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In these short, bilingual stories set in Buenos Aires (with each
piece appearing in Spanish and English on facing pages), Alicia
Borinsky provides unique glimpses into the lives of the city's
inhabitants: its businessmen and tango dancers, politicians and
torturers, triumphant divas and discarded children--a gallery of
characters from a broad spectrum of contemporary Argentine society.
She portrays a world of violence, corruption, love, and betrayal.
The brevity of the pieces suggests a breathlessness and ephemeral
quality, the fast-paced rhythm of the present. Yet within these
small moments flicker the larger forces that shape ordinary lives.
Civil wars are fought, shady deals are made, unwanted children are
born. And in Borinsky's ironic but life-affirming prose, human
foibles are exposed. Best Books for General Audiences, selected by
the Public Library Association
"Dreams of the Abandoned Seducer" takes place in the new "free
market" era of personal choices and relations: a chaotic, sometimes
hopeful, often comic world that has supplanted the old order of
political terror and clearly demarcated ideological divides. The
novel's vaudeville qualities, with characters shuffling on and off
the page in rapid succession, are complemented by its exhilarating
air of parody. "Dreams" draws ingeniously upon the sentimentality
and ephemera of popular culture--quoting radio and TV shows, song
lyrics, newspaper items, and bits of gossip-- while also offering a
sterner, more nuanced view of public and private relations. It is
in large measure this mix of elements--"popular" and "high"
culture, sentimentality and political understanding, vaudeville and
arch satire--that makes "Dreams" an exemplary postmodern novel.
From the exhilarating impact of Isaac Albeniz at the beginning of
the century to today's complex and adventurous avant-garde, this
complete interpretive history introduces twentieth-century Spanish
music to English-speaking readers. With graceful authority, Tomas
Marco, award-winning composer, critic, and bright light of Spanish
music since the 1960s, covers the entire spectrum of composers and
their works: trends and movements, critical and popular reception,
national institutions, influences from Europe and beyond, and the
effect of such historic events as the Spanish Civil War and the
death of Franco. Marco's penetrating aesthetic critiques are
threaded throughout each phase of this rich account. Marco provides
detailed coverage of the key figures, including a chapter devoted
entirely to Manuel de Falla - Spain's most celebrated
twentieth-century composer - and a panoramic survey of recent
arrivals on the contemporary music scene. Exploring the rise and
fall of the zarzuela, the author highlights innovative works in
this authentic Spanish genre. He analyzes the attempts to find an
audience for Spanish opera; demonstrates the flowering of symphonic
and chamber music at the beginning of this century; traces currents
such as romanticism, impressionism, and neoclassicism; and tracks
the influence of Spain's distinctive regional folk traditions.
Covering musical innovation after Spain's emergence in 1945 from
its period of isolation, Marco notes the speed with which many
composers absorbed the work of Stravinsky and Bartok, the
twelve-tone system, aleatory forms, electronic techniques, and
other European developments. English-speaking scholars, musicians,
critics, and general readers havefor decades been without full
information on the rich and varied work coming out of Spain in this
century. This lively history fills a long-felt need and fills it
superbly, with the knowledge and insights of a major figure in the
musical world.
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