This book offers the most detailed account so far of the early works of these four minimalist composers, putting extensive discussion of the music into a biographical perspective. The true musical minimalism of the 1960s and early 1970s is placed in the wider context of their music as a whole, and considered within the cultural conditions of the period, which saw not only the rise of minimalism in the fine arts but also crucial changes in the theory and practice of musical composition in the Western cultivated tradition.

The music of Igor Stravinsky has had a profound impact on the development of twentieth-century music. In this book, Jonathan Cross explores the technical and aesthetic legacy of Stravinsky in relation to a broad range of composers, from Varese to Andriessen, from Messiaen to Birtwistle. He also proposes a reexamination of Stravinsky's own neoclassical music and Theodor Adorno's notorious critique of Stravinsky. This book is part history, part analysis, part aesthetics, and will be of value to anyone who takes an interest in the music of our time.

This book is the first complete study in English of the work of the best-known Japanese composer of the twentieth century. It is also the first book in this language to offer an in-depth analysis of his music. T DEGREESD-oru Takemitsu's works are increasingly popular with Western audiences and Peter Burt attempts for the first time to shed light on the hitherto rather secretive world of his working methods, as well as place him in context as heir to the rich tradition of Japanese composition in the twentieth c

Harrison Birtwistle (1934- ) is one of the most eminent and acclaimed of contemporary British composers. This is the first book to provide a comprehensive view of his large and varied output, containing descriptions of every published work, and also a number of withdrawn and unpublished pieces. The book is structured around a number of broad themes--theater, song, time and texture--themes of significance to Birtwistle, but also to much other music. This approach avoids in-depth technical analysis, and Dr. Adlington focuses instead on the music's wider cultural significance.

Conlon Nancarrow has written the most rhythmically complex music the world has ever known, so complex that it can only be realized on a mechanical player piano. Yet Nancarrow's whirlwinds of notes, sometimes as many as eighty per second, are jazzy and infectiously joyous. The music he composed in almost complete isolation from 1940 on has only recently achieved international fame, and this is the first book to cover in detail Nancarrow's life and compositional achievements. The book includes analysis of sixty-five works and previously unpublished biographical information.

This multi-faceted study looks in detail at the music and thought of Michael Tippett. David Clarke shows how Tippett has roots in the nineteenth century and also reveals his connections with larger developments in Western cultural thinking. The book is made distinctive by its strong interdisciplinary element. It relates observations on the music to ideas in literature, philosophy and literary theory and addresses issues concerned with modernity and postmodernity. Tippett's homosexuality is also considered as a factor in his makeup as a composer.

Examines Britten's fusion of verbal and musical sound in opera and song.

This study analyzes the radicalization of art music in early post-war France in its broader socio-cultural and political context, pursuing two lines of inquiry. The first details the attitudes towards musical conservatism and innovation adopted by cultural strategists representing Western and Soviet ideological interests at the onset of the Cold War. The second, which draws upon the commentaries of Adorno and Sartre, recognizes that the Cold War generated a heightened political awareness among French musicians precisely when the social relevance of avant-garde music had become the subject of...

This book examines the BBC's campaign to raise the cultural awareness of British mass audiences in the early days of radio. As a specific case, it focuses on policies and plans behind transmissions of contemporary music between 1922, when the BBC was founded, and spring 1936. This reception study traces and analyzes the BBC's attempts to manipulate critical and public responses to this repertory.

This important new study reassesses the position of Anton Webern in twentieth-century music. The twelve-note method of composition adopted by Anton Webern had profound consequences for composers of the next generation such as Stockhausen and Boulez, who saw Webern's music as revolutionary. In her detailed analyses, however, Professor Bailey demonstrates a fundamentally traditional aspect to Webern's creativity, when describing his own music. Professor Bailey analyses all Webern's twelve-note works (from Op. 17 to Op. 31) i.e. the instrumental and vocal music written between 1924 and 1943....