Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra has proven to be one of the most popularly successful concert works of the twentieth century. It is seen by its champions as an example of Bartok's seamless blend of Ea
Anton Bruckner's Eighth Symphony (1890), one of the last of the great Romantic symphonies, is a grandly complex masterpiece. This book explores this many-faceted work from several angles. It documents
After the death of Mahler in 1911 the great Austro-German symphonic line was carried on mainly in England, America, Scandinavia and Russia. The Fifth Symphony of Carl Nielsen, Denmark's greatest compo
Michael Tippett's oratorio A Child of Our Time was written at the beginning of the second world war as an expression of "man's inhumanity to man." This Handbook discusses the significant musical and l
After the death of Mahler in 1911 the great Austro-German symphonic line was carried on mainly in England, America, Scandinavia and Russia. The Fifth Symphony of Carl Nielsen, Denmark's greatest compo
Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is in many ways his most startlingly original. It has a programmatic content, it is in five movements, and its mood is quite different from the usual barnstorming image o
Many listeners and players are fascinated by Bach's Goldberg Variations. In this wideranging and searching study, Professor Williams, one of the leading Bach scholars of our time, helps them probe its depths and understand its uniqueness. He considers the work's historical origins, especially in relation to all Bach's Clavierübung volumes and late keyboard works, its musical agenda and its formal shape, and discusses significant performance issues. In the course of the book he poses a number of key questions. Why should such a work be written? Does the work have both a conceptual and a perceptual shape? What other music is likely to have influenced the Goldberg and to what extent is it trying to be encyclopedic? What is the canonic vocabulary? How have contemporaries or musicians from Beethoven to the present day seen this work and, above all, how has its mysterious beauty been created?
Pierrot Lunaire (1912) is one of the most important music theatre works ever written. This is the first guide in English to a work which continues to be performed, broadcast and recorded worldwide. The book describes the artistic environment around the turn of the century from which Pierrot emerged and discusses Schoenberg's working methods and intentions in its composition. The composer's artistic development up to 1912 is contemplated as a backdrop to this extraordinarily original creative act, and the significance of Pierrot in the unfolding of twentieth-century music is a recurrent topic of the text. In a clear and imaginative description of the work itself, the author takes each of the 21 melodramas in turn, considering both the music and the narrative. The text of all 21 poems is provided in German and in a new English translation by Andrew Porter.
This is a guide to both the music and the poetry of Schubert's much-loved song cycle, set to poems by the Prussian poet Wilhelm MUller. Composed in 1823, this work is one of the greatest masterpieces
Elgar's Variations for Orchestra, commonly known as the 'Enigma' Variations, marked an epoch both in his career, and in the renaissance of English music at the turn of the century. The first extended
Liszt's B minor Sonata is now regarded as his finest work for piano, and one of the pinnacles of Romantic piano music. This book, written by a pianist who has performed the Sonata extensively, include
