Shostakovich studies
Few composers' posthumous reputations have grown as steadily as Shostakovich's. Yet outside the concert hall the focus of attention seems to have been on the extraordinary circumstances of his life rather than on the music itself. This book seeks to show that the power of his wo…
The music of Alban Berg
by Headlam, Dave, (David John)
fromComposers of the twentieth century
Austrian composer Alban Berg (1885-1935), along with his contemporaries Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, dramatically altered the musical landscape of the Western world. In this original book, Dave Headlam offers a comprehensive analysis of Berg's music. He examines each of t…
Austrian composer Alban Berg (1885-1935), along with his contemporaries Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, dramatically altered the musical landscape of the Western world. In this original book, Dave Headlam offers a comprehensive analysis of Berg's music. He examines each of t…
Explanation and critical examination of many theories in the philosophy and theory of music. Moral significance of music, its place in our culture, the need for taste and discrimination in both performer and listener.
The book starts from the metaphysics of sound. Scruton distinguishes sound from tone, analyzes rhythm, melody, and harmony, and explores the various dimensions of musical organization and musical meaning. Taking on various fashionable theories in the philosophy and theory of mus…
Haydn never discussed his ideas about composition in much detail, either in the interviews he gave to an early biographer or in his surviving correspondence. Moreover, relatively few sketches of his compositions have been preserved. Attempts to reconstruct Haydn's compositional …
Franz Schubert's song cycles Schone Mullerin and Winterreise are cornerstones of the genre. But as Richard Kramer argues in this book, Schubert envisioned many other songs as components of cyclical arrangements that were never published as such. By carefully studying Schubert's …