Search results for ""kahn averill""

'The publication of this study of the music of Bela Bartok is an important event. Many descriptive analyses of particular works of his have appeared, but here for the first time is an authoritative and convincing exposition of the theoretical principles which the composer worked out for himself but refrained, as far as is known, from expounding it to anyone during his lifetime. Erno Lendvai has disclosed the fact that Bela Bartok, in his early thirties, evolved for himself a method of integrating all the elements of music; the scales, the chordal structure with the melodic motifs appropriate to them, together with the proportions of length as between movements in a whole work, main divisions within a movement such as exposition, development and recapitulation and even balancing phrases within sections of movements, according to one single basic principle.' Alan Bush

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"Can you read music too?" This question, addressed by the singer Lili Kraus in 1936 to the 15 year-old Robert Brouwer, then a regular autograph collector haunting the artist's entrance of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, was the start of his short but memorable years as a page-turner to many of the great musicians who performed there before 1940. The author's passion for music, starting with his time at the Concertgebouw and continuing throughout his life in many parts of the world, shines vividly in the pages of this book. Here, enlivened with photographs and with some of the gems from the author's youthful collection of autographs, we meet many of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. But there is more than that. From his discussion of Willem Mengelberg, the conductor who made the Concertgebouw Orchestra great but ended his life in eclipse, to his account of Nigel Kennedy taking time off to jam in a "hole-in-the-wall" night club in Kowloon, it is the authors' gift to relate, on a personal level to the musicians he met, that serves to make these recollections of what they did and said, and of the opinions they expressed, both fascinating and endearing.

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In 1935 the French baritone Pierre Bernac formed a duo with the composer Francis Poulenc that became a legend throughout the world. Unprecedented in the history of music, it was the first duo in which the singer and pianist were perceived as equals. It lasted for 25 years and was a determining influence on Poulenc's vocal output: more than two-thirds of his songs were written for Bernac to sing. Bernac's general book on the French repertoire, "The Interpretation of French Song", has long been the standard and indispensable work on its subject. In "Francis Poulenc - the Man and His Songs", first published in 1977, he gives us the fruit of his long association with Poulenc, paying moving tribute to the composer both as man and musician, and providing detailed analyses of every piano-accompanied song that Poulenc wrote. Each of the 137 poems is annotated for pronunciation, with a line-for-line translation into English by Winifred Radford, who also translated the text of the book. The discussion of each song is preceded by a brief biographical note on the poet and a description of Poulenc's own attitude towards both poet and poem.Bernac aimed in this book, to pass on his personal understanding of the songs of Francis Poulenc, as well as a little of their mutual experience in interpreting and performing them. He has thereby left a unique record whose importance cannot be overestimated.

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Moscow and its Conservatoire was long, perhaps still is, the heart of Russian pianism. Its graduates range through Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Medtner, Richter, Gilels, Ashkenazy, Pletnev and beyond. Professor Christopher Barnes, a professor of Slavic languages at the University of Toronto, has translated hitherto unavailable essays, critiques and lectures from the leading teaching lights at the Moscow Conservatoire. This is a feast of valuable piano pedagogy.

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Relates Marguerite Long's working and personal association with Gabriel Faure. This book uses musical examples to discuss the interpretation of many of Faure's compositions.

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Features the life and work of Dinu Lipatti. This book deals with Lipatti as pianist, composer and teacher. It includes many quotations from letters written by him, many musical examples, a list of works and two cadenzas for the Mozart Piano Concerto in C (K467). This publication is a valuable foundation from which to understand the complete devotion and musicianship of one of the most gifted pianists/composers the world has ever heard. Much of this book is devoted to understanding Dinu Lipatti's music, his teaching, composing and those important in his musical development.

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This lively and highly informative contribution to the Menuhin Music Guides covers all aspects of percussion - the instruments, the percussion section within the orchestra and the use of percussion in chamber music and as a solo instrument. James Holland is not afraid to attack composers, conductors and music publishers as he puts the percussionist's point of view. Among his comments on how to interpret a percussion score and lay out and play a vast array of complex instruments are detailed analyses of Walton's 'Façade' and works by Gerhard and Stockhausen.

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The talent and experience of the legendary virtuoso, Léon Goossens, with that of the contemporary composer, conductor and oboist, Edwin Roxburgh combine to produce this comprehensive handbook for the oboe. The history of the instrument is followed by illuminating chapters on baroque, classical, romantic and twentieth century music. The mark of Goossens’ long experience as an international soloist is woven into every page, whether in his observations about great soloists of the past or in pertinent views on modern recording methods. Edwin Roxburgh contributes a detailed explanation of extemporization and ornamentation in eighteenth-century music as well as an optimistic review of new developments in oboe playing and modern music. For the student, there is a whole section on reed making and performing techniques together with detailed advice for teachers. Extensive appendices cover manufacturers, repertoire, fingering charts, bibliography and discography.

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In what is primarily an instructional book, Jack Brymer places the instrument in the broad context of its role in the orchestra and in chamber music, expressing stimulating and controversial views. Perhaps his most original and valuable contribution is to be found in the long section on acoustics, the down-to-earth section on the practical clarinettist, and the illuminating passages on artistic approach. Brymer writes for the teacher of the clarinet, as well as for beginners and advanced players, and the unique appendix on the clarinet repertoire is particularly comprehensive. Modern science has revealed facets of the clarinet’s harmonic structure previously only dimly perceived, and the author points the way to a future full of promise.

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`Valentin Berlinsky (1925-2008) was a founding member of the Borodin Quartet and its cellist and mainstay for more than six decades. A proud Russian but also a man of compromise, his was a life lived for and through the Borodin Quartet. This book tells his story in his own words, lovingly compiled and edited by his grand-daughter, Maria Matalaev, from his diaries, correspondence and interviews, and his accounts of his close friendships with the likes of Shostakovich and Richter, Rostropovich and Oistrakh. Supplemented by tributes from family and friends, as well as an impressive annexure giving every performance, broadcast and recording made by the Borodin Quartet, this book constitutes one of the most revealing chronicles of Soviet and post-Soviet Russian musical life. In 2005, at the celebrations for both his 80th birthday and the 60th anniversary of the Borodin Quartet, Valentin Berlinsky sat down at a table with his students and said: `My dears, please, keep going: never leave Russia!'

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The works of Edgard Varèse (1883-1965) represent the most radical expression of 20th-century Modernism in music. Not only did he create such orchestral showpieces as "Ameriques" and "Arcana" and such mainstays of the instrumental repertoire as "Octandre" and "Density 21:5"; he also pioneered works for percussion ensemble and electronic music, both on tape and using electronic instruments. Yet books about Varèse are few. Either they are biographical studies by non-musicians, or severely analytical treatises beyond the reach of the majority of music lovers who are likely to hear his works in concert. This book takes a different approach. Within a chronological scheme, its core is a series of descriptive analyses; accessible to any literate music-lover, of all Varese's available works. Malcolm MacDonald relates them to the ideas, both aesthetic and scientific, which underlay Varèse's boldly original view of sound and musical structure.He shows how Varèse's conception of a music that "explodes into space", of "intelligent sounds moving in space" arose from 20th-century man's expanding consciousness of his place in the universe, but also from the esoteric philosophies of late 19th-century Paris, inspired by Renaissance alchemists such as Paracelsus. Much of Varèse's output is destroyed, but it is possible to infer much about his lost early works, his vast stage of composition about communication with the star Sirius, and the unachieved choral symphony "Espace", designed to be performed simultaneously in the various capitals of the world. This is also the first book to discuss the previously unpublished Varèse scores released for performance in 1998 by Varèse executor, Chou Wen Chung. An extensive bibliography is included.

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All the sonatas, fantasies, rondi, as well as the most important variation sets and assorted pieces are included. Michael Davidson guides us through each composition addressing specific aspects and problems, offering practical advice and interesting alternatives as well as historical background and formal analysis when relevant to interpretation.

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Yehudi Menuhin shares with the reader his unique store of understanding about the violin, about how to exercise and practise, about the techniques of performance. His reflections on the nature and scope of his instrument are profoundly illuminating and his theories on interpretation particularly valuable. A section on the violinist as teacher/student contains a fascinating transcript of a lesson with Yehudi Menuhin, who also writes separately about the violinist as orchestral player, leader, chamber music player, recitalist and soloist. William Primrose writes the distinguished monograph on the viola and describes the instrument as ‘a violin with a college education’. He was an acknowledged technical master of the viola who, along with Lionel Tertis, was one of the finest exponents of this beautiful instrument of the 20th century. Denis Stevens, the British musicologist and specialist in early music, provides and interesting chapter on the history of the violin and looks in detail at the monumental challenge that is Bach’s Six Solos for Violin without Bass Accompaniment better known as the Sonatas and Partitas for Violin.

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This is the first book which deals with the school of American repetitive music, also know as minimal music. The early work of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass is discussed in the context of traditional Western music. Minimal music thus emerges as the latest stage in a development leading from Schoenberg, Webern, Stockhausen and Cage. In considering the philosophical thinking of Deleuze and Lyotard, the representatives of the so-called French ' libidinal philosophy', and of Adorno, the author examines the degree to which the 'ecstatic dimension' is present in this music or is even consciously introduced to it.

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