Although John Cage has been almost universally recognised as the leading figure of the post-war musical avant-garde, this is the first book to present a complete and coherent picture of Cage the composer. Providing a historical account of Cage's musical concerns and changing style, James Pritchett describes just what it was Cage did and why and how he did it. The book is centred around extensive descriptions of the most important works and compositional techniques, including in-depth explanations of the role of chance and indeterminacy in Cage's music. Dr Pritchett also considers the...
Although John Cage has been almost universally recognised as the leading figure of the post-war musical avant-garde, this is the first book to present...
Composers of serial music in post-war Europe wrote almost as much about music as the music itself, but the relationship between theory and practice in the work of key figures like Stockhausen, Eimert, Pousseur and Schnebel has often been misrepresented. Focusing on the controversial journal Die Reihe, this book traces serialism's cultural history, its debt to the artistic theories of Klee and Mondrian, and its relationship to contemporary developments in concrete art, poetry and information aesthetics. It sketches a aesthetic theory of serialism as an experimental music.
Composers of serial music in post-war Europe wrote almost as much about music as the music itself, but the relationship between theory and practice in...
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view of his large and varied output, containing descriptions of every published work, and also a number of withdrawn and unpublished pieces.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.
Harrison Birtwistle (1934- ) is one of the most eminent and acclaimed of contemporary British composers. This is the first book to provide a comprehen...
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 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 foc...
Drawing on key elements from musical thought in inter-war Hungary, this 2007 book provides a unique perspective on the nation's musical heritage both inside and outside Hungary's borders during the Cold War. Although Ligeti became part of the Western avant-garde after he left Hungary in 1956, archival sources illuminate his ongoing contact with Hungarian musicians, and their shifting perspective on his work. Kurtag's music was more obviously involved with Hungarian traditions, was entangled with the Soviet occupation, and was a contributing part of the city's diverse musical culture. However,...
Drawing on key elements from musical thought in inter-war Hungary, this 2007 book provides a unique perspective on the nation's musical heritage both ...
No composer was more responsible for changes in the landscape of twentieth-century music than Arnold Schoenberg (1874 1951) and no other composer's music inspired a commensurate quantity and quality of technical description in the second half of the twentieth century. Yet there is still little understanding of the correlations between Schoenberg's musical thought and larger questions of cultural significance in and since his time: the formalistic descriptions of music theory do not generally engage larger questions in the history of ideas and scholars without understanding of the formidable...
No composer was more responsible for changes in the landscape of twentieth-century music than Arnold Schoenberg (1874 1951) and no other composer's mu...
The first full-length analytical study of Edward Elgar's music, this book argues that Elgar was a modernist composer, and that his music constitutes a pessimistic twentieth-century assessment of the nature of human being. Focusing on Elgar's music rather than his life, Harper-Scott blends the hermeneutic and existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger with music-analytical methods derived from Heinrich Schenker and James Hepokoski. In the course of engaging with debates centred on duotonality in musical structures, sonata deformations, meaning in music, the nature of tragedy, and the quest...
The first full-length analytical study of Edward Elgar's music, this book argues that Elgar was a modernist composer, and that his music constitutes a...
Arnold Schoenberg is widely regarded as one of the most significant and innovative composers of the twentieth century. It is commonly assumed that Schoenberg's music divides into three periods: tonal, atonal, and serial. It is also assumed that Schoenberg's atonal music made a revolutionary break with the past, particularly in terms of harmonic structure. This book challenges both these popular notions. Haimo argues that Schoenberg's 'atonal' music does not constitute a distinct unified period. He demonstrates that much of the music commonly described as 'atonal' did not make a complete break...
Arnold Schoenberg is widely regarded as one of the most significant and innovative composers of the twentieth century. It is commonly assumed that Sch...
For much of his career, the internationally known and still active Dutch composer Louis Andriessen has been understood as an iconoclast who challenged and resisted the musical establishment. This book explores his compositions as a case study for exploring the social and aesthetic implications of new music. Everett chronicles the evolution of Andriessen's music over the course of five decades: the formative years in which he experimented with serialism and collage techniques; his political activism in the late 1960s; 'concept' works from the 1970s that provide musical commentary on...
For much of his career, the internationally known and still active Dutch composer Louis Andriessen has been understood as an iconoclast who challenged...
