Gerald Abraham's reputation as an authority on Russian music has tended to obscure his deep interest in the music of Poland and Czechoslovakia, and of the nineteenth-century generally. From a lifetime's devoted scholarship in these fields Abrahams selected his best work to make up this volume (first published in 1968), one of exceptional breadth and fascination.

The subjects range from the relationship of Slavonic music to the western world, to detailed essays on figures such as Chopin, Dvorak, Rubinstein and Mussorgsky. A study of realism in Janacek's operas contains a particularly fine analysis of "From a House of the Dead" and there is an account of the fantastic 'erotic diary' for piano in which Zdenek Fibich, one of the finest nineteenth-century Czech symphonists, recorded the secrets of his love affair with former student and librettist Aneka Schulzova.

Gerald Abraham (1904-1988) was a distinguished musicologist, among his official posts those of Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool and Assistant Controller of Music at the BBC.

One Hundred Years of Music provides a full account of the history of music from the death of Beethoven to the modern era. It covers a period of exceptional interest. The last hundred years coincide roughly with the rise and decline of Romanticism, include the various nationalist movements, and extend to the advent of "neo-classicism," the twelve-tone system, and still more modern techniques. Abraham devotes ample space to modernist and avant garde music, in which he explains the difficulties we experience in listening to the work of such composers as Schnberg, Bart k, and Berg. He also throws new light on many more familiar topics. In its earlier editions, One Hundred Years of Music became a standard work on this subject; it has since been brought updated to include coverage of later developments. Abraham approaches his subject as an historian of style rather than an esthetic critic. Rather than pass judgment on particular works or composers, he shows how music has developed, and thus provides a clear and connected history that is more substantial than most books of musical appreciation. An extensive chronology and a full bibliography and index add to the usefulness of the book for students, professionals and musical laymen alike. This third edition incorporates some corrections of fact, further enlarges the bibliography and chronology, and adds commentary on developments in music techniques. In order to correct the historical perspective, the author has included a "prelude" and three "interludes," giving rough sketches of general conditions in the musical world at intervals of thirty years. As the reader's sense of chronology is very apt to get confused when a number of simultaneous streams of development have to be described, the author has inserted the date of composition or performance (both if they are widely separated) of each work at the first mention of it.

One Hundred Years of Music provides a full account of the history of music from the death of Beethoven to the modern era. It covers a period of exceptional interest. The last hundred years coincide roughly with the rise and decline of Romanticism, include the various nationalist movements, and extend to the advent of "neo-classicism," the twelve-tone system, and still more modern techniques. Abraham devotes ample space to modernist and avant garde music, in which he explains the difficulties we experience in listening to the work of such composers as Schnberg, Bart k, and Berg. He also throws new light on many more familiar topics. In its earlier editions, One Hundred Years of Music became a standard work on this subject; it has since been brought updated to include coverage of later developments. Abraham approaches his subject as an historian of style rather than an esthetic critic. Rather than pass judgment on particular works or composers, he shows how music has developed, and thus provides a clear and connected history that is more substantial than most books of musical appreciation. An extensive chronology and a full bibliography and index add to the usefulness of the book for students, professionals and musical laymen alike. This third edition incorporates some corrections of fact, further enlarges the bibliography and chronology, and adds commentary on developments in music techniques. In order to correct the historical perspective, the author has included a "prelude" and three "interludes," giving rough sketches of general conditions in the musical world at intervals of thirty years. As the reader's sense of chronology is very apt to get confused when a number of simultaneous streams of development have to be described, the author has inserted the date of composition or performance (both if they are widely separated) of each work at the first mention of it.

This volume offers an overall view of a period which witnessed a proliferation of music in all genres, highlighting the musical landmarks and masterpieces of the age. It discusses the ode and oratorio in England, secular song in Europe, and the whole range of baroque instrumental music from keyboard music and the solo sonata to the orchestral suite and concerto grosso.

Looks at ancient and oriental music and traces the history of western music from medieval times to the twentieth century.

Looks at ancient and oriental music and traces the history of western music from medieval times to the twentieth century.

Looks at ancient and oriental music and traces the history of western music from medieval times to the twentieth century.

Offers a detailed look at the day-to-day life of the Russian composer, and describes his opinions on his work, his colleagues, and other composers and conductors.

Volume IX completes The New Oxford History of Music in 10 volumes, and includes the whole span of western instrumental music and opera in the greater part of the nineteenth century.

Text extracted from opening pages of book: Gerald Abraham EIGHT SOVIET COMPOSERS GEOFFREY CTJMBERLEGE Oxford University Press LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMEN HOUSE, E. C. 4 I/ ondon Edinburgh Glasgow New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay Calcutta Madras GEOFFREY CUMBERI, EGE PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY First published - 1943 Second impression r 944 Third impression 1 944 Fourth impression 1 946 Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS 1. Introduction . page 7 2. Dmitry Shostakovich 13 3. Sergey Prokofiev . . . . . . .32 4. Aram Khachaturyan ...... 43 5. Lev Knipper 52 6. Vissarion Shebalin . . . . . 61 7. Dmitry Kabalevsky ....... 70 8. Ivan Dzerzhinsky . . . . . . 79 9. Yury Shaporin 89 Index . . . .... - 99 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Six of these essays have appeared in slightly different form in The Monthly Musical Record, that on Shostakovich in Horizon, that on Prokofiev in The Music Review, and part of the Introduction in The Gramophone, and I offer my grateful thanks to the respective editors for permission to reprint them. My thanks are also due to Dr. A. Aber, of Novello & Co., Ltd., the English agents of the Russian State Music Publishing Company, for kindly allowing me to consult scores otherwise inaccessible. I. INTRODUCTION THE AIM of this little book is much less to offer criticism than to give information. Ask any English musician what he knows about the music of our Soviet allies and the odds are about seven to one that he will answer, ' Oh, Shostakovich, you know. And that old chap, Myaskovsky, who writes innumerable symphonies. And the fellow who wrote the steel-foundry thing Mosolov, ' and that he will then, or very soon after, stick. My object is to help himpast the sticking point by describing in some detail the careers and work of eight outstanding Soviet composers. It would be easy to add to the number, but these eight are not only, in my view, the most impor tant: they are thoroughly representative of Soviet Russian music as a whole. There are numerous reasons for our British ignorance of this music: not political prejudice so much as commercial reasons, the chief of them being neglect by the Russians themselves to push the sales of their scores and gramophone records in Western Europe. This neglect often infuriating to those of us who have been anxious to get to know the work of Soviet musicians was by no means entirely due to lack of business sense on the part of the State Publishing house; sheer indifference, I suspect, played a big part simple indifference to what musicians outside the U. S. S. R. might think. And that leads us straight to the main characteristic of Soviet music, particularly during the last ten years: its self-centredness. Soviet music is self-centred and self-sufficient but by no means self-satisfied: on the contrary, it is intensely self-critical because it has a special problem or set of problems to cope with and is exclusively preoccupied with finding the solution. The problem was posed by the Soviet Government, which treats composers very handsomely 1 but, paying the pipers, insists on its right to call the 1 Through the Union of Soviet Composers it commissions from them works for which it pays generously; in addition composers are entitled to performing fees and to payment by the State music-publishers if their works are printed. If the Soviet composer is ill he gets free treatment; if he goes on holiday, heis given help in paying for it ( if he needs help). The Govern ment, through the Union of Soviet Composers, may even provide him with 8 EIGHT SOVIET COMPOSERS tunes. Being a government of the people, it insists on music for the people, not music for intellectuals, for those with highly trained ears and sophisticated tastes. It insists that Soviet music shall be lyrical and melodious, that it shall be the expression of real feeling, and of joyous or heroic or optimistic feeling rather than of personal, subjective brooding. These conditions are quite foreign to

Tchaikovsky s music is played by every orchestra everywhere in the world, yet surprisingly little has been written about it. The Music of Tchaikovsky, the most authoritative book to date on the subject, provides a comprehensive survey of all of Tchaikovsky s music, bringing together chapters by well-known music critics, each an authority in his field."

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.