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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Western music, periods & styles > Classical music (c 1750 to c 1830)
Integrating Schenkerian tools and an innovative approach to harmony, David Damschroder provides numerous penetrating analyses of works by Haydn and Mozart. A series of introductory chapters assist readers in developing their analytical capacity. Beginning with short excerpts from string quartets, the study proceeds by assessing the inner workings of twelve expositions from Haydn piano sonatas, six arias in G minor from Mozart operas, and three rondos in D major from piano concertos by Haydn and Mozart. In the Masterworks section that follows, Damschroder presents detailed analyses of six movements from symphonies, string quartets and opera by Haydn and Mozart, and compares his outcomes with those of other analysts, including Kofi Agawu, Robert O. Gjerdingen, James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Carl Schachter and James Webster. The book represents an important contribution to modern analytical discourse on a treasured body of music and an assessment of recent accomplishments within that realm.
Female characters assumed increasing prominence in the narratives of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century opera. And for contemporary audiences, many of these characters - and the celebrated women who played them - still define opera at its finest and most searingly affective, even if storylines leave them swooning and faded by the end of the drama. The presence and representation of women in opera has been addressed in a range of recent studies that offer valuable insights into the operatic stage as cultural space, focusing a critical lens at the text and the position and signification of female characters. Moving that lens onto the historical, The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century sheds light on the singers who created and inhabited these roles, the flesh-and-blood women who embodied these fabled "doomed women" onstage before an audience. Editors Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss lead a cast of renowned contributors in an impressive display of current approaches to the lives, careers, and performances of female opera singers. Essential theoretical perspectives reflect several broad themes woven through the volume-cultures of celebrity surrounding the female singer; the emergence of the quasi-mythical figure of the diva; explorations of the intricate and sundry arts associated with the prima donna, and with her representation in other media; and the diversity and complexity of contemporary responses to her. The prima donna influenced compositional practices, determined musical and dramatic interpretation, and affected management decisions about the running of the opera house, content of the season, and employment of other artists - a clear demonstration that her position as "first woman" extended well beyond the boards of the operatic stage itself. The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century is an important addition to the collections of students and researchers in opera studies, nineteenth-century music, performance and gender/sexuality studies, and cultural studies, as well as to the shelves of opera singers and enthusiasts.
The phrase "popular music revolution" may instantly bring to mind such twentieth-century musical movements as jazz and rock 'n' roll. In Sounds of the Metropolis, however, Derek Scott argues that the first popular music revolution actually occurred in the nineteenth century, illustrating how a distinct group of popular styles first began to assert their independence and values. He explains the popular music revolution as driven by social changes and the incorporation of music into a system of capitalist enterprise, which ultimately resulted in a polarization between musical entertainment (or "commercial" music) and "serious" art. He focuses on the key genres and styles that precipitated musical change at that time, and that continued to have an impact upon popular music in the next century. By the end of the nineteenth century, popular music could no longer be viewed as watered down or more easily assimilated art music; it had its own characteristic techniques, forms, and devices. As Scott shows, "popular" refers here, for the first time, not only to the music's reception, but also to the presence of these specific features of style. The shift in meaning of "popular" provided critics with tools to condemn music that bore the signs of the popular-which they regarded as fashionable and facile, rather than progressive and serious. A fresh and persuasive consideration of the genesis of popular music on its own terms, Sounds of the Metropolis breaks new ground in the study of music, cultural sociology, and history.
Michael Kelly (1762-1826) was an Irish singer and composer who studied music in a Naples conservatory before touring Europe and performing for royalty. His voyage to Italy began with a brush with pirates, one of whom was a childhood acquaintance. Kelly also found himself stranded penniless in Venice, spent a night in prison after a fist fight at the theatre, and had a narrow escape from revolutionary France. He is probably best remembered for creating the roles of Don Basilio and Don Curzio in the first performance, in 1786, of Le Nozze di Figaro, of which he describes the rehearsal period and reception. He later joined London's Theatre Royal as both a performer and composer and opened a music shop, which went bankrupt. These memoirs, published in 1826, provide rich first hand insights into a key period in theatre history. Volume 1 covers Kelly's early life and musical training.
Michael Kelly (1762-1826) was an Irish singer and composer who studied music in a Naples conservatory before touring Europe and performing for royalty. His voyage to Italy began with a brush with pirates, one of whom was a childhood acquaintance. Kelly also found himself stranded penniless in Venice, spent a night in prison after a fist fight at the theatre, and had a narrow escape from revolutionary France. He is probably best remembered for creating the roles of Don Basilio and Don Curzio in the first performance, in 1786, of Le Nozze di Figaro, of which he describes the rehearsal period and reception. He later joined London's Theatre Royal as both a performer and composer and opened a music shop, which went bankrupt. These memoirs, published in 1826, provide rich first-hand insights into a key period in theatre history. Volume 2 covers Kelly's later musical and theatrical career.
The years between roughly 1760 and 1810, a period stretching from the rise of Joseph Haydn's career to the height of Ludwig van Beethoven's, are often viewed as a golden age for musical culture, when audiences started to revel in the sounds of the concert hall. But the latter half of the eighteenth century also saw proliferating optical technologies--including magnifying instruments, magic lanterns, peepshows, and shadow-plays--that offered new performance tools, fostered musical innovation, and shaped the very idea of "pure" music. Haydn's Sunrise, Beethoven's Shadow is a fascinating exploration of the early romantic blending of sight and sound as encountered in popular science, street entertainments, opera, and music criticism. Deirdre Loughridge reveals that allusions in musical writings to optical technologies reflect their spread from fairgrounds and laboratories into public consciousness and a range of discourses, including that of music. She demonstrates how concrete points of intersection--composers' treatments of telescopes and peepshows in opera, for instance, or a shadow-play performance of a ballad--could then fuel new modes of listening that aimed to extend the senses. An illuminating look at romantic musical practices and aesthetics, this book yields surprising relations between the past and present and offers insight into our own contemporary audiovisual culture.
Originally published in 1986, this book is a major study in English on Gretry and opera-comique. Opera-comique is the operatic genre that lies behind The Magic Flute and Fidelio. David Charlton's important study examines the genre in the period before the French Revolution, considering the literary sources, performance conditions, contemporary aesthetic criteria and statistics which reveal the popularity of such works at that time. Dr Charlton takes Gretry, composer of some thirty-four operas-comiques, and a fascinating personality of his day, as the central figure of his study, drawing on Gretry's extensive Memoires and other writing, not available in English translation, for the biographical sections. Twenty-four of Gretry's operas-comiques are given a chapter each, with plot summary, critical discussion, summary of different versions and history of performance in Paris. The book can thus be used as a reference tool or read as a comprehensive survey of opera-comique between 1768 and 1791.
Hector Berlioz (1803-69) was one of the most original and colourful composers of his generation whose music was in many ways ahead of its time. He was also a respected journalist and critic. Begun in 1848, his celebrated Memoires were completed by 1865 but published posthumously in 1870. They are the best-known of his writings and reflect the man - passionate, imaginative, idealistic, opinionated and witty - and give a fascinating, first-hand, insight into his life. He shares his uncompromising thoughts on his contemporaries and the musical establishment in France, writes candidly about his love affairs and engagingly on his music and travels. This first English translation from the original French, published in 1884, will appeal to the music lover and the general reader. Volume 1 (1803-41) includes his childhood in the Isere, studies in Paris, struggles to establish himself and travels in Italy during 1831-2.
Hector Berlioz (1803-69) was one of the most original and colourful composers of his generation whose music was in many ways ahead of its time. He was also a respected journalist and critic. Begun in 1848, his celebrated Memoires were completed by 1865 but published posthumously in 1870. They are the best-known of his writings and reflect the man - passionate, imaginative, idealistic, opinionated and witty - and give a fascinating, first-hand, insight into his life. He shares his uncompromising thoughts on his contemporaries and the musical establishment in France, writes candidly about his love affairs and engagingly on his music and travels. This first English translation from the original French, published in 1884, will appeal to the music lover and the general reader. Volume 2 (1842-65) includes an engaging account, assembled from previously published material and presented as letters to friends, of travels to Germany and Russia.
This was the first multi-disciplinary study of the dissemination of Italian culture in northern Europe during the long eighteenth century (1689-1815). The book covers a diverse range of artists, actors and musicians who left Italy during the eighteenth century to seek work beyond the Alps in locations such as London, St Petersburg, Dresden, Stockholm and Vienna. First published in 1999, the book investigates the careers of important artists such as Amigoni, Canaletto and Rosalba Carriera, as well as opera singers, commedia dell'arte performers and librettists. However, it also considers key themes such as social and friendship networks, itinerancy, the relationships between court and market cultures, the importance of religion and politics to the reception of culture, the evolution of taste, the role of gender in the reception of art, the diversity of modes and genres, and the reception of Italian artists and performers outside Italy.
This is a translation of the second (1858) edition of Berlioz's landmark treatise by Mary Cowden Clarke, daughter of music publisher Vincent Novello. The book was quick to establish itself as a standard work, reflecting Berlioz's keen understanding of the orchestra as both composer and conductor. It is intended as a textbook on the craft of orchestration and to promote better understanding of the essential character of each instrument. Technical details and sonorities are discussed and illustrated with musical examples from composers Berlioz admired, including Gluck and Beethoven, and from his own compositions. This edition includes a section on new instruments, such as the saxophone and concertina, and on the orchestra, and a discussion on the art of conducting. Today the treatise is an important source of information on musical practices of the time and provides us with valuable insight into Berlioz's imaginative and original thinking as a musician.
Hector Berlioz (1803 60189) was one of the most original and colourful composers of his generation, whose music in many ways was ahead of its time. He was also a highly respected journalist and critic, producing monthly articles for the Journal des D bats for over thirty years, as well as other writings including his posthumously published autobiographical M moires. Unlike journalism, which he disliked, letter-writing was a task which he relished and at which he excelled, producing sometimes four or five in a day and more than 3,500 during his lifetime. The letters reflect the man - exuberant, imaginative, idealistic, opinionated and witty - and give us a fascinating, first-hand, insight into his life. This two-volume selection includes some 300 examples. Volume 1 includes letters to family, fellow musicians such as Hiller, Lizst and Schumann, and friends such as Auguste Morel and fellow critic Joseph D'Ortigue.
Hector Berlioz (1803 1869) was one of the most original and colourful composers of his generation, whose music in many ways was ahead of its time. He was also a highly respected journalist and critic, producing monthly articles for the Journal des D bats for over thirty years, as well as other writings including his posthumously published autobiographical M moires. Unlike journalism, which he disliked, letter-writing was a task which he relished and at which he excelled, producing sometimes four or five in a day and more than 3,500 during his lifetime. The letters reflect the man - exuberant, imaginative, idealistic, opinionated and witty - and give us a fascinating, first-hand, insight into his life. This two-volume selection includes some 300 examples. Volume 2, with a preface by the composer Charles Gounod, is devoted to Berlioz's letters to his lifelong friend, the lawyer and writer Humbert Ferrand.
Louis Spohr (1784-1859) was one of the most popular musicians of the early Romantic period, but of his considerable output (including 10 symphonies, 15 violin concertos, nine operas and a large amount of chamber music), only the Octet op.32 and the Nonet op.31 are heard regularly today. Spohr established his name as a virtuoso violinist and completed his Violin method in 1831. As a conductor, he contributed to the increasing use of the baton to direct performances. He travelled widely in Europe, visiting London for the first time in 1820, when he directed a Philharmonic Society concert, and returning four times between 1843 and 1853. This autobiography, begun in 1847, gives a lively (but not necessarily always accurate) account of life as a professional musician. Spohr's own account ends at June 1838, and the book was completed by family members using materials provided by his wife.
**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
Grounded in knowledge of thousands of programs, this book examines how musical life in London, Leipzig, Vienna, Boston, and other cities underwent a fundamental transformation in relationship with movements in European politics. William Weber traces how musical taste evolved in European concert programs from 1750 to 1870, as separate worlds arose around classical music and popular songs. In 1780 a typical program accommodated a variety of tastes through a patterned 'miscellany' of genres, held together by diplomatic musicians. This framework began weakening around 1800 as new kinds of music appeared, from string quartets to quadrilles to ballads, which could not easily coexist on the same programs. Utopian ideas and extravagant experiments influenced programming as ideological battles were fought over who should govern musical taste. More than a hundred illustrations or transcriptions of programs enable readers to follow Weber's analysis in detail.
C. P. E. Bach Studies collects together nine wide-ranging essays by leading scholars of eighteenth-century music. Offering fresh perspectives on one of the towering figures of the period, the authors explore Bach's music in its cultural contexts, and show in diverse and complementary ways the reciprocal relationship between Bach's work and contemporary literary, theological, and aesthetic debates. Topics include Bach's relation to theories of sensibility and the sublime; the free fantasy and concepts of self and being; and Bach's engagement with music history and the legacy of his predecessors. Wider questions of C. P. E. Bach reception also play an important part in the book, which explores not only the interpretation of Bach's music in his time, but also its reception over the two centuries since his death.
A fresh, accessible guide to Mozart's life and works Over a period of roughly twenty years, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed more than 600 finished pieces of music. If you were the director of a major symphony orchestra, you could program only works by Mozart for an entire year--and still you would barely have scratched the surface of the composer's immense, and immensely moving, body of work. "The Mostly Mozart Guide to Mozart" is an accessible, insightful, and entertaining resource for music lovers looking for a deeper understanding of the genius of Mozart. It combines a brief and revealing account of his life and times with a comprehensive survey of his major compositions. You'll also discover accounts of major performances, fascinating anecdotes about Mozart and his works, comments from artists past and present, and tips on what to listen for when you listen to Mozart. And, a selected discography will help you develop a fantastic collection of recordings by the finest modern musicians playing Mozart's greatest music. Filled with insightful quotes from fellow composers, critics, and Mozart admirers, as well as informative illustrations, "The Mostly Mozart Guide to Mozart" answers all of your questions about this transcendent genius and his music, and probably some you never thought to ask.
Reflecting a wide variety of approaches to eighteenth-century opera, this Companion brings together leading international experts in the field to provide a valuable reference source. Viewing opera as a complex and fascinating form of art and social ritual, rather than reducing it simply to music and text analysis, individual essays investigate aspects such as audiences, architecture of the theaters, marketing, acting style, and the politics and strategy of representing class and gender. Overall, the volume provides a synthesis of well established knowledge, reflects recent research on eighteenth-century opera, and stimulates further research. The reader is encouraged to view opera as a cultural phenomenon that can reveal aspects of our culture, both past and present. Eighteenth-century opera is experiencing continuing critical and popular success through innovative and provoking productions world-wide, and this Companion will appeal to opera goers as well as to students and teachers of this key topic.
Reflecting a wide variety of approaches to eighteenth-century opera, this Companion brings together leading international experts in the field to provide a valuable reference source. Viewing opera as a complex and fascinating form of art and social ritual, rather than reducing it simply to music and text analysis, individual essays investigate aspects such as audiences, architecture of the theaters, marketing, acting style, and the politics and strategy of representing class and gender. Overall, the volume provides a synthesis of well established knowledge, reflects recent research on eighteenth-century opera, and stimulates further research. The reader is encouraged to view opera as a cultural phenomenon that can reveal aspects of our culture, both past and present. Eighteenth-century opera is experiencing continuing critical and popular success through innovative and provoking productions world-wide, and this Companion will appeal to opera goers as well as to students and teachers of this key topic.
This is the third volume in the series Beethoven Studies. The aim of this series is to present scholarly work on Beethoven, broad in range as well as meticulous in method. The contributors have in common a special interest in the sources for Beethoven's life and for this creative activity, including original scores, sketchbooks, conversation books, correspondence, and other documentary material. Beethoven Studies 3 includes biographical, critical and analytical contributions, with a special emphasis on Beethoven's working processes. Although some of the essays are for the specialist, others, in particular the biographical ones, require little more than some knowledge and enjoyment of Beethoven's music, or an interest in the man himself. The book includes many music examples, and reproductions of autographs and watermarks, and it is very fully indexed.
Henry Fothergill Chorley was music critic of The Athenaeum for over thirty years. This three-volume book, published in 1841, originated in a journal written by Chorley while travelling in Europe. His aim was to 'illustrate the present state of theatrical, orchestral, and chamber music abroad', focusing on aspects that would be least familiar to an English readership. There are detailed accounts of Paris and Berlin, with prominence given to opera, theatre, art galleries and monuments. Chorley also describes visits to Brunswick, Leipzig, Dresden and Nuremburg, and performances by artists including Mendelssohn and Liszt. He intersperses anecdotes about transport, lodgings, landscapes and local customs. Chorley's incisive and entertaining eyewitness accounts will fascinate music-lovers and theatre historians, as well as others interested in the performing arts or travel writing in the nineteenth-century. Volume 3 describes visits to Leipzig, Dresden, Nuremburg and Paris.
Henry Fothergill Chorley was music critic of The Athenaeum for over thirty years. This three-volume book, published in 1841, originated in a journal written by Chorley while travelling in Europe. His aim was to 'illustrate the present state of theatrical, orchestral, and chamber music abroad', focusing on aspects that would be least familiar to an English readership. There are detailed accounts of Paris and Berlin, with prominence given to opera, theatre, art galleries and monuments. Chorley also describes visits to Brunswick, Leipzig, Dresden and Nuremburg, and performances by artists including Mendelssohn and Liszt. He intersperses anecdotes about transport, lodgings, landscapes and local customs. Chorley's incisive and entertaining eyewitness accounts will fascinate music-lovers and theatre historians, as well as others interested in the performing arts or travel writing in the nineteenth-century. Volume 1 describes his visits to Paris and Brunswick, focusing on opera.
Sir Charles Halle (1819-95) was a German pianist and conductor. At the age of 17 he moved to Paris, where he spent twelve years studying and performing, while moving in circles which included Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt, de Musset and George Sand. In the revolutionary year 1848 he moved to London, where he initiated a series of piano recitals, playing first in his own home and later in St James's Hall, among which he gave the first performance in England of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas. In 1849 he moved to Manchester, and after forming an orchestra for a one-off event in 1857, he began to give regular concerts with it, and conducted it until his death: it is now the world-famous Halle Orchestra. In this fascinating book, edited by his son and daughter, Halle's autobiography is accompanied by a selection of letters and extracts from his diaries. |
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