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Books > Music > Western music, periods & styles > 20th century music
The desire to voice the artistic revelation of the truth of a precarious, multi-faceted, yet integrated self lies behind much of Szymanowski's work. This self is projected through the voices of deities who speak languages of love. The unifying figure is Eros, who may be embodied as Dionysus, Christ, Narcissus or Orpheus, and the gospel he proclaims tells of the resurrection and freedom of the desiring subject. This book examines Szymanowski's exploration of the relationship between the authorial voice, mythology and eroticism within the context of the crisis of the modern subject in Western culture. Stephen Downes analyses mythological and erotic aspects of selected songs from the composer's early career, moving to an interpretation of the voice of the homoerotic lover, embodied as a mad muezzin, in terms of heroic notions of Orphic elegy. Discussing the encounters of King Roger with the voices of Narcissus, the Siren and Dionysus, Downes shows how the composer uses the unifying Christ/Eros figure as a means of indicating that the King might be transformed from anguished despot to loving expressive subject. The book ends with an examination of Szymanowski's desire to fuse Slavonic and Middle-Eastern mythological inspirations in an attempt to fulfil a utopian vision of a pan-European culture bound together by the spirit of Eros.
for baritone solo, SAATB, and small orchestra Dedicated to the Oxford Vaccine Team and premiered by Sir Bryn Terfel, The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Choir of Merton College in a special tribute concert, Joseph's Carol sets words by the composer that recount the Christmas story from the perspective of Joseph. The two expressive verses are taken by the solo baritone, with the chorus performing a macaronic refrain infused with expectancy and wonder, as well as taking on the role of the angels in a soft accompaniment to the closing words of the second solo verse. The upper three voice parts are designed to be approximately equal in strength, and the carol may be accompanied by organ, piano, or small orchestra.
This book argues that French musical meanings and values in the years from 1898 to 1914 are best explained not in terms of contemporary artistic movements, but rather in terms of the political culture, which was undergoing subtle but profound transformation as nationalist leagues enlarged the arena of political action. Applying recent insights from French history, sociology, political anthropology, and literary theory, the book reveals how nationalists used critics, educational institutions, concert series and lectures to disseminate their values through a discourse on French music; and it demonstrates how the Republic and Left responded to this challenge through their own discourses on French musical values. Against this background Fulcher traces the impact of this politicized musical culture on composers such as d'Indy, Charpentier, Magnard, Debussy, and Satie.
A welcome collection of piano transcriptions made by the composer himself, featuring eight of his best-loved choral pieces spanning the last 40 years. Designed for pianists at early intermediate level, the collection provides skilful and approachable arrangements of classics such as 'The Lord bless you and keep you', 'All things bright and beautiful', and 'For the beauty of the earth', as well as recent gems like 'A flower remembered', all for performance use or enjoyment at home. Clearly presented and laid out, the transcriptions also include the texts (lyrics) within the piano score, for reference or potential sing-alongs. This is a versatile collection for the many admirers of one of today's greatest choral composers. The pieces in this collection have been recorded by Wayne Marshall on Decca Records.
Hennessee provides a biographical overview of the life of Samuel Barber, one of America's foremost composers, as well as comprehensive bibliographical information about his complete oeuvre. The volume consists of four main sections: a brief biography, a complete list of works and performances, a discography, and an annotated bibliography. A complete index of personal and corporate names and titles concludes the volume.
Almost fifty years since his passing, the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams continues to captivate audiences around the world, evoking the sound and spirit of folksong, and the image of rural landscape. In Vaughan Williams on Music, we read the composer in his own words, as he pursues two related ambitions: to create his own musical language, and to make early twentieth-century England a musical nation. Music lovers, students, and researchers alike will find in this volume a substantial collection of the composer's writings which either went unpublished or have been unavailable since their initial publication. The book contains 102 items written by the composer between 1897 and the year of his death, 1958, including articles for musical magazines, transcripts of broadcasts, obituary notices, and program notes. This wide-ranging material illuminates Vaughan Williams's work as a composer, and highlights his numerous other roles as an active supporter of amateur music-makers, a leader in the folksong revival, educator, performer, campaigner for English music, and polemicist. By addressing a variety of topics, Vaughan Williams reveals the complex and volatile political, musical, and cultural contexts in which he worked over a period of six decades. In these circumstances, Vaughan Williams demonstrates the breadth of his knowledge and the depth of his understanding, and his commitment to communicating with a wide audience. His writings are purposely accessible to reach this audience, permeated with central themes of originality, folksong, a sense of history, and the importance of self-expression. Moreover, the collection reveals the emergence of Vaughan Williams's aesthetics of music during the early 1900s, as he came to terms with the legacy of Brahms and Wagner in order to develop his personal musical idiom. Vaughan Williams on Music is a significant resource for scholars of both British music and the history of British culture, as well as an enjoyable read for all who love Vaughan Williams's music.
George Gershwin is at once one of America's most popular and least appreciated composers. In this important new work, some of America's leading experts on popular music have contributed articles about Gershwin and the rediscovery of both his songs and his concert music.
This anthology of writings about the American experimental composer Harry Partch is the most comprehensive collection of commentaries about the composer and his work ever assembled. Eleven major figures of contemporary music voice their views on Partch (1901-1974) and his radical contributions to twentieth-century music. These include composers and theorists who worked closely with him and important comments from his contemporaries and musical inheritors.
This first full biography of Edward J. Dent (1876-1957), Cambridge Professor of Music and foremost musicologist, tells the story of a remarkable man who played a crucial role in the formation of twentieth-century culture and cultural institutions. Operating at both personal and international levels, Dent knew and quietly influenced musicians, poets, artists, writers, politicians, theatrical producers and designers, including Busoni, E.M. Forster, Sassoon and Maynard Keynes. The book covers not only his pioneering music scholarship and cultural activities but also his personal crusades on behalf of music and opera, gays, refugees and the culturally destitute. Drawn from a wide variety of unpublished sources, from behind Dent's carefully constructed public persona of a cosmopolitan gentleman scholar the picture emerges of a more complex and fascinating human being: a lifelong pacifist and agnostic; a scion of the upper classes who voted Labour; 'the kindest heart and the wickedest tongue in Cambridge', who always helped friends in need; a natural rebel and iconoclast; an English internationalist. His seminal books and articles remain fresh and vital and his writing hugely entertaining, while his ideas on the importance of the arts in everyday life are as relevant as ever. Dent's fundamental belief in 'training the imagination' and in personal friendships, along with his lifelong quest to 'understand all music', kept music and the arts alive through the most dire periods in the last century and into our own.
Is music removed from politics? To what ends, beneficent or
malevolent, can music and musicians be put? In short, when human
rights are grossly abused and politics turned to fascist
demagoguery, can art and artists be innocent?
Articles, tributes and reminiscences of composer, pianist and author Peter Dickinson are here brought together for the first time. Peter Dickinson has made an enduring contribution to British musical life, and his music has been regularly performed and recorded by leading musicians. His writings, brought together here for the first time, are equally noteworthy. Covering well over half a century, the subjects are fascinatingly varied. Apart from musical interests ranging from Charles Ives to John Cage, they touch on literature; and Dickinson's meetings with W.H. Auden and Philip Larkinare an intriguing insight that led to his Auden songs and the chamber work Larkin's Jazz. American themes are prominent in this collection. There are unique reviews of concert life in New York from 1959 to 1961; an accountof the teaching programme at the Juilliard School of Music at that time; three studies of Ives; and features containing original material on Copland, Thomson and Cage, all of whom Dickinson knew. Features on Erik Satie include the imaginary discussion marking his centenary in 1966. Dickinson also writes about his own music, providing an insight into what it was like being a British composer in the later twentieth century. Peter Dickinson was born inLancashire in 1934 and now lives in Suffolk. His 80th birthday was marked by a whole variety of tributes, including concerts, articles, broadcasts and various interviews - some included in this book. PETER DICKINSON is aBritish composer and pianist as well as author and editor of Boydell/URP books on Berkeley, Copland, Cage, Barber and Berners. As a pianist, Dickinson had a twenty-five-year, international partnership with his sister, the mezzo Meriel Dickinson, for whom he wrote song cycles to poems of E. E. Cummings, Gregory Corso and Stevie Smith. He was a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3 and is widely read as a critic on the Gramophone. He is an Emeritus Professor ofthe Universities of Keele and London and is chair of the Bernarr Rainbow Trust, for which he has edited several books on music education.
Elegy, with its warmly expressive tenor-range melodies, is highly suitable for use at funerals, while the cascading joy of Festive Bells makes it perfect as a wedding recessional. The finely wrought sonorities will sound to maximum effect on a large organ in a spacious acoustic, but will nonetheless be convincing on even the most modest of instruments. Both pieces have that warm sense of Englishness that makes them very accessible to the first-time listener.
This is an alphabetical reference work for all aspects of music in the 20th century. It covers the major musical genres Concert, Jazz, Pop, Rock, and World; and also examines key styles such as opera, orchestral, bebop, blues, reggae, and country. Articles on individuals provide biographical information and explore contributions they have made in their respective fields. This encyclopedia also gives advice on suggested listening and further reading, and is fully cross-referenced.
An indispensable biography for anyone interested in Constant Lambert, ballet and British musical life in the first part of the twentieth century. To the economist and ballet enthusiast John Maynard Keynes he was potentially the most brilliant man he'd ever met; to Dame Ninette de Valois he was the greatest ballet conductor and advisor this country has ever had; to the composer Denis ApIvor he was the greatest, most lovable, and most entertaining personality of the musical world; whilst to the dance critic Clement Crisp he was quite simply a musician of genius. Yet sixty years after his tragic earlydeath Constant Lambert is little known today. As a composer he is remembered for his jazz-inspired The Rio Grande but little more, and for a man who selflessly devoted the greater part of his life to the establishment of English ballet his work is largely unrecognized today. This book amply demonstrates why he deserves to be held in greater renown. With numerous music examples, extensive appendices and a unique iconography, every aspect of thecareer and life of this extraordinary, multi-talented man is examined. It looks not only at his music but at his journalism, his talks for the BBC, his championing of jazz (in particular Duke Ellington), and - more privately - his long-standing affair with Margot Fonteyn. This is an indispensable biography for anyone interested in Constant Lambert, ballet and British musical life in the first part of the twentieth century. STEPHEN LLOYD is a writer on British music and author of William Walton: Muse of Fire (Boydell, 2001).
for violin and mixed choir This innovative and imaginative choral arrangement of The Lark Ascending has the original solo violin part accompanied by mixed choir. It sensitively sets George Meredith's poem (on which the original orchestration is based) and combines this with wordless vocal lines and vocal solos, preserving the texture and timeless effect of the original. Commissioned and premiered by the Swedish Chamber Choir, the work has also been recorded by the choir under the direction of Simon Phipps.
Georges Barrere (1876-1944) holds a preeminent place in the history
of American flute playing. Best known for two of the landmark works
that were written for him--the Poem of Charles Tomlinson Griffes
and Density 21.5 by Edgard Varese--he was the most prominent early
exemplar of the Paris Conservatoire tradition in the United States
and set a new standard for American woodwind performance.
This engaging work was composed in 1929 and premiered the following year by its dedicatee, the legendary Spanish cellist Pablo Casals. The five folk songs on which the work is founded are 'Salisbury Plain', 'The Long Whip', 'Low down in the broom', 'Bristol Town', and 'I've been to France'. This arrangement for solo viola and orchestra is compatible with the original orchestral accompaniment, materials for which are available on hire.
In this newly revised book On Sonic Art, Trevor Wishart takes a
wide-ranging look 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. Beginning with a critical analysis of the
assumptions underlying the Western musical tradition and the
traditional acoustic theories of Pythagoras and Helmholtz, he goes
on to look in detail at 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.
In so doing, he seeks to learn lessons from areas (poetry and
sound-poetry, film, sound effects and animal communication) not
traditionally associated with the field of music.
This is the first major reference work on this important choral composer. As is usual for volumes in this valuable series, the book is clearly printed and well bound, and it is highly recommended for undergraduate and graduate music collections as well as for public libraries serving communities with active choral societies. Choice When Randall Thompson died in 1984, America lost one of its most distinguished musicians. At the time of his death, it was already apparent that an assessment of his varied contributions to our musical life in the context of his contemporary generation was sorely needed. Randall Thompson: A Bio-Bibliography is the first comprehensive study of Thompson's oeuvre since his death. The volume is organized into five parts, beginning with a substantial biography written by David Francis Urrows, Thompson's final student and amanuensis. Urrows presents new information on Thompson's youth, his study in Italy and the influence of Malipiero on his work, his educational and compositional philosophy, and his role in the emergence of American music from the influence of European models. Benser's most complete catalog of works compiled to date follows. This vital list includes previously unpublished compositions, particularly those newly made available by Thompson's longtime publisher, E. C. Schirmer, and new recordings made by Bay Cities Music. A sampling of prose writings by Thompson offers a eclectic overview. The complete, extensively annotated bibliography, discography, and two appendixes that list Thompson's compositions chronologically and alphabetically complete this study. Music libraries will want to add this volume to their collections. It will also be an invaluable reference for choral directors, program note annotators, and American music enthusiasts.
One of the few American composers to earn an international reputation in both classical and popular music, Alec Wilder (1907-1980) was a true innovator in every phase of composition he chose to pursue. In addition, his life and associations in the world of music, theatre, literature, and the arts make for fascinating reading, and his own writings in these areas are witty and insightful. His many hundreds of musical compositions, ranging from chamber and orchestral music, to opera and ballet, theatre and film, and art songs and popular songs, are documented and annotated here in an exhaustive catalog of works. Included are detailed performance information and cross references to recordings in a discography section and reviews and commentary in a fully annotated bibliography of writings by and about the composer. The book also includes a lively biographical sketch capturing the sense and style of the composer and his times, a summary of archival materials held at the Eastman School of Music, an appendix of awards, a directory of music publishers, a chronological list of compositions, and an index. It is hoped that this thorough compendium to aid in the growing scholarly and musical interest in Wilder will serve to expose his work to wider audiences, while also helping to ferret out missing or unknown manuscripts given away to friends and performers by the composer.
In addition, "The Tone Clock" contains a broad selection of Peter
Schat's polemical writings, embracing historical, political,
aesthetic and environmental perspectives. His book is not just of
interest to composers, but it also provides a valuable insight for
anyone interested in the development of twentieth-century
music.
This volume, part of Greenwood's continuing series of Bio-Bibliographies in Music, provides a concise bibliographic guide to the life and career of Otto Luening. While the music of this American composer, educator, conductor, and flutist has been performed throughout the northeastern United States, his work has received little attention outside of this region. With its extensive treatment of his life and career, this book will help to bring Luening's important compositions and his contributions to American music to the attention of a much wider audience. Ralph Hartsock divides Luening's work into four main sections, each covering a specific aspect of Luening's career. The volume begins with a brief biography of the subject and is followed by a complete listing of Luening's works and performances through 1989. Prepared with the assistance of Luening himself, this section arranges its information in chronological order, and includes basic bibliographical data as well as information on the premiere of each piece and selected performances. A comprehensive discography, arranged alphabetically by title, cites both commercially produced and selected privately released recordings. Also included is a pair of annotated bibliographies, covering the years from 1921 to 1989. One contains citations of material written by Luening, while the other details the hundreds of articles written about him. The work concludes with a pair of appendixes that catalog Luening's compositions alphabetically by title and according to genre. This work will be a valuable reference source for courses in contemporary music and American music, and a worthwhile addition to the collections of public, college, and university libraries. |
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