Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first scholarly work to document the musical contribution of Joseph Holbrooke, one of Britain’s most controversial composers during the first half of the twentieth century. Paul Watt and Anne-Marie Forbes have gathered a team of scholars who focuses on the musical and literary life of the composer.
Trade ReviewThis book is more of a bibliographic than biographic entry--a collection of Holbrooke articles by various scholars. Future scholars of Holbrooke will be in its debt. . . .These articles add up to an interesting portrait of a composer Dimitri Mitropoulos called 'the English Berlioz'. * American Record Guide *
Joseph Holbrooke: Composer, Critic and Musical Patriot is the first book to provide a detailed examination of the composer. . . .[The book] will be of considerable interest to a surprisingly large group of people. Firstly, there are the musical historians for whom this volume will be invaluable in gaining a greater understanding of British music, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. . . .Students of Celtic and Welsh history and arts will require this book as an essential adjunct to their understanding of the influence of that nation’s history, ‘nationalist ideology’ and folklore on the London-born composer. The more general reader will find the examination of Holbrooke’s life of great interest as well as the examination of some of his key chamber and orchestral works prove helpful in gaining an understanding of one of the most important, but neglected, if somewhat wayward, of British composers. * MusicWeb International *
Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations Acknowledgments Chronology of Holbrooke’s Life and Music Chapter 1: Situating Holbrooke in British Musical History Paul Watt and Anne-Marie Forbes Chapter 2: Joseph Holbrooke: A Life in Outline Rob Barnett Chapter 3: Friendship with Granville Bantock David Craik Chapter 4: Celtic Connections and T.E. Ellis Anne-Marie Forbes Chapter 5: Holbrooke’s Chamber Music and the Specter of Mass Culture Paul Hopwood Chapter 6: Holbrooke and Chamber Opera: Pierrot and Pierette and The Enchanted Garden Paul Rodmell Chapter 7: Holbrooke and Poe Revisited: Refiguring The Raven as the Musical Uncanny Michael Allis Chapter 8: A “Nationalist in Art”: Holbrooke’s Contemporary British Composers (1925) Paul Watt Appendix 1: Catalog of Works Appendix 2: Music Inspired by Welsh Subjects Appendix 3: Discography References Index List of Contributors
