Product Description
In the second edition of the definitive account of Igor Stravinsky's life and work, arranged in two separate sections, Eric Walter White revised the whole book, completing the biographical section by taking it up to Stravinsky's death in 1971. To the list of works, the author added some early pieces that have recently come to light, as well as the late compositions, including the Requiem Canticles and The Owl and the Pussycat. Four more of Stravinsky's own writings appear in the Appendices, and there are several important additions to the bibliography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fine one volume reference to Stravinsky's life and his compositions
I really leaned on this book when I took a course on Stravinsky in my studies at the University of Michigan School of Music.There are later books that contain deeper analyses and penetrating discussions of aspects of Stravinsky, his composing process, and his works, but this remains a very fine single volume discussion of Stravinsky's life (a brief overview) and a really useful introduction to each of Stravinsky's works.Not only did I turn to it countless times during that course, I have used it many times over the years to find out this or that about certain works and to fine my way to other sources.

The book is organized as many useful music biographies are: a discussion of his life and then a discussion of the musical works.There are many really nice illustrations, a solid bibliography (but a bit dated by now), and a most useful index.

If you are interested in Stravinsky, and you should be, this is a great resource to have on your shelf and refer to as you investigate his works and life. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

A very intertaining and solid introduction
This is a very entertaining collection of interviews. Duckworth takes his time to explore the issues sufficiently deeply with his interlocutors. Hence, there is substance to the book: it certainly is more than a loose collection of freewheeling conversations. And I am grateful for the fact that Bill Duckworth expanded his survey beyond the obvious collection of Minimalists and Cage. I knew nothing about Pauline Oliveros, Glen Branca or La Monte Young and came away refreshed from reading all their stories. I was generally satisfied by the way Duckworth steers the interviews. The tone is relaxed, sometimes earnest, sometimes tongue-in-cheeck. He is at his very best in the long, sometimes rambling conversations with La Monte Young and John Zorn. But in other cases - such as with the more rigorous and perhaps intellectually more intimidating personality of Steve Reich - Duckworth rigidly sticks to his agenda and fails to capture a number of potentially interesting tangents. The interview with John Cage is outright funny in the way Duckworth fails to catch on with what Cage really tries to get across. He keeps asking the wrong questions whilst Cage, with dwindling patience, is making broad excursions in conceptual hyperspace. But if Duckworth fails to capture a number of interesting opportunities to dig deeper in some of the interviews, this remains a very valuable collection, at least for those new to the whole field of American experimental music.

great fascinating interviews on American creativity
Willian Duckworth is marvelous at asking questions,he is so natural at it that he makes you feel you have known his guests all your life. He allows everyone to feel at home, at ease,like catching more flies with sugar quip.Like asking John Cage for instance, "I don't have a very goodunderstanding of what your early musical training was like,". or to LaMonte Young, asking if he is the "father of minimalism", I guessit doesn't matter now, since most of what is discussed has played itselfout. Here Duckworth interviews creators of primary creative genres ofAmericana leaning toward the achievements of all the various,nefarious"isms", experimentalism, minimalism, well just intonation doesn'tfit, and the ubiquitously opaque post-modernity. And progressing from whoare considered the Mammas and Pappas to the younger generation.The genre ofInterviews seem to be occurring with greater frequency,speaking of one ofthe features of post-modernity. It is the most immediate way of knowingsomeone's art, aesthetic, how they feel about the world,about politics, orhow they don't feel. Obsessions are explored in these interviews,as withJohn Zorn's early buying jags of recordings,jazz etc.,and formative yearsas with La Monte Young and his obsessions with sound, listening totelephone generators,or machines, the inherent drone in these industrialobjects,Also professional associations, and disassociations with the NewYork scene,Fluxus which includes,just about everyone here interviewed isprobed, with nice discussions of the early years of performance art in NewYork City.Education away from academia was an important component ofAmerican music,sorry to say, with those of the post war-generation turningto the east, and World Music, as Steve Reich, Phil Glass,Lou Harrison,Pauline Oliveros and La Monte Young. Young in particular reflects on hiseducation with Pandit Pran Nath on intonation and improvisation andlearning it with Marian Zazeela.Professional associations, how to surviveby being a performance artist, Duckworth pursues and explores with MeridithMonk and Laurie Anderson, finding gigs in New York City or Europe again waseveryone's passion.How do you work? is also a wonderful question, Monkreflects that she has to work all the time to feel attached, whereas sheknows composers who don't work for months and claim to feel they don't loseanything. How creators get into ,what they get into, as Ben Johnstonreflects on his early education with instrument iconoclast Harry Partch,how Partch taught Johnston to sing fractional tones, an eleventh/sixteenth,and how Partch would devote mornings to music, and afternoons to physicalwork, building sheds,or home extensions,or gathering wood. Also Johnstonspeaks about his wonderful string quartets, the Seventh in particular whichis based on an 100-tone scale, and how we come to understand it via therelationships it represents rather than hearing 100 isolated tones. WithLou Harrison we have almost a history of American music, in that his lifetraversed through the primary achievements, the interests in World Music,Tunings, percussion music, and extended techniques,living on both coasts.But Harrison claims he was always a melodic composer, he had to singwhatever he wrote first, to attach himself to the world of sound, no matterhow complex his music became.Some interviews are boring however as the theone with Phillip Glass where he simply recounts his life, and hisinterests, there was not a spirit of adventure, of discovery.Whereas MiltonBabbitt has wonderful reflections on his early studies in music with RogerSessions, and how Babbitt felt he needed to start over. The interview withChristian Wolff was over before it got interesting,Wolff primarilydiscussed his early music, the pieces associated with the CageSchool(Cage,Feldman,Brown,Wolff)(nice photo of them)instead of traversingthe set of problematics of dealing with political imagery. That questioncame as the very last one."Are you still writing politicalmusic?".Duckworth admirably gives nice introductions to eachcomposer, and makes you feel the center of where creativity occurs, whatexcites an artist,and where challenge and repose occurs within music.Onegood question here always was"When did you first hear of JohnCage", or what was the first piece of "so and so" you heard.This makes for a marvelous discussion on what were the initial indeliablemoments on one's creative life. Not everyone is gifted at interviews it isa conditioned and practiced art. This work is a great model toward thatgenre. ... Read more

Product Description
The life, career, loves and political enthusiasms of Mozart together with his music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Don't believe everything you read:)
Just scanning the synopsis of this book is quite distressful.I am hoping that the book does not say something as completely wrong as "his sudden deafness at age 26."That is completely false.I am not sure about this book, but I would highly recommend Maynard Solomon's "Beethoven"It is a careful and thoughtful analysis of the man and the musician.

excellent
This is a great book about a great man, Ludwig van Beethoven.Each page has many fine photographs; most in color. It is a very well-written book which will not disappoint. In addition, the quality and feel of the paperis tops.It is nice to have color portraits of people such asBeethoven's grandfather and other members of his family, as well as AntonioSalieri, Haydn, Kreutzer, Clementi, and many of his benefactors and otherpersonal friends, not to mention street scenes, scenes of Beethoven playingthe piano as a mesmerized audience looks on, scenes of Fidelio, etc.Noone who buys this book can be bored by it or have buyer's remorse.

Thereader is transported back to the the late 18th and early 19th century. Onething I liked was finding out what Beethoven was doing at the precise timehe wrote a certain work. In the book, Ferdinand Ries (a friend andcomposer) points out that Beethoven had been humming out loud during a walkin the woods.When he returned, he put to paper the 3rd movement of thefamous Appassionata sonata.

This book gets an A plus. ... Read more

Product Description
A celebration of the lives and works of the most noted composers of classical music includes more than 170 profiles, their artistic influences, and critical appreciation of their pieces, and features 320 paintings and photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Illustrated classical history lesson.
This is a great book and it is too bad that it is out of print.I throughly enjoy reading about a composer and then listening to their music, as it brings so much more meaning to the work of art.Also, it does a great job of illustrating the composer and era of their life . ... Read more

Product Description
Show Tunes fully chronicles the shows, songs, and careers of the major composers of the American musical theatre, from Jerome Kern's earliest interpolations to the latest hits on Broadway.Legendary composers like Gershwin, Rodgers, Porter, Berlin, Bernstein, and Sondheim have been joined by more recent songwriters like Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Flaherty, Michael John LaChiusa, and Adam Guettel.This majestic reference book covers their work, their innovations, their successes, and their failures.Show Tunes is simply the most comprehensive volume of its kind ever produced, and this newly revised and updated edition discusses almost 1,000 shows and 9,000 show tunes.The book has been called "a concise skeleton key to the Broadway musical" (Variety) and "a ground-breaking reference work with a difference" (Show Music)-or, as the Washington Post observed, "It makes you sing and dance all over your memory."
The eagerly anticipated Fourth Edition, updated through May, 2009, features the entire theatrical output of forty of Broadway's leading composers, in addition to a wide selection of work by other songwriters.The listings include essential production data and statistics, the most extensive information available on published and recorded songs, and lively commentary on the shows, songs, and diverse careers.Based on meticulous research, the book also uncovers dozens of lost musicals-including shows that either closed out of town or were never headed for Broadway-and catalogs hundreds of previously unknown songs, including a number of musical gems that have been misplaced, cut, or forgotten.Informative, insightful, and provocative, Show Tunes is an essential guide for anyone interested in the American musical. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

suskin does it again!
for fans of the broadway musical, steven suskin's books are indispensable.this time around he manages to explore the full bodies of work of some 36 broadway composers, as well as the work of various "lesser" lights.if you are any kind of fan beyond the most basic, there will be few reference books on the subject you will turn to more often.mine is beside my cd player, as i constantly am cross-referencing.if i can have a complaint, its that the book is too short -- but im sure thats the fault of suskin's publisher, who cant be making a fortune on this book as is.

btw, highly recommended: suskin's bi-weekly review of new recording....

for fans of show music, this is a MUST HAVE.

A most valuable reference tool
Anyone interested in Broadway lore must own at least three books, all by Steven Suskin. The firstis which covers 1943-1964 and the sequel, which deals with 1965-81. These are compilationsof what the major New York music critics had to say about the openings ofevery important show on or just Off-Broadway plus the author's commentsabout each. These books are very readable and an invaluable document ofAmerican musical history. Now Mr. Suskin has given us an equally valuablereference tool, but this is more to be used than to be read forenjoyment.

The third edition of his (OxfordUniversity Press, 2000) is an encyclopedia of facts about the composers ofthe shows dealt with in the other volumes. The organization is like this.After several introductory pages, we are given facts about the composers ofthe early years from Jerome Kern to Harold Rome, new composers of the 40sand 50s, and those of the 60s and beyond. Having dealt with what Suskinconsiders (mostly rightly) to be the major composers, he then devotes thefourth part of the volume to "Notable scores by other composers":"Irene," "Shuffle Along," "Hair," and so onup to "Parade."

Then comes a feature or two, which tostudents of the American musical like myself, are almost worth the price ofthe book alone. There is a year by year listing of all the major Broadwayproductions from 1904-1998, a list of all people who collaborated on theshows (George Abbott, Guy Bolton, etc.), an index of song titles, andfinally an index of show titles. Talk about user friendly!

Turningback to the main section and taking Gershwin as an example, Suskin gives usin chronological order facts about each of the shows from 1916 to a 1951production that used Gershwin's music. For each, he lists all the publishedsongs, indicates which were dropped by opening night, and gives somegeneral comments about the show itself. Then he ends with an evaluation ofGershwin's Broadway output in general.

Concise, accurate (as far asI can see), beautifully organized. A real Grabbit. ... Read more

Product Description
A dictionary containing 3500 biographical entries, each representing a composer whose work has been used within the worship of the church in Britain and Ireland. ... Read more

Product Description
Benjamin Britten (1913-76) changed the course of English music with highly original works such as his opera Peter Grimes. While his music is performed more widely than those of any other English composer, his international success did not prevent him from continuing to draw inspiration from his native land. In this engaging biography, the author creates a portrait of a great artist, exploring his wide-ranging compositions in detail and discussing the many contradictions that pervaded Britten's fascinating life and career.


Benjamin Britten is part of Phaidon's successful 20th Century Composers series, which presents authoritative and engaging biographies of the great creative musicians of our time, augmented by striking visual material and essential reference information. This edition of the book features a whimsical new cover by Jean-Jacques Sempé, the world-renowned illustrator and cartoonist.Amazon.com Review
He wrote the first successful English opera since Purcell,along with a collection of songs, choral compositions, and balletsthat have assured him an important place in 20th-centurymusic. Michael Oliver, in one of Phaidon's series, 20th-CenturyComposers, offers a compact, useful introduction to British composerBenjamin Britten and his work, from folksong settings to church musicand the great opera Peter Grimes. Frank about Britten'shomosexuality and his long-time relationship with the tenor PeterPears, the book is never prurient and seldom gossipy. Like all thePhaidon books, this one is relatively brief, well written, wellillustrated, and not too technical. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Phaidon's, "Benjamin Britten"very informative, enjoyable
Michael Oliver's "Benjamin Britten" is both informative and insightful.As one in a series of 20th Century Composers, I found this edition most interesting.I have read six other editions from the series, and Michael Oliver's is the best written thus far.

There are several well written biographies of Britten on the market.All that I have read thus far spend entirely too much time discussing the personal life of the composer, rather than focusing on his ground- breaking operas, or orchestral works.Oliver chooses to focus more on the music that isBritten, rather than getting wrapped up in his personal life.True, elements of Britten's childhood and adult struggles with the morality of the day may have caused him to compose the haunting tunes and melodies, but they are not the basis for understanding his music.

Oliver highlights the reason Britten is one of the 20th century's greatest composers- pure genious. ... Read more

Product Description
Despite international fame and success, conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-90) was a man constantly struggling with inner conflicts and public criticism. However, he is still considered one of the most important musical figures of the second half of the 20th century and a major influence on musical life in Europe and America. This book chronicles his extraordinary rise to fame.Amazon.com Review
Leonard Bernstein, the latest in Phaidon Books's 20thCentury Composers series, continues this workmanlike, readablecollection of modern biographies, designed to fit all the essentialsinto fewer than 250 pages each. Author Paul Myers, a former recordproducer for Decca, Columbia, and Naxos, has composed a fond butclear-eyed look at this prodigal talent with the prodigallifestyle. His excesses as well as his triumphs are examined, and hishomosexuality is candidly discussed, but the book never descends tothe tabloid-like depths of some other biographies of the composer ofWest Side Story, Candide, Trouble in Tahiti, andother works, both serious and less than serious. Myers himself seemsto belong to the camp that holds that Bernstein deserved recognitionprimarily as a composer of important works, as opposed to mereentertainments. He is, moreover, perhaps too generous in hisexamination of such things as Mass, which was performed at theopening of the Kennedy Center, and is very much a souvenir of its time(the early 1970s) and place (the world of fashionable liberalism), andhard to listen to today as a result. But he discusses both Bernstein'striumphs as a conductor and composer and his failures in work and lifefairly. This is a good, readable biography, a worthwhile introductionto Bernstein's life, and a good starting place for those who want moredetails. --Sarah Bryan Miller ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very Good Biography of Bernstein
This well-written bigraphy of Leonard Bernstein provides details about his life that I never knew as well as information about the compositions he wrote.If you like his work as a conductor, pianist and composer, you will enjoy this book.

"Leonard Bernstein" - not just a West Side Story
This brief biography of the life of Leonard Bernstein captivated me.I amvery familiar with the music of Bernstein, but never got to know him theway my parent's generation did.

Bernstein was ever in the forefront ofmusic both popular, and classical. His "Young People's Concerts"made him, and a great deal of classical music, a houshold name.I was tooyoung to enjoy these, however they are now being re-broadcast on cabletelevision for a whole new generation to enjoy.

Although I was captivatedby the music of Bernstein long before I ever read this chronology, Iunderstand the music of Bernstein much better now.It is interesting tolook at this life from several perspectives- Bernstein as conductor,Bernstein as composer, Bernstein as father, Bernstein as husband.Mostinteresting is the fact that Bernstein spent his whole life in search ofcreating the "flagship" compostion that would secure his place inthe books.

Meyers has done a fine job at relaying the"self-illustrated" life of Bernstein.It is an honest book, too,detailing Bernstein's affairs, and tantrums.

Meyers shows us an amazingcomposer, a respected conductor, and a very colorful reflection of 20thcentury America via the life of Leonard Bernstein. ... Read more

Product Description
Ahmed Adnan Saygun is a hallmark in Turkish music as a pioneer in polyphonic composition, an ethnomusicologist and an instructor. For forty years he produced music of all kinds in a steady flow. His works consists of five symphonies; four operas; the famous Yunus Emre Oratorio; concertos, various orchestral, chamber music and vocal music. Saygun is a Hallmark in Turkish Music The proclamation of the Republic in 1923 by Ataturk heralded a new era: under his leadership, Turkey underwent such reforms that transformed her from an oriental empire to a western nation. In the early years, a group of talented young musicians were sent to European cultural centers for training. As they returned, they became the founders of modern Turkish art music. Ahmed Adnan Saygun was one of them. Their torch illuminated the way for successive generations; such was their influence that even today's composers benefit from their pioneering efforts. The result is modern Turkish music, which is a fusion of classical art music, folk songs and the norms of western art music. The norms of modern Turkish art music were established by these pioneer composers such as Ahmed Adnan Saygun.Ahmed Adnan Saygun is a hallmark in Turkish music as a pioneer in polyphonic composition, an ethnomusicologist and an instructor. For forty years he produced music of all kinds in a steady flow. His works consist of five symphonies; four operas; the famous Yunus Emre Oratorio; concertos: (two for piano, violin, viola and cello), various orchestral, chamber music and vocal music. He also published some books of his musicological researches. Saygun began his musical training in Izmir at the age of thirteen, learning harmony and counterpoint on his own. Winning a state competition in 1928, he went to Paris to study with Madame Eugene Borrel, Vincent d'Indy, Monsieur Borrel, Souberbielle and Amadee Gatoue. Back in Turkey, he held various teaching posts in the musical institutions of Ankara and Istanbul. In 1936, Bela Bartok the famous Hungarian composer -and an expert on folk music-, came to Turkey to investigate Anatolian folk songs. Saygun joined his tours as a travelling companion. The result of their collaboration was a large collection of folk songs, which they transcribed into conventional notation system.As both composers were inspired by the nationalistic movements in their respective countries, both were interested in the origins of folk music. Saygun got a chance to travel widely throughout Turkey, learning a great deal about the local rhythmic and melodic structure of different districts. The first incident that spread his fame beyond Turkey was the performance in Paris of his Yunus Emre Oratorio in 1947 by the Lamoureaux Orchestra. In the same year he was elected to the International Folk Music Council as an executive member. Later on, he received wide international acclaim and was presented with medals and prizes from Germany, Hungary, France, Italy and England. Saygun's studies on pre-modal and modal music have illuminated polyphonic compositions in Turkey. His compositions are all in a modal structure but sometimes with a pentatonic character. His one-act operas of 1934 are the first models for the opera genre in Turkey. His later works for the stage reflect the tribulations of the mystic who is searching for truth. Selim Giray made a meticulous survey of the violin works of Saygun.This work is a valuable musicological contribution to the history of modern Turkish music as well as to the modern voice of the 20th century. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
This is the indispensable consumer's guide to the music of Nick Drake. It gives a thorough analysis of every officially released album by Drake, from the early albums that were largely overlooked at the time of their release in the late Sixties and early Seventies to more recent posthumous collections. It includes track by track analysis, information on when and where the music was recorded, a special index of compilation, archive and posthumous releases, a track index for easy reference. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nick Drake - guide to the music of - by Peter Hogan
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2LGR9L2BXBLMS Nick Drake: The Complete Guide to His Music. Peter Hogan (Complete Guide to the Music of...) ... Read more

Product Description
Itzhak Perlman, Kennedy, Midori, and Sarah Chang were among Dorothy Delay's students during her five decades as a violin teacher at Juilliard. For more than ten years, the author was granted access to DeLay's classes and lessons at Juilliard and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and this book reveals DeLay's deep intuition of each student's needs. An exploration of the mysteries of teaching and learning, it includes a feast of anecdotes about an extraordinary character.Amazon.com Review
Some people are born teachers, some become great through experience, and some become famous through their students. The renowned violin teacher Dorothy DeLay fits all three categories. She discovered her innate talent and love for teaching early in life, inspired by the great pedagogue Ivan Galamian, but her long association with him, first as his student, then as his assistant at the Juilliard School, ended in an acrimonious parting of ways. She then developed her own class of students at Juilliard and other prestigious conservatories, and soon acquired a worldwide reputation as unrivalled producer of prodigies and virtuosos. One of her first star pupils was Itzhak Perlman; it might be said that they made each other famous. The music world has long speculated about what sets DeLay and her teaching apart, and in this book, 10 years in the making, Barbara Sand tries to find some answers. She observed DeLay in action and interaction with her pupils at Juilliard, the Aspen summer school, and at home, and talked extensively with DeLay and her husband of almost 60 years, Edward Newhouse. Sand interviewed her assistants, her students past and present, and the conductors and managers who engage them. What emerges is a portrait of a woman whose inexhaustible energy, determination, inquiring intellect, and single-minded commitment to her work and her students give her a larger-than-life quality. This is a personal profile, not a description of a teaching method. Indeed, DeLay claims she has none, though it seems clear that she is guided by Galamian's technical principles. However, she rejects his well-known authoritarianism, responding to her pupils' individual needs and tempering stringent demands with generous encouragement and support. What makes her approach unique is her deep involvement in her students' lives, from choosing their wardrobes to remaining available to them as adviser and confidante long after they leave her studio. Even more remarkable is her ability to launch them into the concert world. Their gratitude and devotion are unstintingly expressed by Sand's carefully selected interviewees, as is her own wholehearted admiration. The book is a hymn of praise.

However, like all successful people, DeLay has her share of detractors. Sand dispatches them in a single chapter, mostly devoted to refuting criticism, some of which is undoubtedly inspired by envy. It is said that her students win major prizes and make successful careers because she attracts the best talents from all over the world, and because she has attained an unprecedented position of power and influence in the music profession's slippery back corridors. She takes only highly accomplished, motivated students who are preparing for solo careers and practice all day. Even the youngest children arrive playing virtuoso concertos, which indicates heavy family pressure and means that she can hand out the carrots while the parents wield the stick. Nevertheless, the chapter on prodigies makes the tortuous process of training and "handling" them sound utterly benign and healthy.

Sand discusses DeLay's well-known habit of keeping students waiting for hours and leaving much of the teaching to her assistants (whom she gets on the Juilliard faculty), explaining that she accepts too many students and spends too much time promoting them. But she mentions legitimate pedagogical issues only by implication. Unlike teachers who also perform, DeLay never plays for her students (beyond some technical demonstration) to avoid exposing them to a single influence; instead, she advises them to listen to different interpretations on many recordings. But doesn't this also produce imitation, and perhaps confusion as well? Entirely performance-oriented, DeLay focuses on what is effective onstage and encourages a large-scaled, extroverted playing style. She speaks emphatically about teaching her students to think for themselves, but never mentions fostering their emotional response to the music or helping them in the slow, inward process of discovering their own feelings. Yet isn't this the key to becoming a communicative artist?

Sand is an empathetic, adept interviewer, winning her subjects' confidence and eliciting frank, informative responses (though some could have used editing). Galamian, perhaps to contrast his teaching style with DeLay's, generally comes off rather badly; DeLay herself speaks about their rupture candidly but without rancor. The book contains much absorbing information, punctuated with many detailed descriptions of people's looks and attire. There are sweeping statements about players and teachers. Why, for example, are such great artist-teachers as Flesch, Busch, Enescu, Rostal, and Bron not mentioned among the 20th-century "teaching geniuses"? Sand's style is a pleasure to read, engaging, lively, humorous, and to the point, despite some moments of confusion and contradiction. Her perceptive insights and warm feeling for her subject bring us closer to understanding what makes Dorothy DeLay such a fascinating, controversial personality. --Edith Eisler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

A Delightful Reading!
I'm not a musician, and I don't know anything about the world of classical music. I'm just a poor dad and a chauffeur to my young violinist boy. My "world of classical music" consists of driving my boy to his weekly lessons, music stores, youth symphony rehearsals, class recitals, and competitions. That's all.

Perhaps because of my glaring lack of background in music and limited experience in dealing with my boy's musical needs and development, I found Barbara Lourie Sand's book a tremendously enjoyable read. Perhaps, too, it's my boy's private teacher, a graduate of Juilliard some decades ago, who had a rather surprisingly strong revulsion to my innocent inquiry regarding the subject of this controversial teacher that peaked my interest in picking this book up and devouring every word printed in it. Or, it was my timely reading of the account of the then 6 year-old Sarah Chang and DeLay at the Aspen Music School, as I'm taking my boy to see Chang perform there next month in one of the Aspen Music Festival programs...

Or perhaps it was the cornucopia of juicy inside stories that made my eyes glued to each and every page of the book: how Galamian broke off so abruptly with DeLay during a single phone call; the Juilliard Pre-College's "Saturday's children" and their parents' variedly interesting behavior and mentality (I sure could relate to this particular chapter!); DeLay teaching Itzhak Perlman to drive a car herself when he was a young man under her tutelage; the power network of conductors, managers, recording companies, and oh my... and so much more!

All this from the author's decade's worth of sitting in on DeLay's lessons, recorded conversations, notes and whatnot. Did I find the author's tone throughout the book "fawning" or could I myself have dismissed the book sweepingly as "just a gushing hagiography" as some other reviewers have here? Nah... or the author wouldn't have devoted a whole chapter to DeLay and her critics in such a fair and well-balanced manner, nor would she have been personally critical of DeLay's.... well... "Being DeLayed." Being understandably affectionate for someone who has opened herself up and provided so much insights and valuable information over a decade is more like it. The book wasn't intended to provide to readers the revelation of the secret ingredients of what made this teacher a legend. The book is about a remarkable woman who happened to be there at once upon a time in the world of classical music and who had made a personal difference to so many people. Yet this book is more than just about DeLay. It's like a finger pointing to the moon... If your entire focus is on the finger itself, you'll miss the moon.

Some Nice Insights But....
I really don't know what to think about this book. I've read a lot of
similar books - I am a classical violinist myself and have known of Dorothy DeLay forever. I am an enormous
fanatic of one of her most prized of pupils, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, who has always sung the "Ms. DeLay Praises".
Sarah Chang, another product of the DeLay Juilliard stable of players, developed far more than I ever expected. She made the transition from prodigy to virtuoso with aplomb - and it is probably - with an emphasis on probably - due in some part to Dorothy DeLay.

As for this book by Ms. Sand - well, it's not bad. It tells a lot about how Dorothy lived her life as master teacher of well over a thousand violinists, her teaching partnership with Ivan Galamian, who has long since been credited with making Perlman, Kyung-Wha Chung, the late Michael Rabin, and a whole host of others, into the incomparable performers they were. And it tells of DeLay's eventual split from Galamian (which ended - completely and totally - in a single phone call, as detailed here.) And it tells of DeLay's clout - how conductors, managers, concert promoters, came to her when they were in search of a fine young artist. How she helped steer her students along the path of righteousness in the often cold and calculated upper echelon of classical music. We get a good inside look at DeLay's studio and how she works. And, it tells of how her husband was involved in the process as well, fielding some of the hundreds of phone calls that came in to the DeLay house
every day. I found that interesting and was previously unaware of it.

Her approach of teaching students to teach themselves is indeed a noble one, but it doesn't work for everyone - and there were those naysayers who said that she never really taught anything. Basically this book is a compilation of many interviews with DeLay and her students, and observations of Ms. Sand's that were recorded during an extended period of time spent in her studio; I don't know if Sand is a violinist or not. I'm guessing not, judging from the way she writes. It's astonishing, the achievements of some of the 7 and 8 year old children whom Dorothy DeLay worked with - some of them had learned nearly the whole standard repertoire by the time they'd reached their teenage years or before. Yet the majority of them will never be heard, never sign with a record company, never make it to the top of the figurative Mount Everest. We'll never hear them in any major concert halls throughout the world. And there's some insight here as to why not.

This book is geared primarily toward those who are not real familiar with the violinistic world - perhaps interested concertgoers who regularly hear Midori or Perlman or Sarah Chang or Nadja who have seen "a pupil of master pedagogue Dorothy DeLay" in the concert program notes, and wonder just how they got where they are, other than the endless hours of practice.For the benefit of the casual reader, Sand gives quite a bit of background about other legendary teachers of the past century, and what it means and takes to "become a violinist."In this regard, the book succeeds. There are chapters detailing Sarah Chang and Itzhak Perlman (and one with Toby Perlman, his wife). Parts of other chapters contain info about some of her other major pupils; hardly anything on Midori though, who some say was DeLay's most gifted pupil and I wholeheartedly concur.Some of the other material presented might be a little much for the average reader, though.The things that go on behind very closed doors are not covered in this particular book, or probably any book; a student's life on the trail from student to professional in the "New York classical music community" - getting jobs, getting representation, getting booked for concert dates, etc. etc. It's a unique thing for every musician and while the rewards are great, they are only given to a minuscule number of individuals.That's why the vast majority give up after awhile, despite the rigorous training, and play in orchestras and/or teach and/or play chamber music and make a modest living.

Again, back to my opening statement about not knowing what to think of this book... Dorothy DeLay had quite a bit of controversy surrounding her. Despite this, she had a way of
teaching - perhaps it wasn't teaching so much as guiding - her students. And for many of them, it worked very well. She was not a stern taskmaster or overly critical. Was she an important teacher as Galamian was? Or just a good mentor? Did she really shape the lives and careers of her students?Why did parents from around the globe practically demand that she teach their children?Did she have something that no one else did? Was she, to some people, "the joke of New York who couldn't even remember her own pupil's names?" (direct quote to me from a Juilliard student.) To all of these queries, the answer is "perhaps."I would not recommend this book unless to anyone except a non-classical musician.

Great to find out about Ms.DeLay
This book was definitely written with much TLC and dedication by it's author.
The most interesting part of the book was about Dorothy's childhood and how she taught.
The other stories not so much-just skip through those in my opinion!
Can't imagine a non-music person ever reading this. Very interesting about all things violin related..

Musical insight
Teaching Genius is is an amazing opportunity for musicians, teachers and parents of aspiring musicians to get a glimpse of the world of developing a serious violinist. Dorothy Delay played some part in the development of most well known violin soloists living today. She had to have something amazing and the author of this biography does an amazing job of bringing you into Ms. Delay's world. I know that my teaching style was profoundly affected just by reading this book. I feel that Dorothy Delay's ability to motivate and inspire her students still continues through the hands of a new generation of teachers who have been able to get to know her.

Rare book about teaching violin !
This is, I think, the rare book about psychology of teaching violin. A teacher like Mrs. Dorothy De Lay is one among the millions. We could saw it from the former students of her whom accomplished the most prestigius positions in classical music. How I wished there is teacher like her here in Indonesia. How I wished that a lot ! Violin teachers should buy this book.. very insightful. ... Read more

Product Description
In this well-written work, the author argues that the present situation regarding the music of the classical tradition is fundamentally untenable. While change is, of course, inevitable, the author posits that teachers of the classical music tradition, nonetheless, have a moral responsibility to do as much as possible to advocate and work toward goals that will hasten and most positively influence the direction of change. The author believes that the present relationship between the music of the Western classical tradition and the culture of the present is an unhealthy one. The music of dead composers comprises the overwhelming preponderance of music heard today, especially in the larger venues such as symphony halls and opera houses. Specifically, the author argues that we must promote and provide for (at least) an equal place in our teaching, recordings, and performances for the music of composers who are living at the time we undertake these activities. He further advocates that this is not simply a matter of currency, it is a matter of cultural vibrancy—even survival—and it is an ethical and aesthetic concern toward which we must direct our most serious attention and effort.As both a singer and a teacher, the author delivers a resounding perspective in this book. He also brings the important insights of others from other fields such as literature, philosophy, and theater. The author’s discussions revolve around the situation of classical music, a situation that in many ways exemplifies the gradual transformation of the rationalization of the world, into the radical commodification of the world. This outcome will be shown to be intimately linked to ethical and aesthetic issues, which will be developed by means of an extended consideration of the conflict between the rational and the a-rational as it plays itself out in contrasts between music, art, and literature, and science and philosophy.The book delves into the problem of teaching music, particularly the problems commonly dealt with in the teaching studio. Teachers of the Western music tradition have developed tried and true techniques for dealing with these problems as they occur in teaching, generally by helping students toward an understanding of historical, musical, technical and stylistic problems, among a host of others. These “common” problems of teaching are, however, symptomatic of very deep, complicated, and endemic philosophical issues that have, so far, been insufficiently discussed in a form that might be useful to teachers, performers, and lovers of the music of the Western classical music tradition. The most unique contribution of these discussions is the investigation into what is not discussed to any depth in pedagogy books––what lies behind or beneath these commonly experienced problems.This is a critical book for collections in music. ... Read more

Product Description
Simmons examines those composers whose styles maintain continuity with the values and principles developed during the 19th century. The six composers chosen are each presented through a biographical overview, followed by a comprehensive assessment of their bodies of work. Each composer's musical output is discussed according to its stylistic origins and affinities with other composers, phases or periods of development, as well as strengths and weaknesses. Each chapter concludes with a discography of essenti ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent Introduction to Excellent Composers
Simmons' book is an interesting, and very well written, survey of the works of six neo-romantic composers: Bloch, Hanson, Creston, Giannini, Barber, and Flagello. Each gets a chapter and each chapter begins with a brief biography.The remaining text is devoted to an analysis of major compositions.
I have only two minor quibbles with this book.First, Simmons loves to use the terms "sensibility" and "temperament".To my mind, these are vague concepts.At least, I was never sure what he meant by them.The other difficulty is Simmons' penchant for dividing each composer's working life into periods.I was rather surprised to find that in five cases out of a possible six (Bloch was the exception), a composer's work could be divided into precisely three periods.Surely, that is either a huge coincidence or else forcing a convenient chronological straightjacket where it may not fit well.

BEYOND THE POPULISM OF COPLAND
How can I not recommend this book? After all, where else can one read in-depth biographies and a comprehensive analysis of the works of Bloch, Hanson, Giannini, Creston, Barber, and Flagello? Author Walter Simmons does an outstanding job and is to be heartily congratulated for telling the story of American composers who refused to bow to the cynical intellectuals in university music departments and the media. As the pendulum of popular taste swings away from the ivory-towers of academia and self-regarding hipsters, these composers are being rediscovered by music-listeners and finding new audiences who are blissfully unaware that there ever was a "crisis of tonality". Simmons confesses that the six featured composers are not to be viewed as a school or movement, and that his selection is arbitrary and personal. His research on the subject of American Neo-Romanticism goes back to the 1960s and even includes personal correspondence with both Creston and Flagello. Yet while this book can be considered definitive on its subject and includes excellent bibliographical and discographical references, I would like to raise a few quibbles:

1. No one enjoys the music of the European-born Ernest Bloch more than I do, but I was very surprised to find him to be considered an American composer when he did not arrive in the United States until he was 36 years old. Simmons' reasoning for including him is a) "his musical output embodies.....central Neo-Romantic aesthetic values", b) "the overwhelming majority of his music was composed in the United States", c) he was "a seminal figure in the formation of two important conservatories", and d) "contributed significantly to music education in this country as well". All of these reasons are well and good, and in no way take away from an excellent biography and analysis of his works, but I couldn't help thinking that composers such as Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, and Korngold might also qualify as "American" along the same lines.

2. For each composer, Simmons includes a list of "Most Representative, Fully Realized Works". This is of course an excellent help to those wanting to explore a composer's sound world without knowing where to begin. While I myself am familiar with a large number of the recommended compostions, I was also surprised at the number of personal favorites that Simmons did not consider "most representative, fully realized". For instance, Bloch's Violin Concerto, Hanson's "Romantic" Symphony, Giannini's Piano Concerto, Creston's Toccata, and not one of Barber's concertos were considered worthy of designation. While I expect lists such as these to be entirely subjective, I was surprised that we agreed only occasionally. Perhaps terms such as "most representative" and "fully realzied" are not as self-descriptive as they seem.

3. Simmons writes in his Introduction that "the question of how much analytical detail is appropriate is difficult to answer" and that the use of "specialized terminology" will be minimized. While any author attempting to enlighten his readership by challenging the status quo will want to reach as large an audience as possible, the decision must be made somewhere along the line to appeal more to the scholar and connoisseur, or more to the general reader. With this book, the former receives much more recognition than the latter. Perhaps this is understandable as Simmons does have a master's degree in music theory and musicology, but the average music-lover might have to struggle through this text from time to time. For example, we're told that Hanson's Sixth Symphony "...lacks the qualities of organic development and dialectical continuity essential to a true symphony", that Giannini's Fourth Symphony has "a densely concentrated developmental fabric of contrapuntal interrelationships", and that Barber's Essay #2 owes its American flavor to "the pentatonic structure of the main theme and its emphasis on the intervals of the fourth and fifth". I certainly expect more of musical analysis than "it's a masterpiece" or "it sure is pretty", but the aforementioned examples (of which there are many throughout the book) seem to be written for graduate students writing dissertations on music theory.

I hope the preceding quibbles in no way deter any potential purchaser, as this is still an outstanding work that has something for almost everyone interested in the subject. My personal copy will no doubt be returned to time and time again, and I look forward to the possibility of future volumes, perhaps including Walter Piston, William Schuman, David Diamond, Frederick Converse, and Alan Hovhaness (admittedly these composers would stretch the concept of American Neo-Romanticism, but Simmons' biographical and analytical efforts would be greatly appreciated for these sorely marginalized composers).

Great Survey of American Neo-Romantics
I was familiar with Walter Simmons writing from his magazine reviews, and I had found him an almost invariably trusted guide to good music.When I found that he had written a book focused on six of my favorite American composers, I was excited but dismayed by the price of the book.Nevertheless, I took the plunge, and the cost became immediately greater:Simmons led me to search out even more recordings by these composers.

Although I was already a devoted follower of the music of Paul Creston, Simmons' analysis added immensely to my understanding of the music.Flagello and Giannini had also been a passion, as had Ernest Bloch.I was forced to look overseas for a recordng of one Bloch work with which I had newly become familiar: "Helvetia: The Land of Mountains and Its People," a thoroughly enjoyable symphonic work.

Each section of Simmons' book follows a similar pattern: a BIOGRAPHY of the composer, followed by a discussion of the MUSIC, typically broken into three or more periods, a CONCLUSION, NOTES, SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY, and ESSNETIAL DISCOGRAPHY.For those intimidated by the cost of the book, consider the fact that it will serve as a constant reference and provide many many hours of absorbing reading.But be prepared to spend even more as you discover recordings of works you suspect you must have.

For those concerned about any technical jargon that might hinder comprehension, be assured that Simmons writes with eloquence in a way to help even the minimally musicologically educated reader to follow his analyses.

If you have even a minimal interest in American music, or in music that touches the heart while showing considerable knowledge of structure, you owe it to yourself to obtain this book.Make it number 1 on your wish list, or, as I did, take the plunge now.You won't regret it.

An extraordinary work
This book is the first of a projected series of books by the distinguished writer on music, Walter Simmons. I've admired his writings for many years and had heard about this book from several friends who recommended it highly. I now see why. Not only does Simmons have a particularly graceful writing style, he is able to explain with clarity some complicated matters, describing music in non-technical language that most reasonably educated readers would be able to understand. His contention that these six composers have been generally under-appreciated and misunderstood is argued cogently and convincingly, and he shares insights not seen anywhere else. There is a section on each of the six composers - Bloch, Hanson, Giannini, Creston, Barber,and Flagello (I was particularly heartened by the inclusion of the shamefully neglected Giannini and Flagello) -- that contains a brief biography and then a fairly detailed description of his major (and many smaller) works in the order they were composed. Recommendations are made for recordings for those wishing to explore the music itself.

I for one am eager to read each of the five prospective books to follow this one. The subjects of the remaining books will cover American neo-classicists, American opera composers, American nationalists and populists, three traditionalists of the Juilliard School, and American traditionalists of the post-1930 generation. When this series is finished it will, on the evidence of this first volume, comprise one of the very most valuable overall studies of American classical music in print.

Strongly recommended.

Scott Morrison

Some pertinent information
I realize that my rating is not objective, as I am the author. However, I think readers might want to know that the six composers featured in this book are: Ernest Bloch, Howard Hanson, Vittorio Giannini, Paul Creston, Samuel Barber, and Nicolas Flagello. ... Read more

Product Description
Renowned for his literary style as well as his musical scholarship, Nicolas Slonimsky wrote many program notes and articles for newspapers and other periodicals, in addition to his well-known books.These shorter writings, edited by Slonimsky's daughter, Electra Yourke, are collected for the first time in this excellent introduction to the classical repertoire, from Bach to Shostakovich.Arranged chronologically by composer, the chapters begin with biographical sketches and go on to describe some of each composer's most popular and imporant works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Entertaining and interesting read about the Classics.
I first learned of Nicolas Slonimsky through his book, "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns," which turned out to be an invaluable resource for me, and I wanted to know more about the man behind it. I had no idea at the time that he could write, much less write with such a distinctive and entertaining style as his. "The Listener's Companion" contains more of his great literary genius, and combines humor with history as he talks about the classic composers and their works.

The introduction included is a great read, as Slonimsky has an "interview" with himself. But I most enjoyed reading about some of my favorite composers, including Bach, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky. It is well organized and the composers are listed in chronological order. Apparent through the entire book is Slonimsky's indefatigable pursuit of getting facts right while others have got them wrong (even, as he explains in his introduction, in major encyclopedias). His literally style is quick-witted but informative, a potent combination that keeps the reader coming back for more.

Overall I believe this is a valid addition to the Slonimsky "canon." It was (and continues to be) great fun reading about the composers and their highlighted works, as well as marveling over Slonimsky's pure technique. The short yet complete biographies of the composers are magnificent, including the tales of gossip contained in each of them! If you are interested in the classics or are a fan of Slonimsky, or even just a fan of good entertaining writing, get this book.

Fascinating, but Poorly Edited
Sometimes when a great composer or writer dies his followers and heirs bring out some of his unfinished or lesser works. Such is the case here. Slonimsky, whose 'Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians' and 'Music since 1900' should be on every musiclover's shelves, was a musical polymath who spent most of his career as a musicologist and writer on music. When he died at over 100 years of age in 1995 his manuscripts were given to the Library of Congress where they remain more or less uncatalogued. His daughter, Electra Slonimsky Yourke, with some others, went through boxes and boxes of his things in order to rescue and bring to light some of his occasional writings about composers and their works. She assembled this collection under the title 'The Listener's Companion' and it was published in 2002. She says in her foreword that there were often several essays bearing on the same composer or work because Slonimsky, among other things, wrote program notes for orchestras, liner notes for recordings and so on. Consequently some of the pieces presented here are actually cobbled together from several articles. Hence one of the problems with the book. There are numbers of repetitions, often within the same article. For instance, here are two sentences from the article on Sergei Prokofiev: 'Prokofiev decided to play his own [first] piano concerto for the commencement exercises at the conservatory,' and, three paragraphs later, 'In 1914, he played his First Piano Concerto as a graduation piece at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.' [Slonimsky, a compulsive editor and fact-checker, would be horrified.] This carelessness is mildly irritating but it does not detract too severely from what is otherwise typically interesting Slonimskian prose. I've collected much of what he wrote not only for the information contained but also for the sheer joy of his style. There was, concealed behind his scholarly façade, an imp of equal importance, and that makes reading him a constant delight; one never knows what will pop up and make one chuckle. Another aspect of his style was the use of unusual words--he had a incomparable command of English although it was not his first language. Where else would you, in an otherwise straightforward passage about the second movement of Ravel's G Major Piano Concerto, encounter 'the gemmation of the austere melody and its florification are remarkable'? I don't know about you, but that tickles me; Slonimsky is playing with language the way a kitten plays with a ball of yarn. As Ms Yourke suggests in her foreword, it pays to read Slonimsky with a dictionary at hand.

The book is organized by composer, in chronological order thus: Bach - Handel - Haydn - Mozart - Beethoven - Mendelssohn - Wagner - Brahms - Tchaikovsky - Rimsky-Korsakov - Mahler - Debussy - R. Strauss - Schoenberg - Ravel - Bartók - Stravinsky - Prokofiev - Shostakovich. There is an introductory essay about each composer and then individual essays about some of their works. As you can see, the book is not all-inclusive and, indeed, under each composer there are major omissions. For instance, Beethoven's 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 6th symphonies do not rate an entry. One reason for this, of course, is the source of the essays--an uncatalogued hodgepodge of writings written for specific occasions. Still, one gets a good sense of the style of each composer, some real insights into the pieces under scrutiny, and lots of gossipy tales about all of them. Slonimsky was nothing if not a good storyteller.

So, this is not one of Slonimsky's major works, and it is not even a necessary work, as these things go, but it is at least generally fascinating and revealing, the sort of book to dip into as the need or desire arises. I've spent many enjoyable moments with it and expect that will continue.

Scott Morrison ... Read more

Product Description
In The Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and The Eight, Robert Rimm writes about eight legendary, enigmatic, and interrelated composer-pianists of the instrument’s golden age and goes on to consider their present-day advocate and astounding interpreter Marc-André Hamelin. Rimm portrays The Eight—Alkan, Busoni, Feinberg, Godowsky, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Sorabji—as "the piano’s aural sensualists" and explores the relationships among their music, their music-making, their ideas, and their lives. Marc-André Hamelin’s dynamic, fluid playing and engaging personality immediately impressed Rimm upon their first encounter. Their collaboration took the form of a series of long interviews from 1996 through 1998 as well as a bestselling compact disc, Marc-André Hamelin Plays the Composer-Pianists.

Readers will find this book a rich and unusual guide to an iconoclastic, eclectic repertoire. Written by a pianist and teacher who has championed their work in writing and recording, the volume includes rare photographs and concludes with an extensive bibliography, listings of the complete solo piano works of The Eight, and discographies of current solo piano recordings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A very fine book...
These kinds of books are often dry, but here we have an accessible, beautifully written volume about some of music's most original thinkers.Each insightful chapter is supported by letters and quotes from the composer-pianists themselves.I particularly appreciated the many Russian sources Rimm has uncovered, through archival materials and interviews.Hamelin provides terrific commentary, and the book also includes in-depth interviews with Stephen Hough, Radu Lupu, Zoltan Kocsis and Krystian Zimerman.

a plug
--you DO need to know a lot about the composers rimm writes about to enjoy this book--but ENJOY is the word--the book is written more as on-purpose belles lettres than encyclopedia entry, much less introduction musicology, and I find rimm's writing a lot of the time poetic and funny--but that's not the problem
--this book has stirred up a lot of hostility towards rimm's collaborator marc hamelin, one of the great pianists, because the problem is that marc is presented as expert in BOTH parts of the artist-type composer pianist--marc's contribution to the book on the subject of the life of a working virtuoso pianist is EXPERT (i mean what else would it be)--his contribution on the subject of the working life of a composer is...LOL why get nasty
--instead a plug--STEPHEN HOUGH is no slouch as a working virtuoso pianist--HIS contribution to Rimm's book gets squeezed out in a page-and-half forward BUT i'm plugging that this guy has been composing some pretty AMAZING transcriptions for his instrument--check out his dropdead march of siamese children (KING AND I) on his piano album 2--go on from there

A wonderful exploration of the composer-pianist tradition
This exceptional book provides a crucial reference, not only to individual biographies of eight composer-pianists the likes of Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Medtner, Busoni, Godowsky and others, but in how Rimm groups them in pairs. One reads comparisons and contrasts between and among them in a way that provides historical context to the vital composer-pianist tradition. As a pianist who has played many works by these composers, I found stylistic and emotional insights page after page. The chapter on musical criticism is another highlight, with its wry look at the sometimes ephemeral perspectives of music critics, with some very funny and also unfortunate examples. The inclusion of Marc-André Hamelin was a brilliant stroke. Rimm doesn't begin to suggest that he is in the same compositional league as the others, but Hamelin, one of the world's foremost pianists, provides invaluable au courant perspective and context. The companion CD from Hyperion is also a gem.

A fascinating book
At first, I wondered why Chopin and Liszt weren't included in a book called "The Composer-Pianists," but these eight form a closely interrelated league all their own. By extensively quoting their letters, diaries and writings as they relate both to themselves and to each other (including intriguing material from Russia apparently never before translated), Rimm illuminates their thoughts, motivations, desires and methods. Although Hamelin is not widely known as a composer, he is recognized around the world as among their foremost interpreters. Who else has in his/her repertoire all the Medtner and Scriabin sonatas, the Chopin-Godowsky etudes, the Godowsky Passacaglia, the Alkan Concerto and solo-piano Symphony, the Busoni Concerto, et al., and at such an Olympian level of technical achievement and musical eloquence? I've heard several of Hamelin's compositions both in recital and on recordings, and he demonstrates polyphonic and pianistic sorcery (with transcriptions as well) that clearly echo The Eight. As Rimm posits, though, it remains to be seen whether Hamelin will occupy a lasting place compositionally. He also offers a perspective toward the future with names like Kocsis, Pletnev, Hough and others. (Incidentally, Stephen Hough has written a fine foreword to this book.)

Rimm's chapter on transcriptions, a large part of The Eight's performances and compositions, should be required reading for anyone interested in the transcriber's art, and the chapter on musical criticism is both sharply observed and funny. Whether one hears music in terms of eroticism is fairly subjective (and I don't), Rimm cites numerous examples from most of these composers, especially Scriabin, that indicate direct expression of eroticism and sensuality through their music.

Well written and comprehensively researched, including photographs and letters not otherwise accessible, this book may well contribute to the renaissance of Medtner, Alkan, Busoni and Godowsky. Hamelin surely has!

a couple of facts
Fact #1: Rimm is a mediocre writer at his best, and consistently quite poor as an expositor: if you come to this book already knowing the biographies and compositions of "the eight" you will be able to read him with an awareness of what he's trying to say; if you don't already know basic biographical facts about Rimm's "eight" you will often be at sea in his narrative.
Fact # 2: Hamelin is a pianist of unique technical gifts who wastes those gifts by using too much sustain pedal to achieve multi-voice effects, but leave Hamelin the pianist out of it for the moment: Hamelin is an amateur composer, he is in middle age now and so far he has composed several little pieces for the piano: some etudes, a prelude & fugue, a transcription of Rossini, unpublished so far, but all "composed", according to Rimm, with great and long effort... Well, to place Hamelin and his little, laborious output, as Rimm does, in the class of Alkan, Busoni and the others is a mind-boggling, grotesque absurdity.That Hamelin seems not to have objected to such comparison reflects badly on him.A reviewer, who refers to Hamelin as "Marc", writes that Rimm is a friend of Hamelin.Maybe that explains things. ... Read more

Product Description
A study dealing with the life of Erik Leidzen, a band arranger and composer for the Salvation Army, who was among the first generation of American musicians to be able to maintain a profession as a writer/arranger of band music. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Harper & brothers in 1922 in 439 pages; Subjects: Operas; Music; Musicians; Music appreciation; Composers; Biography & Autobiography / Composers & Musicians; Music / General; Music / Instruction & Study / Appreciation; Music / Genres & Styles / Classical; Music / Instruction & Study / Composition; Music / History & Criticism; Music / Genres & Styles / Opera; Music / Instruction & Study / Theory; ... Read more

Product Description
A listing of articles and books on the music of eleven Italian serial composers: Berio, Bussotti, Castiglioni, Clementi, Dallapiccola, Donatoni, Maderna, Nono, Petrassi, Togni, and Vlad. Documents in this volume take the form of interviews, musical critiques and analyses, stylistic surveys, biographies, and listings of companies. ... Read more