Download or read book Glenn Gould The Performer in the Work written by Kevin Bazzana and published by Oxford : Clarendon Press ; Oxford ; Toronto : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-11-13 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a detailed study of the recordings and approach to performance of the Canadian pianist, broadcaster, writer, and composer Glenn Gould (1932-82). While focusing primarily on his extraordinary recorded performances, Kevin Bazzana also situates Gould's work and thought within broader musical, cultural, and historical contexts. Drawing on a wide range of Gould recordings and related literature, the book is divided into two parts: the first exploring Gould's aesthetic premises, the second discussing characteristic features of his piano style. The book is illustrated with graphic musical examples and plates.
Download or read book Wondrous Strange written by Kevin Bazzana and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2010-02-05 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first major biography of Glenn Gould to stress the critical influence of the Canadian context on his life and art Glenn Gould was not, as has previously been suggested, an isolated and self-taught eccentric who burst out of nowhere onto the international musical scene in the mid-1950s. He was, says Kevin Bazzana in this fascinating new full-scale biography, very much a product of his time and place – and his entire life and diverse work reflect his Canadian heritage. Bazzana, editor of the international Glenn Gould magazine, throws fresh light on this and many other aspects of Gould’s celebrated life as a pianist, writer, broadcaster, and composer. He portrays Gould’s upbringing in Toronto’s neighbourhood of The Beach in the 1930s, revealing the area’s influence as a distinct social, religious, and cultural milieu. He looks at the impact of Canadian radio on the young musician, his relations with the “new music” crowd in Toronto, and the ways in which his career was furthered by the extraordinary growth of Canada’s cultural institutions in the 1950s. He examines Gould’s place within the CBC “culture” of the 1960s and ‘70s, and his distinctly Canadian sense of humour. Bazanna also reveals new information on Gould’s famous eccentricities, his sometimes bizarre stage manner, his highly selective repertoire, his control mania, his private and sexual life, his hypochondria, his romanticism, and his abrupt retirement from concert performance to communicate solely through electronic and print media. And finally, he takes a detailed look at the extraordinary phenomenon of the posthumous “life” that Gould and his work have enjoyed.
Download or read book Glenn Gould written by Peter F. Ostwald and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1998 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this acclaimed biography, the late Peter Ostwald--himself an accomplished violinist and longtime personal friend of Gould's--raises many questions about Gould and his music, and lays bare the energy and contradiction behind his brilliance. Photos. NPR feature.
Download or read book Johann Sebastian Bach s Goldberg Variations Reimagined written by Erinn E. Knyt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers the first detailed reception history of adaptations of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations from 1800-2020. By focusing on ways the piece has been arranged, transcribed, and reworked, or quoted in in film, dance, literature, visual art, and digital media, it reveals changing views about the role of the composer and score that have impacted recent performance practices and notions of the work concept. Beyond this, it features the work of composers, many from underrepresented backgrounds, who have recently deconstructed Bach by reimagining the subjects, compositional procedures, and forms, using contemporary compositional approaches.
Download or read book Musical Prodigies written by Gary E. McPherson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-26 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Child prodigies have been observed in a range of disciplines - particularly music, mathematics, chess, and art. The question of what makes a prodigy has long been controversial. Some have dismissed the notion of giftedness, arguing that most famous prodigies had strong parental, cultural, and environmental influences that helped them develop their extraordinary abilities. One recent theory suggested that anyone could achieve outstanding success in whatever endeavour they wanted with a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice. Nevertheless, many studies of prodigies have suggested that there might be strong underlying cognitive differences, regarding their use of short-term versus long-term memory, spatial memory, imagery, and language. Whatever the arguments - for those interested in child development - prodigies remain a fascinating subject of study when considering questions about creativity, intelligence, development, and the impact of nature versus nurture. This books breaks new ground in presenting the first scientific exploration on the topic of musical prodigies. It brings together research from a range of disciplines, including psychology, neurobiology, and genetics, to provide a thorough exploration of prodigious talent. In addition, the book includes fascinating case studies of prodigies and also looks at their long-term development into adulthood - many child prodigies have had problems making the transition into adolescence and adulthood. Musical prodigies will be required reading for anyone interested in child development, music, and the arts
Download or read book Planet Beethoven written by Mina Yang and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Planet Beethoven, Mina Yang makes the compelling case that classical music in the twenty-first century is just as vibrant and relevant as ever—but with significant changes that give us insight into the major cultural shifts of our day. Perusing events, projects, programs, writings, musicians, and compositions, Yang shines a spotlight on the Western art music tradition. The book covers an array of topics, from the use of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” in YouTube clips and hip-hop, to the marketing claims of Baby Einstein products, and the new forms of music education introduced by Gustavo Dudamel, conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. While the book is global in its outlook, each chapter investigates the unique attributes of a specific performer, performance, or event. One chapter reflects on Chinese pianist Yuja Wang’s controversial performance at the Hollywood Bowl, another explores the highly symbolic Passion 2000 Project in Stuttgart, Germany. Sure to be of interest to students, professionals, and aficionados, Planet Beethoven traces the tensions that arise from the “classical” nature of this tradition and our rapidly changing world. Ebook Edition Note: One image has been redacted.
Download or read book Gould and variations written by Ghyslaine Guertin and published by . This book was released on with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of Glenn Gould employs a range of expressive techniques that combine sounds, words and images without ever compromising the unity and logic of the aesthetic vision they reflect. Nevertheless, it is his interpretive brilliance as a pianist that continues to inspire emotion and awe. The genius of Glenn Gould lies in the sounds he created. With Gould, music becomes a language – a language of such rigour, coherence and clarity that all who hear it are able to discern its principal components. Each sound is articulated and perceived distinctly as part of a melodic and harmonic sequence that imbues it with meaning. The structure of each musical phrase is integrated into the work as a whole according to a rhythm and a tempo that continually reinforce the central discourse. Gould compared his approach to that of a composer analyzing and dissecting his own work. As an interpreter, he did not hesitate to define himself as a “recording artist” dedicated to the “reconstruction” of that same work.The CD on which it is presented to the listener is thus the result of a lengthy process: take after take of the same phrases, the same ornaments – marginally different each time – until the point when the whole piece precisely mirrored the idea already formulated in his mind. This endless editing and splicing of the audio tape can be likened to the craft of the filmmaker. As well as broadening the possibilities of his art through the application of new technologies, Gould helped revolutionize the relations between composer, work and listener, requiring that the latter be not only receptive but also creative. He always conceived of a listener with access to the most sophisticated equipment, whom he could lead straight to the essence – discovery of the work – of his own quest for beauty and ecstasy. S. Bach and his contrapuntal composition were his main source of inspiration. “I really can’t think of any other music which is so all-encompassing, which moves me so deeply and so consistently, and which, to use a rather imprecise word, is valuable beyond all of its skill and brilliance for something more meaningful than that – its humanity.”Gould’s career was framed by one of Bach’s most fascinating compositions, the Goldberg Variations. The work is concerned with balance, symmetry, harmonic coherence and, according to baroque principles, diversity and contrast. Transcending his mathematical rigour, the composer operates highly imaginatively, using a variety of genres, writing techniques and expressive means. Bach succeeds in transforming his basic musical material – an aria – without altering the general structure of the work. Owing to its harmonic form, the aria enables the listener to perceive the wide diversity of the sound landscape that is revealed as the work unfolds. The interpreter can play with complete freedom in the garden created by the composer: “It is, in short, music which observes neither end nor beginning, music with neither real climax nor real resolution.”
Download or read book McLuhan in Space written by Richard Cavell and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demonstrates how McLuhan extended insights derived from advances in physics and artistic experimentation into a theory of acoustic space which he then used to challenge the assumptions of visual space that had been produced through print culture.
Download or read book Speechsong written by Richard Cavell and published by punctum books. This book was released on 2020 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Speechsong is a work of imaginative musicology that addresses the engimas of Schoenberg and Gould, of singing and speaking, of Moses und Aron, of technology and being. Its point of departure is Gould's last public performance, given at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, where a number of Schoenberg's works were performed during his California exile. It is here, after that last performance, that Gould encounters a spectral Schoenberg in a staged conversation that explores Schoenberg's travails in rethinking the fundamentals of Western music. This first part of Speechsong recalls Schoenberg's operatic masterpiece, Moses und Aron, in which the divinely inspired Moses seeks the help of his brother to relate his vision: Moses speaks and Aron sings. Written as a twelve-tone composition, the opera produces an involution of harmonics that was Schoenberg's response to Richard Wagner's diatribes about synagogue noise. For Gould, Schoenberg's is a formalist revolution; Schoenberg's life, however, suggests that it was a search for personal and political freedom.The second half of Speechsong is a critical essay in twelve "moments" that re-articulates the staged conversation as an inquiry into the intersections of music and mediation. Gould's turn to the recording studio emerges as a post-humanist inquiry into recorded music as a repudiation of the virtuoso tradition and a liberation from unitary notions of selfhood. Schoenberg's exodus from musical tradition likewise takes his twelve-tone invention beyond musical performance, where it emerges, along with Gould's soundscapes, as a prototype of acoustic installations by artists such as Stephen Prina and Cory Arcangel. In these works, music abandons the concert hall and the exigencies of harmony for an acoustic space that embraces at once the recordings of Gould and the performances of Schoenberg that have found their home on the internet. Richard Cavell has written extensively on Marshall McLuhan and on media theory generally. He is the co-founder of the Media Studies program at the University of British Columbia and the curator of the website Spectres of McLuhan. Speechsong, his second critical performance piece, was preceded by Marinetti Dines with the High Command (2014).
Download or read book Transforming Music Education written by Estelle R. Jorgensen and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2008-12-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Brilliant... important reading for those who teach music, who write the curricular plans for teaching it, and who guide prospective teachers to the profession.... It is a must-read, for it awakens thoughts about why we teach and how." -- Patricia Shehan Campbell This quintet of essays examines the reasons why music education should be transformed, investigates the nature of education and musical transformation, and suggests alternative educational models and strategies. Estelle Jorgensen frames her argument for new approaches against the backdrop of historical musical and educational practice and draws on literature from various fields. Transforming Music Education is addressed to current and future music teachers, those who train them, and all who are interested in revolutionizing music education.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Western Art written by Yael Kaduri and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-14 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Western Art examines, under one umbrella, different kinds of analogies, mutual influences, integrations and collaborations of audio and visual in different art forms. The book represents state-of-the-art case studies with key figures of modern thinking constituting a foundation for discussion. It thus emphasizes avant-garde and experimental tendencies, while analyzing them in historical, theoretical, and critical frameworks. The book is organized around three core thematic sections. The first, Sights and Sounds, concentrates on the interaction between the experience of seeing and the experience of hearing. Examples of painting, classic and digital animation, video art, choreography, and music performance are examined in this section. Sound, Space, and Matter explores experimental forms emanating from the expansion of the concepts of music and space to include environmental sounds, vibrating frequencies, silence, language, human habitats, the human body, and more. The reader will find here an analysis of different manifestations of this aesthetic shift in sound art, fine art, contemporary dance, multimedia theatre, and cinema. The last section, Performance, Performativity, and Text, shows how new light shed by modernism and the avant-garde on the performative aspect of music have led it - together with sound, voice, and text - to become active in new ways in postmodern and contemporary art creation. In addition to examples of real-time performing arts such as music theatre, experimental theatre, and dance, it includes case studies that demonstrate performativity in fine art, visual poetry, short film, and cinema. Sitting at the cutting edge of the field of music and visual arts, the book offers a unique, at times controversial view of this rapidly evolving area of study. Artists, curators, students and scholars will find here a panoramic view of cutting-edge discourse in the field, by an international roster of scholars and practitioners.
Download or read book Art Matters written by Peter de Bolla and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2003-03-30 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the face of a great work of art, we so often stand mute, struck dumb. Countering contemporary assumptions that art is valued only according to taste or ideology, Peter De Bolla gives a voice - and vocabulary - to the wonder art can inspire.
Download or read book Music at the Limits written by Edward Said and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-05-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: _______________ 'Edward Said had a lifelong passion for music, and possessed the rare ability to write about it for the general reader with a lucid and penetrating intelligence' - TLS 'There are few whose command of words is sufficient not only to illuminate music, but to help music illuminate the world of those who make and listen to it. Said was one' - Daily Telegraph 'The sheer eloquence of Said's writings reminds us that with his untimely death we have lost one of our most distinguished music critics.' - Maynard Solomon, The Julliard School _______________ WITH A FOREWORD BY DANIEL BARENBOIM Music at the Limits brings together three decades of Edward W. Said's essays and articles on music. Addressing the work of a wide variety of composers and performers, Said analyses music's social and political contexts, and provides rich and often surprising assessments. He reflects on the censorship of Wagner in Israel; the relationship between music and feminism; and the works of Beethoven, Bruckner, Rossini, Schumann, Stravinsky and others. Always eloquent and often surprising, Music at the Limits reinforces Said's reputation as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. _______________ 'This fine collection by one of the most perceptive music critics of the last half-century is highly recommended' - Library Journal
Download or read book The Performance Style of Jascha Heifetz written by Dario Sarlo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The violinist Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) is considered among the most influential performers in history and still maintains a strong following among violinists around the world. Dario Sarlo contributes significantly to the growing field of analytical research into recordings and the history of performance style. Focussing on Heifetz and his under-acknowledged but extensive performing relationship with the Bach solo violin works (BWV 1001-1006), Sarlo examines one of the most successful performing musicians of the twentieth century along with some of the most frequently performed works of the violin literature. The book proposes a comprehensive method for analysing and interpreting the legacies of prominent historical performers in the wider context of their particular performance traditions. The study outlines this research framework and addresses how it can be transferred to related studies of other performers. By building up a comprehensive understanding of multiple individual performance styles, it will become possible to gain deeper insight into how performance style develops over time. The investigation is based upon eighteen months of archival research in the Library of Congress’s extensive Jascha Heifetz Collection. It draws on numerous methods to examine what and how Heifetz played, why he played that way, and how that way of playing compares to other performers. The book offers much insight into the ’music industry’ between 1915 and 1975, including touring, programming, audiences, popular and professional reception and recording. The study concludes with a discussion of Heifetz’s unique performer profile in the context of violin performance history.
Download or read book A Musicology of Performance written by Dorottya Fabian and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2015-08-17 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the nature of musical performance. In it, Dorottya Fabian explores the contributions and limitations of some of these approaches to performance, be they theoretical, cultural, historical, perceptual, or analytical. Through a detailed investigation of recent recordings of J. S. Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, she demonstrates that music performance functions as a complex dynamical system. Only by crossing disciplinary boundaries, therefore, can we put the aural experience into words. A Musicology of Performance provides a model for such a method by adopting Deleuzian concepts and various empirical and interdisciplinary procedures. Fabian provides a case study in the repertoire, while presenting new insights into the state of baroque performance practice at the turn of the twenty-first century. Through its wealth of audio examples, tables, and graphs, the book offers both a sensory and a scholarly account of musical performance. These interactive elements map the connections between historically informed and mainstream performance styles, considering them in relation to broader cultural trends, violin schools, and individual artistic trajectories. A Musicology of Performance is a must read for academics and post-graduate students and an essential reference point for the study of music performance, the early music movement, and Bach’s opus.
Download or read book Liveness in Modern Music written by Paul Sanden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study investigates the idea and practice of liveness in modern music.. The book argues that liveness itself emerges from dynamic tensions inherent in mediated musical contexts--tensions between music as an acoustic human utterance, and musical sound as something produced or altered by machines.
Download or read book On Late Style written by Edward Said and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: _______________ 'A series of dazzling case studies exploring the idea of lateness in a range of composers, writers and artists' - London Review of Books 'Gracefully unquiet, probing and wise ... Said's own elegiac masterpiece of late style' - Financial Times 'What Said stands for - critical intelligence, high art and the preservation of the language - must be at the centre of our lives. This book is a fine monument to his life and work' - Hanif Kureishi 'His own late style, if it is acceptable to call it that, mixes an easy mastery of material with an unquenched desire to preserve difficulties' - Guardian _______________ On Late Style examines the work produced by great artists -Beethoven, Thomas Mann, Jean Genet among them - at the end of their lives. Said makes it clear that, rather than the resolution of a lifetime's artistic endeavour, most of the late works discussed are rife with contradiction and almost impenetrable complexity. He helps us see how, though these works often stood in direct contrast to the tastes of society, they were, just as often, announcements of what was to come in the artist's discipline - works of true artistic genius.
