Download or read book Webern and the Transformation of Nature written by Julian Johnson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the idea of nature in the music of Anton Webern. It stands out from other studies because it explores the wider social and cultural dimensions of the music, as opposed to the often narrow, technical analysis of the music. In doing so it offers an important case study for the way in which social ideas can be discussed in relation to apparently 'abstract' modern music. Moreover, it does so in relation to musical details not simply on the level of biography or cultural history.
Download or read book Transformations of Musical Modernism written by Erling E. Guldbrandsen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-26 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection brings fresh perspectives to bear upon key questions surrounding the composition, performance and reception of musical modernism.
Download or read book Gustav Mahler s Symphonic Landscapes written by Thomas Peattie and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study Thomas Peattie offers a new account of Mahler's symphonies by considering the composer's reinvention of the genre in light of his career as a conductor and more broadly in terms of his sustained engagement with the musical, theatrical, and aesthetic traditions of the Austrian fin de siècle. Drawing on the ideas of landscape, mobility, and theatricality, Peattie creates a richly interdisciplinary framework that reveals the uniqueness of Mahler's symphonic idiom and its radical attitude toward the presentation and ordering of musical events. The book goes on to identify a fundamental tension between the music's episodic nature and its often-noted narrative impulse and suggests that Mahler's symphonic dramaturgy can be understood as a form of abstract theatre.
Download or read book The Classical Music Lover s Companion to Orchestral Music written by Robert Philip and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 969 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An invaluable guide for lovers of classical music designed to enhance their enjoyment of the core orchestral repertoire from 1700 to 1950 Robert Philip, scholar, broadcaster, and musician, has compiled an essential handbook for lovers of classical music, designed to enhance their listening experience to the full. Covering four hundred works by sixty-eight composers from Corelli to Shostakovich, this engaging companion explores and unpacks the most frequently performed works, including symphonies, concertos, overtures, suites, and ballet scores. It offers intriguing details about each piece while avoiding technical terminology that might frustrate the non-specialist reader. Philip identifies key features in each work, as well as subtleties and surprises that await the attentive listener, and he includes enough background and biographical information to illuminate the composer's intentions. Organized alphabetically from Bach to Webern, this compendium will be indispensable for classical music enthusiasts, whether in the concert hall or enjoying recordings at home.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of Twentieth Century Music written by Nicholas Cook and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-08-05 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description
Download or read book Music and Esotericism written by Laurence Wuidar and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-05-15 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the relationships that exist between esotericism and music from Antiquity to the 20th century, investigating ways in which magic, astrology, alchemy, divination, and cabbala interact with music. Ce livre offre un panorama des relations entre l’ésotérisme et la musique de l’Antiquité au 20ème siècle et montre comment la magie, l’astrologie, l’alchimie, la divination et la cabale interagissent avec l’art et la science des sons.
Download or read book After Mahler written by Stephen Downes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-19 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The music of Gustav Mahler repeatedly engages with Romantic notions of redemption. This is expressed in a range of gestures and procedures, shifting between affirmative fulfilment and pessimistic negation. In this groundbreaking study, Stephen Downes explores the relationship of this aspect of Mahler's music to the output of Benjamin Britten, Kurt Weill and Hans Werner Henze. Their initial admiration was notably dissonant with the prevailing Zeitgeist - Britten in 1930s England, Weill in 1920s Germany and Henze in 1950s Germany and Italy. Downes argues that Mahler's music struck a profound chord with them because of the powerful manner in which it raises and intensifies dystopian and utopian complexes and probes the question of fulfilment or redemption, an ambition manifest in ambiguous tonal, temporal and formal processes. Comparisons of the ways in which this topic is evoked facilitate new interpretative insights into the music of these four major composers.
Download or read book Explorations in Music and Esotericism written by Elizabeth T. Abbate and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2023 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars explore from many fresh angles the interweavings of two of the richest strands of human culture-music and esotericism-with examples from the medieval period to the modern age. Music and esotericism are two responses to the intuition that the world holds hidden order, beauty, and power. Those who compose, perform, and listen to music have often noted that music can be a bridge between sensory and transcendent realms. Such renowned writers as Boethius expanded the definition of music to encompass not only sounded music but also the harmonic fabric of human and cosmic life. Those who engage in pursuits called "esoteric," from ancient astrology, magic, and alchemy to recent and more novel forms of spirituality, have also remarked on the relevance of music to their quests. Esotericists have composed music in order to convey esoteric meaning, performed music to create esoteric influences, and listened to music to raise their esoteric awareness. The academic study of esotericism is a young field, and few researchers have probed the rich interface between the musical and esoteric domains. In Explorations in Music and Esotericism, scholars from numerous fields introduce the history of esotericism and current debates about its definition and extent. The book's sixteen chapters present rich instances of connections between music and esotericism, organized with reference to four aspects of esotericism: as a form of thought; as the keeping and revealing of secrets; as an identity; and as a signifier. Edited by Marjorie Roth and Leonard George. Contributors: Elizabeth Abbate, Malachai Komanoff Bandy, Adam Bregman, Charles E. Brewer, Benjamin Dobbs, Anna Gawboy, Pasquale Giaquinto, Adam Knight Gilbert, Joscelyn Godwin, Virginia Christy Lamothe, Andrew Owen, Christopher Scheer, Codee Ann Spinner, Woodrow Steinken, and Daphne Tan.
Download or read book Goethe Musical Poet Musical Catalyst written by Lorraine Byrne and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2004 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proceedings of international conference at NUI Maynooth on Goethe's contribution to music. Goethe was interested in, and acutely aware of, the place of music in human experience generally - and of its particular role in modern culture. Moreover, his own literary work - especially the poetry and Faust - inspired some of the major composers of the European tradition to produce some of their finest works.' (Martin Swales) [Subject: Music Studies, Goethe]
Download or read book Exploring Twentieth Century Music written by Arnold Whittall and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-02-27 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wide-ranging book, Arnold Whittall considers a group of important composers of the twentieth century, including Debussy, Webern, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartók, Janácek, Britten, Carter, Birtwistle, Andriessen and Adams. He moves skilfully between the cultural and the technical, the general and the particular, to explore the various contexts and critical perspectives which illuminate certain works by these composers. Considering the extent to which place and nationality contribute to the definition of musical character, he investigates the relevance of such images as mirroring and symmetry, the function of genre and the way types of identity may be suggested by such labels as classical, modernist, secular, sacred radical, traditional. These categories are considered as flexible and interactive and they generate a wide-ranging series of narratives delineating some of the most fundamental forces which affected composers and their works within the complex and challenging world of the twentieth century.
Download or read book Intimate Voices Debussy to Villa Lobos The string quartets of Debussy and Ravel written by David Clampitt and published by University Rochester Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading authorities explore, in direct and accessible language, chamber-music masterpieces by twenty-one prominent composers since 1900.
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music written by Nicole V. Gagné and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-07-17 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contemporary music scene thus embodies a uniquely broad spectrum of activity, which has grown and changed down to the present hour. With new talents emerging and different technologies developing as we move further into the 21st century, no one can predict what paths music will take next. All we can be certain of is that the inspiration and originality that make music live will continue to bring awe, delight, fascination, and beauty to the people who listen to it. This book cover modernist and postmodern concert music worldwide from the years 1888 to 2018. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on the most important composers, musicians, methods, styles, and media in modernist and postmodern classical music worldwide, from 1888 to 2018. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about modern and contemporary classical music.
Download or read book Songs of the Second Viennese School written by Loralee Songer and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-08-22 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Songs of the Second Viennese School: A Performer’s Guide to Selected Solo Vocal Works, scholar Loralee Songer outlines for singers and voice teachers critical information on selected solo vocal works by three major classical composers active during the first half of the twentieth century: Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern. For too long, the remarkable vocal works of these composers have received insufficient attention because too many have assumed their works to be “unsingable” atonal pieces, musically impossible (or unrewarding) for performers and entirely unsatisfying for listening audiences. For each composer, Songer provides information about the composer's educational background and compositional style, as well as commentary on representative vocal works supported by musical examples. The discussion is bolstered by interviews with renowned singers who supply advice for practice and performance. A catalog of selected songs featuring information on each work's poet, key, range, and German-English translation is also provided. Voice teachers and singers of varying levels will benefit from this book's practical content and format, and the exposure to under-appreciated works will enhance recital performance repertoire substantially.
Download or read book Contemporary Music and Spirituality written by Robert Sholl and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The flourishing of religious or spiritually-inspired music in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries remains largely unexplored. The engagement and tensions between modernism and tradition, and institutionalized religion and spirituality are inherent issues for many composers who have sought to invoke spirituality and Otherness through contemporary music. Contemporary Music and Spirituality provides a detailed exploration of the recent and current state of contemporary spiritual music in its religious, musical, cultural and conceptual-philosophical aspects. At the heart of the book are issues that consider the role of secularization, the claims of modernity concerning the status of art, and subjective responses such as faith and experience. The contributors provide a new critical lens through which it is possible to see the music and thought of Cage, Ligeti, Messiaen, Stockhausen as spiritual music. The book surrounds these composers with studies of and by other composers directly associated with the idea of spiritual music (Harvey, Gubaidulina, MacMillan, Pärt, Pott, and Tavener), and others (Adams, Birtwistle, Ton de Leeuw, Ferneyhough, Ustvolskaya, and Vivier) who have created original engagements with the idea of spirituality. Contemporary Music and Spirituality is essential reading for humanities scholars and students working in the areas of musicology, music theory, theology, religious studies, philosophy of culture, and the history of twentieth-century culture.
Download or read book Music and Narrative Since 1900 written by Michael L. Klein and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive volume offers a wide-ranging perspective on the stories that art music has told since the start of the 20th century. Contributors challenge the broadly held opinion that the loss of tonality in some music after 1900 also meant the loss of narrative in that music. To the contrary, the editors and essayists in this book demonstrate how experiments in approaching narrative in other media, such as fiction and cinema, suggested fresh possibilities for musical narrative, which composers were quick to exploit. The new conceptions of time, narrative voice, plot, and character that accompanied these experiments also had a significant impact on contemporary music. The repertoire explored in the collection ranges across a wide variety of genres and includes composers from Charles Ives and the Pet Shop Boys to Thomas Adès and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Download or read book J n Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland written by Árni Heimir Ingólfsson and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-27 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland, Árni Heimir Ingólfsson provides a striking account of the dramatic career of Iceland's iconic composer. Leifs (1899–1968) was the first Icelander to devote himself fully to composition at a time when a local music scene was only beginning to take form. He was a fervent nationalist in his art, fashioning an idiosyncratic and uncompromising 'Icelandic' sound from traditions of vernacular music with the aim to legitimize Iceland as an independent, culturally empowered nation. In addition to exploring Leifs's career, Ingólfsson provides detailed descriptions of Leifs's major works and their cultural contexts. Leifs's music was inspired by the Icelandic landscape and includes auditory depictions of volcanos, geysers, and waterfalls. The raw quality of his orchestral music is frequently enhanced by an expansive percussion section, including anvils, stones, sirens, bells, ships' chains, shotguns, and cannons. Largely neglected in his own lifetime, Leifs's music has been rediscovered in recent years and hailed as a singular and deeply original contribution to twentieth-century music. Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland enriches our understanding and appreciation of Leifs and his music by exploring the political, literary and environmental contexts that influenced his work.
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 2016-06-15 with total page 672 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.
