Download or read book Chopin The Four Ballades written by Jim Samson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992-10-30 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chopin's four ballades are widely regarded as being amongst the most significant extended works for solo piano of the nineteenth century. In an illuminating discussion, Jim Samson combines history and analysis to provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of these popular piano works. He begins by investigating the social and musical background to Chopin's unique style. He describes the manuscript sources and evaluates the many subsequent printed editions, then considers the critical reception of the ballades and the differing interpretations of well-known nineteenth- and twentieth-century pianists. The final two chapters examine the music of all four works analytically. There is a clearly presented formal synopsis of each ballade in turn, followed by a discussion of the works collectively which explores Chopin's own conception of the title 'ballade' and how it may be understood as a musical genre.

Download or read book Chopin s Letters written by Frederic Chopin and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-06-03 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly 300 letters reveal Chopin as both man and artist and illuminate his fascinating world — Europe of the 1830s and 1840s. "Delightful gossip . . . merry rather than malicious . . . engagingly witty." — Books. Preface. Index.

Download or read book The Mystery of Chopin s Pr ludes written by Anatole Leikin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chopin's twenty-four Préludes remain as mysterious today as when they were newly published. What prompted Franz Liszt and others to consider Chopin's Préludes to be compositions in their own right rather than introductions to other works? What did set Chopin's Préludes so drastically apart from their forerunners? What exactly was 'the morbid, the feverish, the repellent' that Schumann heard in Opus 28, in that 'wild motley' of 'strange sketches' and 'ruins'? Why did Liszt and another, anonymous, reviewer publicly suggest that Lamartine's poem Les Préludes served as an inspiration for Chopin's Opus 28? And, if that is indeed the case, how did the poem affect the structure and the thematic contents of Chopin's Préludes? And, lastly, is Opus 28 a random assortment of short pieces or a cohesive cycle? In this monograph, richly illustrated with musical examples, Anatole Leikin combines historical perspectives, hermeneutic and thematic analyses, and a range of practical implications for performers to explore these questions and illuminate the music of one of the best loved collections of music for the piano.

Download or read book Chopin s Polish Letters written by Frédéric Chopin and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Five Straight Lines written by Andrew Gant and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2021-11-18 with total page 591 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Fascinating ... Composer Andrew Gant is a masterful guide, introducing readers to the major players and key themes of an entrancing topic.' BBC History Magazine Whether you prefer Baroque or pop, Theremins or violins, the music you love and listen to shapes your world. But what shaped the music? Ranging across time and space, this book takes us on a grand musical tour from music's origins in prehistory right up to the twenty-first century. Charting the leaps in technology, thought and practice that led to extraordinary revolutions of music in each age, the book takes us through medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy and Jazz era America to reveal the rich history of music we still listen to today. From Mozart to McCartney, Schubert to Schoenberg, Professor Andrew Gant brings to life the people who made the music, their techniques and instruments, as well as the places their music was played, from sombre churches to rowdy taverns, stately courts to our very own homes.

Download or read book Chopin written by John Rink and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-07-26 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology brings together representative examples of the most significant and engaging scholarly writing on Chopin by a wide range of authors. The essays selected for the volume portray a rounded picture of Chopin as composer, pianist and teacher of his music, and of his overall achievement and legacy. Historical perspectives are offered on Chopin’s biography ’as cultural discourse’, on the evolution and origins of his style, and on the contexts of given works. A fascinating contemporary overview of Chopin’s oeuvre is also provided. Seven source studies assess the status and role of Chopin’s notational practices as well as some enigmatic sketch material. Essays in the field of performance studies scrutinise the ’cultural work’ carried out by Chopin’s performances and discuss his playing style along with that of his contemporaries and students. This paves the way for a body of essays on analysis, aesthetics and reception, considering aspects of genre and including an overview of analytical approaches to select works. The remaining essays address Chopin’s handling of form, rhythm and other musical elements, as well as the ’meaning’ of his msuic. The collection as a whole underscores one of the most important aspects of Chopin’s legacy, namely the paradoxical manner in which he drew from the past - in particular, certain eighteenth-century traditions - while stretching inherited conventions and practices to such an extent that a highly original ’music of the future’ was heralded.

Download or read book Simply Chopin written by William Smialek and published by Simply Charly. This book was released on 2018-09-21 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born in a small town near Warsaw, Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was a musical prodigy who began giving public concerts and composed his first piano pieces at the age of seven. Following studies at the Warsaw Conservatory, he left his native Poland in 1830, eventually settling in Paris, where he lived for the rest of his life. There he cultivated friendships with prominent musicians and intellectuals of the period and quickly achieved renown as a virtuoso performer and pioneering composer. However, by 1842, his lifelong health issues had become increasingly serious, and his brilliant career went into a precipitous decline, concluding with his untimely death at the age of thirty-nine. In Simply Chopin, Dr. William Smialek presents an accessible and revealing portrait of a musical genius, including his artistic development, his tempestuous love life, and his towering artistic achievements. Relating Chopin’s life story to his historical place and time, Dr. Smialek intimately chronicles his influences and significant relationships, in particular, his long love affair with the writer George Sand. The book also draws on recent research to explore the compositional technique displayed in Chopin’s piano compositions, with commentary on his most important works. Intended for a general readership, Simply Chopin is both a lucid introduction to a giant of classical music and an insightful look at a key moment in musical history, as nineteenth-century Europe turned toward Romanticism and the powerful idea of nationalism.

Download or read book Chopin at the Boundaries written by Jeffrey Kallberg and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complex cultural status of Chopin--he was a native Pole and adopted Frenchman, a male composer writing in "feminine" genres--is the subject of Kallberg's absorbing book. Combining social history, literary theory, musicology, and feminist thought, this book situates Chopin's music within the construct of his somewhat marginal sexual identity.

Download or read book Fontana and Chopin in Letters written by Magdalena Oliferko and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Human Bodies written by Marilyn Bowering and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 1999-02-16 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human Bodies collects the poems of the latter half of award-winning poet and novelist Marilyn Bowering's illustrious career. On the heels of her Governor General nominated Beach Holme title Autobiography, this collection also includes her earlier works Love As It Is, Calling All the World, Anyone Can See I Love You, Grandfather Was A Soldier and forty-five previously unpublished new poems. The first in our Canadian Classics Series, this is the perfect compendium for students of the next wave of Canadian verse. From Anyone Can See I Love You, a gloss on the glamorous yet tragic life of Marilyn Monroe, to the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik II in Calling All the World and the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele Ridge in Grandfather Was A Soldier, this collection is an astonishing tribute to Bowering's boundless range. Equal parts cerebral and sensual, Human Bodies is a retrospective not to be missed and a must-have for every Canadian literature curriculum.

Download or read book Dark Angel written by Elizabeth Cowley Tyler and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2010-02-17 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is October 17, 1849, Chopin has just taken his last labored breath. Solange Dudevant Clésinger, George Sand''s unloved daughter, is at his bedside, but Sand herself is nowhere to be found. Solange, deeply grieved by the loss of Chopin, with whom she feels she has always been in love, takes a letter fragment from the last letter Sand wrote to Chopin breaking off their relationship. In the letter fragment, Sand accuses Chopin of taking sides with Solange in a family battle and tells him that this has sounded the death knell for their relationship. Married to a man she doesn''t love, Solange Dudevant Clésinger decides to try to find out why her mother abandoned Chopin and does not show up at his deathbed. She begins a search of the quays of Paris, claiming that she believes she saw her mother wandering them in the past few days. Her mother''s friend, Charlotte Marlinai, assures her that Sand is not in Paris but in her country home at Nohant. Something in Marliani''s evasive answers and her refusal to invite Solange into her home causes Solange to suspect that perhaps she is hiding her mother. In her attempt to avoid her hard drinking, abusive husband who is making his bid to sculpt Chopin''s funeral monument, Solange retreats to their home and begins a plan to try to find out where her mother is and why she didn''t appear at Chopin''s bedside. She begins a series of visits to the people closest to Chopin to try to learn as much as she can about the history of the relationship between Sand and Chopin and also to find out more about what people knew or didn''t know about her relationship with Chopin that could have triggered such enraged jealousy in her mother. She visits Charlotte again the next day to find her much more welcoming now that she isn''t trying to hide a lover from her husband. Charlotte begins the process of educating Solange about the history of Sand''s relationship with Chopin. Solange''s quest is interspersed with memories of past times in Chopin''s company and with fantasies of wished for greater intimacy with him. The influx of information that comes to her showing the initial deep bond between Chopin and Sand doesn''t dissuade Solange from believing that Chopin was truly in love with her as she was with him and that that was what caused Sand to eventually abandon him so cruelly. Solange alternates between a strong belief in the fact of the love between her and Chopin and in a need to discover evidence to prove the truth of it. Auguste Clésinger comes home drunk and angry because Solange is so preoccupied with her grief over Chopin that she has forgotten to join him at a dinner where he is to make his bid to sculpt the funeral monument. He comes upon her in the bath, abuses her verbally, and forces her to have sex with him. She seeks refuge the next day in the studio of Eugène Delacroix, a devoted friend of both Chopin and Sand. He says he has no idea where Sand is and why she didn''t appear at Chopin''s deathbed. Delacroix sees the bruise on her eye and promises to try to play the diplomat in mending the rupture between Solange and her husband. Solange seeks refuge in the Luxembourg Gardens and meets Count Albert Grzymala, a Polish ex-patriot and long-time friend of both Sand and Chopin. Grzymala, too, has no idea where Sand is and is deeply grieved by the loss of his dear friend, Chopin. He fills in some blanks for Solange about the early days of Sand''s relationship with Chopin. She tries to rationalize her jealousy over the truth of the deep bond between her mother and Chopin. Throughout her quest, Solange is visited with dreams both divine and nightmarish. Her next visit is to Jane Stirling, the Scotswoman who took care of Chopin at the end, paying his rent at 12 Place Vendôme and for his elaborate funeral at the Church of the Madeleine. Solange and Jane find comfort in one another and share a playing of one of Chopin''s nocturnes. Solange contrasts the purity of Jane''s love for Chopin with that of her mother and the dif

Download or read book Experiencing Chopin written by Christine Lee Gengaro and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fryderyk Chopin’s career is intricately entwined with the piano. Although he made forays into orchestral and chamber work, the vast majority of Chopin’s pieces feature the piano. While his relatively brief life shortened his potential contribution as a composer, the originality, richness, and quality of his work is undeniable. His harmonies were often surprising, the rhythms flexible, and the music dramatic. In Experiencing Chopin: A Listener’s Companion,Christine Lee Gengaro surveys Chopin’s position as a composer at a time when the piano stood at the center of musical and social life. Throughout, she shines a spotlight on Chopin and his music, which illuminated the Romantic period in which he lived, the social and artistic climate that surrounded him, and the importance of the individual artist at a time of political foment. Gengaro considers the different genres among Chopin’s works, linking each to the historical, social, and biographical issues that shaped them.

Download or read book Piano works written by Frédéric Chopin and published by Alfred Music Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume includes 18 famous piano solos by Chopin, as edited and performed by noted concert pianist, Joseph Banowetz. Included are Nocturnes, Preludes, Mazurkas, a Polonaise and several other works. Banowetz provides a lengthy preface introducing students and performers to all aspects of these works. A full performance CD recording is also included. Joseph Banowetz graduated with a First Prize from the Vienna Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst. Banowetz has been a piano recitalist and orchestral soloist on five continents. He was awarded the Liszt Medal by the Hungarian Liszt Society in recognition of his outstanding performances of Liszt and the Romantic literature.

Download or read book Musical Meaning written by Lawrence Kramer and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ranging widely over classical music, jazz, popular music, and film and television music, Musical Meaning uncovers the historical importance of asking about meaning in the lived experience of musical works, styles, and performances. Lawrence Kramer has been a pivotal figure in the development of new resources for understanding music. In this accessible and eloquently written book, he argues boldly that humanistic, not just technical, meaning is a basic force in music history and an indispensable factor in how, where, and when music is heard. He demonstrates that thinking about music can become a vital means of thinking about general questions of meaning, subjectivity, and value. First published in 2001, Musical Meaning anticipates many of the musicological topics of today, including race, performance, embodiment, and media. In addition, Kramer explores music itself as a source of understanding via his composition Revenants for piano, revised for this edition and available on the UC Press website.

Download or read book The Creative Gesture written by Pier Paolo Bellini and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Fr d ric Chopin written by William Smialek and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-05 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frédéric Chopin: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography concerning both the nature of primary sources related to the composer and the scope and significance of the secondary sources which deal with him, his compositions, and his influence as a composer. The second edition includes research published since the publication of the first edition and provides electronic resources.

Download or read book Chopin in Britain written by Peter Willis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-14 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1848, the penultimate year of his life, Chopin visited England and Scotland at the instigation of his aristocratic Scots pupil, Jane Stirling. In the autumn of that year, he returned to Paris. The following autumn he was dead. Despite the fascination the composer continues to hold for scholars, this brief but important period, and his previous visit to London in 1837, remain little known. In this richly illustrated study, Peter Willis draws on extensive original documentary evidence, as well as cultural artefacts, to tell the story of these two visits and to place them into aristocratic and artistic life in mid-nineteenth-century England and Scotland. In addition to filling a significant hole in our knowledge of the composer’s life, the book adds to our understanding of a number of important figures, including Jane Stirling and the painter Ary Scheffer. The social and artistic milieux of London, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh are brought to vivid life.