"Music at the Limits" is the first book to bring together three
decades of Edward W. Said's essays and articles on music.
Addressing the work of a variety of composers, musicians, and
performers, Said carefully draws out music's social, political, and
cultural contexts and, as a classically trained pianist, provides
rich and often surprising assessments of classical music and
opera.
"Music at the Limits" offers both a fresh perspective on
canonical pieces and a celebration of neglected works by
contemporary composers. Said faults the Metropolitan Opera in New
York for being too conservative and laments the way in which opera
superstars like Pavarotti have "reduced opera performance to a
minimum of intelligence and a maximum of overproduced noise." He
also reflects on the censorship of Wagner in Israel; the worrisome
trend of proliferating music festivals; an opera based on the life
of Malcolm X; the relationship between music and feminism; the
pianist Glenn Gould; and the works of Mozart, Bach, Richard
Strauss, and others.
Said wrote his incisive critiques as both an insider and an
authority. He saw music as a reflection of his ideas on literature
and history and paid close attention to its composition and
creative possibilities. Eloquent and surprising, "Music at the
Limits" preserves an important dimension of Said's brilliant
intellectual work and cements his reputation as one of the most
influential and groundbreaking scholars of the twentieth
century.
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