant sources and materials to create a score matching the composer's intentions. The full score is completed with Textual Notes and Preface, and accompanying orchestral parts are available on hire.

The Cambridge Companion to Operetta (Hardcover): Anastasia Belina, Derek B. Scott The Cambridge Companion to Operetta (Hardcover)
Anastasia Belina, Derek B. Scott
R2,990 Discovery Miles 29 900 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Those whose thoughts of musical theatre are dominated by the Broadway musical will find this book a revelation. From the 1850s to the early 1930s, when urban theatres sought to mount glamorous musical entertainment, it was to operetta that they turned. It was a form of musical theatre that crossed national borders with ease and was adored by audiences around the world. This collection of essays by an array of international scholars examines the key figures in operetta in many different countries. It offers a critical and historical study of the widespread production of operetta and of the enthusiasm with which it was welcomed. Furthermore, it challenges nationalistic views of music and approaches operetta as a cosmopolitan genre. This Cambridge Companion contributes to a widening appreciation of the music of operetta and a deepening knowledge of the cultural importance of operetta around the world.

The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin (Hardcover): Anna Harwell Celenza The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin (Hardcover)
Anna Harwell Celenza
R2,384 Discovery Miles 23 840 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

George Gershwin is often described as a quintessentially American composer. This Cambridge Companion explains why, engaging with the ways in which his music was shaped by American political, intellectual, cultural and business interests. As a composer and performer, Gershwin embraced technological advances and broke new ground in music business practices. In the decades preceding World War II, he captured the mechanistic pulse of modern life with his concert works and lay the groundwork for the Great American Songbook with his Broadway shows and film music. With his brother Ira, and his cousins Henry and B. A. Botkin, Gershwin explored various ethnic and cultural identities and contemplated their roles in US culture. His music confronted race during the Jim Crow era and continues to engage with issues of race today. This interdisciplinary exploration of Gershwin's life and music describes his avowed pursuit of an 'American' musical identity and its ongoing legacy.

Beethoven - A Life in Nine Pieces (Paperback): Laura Tunbridge Beethoven - A Life in Nine Pieces (Paperback)
Laura Tunbridge
R334 R304 Discovery Miles 3 040 Save R30 (9%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

**WINNER of Presto Books' Best Composer Biography** NINE WORKS OF BEETHOVEN, NINE WINDOWS INTO THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF A MUSICAL GENIUS. 'We are doubly blessed that Beethoven should have led such an extraordinary life. Laura has combined the two - the genius of his music and the richness of his experiences - to shine a revealing light on our greatest composer' John Humphrys _________________________ Ludwig van Beethoven: to some, simply the greatest ever composer of Western classical music. Yet his life remains shrouded in myths. In Beethoven, Oxford professor Laura Tunbridge cuts through the noise. With each chapter focusing on a period of his life, piece of music and revealing theme - from family to friends, from heroism to liberty - she provides a rich insight into the man and the music. Revealing a wealth of never-before-seen material, this tour de force is a compelling, accessible portrayal of one of the world's most creative minds and it will transform how you listen for ever. _________________________ 'Tunbridge has come up with the seemingly impossible: a new way of approaching Beethoven's life and music . . . profoundly original and hugely readable' John Suchet, author Beethoven: The Man Revealed 'This well researched and accessible book is a must read for all who seek to know more about the flesh and blood tangible Beethoven.' John Clubbe, author of Beethoven: The Relentless Revolutionary 'This book is really wonderful! ... However many books on Beethoven you own, find the space for one more. This one' Stephen Hough, pianist, composer, writer 'In a year when everyone's looking for a new take on Beethoven, Laura Tunbridge has found nine. Fresh and engaging' Norman Lebrecht, author of Genius and Anxiety 'Remarkable . . . she captures the essence of his genius and character. I'll always want to keep it in easy reach' Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the third Reich

Composition in the Digital World - Conversations with 21st Century American Composers (Hardcover): Robert Raines Composition in the Digital World - Conversations with 21st Century American Composers (Hardcover)
Robert Raines
R1,692 Discovery Miles 16 920 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

American composers are at the forefront of a renaissance in concert music, in the process expanding the very definition of the category. The impact of digital technology on the creative process and the unprecedented diversity of contemporary composers are arguably among the catalysts driving the rebirth. In this series of personal interviews with some of the most prominent composers of art music currently working on the American music scene, composer and educator Robert Raines leads the intimate conversations through subjects ranging from the source of inspiration to work habits, the realities of the business of music, and the impact of technology on music and life in the 21st century. The musicians who participated in these conversations are as different from one another as might be imagined, both in styles of music and approaches to life and art, resulting in a series of stories that offer a kaleidoscopic view of the many paths to creativity, yet a common thread that runs through the interviews is the passionate artistic drive that is shared by all. The inspirational stories of struggles and successes, told in the artists' own words and distinctively framed by their individual personalities - humorous, curmudgeonly, serious, serene, and playful by turns - is a delightful and thought-provoking journey full of personal insights, advice, and sharp observations on composing music in a changing, technology-driven world. A loving homage to the artistic spirit, this book is a must-read for students of composition, professors and scholars of music, composers and aspiring composers, and anyone interested in the subjective process of writing music. This rich and entertaining collection provides a unique glimpse into the workings of the creative spirit in the digital age.

The Making of Peter Grimes - The Facsimile of Britten's Composition Draft [Two-volume set] (Hardcover, Facsimile of 1945... The Making of Peter Grimes - The Facsimile of Britten's Composition Draft [Two-volume set] (Hardcover, Facsimile of 1945 ed)
Paul Banks
R4,183 Discovery Miles 41 830 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Facsimile of the composition draft of Peter Grimes, showing Britten's compositional method; companion volume containing essays on its history and significance. Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten's first opera, established his stature as a composer, marked a turning point in the fortunes of English opera, and conquered operatic stages around the world. Though its setting and music reflect Britten's greatlove for his native East Anglia, the inspiration for the work was a chance encounter with the poetry of George Crabbe while Britten and the tenor Peter Pears (who eventually created the title role) were stayingin California in 1941; they made a number of draft scenarios while they waited for a passage to England, and after their return Montagu Slater was asked to write the libretto. The full score was completed by February 1945. The single document that reveals most about the work's creative history is the composition draft in which the composer wrestled with text and music, gradually fashioning the opera into its final version. The colour facsimile of this fascinating manuscript is published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of its first production. It is accompanied by a commentary volume containing a series of essays on the work's history and its contemporary significance by leading Britten scholars, together with a brief note on the work by PETER PEARS(apparently never before published) and an account of the first production by the late ERIC CROZIER, who directed it. The volume is illustrated with colour reproductions of some of the original costume designs by Kenneth Green, his portrait of BenjaminBritten, and contemporary black and white photographs.

Shostakovich and His World (Paperback): Laurel E. Fay Shostakovich and His World (Paperback)
Laurel E. Fay
R1,505 Discovery Miles 15 050 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) has a reputation as one of the leading composers of the twentieth century. But the story of his controversial role in history is still being told, and his full measure as a musician still being taken. This collection of essays goes far in expanding the traditional purview of Shostakovich's world, exploring the composer's creativity and art in terms of the expectations--historical, cultural, and political--that forged them.

The collection contains documents that appear for the first time in English. Letters that young "Miti" wrote to his mother offer a glimpse into his dreams and ambitions at the outset of his career. Shostakovich's answers to a 1927 questionnaire reveal much about his formative tastes in the arts and the way he experienced the creative process. His previously unknown letters to Stalin shed new light on Shostakovich's position within the Soviet artistic elite.

The essays delve into neglected aspects of Shostakovich's formidable legacy. Simon Morrison provides an in-depth examination of the choreography, costumes, decor, and music of his ballet "The Bolt" and Gerard McBurney of the musical references, parodies, and quotations in his operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki." David Fanning looks at Shostakovich's activities as a pedagogue and the mark they left on his students' and his own music. Peter J. Schmelz explores the composer's late-period adoption of twelve-tone writing in the context of the distinctively "Soviet" practice of serialism. Other contributors include Caryl Emerson, Christopher H. Gibbs, Levon Hakobian, Leonid Maximenkov, and Rosa Sadykhova. In a provocative concluding essay, Leon Botstein reflects on the different ways listeners approach the music of Shostakovich."

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