This series examines composers in a biographical context, and offers comprehensive studies of key figures in the creation of 20th century music. Each book tries to communicate to a wide audience, without assuming a knowledge of specialised terms.
Bela Bartok's reputation as a key figure in 20th century music is well established. This biography shows inextricable links between his life, his music and the turbulence of two world wars."
From the 1500s through the 1900s there were a surprising number of women composing classical music. Many were successful, finding venues for both publishing and performing their music; others found the social barriers for women impossible to overcome. This book provides access to these composers, both well known and obscure. Arranged chronologically by era, each section is divided into countries. For each female composer within a country, a brief biographical sketch is provided, as well as a description of her body of work. This text also includes an extensive opera timeline of works by female... [Read More]
In this comprehensive and definitive survey of current notation procedures, Kurt Stone has brought order to a field traditionally fraught with confusion and idiosyncrasy. He not only describes and recommends new methods for notating modern music, thereby establishing standard procedures for the present and future, but integrates them with traditional practices still in use. The result is a guide to all forms of notation used in serious music today. Stone is undoubtedly one of the world's leading authorities on contemporary music notation and its problems. As head of the Index of New Musical No... [Read More]
During his short but prolific career, George Gershwin (1898-1937) produced a varied body of work that combined symphonic composition with the musical styles popular in his era, including jazz and African-American spirituals. Known primarily for his jazz-tinged orchestral work Rhapsody in Blue, his folk opera Porgy and Bess, and his many wonderful songs featured in the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Gershwin and his lyricist brother Ira were key figures in the songwriting circles of pre-war America. Rodney Greenberg's lively biography paints a vivid picture of this exciting era in the... [Read More]
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) is regarded as the inventor of modern music. His phenomenal achievements are comparable to those of his close friend and contemporary Pablo Picasso. This comprehensive biography traces the influences that informed his style and sets all of his major works into context, devoting particular attention to the composer s childhood in pre-revolutionary Russia. It charts his discovery by Diaghilev and traces his ensuing collaborations with choreographers, dancers, painters, designers, and writers. Above all the book concentrates on Stravinsky s creativity, describing how h... [Read More]
Because of the nature of Soviet society, Prokofiev's life has received little attention from biographers. This survey of his life and work contains several hitherto unpublished illustrations of him and much essential reference material.
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) is perhaps Finland's most important musical figure. His beautiful compositions, inspired primarily by Finnish landscapes and literature, helped to form a national identity for his homeland. Sibelius' innovative symphonies and descriptive tone poems encapsulate his desire to create 'pure' music, and have become staples of the orchestral repertoire all over the world. This intriguing biography, which includes previously unavailable material, examines the life and work of this radical yet understated composer.Jean Sibelius is part of Phaidon's successful 20th Century Com... [Read More]
With works such as La Bohème and Madame Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) created some of the world s most popular and widely performed operas. His colourful orchestrations, beautiful melodies, rare theatrical sensibility, and daring choices of subject matter combined to produce timeless stage works that continue to appeal to a broad audience. In this powerful biography, Conrad Wilson examines this great composer s works and the ways in which they were influences by his many relationships with women and his contradictory personality.Giacomo Puccini is part of Phaidon s successful 20th Ce... [Read More]
In the second edition of the definitive account of Igor Stravinsky's life and work, arranged in two separate sections, Eric Walter White revised the whole book, completing the biographical section by taking it up to Stravinsky's death in 1971. To the list of works, the author added some early pieces that have recently come to light, as well as the late compositions, including the Requiem Canticles and The Owl and the Pussycat. Four more of Stravinsky's own writings appear in the Appendices, and there are several important additions to the bibliography.
This wide-ranging study of Gabriel Fauré and his contemporaries reclaims aesthetic categories crucial to French musical life in the early twentieth century. Its interrelated chapters treat the topics of sincerity, originality, novelty, self-renewal, homogeneity and religious belief in relation to Fauré's music and ideas. Taking a broad view of cultural life during the composer's lifetime and beyond, the book moves between specific details in Fauré's music and related critical, literary and philosophical issues, ranging from Gounod to Boulez and from Proust to Valéry. Above all, the book co... [Read More]
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