Michael Tippett is one of the major figures of British music in this century. This volume of essays provides the first substantial writing on the composer for over a decade and includes the work of established scholars as well as several new voices. Across essays that encompass a range of genres and style periods, a number of recurring themes can be detected. Broadly speaking, the book moves from technical discussion focused on individual works to wider questions of context--the "external" factors that have shaped the composer's musical production, such as his relationship to the past, his...

Despite Vaughan Williams' seminal importance in British music, international stature as a symphonist, and wider significance as an icon of Englishness, very little new research on his life or music has been published since the mid-1960s. The ten essays presented here examine diverse subjects such as the place of Vaughan Williams in the construction of English national identity in this century, the role of rhythm in his symphonies, music for propaganda films, and his unpublished early orchestral pieces; major works such as the Tallis Fantasia and the Fifth Symphony are analyzed in depth.

This book looks at the music of Webern from several new perspectives. The most recent Webern scholarship has emphasized Webern's lyricism, and this is a theme running through Webern Studies. Other techniques not generally associated with Webern are also explored: two chapters illustrate and examine his apparent early interest in octatonic and pitch-specific motivic collections. In addition to previously unpublished entries from Webern's diaries, the volume includes all the row tables for his twelve-note music. There is also a new and comprehensive Webern bibliography.

Presents the best research on the life and work of Baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully.

This collection of essays on Debussy's life and music is aimed at both the music lover and a specialist readership. Many of the contributors to the current volume have worked on various pieces in the long-overdue complete edition, and the significance of their research is presented here. Topics include an examination of Debussy's working methods, his visual tastes, his reception in England, aspects of performance practice, as well as studies of his libretti and his relationship to the poet Stephane Mallarme.

International experts present new interdisciplinary perspectives on Ravel's music, demonstrating the vibrant nature of current research on the composer.

The French composer Olivier Messiaen is one of the major figures of twentieth-century music. This collection of scholarly essays offers new cultural, historical, biographical and analytical perspectives on Messiaen's musical oeuvre from 1941 to 1992. The volume includes: a fascinating snapshot of Messiaen's life in occupied France; a study of the Surrealist poetics of Messiaen's song cycle Harawi; a chapter on Messiaen's iconoclastic path to the avant-garde heritage that he bequeathed to his pupils; discussion on Messiaen's place in twentieth-century music; and detailed analysis of specific...

2009 marked the 75th birthday of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, an occasion that presented an opportunity for reflection upon, and appreciation of, a period of compositional achievement that extends from the 1950s to the present. This book forms part of that reflection through a statement of the current condition of research on Maxwell Davies's music. Detailed analytical discussions of individual works, such as the opera Taverner and the First Symphony, coexist with broader issues and perspectives, including Davies's own writings about music, his engagement with sonata form, the compositional...

A collection of authoritative and up-to-date scholarship on one of the twentieth century's most important and enigmatic composers.

An international team of scholars presents historic, philosophic, philological and theoretical perspectives on Carter's extensive musical repertoire.