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A selection of Hans Keller's writings on Benjamin Britten including
previously unseen correspondence and reprints of long unavailable
writings. It was hearing an early performance of Benjamin Britten's
Peter Grimes that turned the young emigre writer and musician Hans
Keller from psychology to music. Thereafter he became the
composer's most fervent advocate, devoting to him a whole issue of
Music Survey (the journal he edited with Donald Mitchell) and the
first comprehensive book on his music (again edited with Mitchell).
This volume is a selection of the best of his writings, dealing
withPeter Grimesthrough to Death in Venice and the Third String
Quartet. It also includes an illustrated study by A. M. Garnham of
the extensive correspondence between Britten and Keller (most of it
hitherto unknown), areprint of the handbooks on The Rape of
Lucretia and Albert Herring (long out-of-print), and items from the
Hans Keller Archive in the University of Cambridge. The book is
illustrated with drawings from life by Milein Cosman.
A fresh, elegant and vital enquiry into the elusive character of
opera, unfolded through categories and case-studies, with an
emphasis on historical background, psychology and performance. This
book mounts a searching enquiry into the elusive character of
opera. The author argues that any work of art can be grasped
primarily through its constellation of Platonic ideas, or
'categories', several of which he explores in light of a new
definition of the art-form. He elaborates each category with
case-studies rooted in the time, place and circumstance of an
opera's origin: most of these are adaptations of
previously-published essays, though somedraw on talks for
universities, opera houses and the BBC. Although he looks back to
the infancy of opera, he concentrates on later, more familiar
repertory - principally Wagner, Verdi, Strauss and Britten.
Case-studies included under 'Psychology' reveal his long-standing
involvement with psychoanalysis, and those under 'Performance'
reinforce his view of opera as a branch of rhetoric. As the first
of a two-volume project, What Opera Means deals with categories
accessible to all: of fifty entries, only two require basic musical
knowledge (the second volume will be for specialists). The book is
thus suitable for the general reader, as well as for college
courses. CHRISTOPHER WINTLE is Emeritus Senior Lecturer in Music at
King's College London and General Editor of the series Defining
Opera (Plumbago Books). He has published extensively on nineteenth-
and twentieth-century music, and for twenty years was an opera
critic for the Times Literary Supplement. KATE HOPKINS (Editor) is
Content Producer for Opera at the Royal Opera House and Senior
Assistant Editor of Plumbago Books. She has written on opera and
literature for ENO, WNO and The Royal Opera.
The evolution of the mixed chamber ensemble of Schoenberg's Pierrot
lunaire and the growth of the Fires of London, one of the most
galvanizing groups in modern music. 2012 marked the centenary of
the first performance of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, Op.
21, and over the last hundred years its mixed chamber ensemble has
become, in all its protean forms, a principal line-up for modern
music. This book, the first of its kind, chronicles the ensemble's
evolution from Pierrot's earliest performances, monitoring its
influence on the Continent as well as upon Walton, Britten, Lutyens
and Searle in Britain. In particular, it watches the growth of The
Pierrot Players [later The Fires of London] one of the most
galvanizing groups in post-war British music, and looks carefully
at the social dynamics among its players and composers, notably
Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle. With photos, and
drawings by Milein Cosman and David Hockney. CHRISTOPHER DROMEY
took his PhD at King's College London and is now Senior Lecturer in
Music at Middlesex University.
A masterly account of a fraught relationship between Schoenberg
(the teacher) and Wellesz (his pupil), set against the intellectual
and musical currents of the day. Egon Wellesz studied music only
briefly with Arnold Schoenberg but remained forever captivated by
his personality. Yet, unlike Alban Berg or Anton Webern, he never
wholly succumbed to his master but developed his own style: in
the1920s he emerged as a distinctive opera composer, and after
emigrating to Britain in 1938 became a prolific symphonist who also
produced sensitive settings of English poetry. Schoenberg resented
this lack of loyalty, and not onlyrefused to acknowledge Wellesz as
a pupil but rather directed at him some intemperate outbursts.
Moreover, Schoenberg's general mistrust of musicologists extended
to Wellesz, who had trained at Vienna University with Guido
Adlerand later helped to shape the study of music in British
universities. Yet, as the first biographer, Wellesz did much to
promote Schoenberg's cause, especially in France and England. Bojan
Bujic weaves these strands together in a masterly and meticulously
researched account of a fraught relationship that brings into focus
the outstanding intellectual and musical currents of the day in
both Austria and Britain.
The story of influentiual music critic, Hans Keller's months in
British internment camps in 1940 and its effect on his intellectual
development. After World War II, the musical life of Britain was
transformed by the Hitler emigres. None was more influential than
the writer and broadcaster Hans Keller who arrived in London from
Vienna in 1938. Although his thought was grounded in the work of
Kant and Freud, he devoted himself to music after hearing Benjamin
Britten's Peter Grimes. His remarkable development was accelerated
during the nine months he spent in British internment camps, where
from 1940 onwards the deracinated flower of European culture was
confined . This book sets the story of Keller's internment in the
context of what is still a too-little remembered part of British
wartime history and traces its remarkable effects in the decade
following his release as he gradually found his niche in London
life. It includes several important texts, including that of his
famous broadcast on the Kristallnacht, 'Vienna 1938', a selection
of poignant letters from his two camps (in translation) and ends
with a spirited memoir by Donald Mitchell of 'Hans Keller in the
Early Years'. It is a remarkable and elegant contribution to our
understanding both of Keller's development and of Britain in the
1940s.
A selection of Arnold Whittall's masterly writings on Wagner
dealing with all major works in the context of 150 years' of
critical reception - with copious music examples. The book
celebrates Arnold Whittall's 80th birthday with a collection of his
key writings on Richard Wagner. The first ten chapters deal with
the three Romantic operas, the four parts of The Ring and the three
remaining music dramas. Their aim is to illuminate those aspects of
Wagner's style that are both personal and important for his
successors. Whittall sets close readings of key passages in the
context of a critical debate that has itself ragedfor over a
century, and his comprehensive range of reference makes this volume
essential reading for all those who want to enter the debate. The
final chapter deals with Jonathan Harvey's Wagner Dream (2007), a
modern operatic treatment of Wagner the man and his unrealised
Buddhist project, Die Sieger. Whittall's style is focussed and
discriminating, yet also relaxed and accessible, and his text is
rich in music examples. ARNOLD WHITTALL is Professor Emeritus at
King's College London. His previous books include Exploring
Twentieth-Century Music and Serialism.
Wintle's 'aphorisms, thoughts and maxims' probe life and art -
music, song and opera, and are richly augmented with a series of
illustrations by the celebrated Anglo-Brazilian artist, Ana Maria
Pacheco. Among the ancients, instruction in drama and letters -
poetics - mixed craft, precept and criticism quite freely; in our
time, pedagogy, aesthetics and critical theory are usually kept
firmly apart. This collection of 'aphorisms,thoughts and maxims'
repairs something of the split by organizing the precepts that
stand behind the making and reception of the arts into a unified
'metapoetics'. The book reflects on its own lapidary manner,
investigates three representative theatres of life (power, love and
death), and asserts our continuing need for the Gods and magic. It
then moves from life into art, explores art, artists and the ethics
of art, argues for the continuing relevance ofnotions of beauty,
truth and genius, ponders style, and probes music, song and opera.
Finally it returns to 'life' with thoughts on criticism and its
practise. An appendix addresses other arts, notably film. The main
text, which is both serious and witty, is illuminated throughout
with examples from writings and culture of all periods. The book is
richly illustrated with a set of mythic Beasts by the celebrated
Anglo-Brazilian artist, Ana Maria Pacheco.
Christopher Wintle's in-depth examination of Britten's Notturno
includes a full set of sketches, the printed score, an introductory
essay and two appendices, providing a new model for the study of
Britten's work in general. Peter Pears once described Benjamin
Britten as `a Greek who worships all the gods'; and in order to
come to terms with Britten's music it is necessary to recognize a
language deeply embedded in this Western tradition. This book is
devoted to Night-piece (Notturno), written for the first Leeds
International Pianoforte Competition of 1963. It addresses the work
from many points of view: historical, documentary, analytical,
formal, kinetic, hermeneutical, and affective. It also includes a
wide range of illustrated allusions to other music, a full set of
sketches, the printed score, arrays of modes and voice-leading
graphs, and two appendices that take the issues of intensification
and neapolitan relations further. In so doing, it provides a new
model for the study of Britten's work in general.
Leo Black's memoir not only recalls 'the Glock Era and After' in a
series of informative, poignant, witty and judicious vignettes, but
is also a key text for understanding one of the great ages of
British music. From 1959 to 1972 William Glock, as Controller,
Music, stamped his personality memorably on BBC Radio, gathering
around him a talented staff that included emigres and experts in
Continental music new and old. Among the young recruits was Leo
Black, an intelligent musician with an affinity for singers and
Austro-German music. In his 28 years at the BBC - years that
extended well beyond 1972 - Black learnt the system, worked with
leading BBC figures and musicians, produced countless programmes
and discovered his own identity. This memoir not only recalls 'the
Glock Era and After' in a series of informative, poignant, witty
and judicious vignettes, but is also a key text for understanding
one of the great ages of British music. Includes illustrations by
Milein Cosman. Leo Black is the author of Franz Schubert: Music and
Belief and Edmund Rubbra: Symphonist, both published by the
BoydellPress.
Our specialist times, with everyone confined to their own
discipline, have left little room for the age-old view that,
however transmuted, the issues of art and life belong together, or
that, for all their differences, the arts have shared concerns: yet
realism demands just such an outlook. This book offers an informal
attempt to re-open closed borders by the established writer on
music, Christopher Wintle. Through a host of aphorisms and thoughts
it first probes people, politics, learning and the Gods. It then
sketches out a Poetics in terms of style and idea, artists,
critics, theory, performers, ethics, opera, sculpture, cinema and
sport, before ending with a pair of Urban Fables. The volume
includes a collection of Works with Music by the well-known
Brazilian artist Ana Maria Pacheco.
Hans Keller wrote the Jerusalem Diary in 1977 and 1979 during two
visits to the Mishkenot Sha'ananim, a residence for writers and
artists. As a senior figure at the BBC and as a shrewd and witty
polymath steeped in music, sociology and psychoanalysis, he was
better placed than most to record the artistic, social and
political life of Israel at a crucial juncture in its history. The
Diary, which he described as an anti-journal', was in the first
place a reaction to Saul Bellow's To Jerusalem and Back. But the
result is far more than a topical riposte: at a time of renewed
turbulence in the Middle East, with another dramatic shift in
favour of the right-wing Likud party, it is as sharp and relevant
now as it was then. Milein Cosman has selected her own, remarkable
drawings.
A selection of Arnold Whittall's masterly writings on Wagner
dealing with all major works in the context of 150 years' of
critical reception - with copious music examples. The book
celebrates Arnold Whittall's 80th birthday with a collection of his
key writings on Richard Wagner. The first ten chapters deal with
the three Romantic operas, the four parts of The Ring and the three
remaining music dramas. Their aim is to illuminate those aspects of
Wagner's style that are both personal and important for his
successors. Whittall sets close readings of key passages in the
context of a critical debate that has itself ragedfor over a
century, and his comprehensive range of reference makes this volume
essential reading for all those who want to enter the debate. The
final chapter deals with Jonathan Harvey's Wagner Dream (2007), a
modern operatic treatment of Wagner the man and his unrealised
Buddhist project, Die Sieger. Whittall's style is focussed and
discriminating, yet also relaxed and accessible, and his text is
rich in music examples. ARNOLD WHITTALL is Professor Emeritus at
King's College London. His previous books include Exploring
Twentieth-Century Music and Serialism.
Selection from the musical writing of Bayan Northcott, one of the
foremost musical critics of our time. Published in association with
the Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust. Over the last forty years
Bayan Northcott has established himself as one of London's leading
music critics, a figure much admired by Hans Keller [1919-85] whose
ideas he frequently invokes. Moving easily between the classics and
the moderns, and writing with exceptional acuity, he brings a vast
knowledge to bear on every issue great or small. In these years,
though, he has alsodeveloped as a composer; and it is the meeting
point of critic and artist that this, his first selection of
essays, celebrates. The first part deals mainly with musical
questions, the second with music for words, the third with agallery
of composers, and the fourth with the various states of music. It
is a book that will appeal to ordinary music lovers and
connoisseurs alike.
Christopher Wintle's in-depth examination of Britten's Notturno
includes a full set of sketches, the printed score, an introductory
essay and two appendices, providing a new model for the study of
Britten's work in general. Peter Pears once described Benjamin
Britten as 'a Greek who worships all the gods'; and in order to
come to terms with Britten's music it is necessary to recognize a
language deeply embedded in this Western tradition. This book is
devoted to Night-piece (Notturno), written for the first Leeds
International Pianoforte Competition of 1963. It addresses the work
from many points of view: historical, documentary, analytical,
formal, kinetic, hermeneutical, and affective. It also includes a
wide range of illustrated allusions to other music, a full set of
sketches, the printed score, arrays of modes and voice-leading
graphs, and two appendices that take the issues of intensification
and neapolitan relations further. In so doing, it provides a new
model for the study of Britten's work in general. Winner of the Sue
Thomson Foundation Publishing Award for 2006.
A masterly account of a fraught relationship between Schoenberg
(the teacher) and Wellesz (his pupil), set against the intellectual
and musical currents of the day. Egon Wellesz studied music only
briefly with Arnold Schoenberg but remained forever captivated by
his personality. Yet, unlike Alban Berg or Anton Webern, he never
wholly succumbed to his master but developed his own style: in
the1920s he emerged as a distinctive opera composer, and after
emigrating to Britain in 1938 became a prolific symphonist who also
produced sensitive settings of English poetry. Schoenberg resented
this lack of loyalty, and not onlyrefused to acknowledge Wellesz as
a pupil but rather directed at him some intemperate outbursts.
Moreover, Schoenberg's general mistrust of musicologists extended
to Wellesz, who had trained at Vienna University with Guido
Adlerand later helped to shape the study of music in British
universities. Yet, as the first biographer, Wellesz did much to
promote Schoenberg's cause, especially in France and England. Bojan
Bujic weaves these strands together in a masterly and meticulously
researched account of a fraught relationship that brings into focus
the outstanding intellectual and musical currents of the day in
both Austria and Britain.
A selection of Hans Keller's writings on Benjamin Britten including
previously unseen correspondence and reprints of long unavailable
writings. It was hearing an early performance of Benjamin Britten's
Peter Grimes that turned the young emigre writer and musician Hans
Keller from psychology to music. Thereafter he became the
composer's most fervent advocate, devoting to him a whole issue of
Music Survey (the journal he edited with Donald Mitchell) and the
first comprehensive book on his music (again edited with Mitchell).
This volume is a selection of the best of his writings, dealing
withPeter Grimesthrough to Death in Venice and the Third String
Quartet. It also includes an illustrated study by A. M. Garnham of
the extensive correspondence between Britten and Keller (most of it
hitherto unknown), areprint of the handbooks on The Rape of
Lucretia and Albert Herring (long out-of-print), and items from the
Hans Keller Archive in the University of Cambridge. The book is
illustrated with drawings from life by Milein Cosman.
Wintle's 'aphorisms, thoughts and maxims' probe life and art -
music, song and opera, and are richly augmented with a series of
illustrations by the celebrated Anglo-Brazilian artist, Ana Maria
Pacheco. Among the ancients, instruction in drama and letters -
poetics - mixed craft, precept and criticism quite freely; in our
time, pedagogy, aesthetics and critical theory are usually kept
firmly apart. This collection of 'aphorisms,thoughts and maxims'
repairs something of the split by organizing the precepts that
stand behind the making and reception of the arts into a unified
'metapoetics'. The book reflects on its own lapidary manner,
investigates three representative theatres of life (power, love and
death), and asserts our continuing need for the Gods and magic. It
then moves from life into art, explores art, artists and the ethics
of art, argues for the continuing relevance ofnotions of beauty,
truth and genius, ponders style, and probes music, song and opera.
Finally it returns to 'life' with thoughts on criticism and its
practise. An appendix addresses other arts, notably film. The main
text, which is both serious and witty, is illuminated throughout
with examples from writings and culture of all periods. The book is
richly illustrated with a set of mythic Beasts by the celebrated
Anglo-Brazilian artist, Ana Maria Pacheco.
A selection of the writings of Hugh Wood - composer, teacher and
writer - with eight illustrations by William Scott. Ever since his
early days, Hugh Wood has pursued a triple career as composer,
teacher and writer: he has added to the repertory of orchestral,
chamber and vocal music, he has lectured at the Universities of
Glasgow, Liverpool andCambridge, and he has been involved in an
endless round of articles, reviews and broadcasts. What these
activities have in common is a keen interest in the highways and
byways of European culture, a fastidious style, and a determination
to scotch pretence wherever it appears. But behind all this lies
another concern, an insatiable quest for knowledge of the territory
composers stake out for themselves. This selection of writings is
in three parts andshows three aspects to the quest. The first
addresses his own experience; the second maps out the historical
and cultural context for a number of orchestral and chamber works
in a set of concert essays; and the third draws together several
composer-vignettes from his recent reviews for the Times Literary
Supplement. The book marks his seventy-fifth birthday and includes
eight works by the British artist, William Scott.
A provocative collection of writings on film music by the
celebrated critic, Hans Keller [1919-85]. Between 1946 and 1959,
the most outspoken voice in British film music was that of the
celebrated Austrian emigre critic, Hans Keller [1919-85]. He argued
passionately for 'the need for competent film music criticism',
laid out themain topics of the day, and studied the contribution of
all the main British composers and many others besides. In
particular he championed William Alwyn, Arthur Benjamin and Alan
Rawsthorne as well as the more established namesof Auric,
Bernstein, Britten, Thomson, Vaughan Williams and Walton. In 1959
he also devoted a column to 'television music'. This important
collection of writings will form a vital complement to the
contemporary Composing for the Film by Hanns Eisler and Theodor
Adorno, and will provide an invaluable and unparalleled account of
a great age for film music. Includes line drawings by Milein
Cosman.
A provocative collection of writings on film music by the
celebrated critic, Hans Keller [1919-85]. Between 1946 and 1959,
the most outspoken voice in British film music was that of the
celebrated Austrian emigre critic, Hans Keller [1919-85]. He argued
passionately for 'the need for competent film music criticism',
laid out themain topics of the day, and studied the contribution of
all the main British composers and many others besides. In
particular he championed William Alwyn, Arthur Benjamin and Alan
Rawsthorne as well as the more established namesof Auric,
Bernstein, Britten, Thomson, Vaughan Williams and Walton. In 1959
he also devoted a column to 'television music'. This important
collection of writings will form a vital complement to the
contemporary Composing for the Film by Hanns Eisler and Theodor
Adorno, and will provide an invaluable and unparalleled account of
a great age for film music. Includes line drawings by Milein
Cosman.
A selection of the writings of Hugh Wood - composer, teacher and
writer - with eight illustrations by William Scott. Ever since his
early days, Hugh Wood has pursued a triple career as composer,
teacher and writer: he has added to the repertory of orchestral,
chamber and vocal music, he has lectured at the Universities of
Glasgow, Liverpool andCambridge, and he has been involved in an
endless round of articles, reviews and broadcasts. What these
activities have in common is a keen interest in the highways and
byways of European culture, a fastidious style, and a determination
to scotch pretence wherever it appears. But behind all this lies
another concern, an insatiable quest for knowledge of the territory
composers stake out for themselves. This selection of writings is
in three parts andshows three aspects to the quest. The first
addresses his own experience; the second maps out the historical
and cultural context for a number of orchestral and chamber works
in a set of concert essays; and the third draws together several
composer-vignettes from his recent reviews for the Times Literary
Supplement. The book marks his seventy-fifth birthday and includes
eight works by the British artist, William Scott.
The first publication of Hans Keller's celebrated broadcast
lectures on Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 130, along with related
materials and a volume of musical scores. In 1973, at the
invitation of Alexander Goehr, then Professor of Music at Leeds
University, Hans Keller gave four lectures on Beethoven's String
Quartet in B flat Major, Op. 130, illustrated by the Aeolian
Quartet. They were in part a response to Joseph Kerman's newly
published monograph on The Beethoven Quartets, and in part a
demonstration of his "two-dimensional theory" of music, which
posits a vital tension between "well-defined expectations" and
'"what the composer does instead". These lectures have now been
transcribed, and appear in print here for the first time: they form
Keller's most substantial examination of a single chamber work.
Keller had intended a full-length monograph on the quartet, but
never got further than three chapters, of which the second, on
"String-quartet Playing", is included here along with related
materials (the other chapters largely replicate the lectures). The
book comes with a supplementary volume of music examples, including
the entire score of Op. 130, and is illustrated with lively
string-quartet drawings by Keller's wife, Milein Cosman.
Hans Keller (1919-1985) was one of the most brilliant and
stimulating writers on music of his day, and this is the first
large selection of his essays. His work draws on his rich and
diverse experience as a string-player, composer, teacher, analyst
and critic, and also reflects a deep interest in psychoanalysis.
The first part of the book addresses psychological issues relating
to critics, listeners, players and composers; the second analyses
music by a wide range of composers from Haydn to the present day;
and the third propounds his new theory of music, with essays on
unity and contrast, motifs, themes, keys, timbre and rhythm. There
is also a 'wordless functional analysis' of a Mozart piano sonata
published here for the first time. The volume concludes with a
magisterial account of what Keller deemed to be 'the principles of
composition'.
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