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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Western music, periods & styles > 20th century music
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Alec Wilder in Spite of Himself - A Life of the Composer (Hardcover, New)
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Alec Wilder in Spite of Himself - A Life of the Composer (Hardcover, New)
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Alec Wilder wrote songs and lyrics of unsurpassed beauty and
originality, and his work won the respect and admiration of such
important musical figures as Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Mitch
Miller, Gunther Schuller, and many others. Yet Wilder seemed almost
to court obscurity. Both in the music he composed and in the way he
lived his life, Wilder valued the unique and eccentric over the
established and easily acceptable. And though he authored the
definitive American Popular Song--which critics praised as
"singular" (Studs Terkel), "pioneering" (Whitney Balliett),
"rewarding" (Milton Babbitt), and "a joy to anyone who really cares
about American popular music" (Max Morath)--his own contribution to
that music has remained, until now, too little known and far too
little appreciated.
Desmond Stone's engaging and lively biography brings Alec Wilder's
life and music into the spotlight where it belongs. Ranging from
Wilder's childhood in Rochester, New York, to his rise as a major
writer of popular songs in the 1940s, to his relationships with
Frank Sinatra and the cabaret singer Mabel Mercer, Stone gives us
rich insight into the creative process and profound influence of
this highly unorthodox composer. We see the impulses and musical
concerns that led to such standards as "I'll Be Around" and "It's
So Peaceful in the Country." We also get an inside view of how he
wrote his monumental American Popular Song, which remains the most
significant study of America's great songwriters. More important,
we get a vivid sense of a haunting, incorruptible melodist whose
unique personality was mirrored in his music. Man and composer
dared to be different. When Wilder in the late 1930s wrote his
famous Octets, the music world did not know what to make of these
irreverent, highly original pieces. Yet they had a seminal
influence on jazz chamber music in America. Wilder would go on to
compose hundreds of instrumental numbers. Whether he was writing
concert pieces for an unprecedented and highly unusual group of
instruments, or mixing jazz, classical, and popular idioms in a
single song, or dashing off a sonata for a friend, Wilder followed
the dictates of his own creativity rather than the expectations of
the musical establishment. Such independence and unpredictability
earned him the hostility of many critics but the enduring respect
of the musicians he wrote for.
Here then is a fascinating private portrait of a man who lived a
nomad's life, who loved riding trains so much he kept a timetable
in his pocket at all times, a man whose only home was a small room
he maintained at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan (where he often
held court in the lobby), a man with a serious drinking problem as
well as the kindest and most generous of friends. Essential reading
for anyone interested in American popular music, Alec Wilder in
Spite of Himself provides a much needed account of this complex,
colorful, and highly original life.
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