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Books > Music > Musical instruments & instrumental ensembles > Chamber ensembles
As both composer and critic, Peggy Glanville-Hicks contributed to
the astonishing cultural ferment of the mid-twentieth century. Her
forceful voice as a writer and commentator helped shape
professional and public opinion on the state of American composing.
The seventy musical works she composed ranged from celebrated
operas like Nausicaa to intimate, jewel-like compositions created
for friends. Her circle included figures like Virgil Thomson, Paul
Bowles, John Cage, and Yehudi Menuhin. Drawing on interviews,
archival research, and fifty-four years of extraordinary pocket
diaries, Suzanne Robinson places Glanville-Hicks within the history
of American music and composers. "P.G.H." forged alliances with
power brokers and artists that gained her entrance to core American
cultural entities such as the League of Composers, New York Herald
Tribune, and the Harkness Ballet. Yet her impeccably cultivated
public image concealed a private life marked by unhappy love
affairs, stubborn poverty, and the painstaking creation of her
artistic works. Evocative and intricate, Peggy Glanville-Hicks
clears away decades of myth and storytelling to provide a portrait
of a remarkable figure and her times.
Chamber music includes some of the world's greatest music. It is
widely played in homes, without an audience, by players who are
mostly amateurs, and much of the repertoire is playable even by
those of quite moderate ability. Player's Guide to Chamber Music
gives advice on what music is available and helps the player to
identify what is suitable. It covers chamber music from the
seventeenth to the later twentieth century and all instrumental
combinations including strings, piano, wind instruments, duet
sonatas and baroque ensembles. All the significant composers and
musical aspects of playing are covered along with works suitable
for inexperienced players.
Johann Sebastian Bach was a Lutheran and much of his music was for
Lutheran liturgical worship. As these insightful essays in the
twelfth volume of Bach Perspectives demonstrate, he was also
influenced by--and in turn influenced--different expressions of
religious belief. The vocal music, especially the Christmas
Oratorio, owes much to medieval Catholic mysticism, and the
evolution of the B minor Mass has strong Catholic connections. In
Leipzig, Catholic and Lutheran congregations sang many of the same
vernacular hymns. Internal squabbles were rarely missing within
Lutheranism, for example Pietists' dislike of concerted church
music, especially if it employed specific dance forms. Also
investigated here are broader issues such as the close affinity
between Bach's cantata libretti and the hymns of Charles Wesley;
and Bach's music in the context of the Jewish Enlightenment as
shaped by Protestant Rationalism in Berlin. Contributors: Rebecca
Cypess, Joyce L. Irwin, Robin A. Leaver, Mark Noll, Markus Rathey,
Derek Stauff, and Janice B. Stockigt.
"This book is a substantial and timely contribution to Brahms
studies. Its strategy is to focus on a single critical work, the
C-Minor Piano Quartet, analyzing and interpreting it in great
detail, but also using it as a stepping-stone to connect it to
other central Brahms works in order to reach a new understanding of
the composer s technical language and expressive intent. It is an
original and worthy contribution on the music of a major composer."
Patrick McCreless
Expressive Forms in Brahms s Instrumental Music integrates a
wide variety of analytical methods into a broader study of
theoretical approaches, using a single work by Brahms as a case
study. On the basis of his findings, Smith considers how Brahms s
approach in this piano quartet informs analyses of similar works by
Brahms as well as by Beethoven and Mozart.
Musical Meaning and Interpretation Robert S. Hatten, editor"
This survey of the string quartet by ten chamber music specialists focuses on four main areas: social and musical background to the genre's development; celebrated ensembles and their significance; and string quartet playing. It reviews aspects of contemporary and historical practice, including "mixed ensembles." Informative appendixes and a full chronology of the mainstream repertory complete this compact guide.
From the Renaissance to the Baroque, French noels joined sacred
texts with profane music and dance. They relate tales of shepherds
and shepherdesses along with stories of Mary and the Child. This
performing edition contains sixteen noels that appeared in an
anthology of popular tunes published in 1725, where they were
arranged for two flutes by the instrument maker Jean-Jacques
Rippert. Betty Bang Mather and Gail Gavin present them here in
modern notation in a form that may also be sung. They provide the
original lyrics - which had disappeared from song collections - and
include all the verses for each piece as well as English
translations of first verses. Part I discusses the meaning of the
word Noel, the noel as sacred parody and rustic poetry, and its
place in the church. It also explores the relationship between
noels and dance, the musical notation and styles of seventeenth-
and eighteenth-century noel settings, and the long-standing
relationship between flutes, shepherds, angels, and song. The
volume is enhanced by facsimiles from early collections of noels,
including several pages from Rippert's publication. Mather and
Gavin define the noel's place in history and encourage today's
readers to play these charming pieces, sing them, and dance to
their music.
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