The Missa Solemnis is a document of extraordinary richness from the last decades of Beethoven's creative life. In this accessible guide, William Drabkin considers the work as an expression of the most
Many listeners and players are fascinated by Bach's Goldberg Variations. In this wideranging and searching study, Professor Williams, one of the leading Bach scholars of our time, helps them probe its depths and understand its uniqueness. He considers the work's historical origins, especially in relation to all Bach's Clavierübung volumes and late keyboard works, its musical agenda and its formal shape, and discusses significant performance issues. In the course of the book he poses a number of key questions. Why should such a work be written? Does the work have both a conceptual and a perceptual shape? What other music is likely to have influenced the Goldberg and to what extent is it trying to be encyclopedic? What is the canonic vocabulary? How have contemporaries or musicians from Beethoven to the present day seen this work and, above all, how has its mysterious beauty been created?
Pierrot Lunaire (1912) is one of the most important music theatre works ever written. This is the first guide in English to a work which continues to be performed, broadcast and recorded worldwide. The book describes the artistic environment around the turn of the century from which Pierrot emerged and discusses Schoenberg's working methods and intentions in its composition. The composer's artistic development up to 1912 is contemplated as a backdrop to this extraordinarily original creative act, and the significance of Pierrot in the unfolding of twentieth-century music is a recurrent topic of the text. In a clear and imaginative description of the work itself, the author takes each of the 21 melodramas in turn, considering both the music and the narrative. The text of all 21 poems is provided in German and in a new English translation by Andrew Porter.
Schumann's Fantasie, Op. 17 is one of the finest examples of Romantic piano music. In a rounded picture of this major keyboard work, Nicholas Marston first traces the fascinating history of its compos
The Op. 50 string quartets contain some of the purest writing Haydn ever accomplished. In this first full account of the six quartets, Dean Sutcliffe evaluates the Op. 50 in relation to Haydn's more f
Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex is widely acknowledged as one of the most original musical theater works of the twentieth century. This clear and concise guide, the first ever written on the work, describes
Dowland's famous Lachrimae (1604) is the earliest collection of instrumental music generally known to nonspecialists, yet it has never been studied in detail before. Among other things, this comprehen
Anton Bruckner's Eighth Symphony (1890), one of the last of the great Romantic symphonies, is a grandly complex masterpiece. This book explores this many-faceted work from several angles. It documents
This is a guide to both the music and the poetry of Schubert's much-loved song cycle, set to poems by the Prussian poet Wilhelm MUller. Composed in 1823, this work is one of the greatest masterpieces
After the death of Mahler in 1911 the great Austro-German symphonic line was carried on mainly in England, America, Scandinavia and Russia. The Fifth Symphony of Carl Nielsen, Denmark's greatest compo
Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is in many ways his most startlingly original. It has a programmatic content, it is in five movements, and its mood is quite different from the usual barnstorming image o
Mozart's Clarinet Concerto is of supreme importance as his last instrumental work. Yet there are a number of special problems surrounding the piece, since the autograph is lost and the unique instrume
Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra has proven to be one of the most popularly successful concert works of the twentieth century. It is seen by its champions as an example of Bartok's seamless blend of Ea
Berlioz's "dramatic symphony" Romeo et Juliette is regarded by many as his finest work; it is certainly among the most original. This book summarizes the complex genesis of the work before examining t
