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In this collection of essays and interviews, nine gifted composers openly discuss their work. ... Read more

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This collection of the letters from great composers is set against the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner and Tchaikovsky. The letters reveals insight into their hopes and fears, their love, their sadness and their struggles. ... Read more

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This catalog of works, organized alphabetically by composer, details the compositions of fifty-four modern British composers born between 1891 and 1923. Volume one covers composers from John Addison to Arnold Cooke. Compositions are listed chronologically and include pertinent information about the performance, year of composition, music history, first recordings, and original manuscript location. Concert music is listed separately from documentary and feature films and from music composed for radio, television or stage. A selective bibliography and a title index is included for each composer. ... Read more

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This catalog of works, organized alphabetically by composer, details the compositions of fifty-four modern British composers born between 1893 and 1923. Volume three covers composers from Elizabeth Maconchy to David Wynne. Compositions are listed chronologically and include pertinent information about the performance, year of composition, music history, first recordings, and original manuscript location. Concert music is listed separately from documentary and feature films and from music composed for radio, television or stage. A selective bibliography and a title index is included for each composer. ... Read more

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This catalog of works, organized alphabetically by composer, details the compositions of fifty-four modern British composers born between 1893 and 1923. Volume two covers composers from Christian Darnton to Elisabeth Lutyens. Compositions are listed chronologically and include pertinent information about the performance, year of composition, music history, first recordings, and original manuscript location. Concert music is listed separately from documentary and feature films and from music composed for radio, television or stage. A selective bibliography and a title index is included for each composer. ... Read more

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Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers -- a revised edition of a work previously available only in Hungarian -- gives the spontaneous thoughts of some of the most famous composers from around the world about their own development as composers and their reactions to the outside world.All statements from English-speaking composers -- such as Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman, Lukas Foss, Steve Reich, Gunther Schuller, Michael Tippett, and Peter Maxwell Davies -- consist of the composers' own carefully chosen words.Prominent European, Latin American, and Japanese composers include Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Alberto Ginastera, Sofia Gubaïdulina, Hans Werner Henze, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Witold Lutoslawski, Luigi Nono, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Toru Takemitsu, and Iannis Xenakis.Further enriched by drawings in which composers attempt to indicate visually what their music sounds like, Three Questions is a fascinating companion for concertgoers and serious listeners. The Hungarian music publisher Bálint András Varga has spent nearly forty years working for and with composers. He has published several books, including extensive interviews with Lutoslawski, Berio, and Xenakis. ... Read more

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Hold brings a composer's sensibility to his task, notably in his analytical discussion, and fully understands the nature of the marriage effected, and the difficulties involved, in the song-composer's art of blending poetry with music. He is a real companion on his reader's journey of discovery... The text (is) unfailingly readable and astute in judgement. JOHN TALBOT, BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY NEWSLETTERThe composers in this book represent the outstanding songwriters from what we can now see as the golden age of English romantic song. As well as the major figures - Parry, Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Quilter, Ireland, Gurney, Warlock and Finzi - there are chapters on lesser-known composers, such as Denis Browne and Charles Orr. Detailed consideration is given to three song-writers who have suffered unaccountable neglect, Arthur Somervell, Armstrong Gibbs and Herbert Howells, and there are chapters on Elgar, Delius and Holst, whose reputations were made in other fields but whose contribution to English song is nevertheless important. Also taking their rightful places in the book are Frank Bridge, Arnold Bax, George Butterworth and E.J. Moeran. Each chapter begins with a discussion of its composer's song-output and of the poets and poetry he sets, and goes on to give an account of the influences on him and the hallmarks of his style; the songs are then discussed in detail, focusing on the major works. The text is illustrated with musical examples and there is a comprehensive bibliography and index.TREVOR HOLD is a noted composer and poet who was born and bred in Northamptonshire, where he still lives. He was staff tutor in music in the Department of Adult Education at the University of Leicester between 1970 and 1989, and has written extensively on English song. His setting of Laurie Lee's 'Day of these Days' won the English Poetry and Song Society/English Music Society 2002 Golden Jubilee Song Competition. ... Read more

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Horne provides the most comprehensive source available on keyboard music by Black composers, including traditional instruments--such as the accordion and harpsichord--piano, and organ. Each of the more than 200 entries contains a biographical sketch, a listing of all works that include keyboard, the commission, premiere, composer bibliography, and a discography. The work concludes with a keyboard music index, general discography, and bibliography. ... Read more

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A collection of 32 classics including: I'll Follow My Secret Heart * Mad About the Boy * Mad Dogs and Englishmen * Someday I'll Find You * This Is a Changing World * many more. Many bandw photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Book purchased on 18th April 2010
I would be delighted to have something to comment on the book, if I had received the book!!
The item has NOT YET BEEN RECEIVED, so kindly look into the order as it is not even possible to track my purchase.
Thank you. ... Read more

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The Norwegian composer Ludvig Irgens-Jensen (1894-1969) was one of the towering creative figures of his native land, although his dignified and powerful music does not receive the attention its quality deserves, either at home or abroad. The success of his dramatic symphony Heimferd (Homecoming) in 1930 brought him national fame, but the post-War triumph of modernism, coupled with his personal modesty, pushed Irgens-Jensen's tonal music into the shadows: its contrapuntally based textures and its modally tinged harmonies were seen as things of the past. But a growing number of recordings is revealing him as one of the most distinguished and distinctive voices in twentieth-century music, a figure of international importance who wrote music of striking nobility and strength of purpose - with some meltingly lovely melodic lines. Arvid O. Vollsnes' Ludvig Irgens-Jensen: The Life and Music of a Norwegian Composer is the first discussion in English of this profoundly decent man and his life-enhancing music. A review of the original Norwegian publication of this book in Aftenposten, the main Norwegian daily paper, described it as 'a gripping biographical portrait. As well as Irgens-Jensen's life we get a broad picture of Norwegian musical life from the 1920s to his death in 1969'. A CD of extracts from Irgens-Jensen's works has been prepared to accompany the English edition, providing readers with an introduction to his highly individual and immediately appealing sound-world. ... Read more

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Covers the life of composer and music director Marsh shedding new light on musical and social life in the time of Handel. See ISBN 9781576471944. ... Read more

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This book is the first survey of composers born before 1900 who wrote substantial musical works before age 16. The book provides a general overview of the subject to the present day, arguing that these works have frequently been marginalized, denigrated, or ignored without justification, and identifying possible reasons for this. It also includes an annotated checklist of well over 100 notable child composers, presenting a valuable and handy reference of these creators and their works before age 16. ... Read more

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During his short but prolific career, George Gershwin (1898-1937) produced a varied body of work that combined symphonic composition with the musical styles popular in his era, including jazz and African-American spirituals. Known primarily for his jazz-tinged orchestral work Rhapsody in Blue, his folk opera Porgy and Bess, and his many wonderful songs featured in the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Gershwin and his lyricist brother Ira were key figures in the songwriting circles of pre-war America. Rodney Greenberg's lively biography paints a vivid picture of this exciting era in the development of American music, and places Gershwin's life and career within the social and cultural contexts in which he flourished.


George Gershwin 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
As part of its 20th Century Composers series, Phaidoncommissioned noted producer and director of television music programsRodney Greenberg to write a biography of one of the century's mostpopular composers--George Gershwin, a man who in a regrettably shortlife (he died in 1937 at the age of 38) sought to straddle the worldsof popular and symphonic music.

"Music," Gershwin once said, "must reflect the thoughts andaspirations of the people and the time. My people are American. Mytime is today." Gershwin's life, from his days as a "songplugger" inNew York's Tin Pan Alley to fame and fortune with Broadway shows andsymphonic composition, followed the evolution of American popularmusic. But he was as much an influence on his time as he wasinfluenced by it. Charismatic, brilliant, and vastly egotistical, hisstruggle to be recognized as a serious composer was always at oddswith the fame and money such songs as "Fascinating Rhythm" and "LadyBe Good" brought him.

While Greenberg's biography is serviceable as an introduction to thecomposer's life, his analysis of the music is what raises thiselegantly short book to the realm of the exceptional. Gershwin's bodyof work is surprisingly small, considering its lasting influence, andthis gives the author the opportunity to discuss at length not onlysuch landmark works as Rhapsody in Blue and Porgy andBess, but also minor pieces like "Lullaby" and "Someone to WatchOver Me." Indeed, Greenberg argues that Gershwin's gifts, like thoseof Cole Porter but also Chopin and Grieg, were best expressed throughhis shorter compositions, and while he never stopped working toachieve a significant work of length, it was his instinct for 32-barand shorter pieces that ensured his place in musicalhistory. --John Longenbaugh ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A must for the Casual Reader and the Scholar!
Having read every Gershwin book avaliable in a legal deposit library, unfortunately for the American reviewer previously it was one in England, I can honestly say that this is one of the most informative and lively books to cover Gershwin's life and music. There is not as much focus on the music as I would like, but I am amazed at just how much I found out about it, in a book I still view as primarily a biography.

Having met "Gershwin at the keyboard" I started to read about him a few years ago, and this book persuaded me to go on reading and submit an extended essay for my A Level on Gershwin. I am now putting the finishing touch to an undergraduate dissertation on Gershwin and the only book I have felt the need to buy to help me with it is this one.

I recommend it highly for the casual reader and the scholar, and it is to be praised for its objective view, some of the other books can go on quite a boring path of conjecture connected to Gershwin's sexual habits, whilst maintaining an engagement of the reader. For a much more detailed book consider 'Howard Pollack, George Gershwin: His Life and Work, (University of California Press)' and for sources 'Wyatt and Johnson (ed), The George Gershwin Reader, (Oxford University Press, 2004)'

A Broad Overview
Seemed a little odd reading a book about Gershwin by a Brit named Greenberg. There are many on this side of the ocean that knew Gershwin intimately and it is there rather than in this book that you will find an authentic rather than scholarly approach. Anyone can accumulate information and photographs and if skilled at writing assume a role of arbiter.

Gershwin is the natural Jewish American seed of genius--spontaneous genius without the paste and glue of institutional methods and means. Had he lived beyond 39 years perhaps a true symphony would have emerged.

Then Greenberg cannot resist a simple line touching on the prospect of great Gershwin being a homosexual. What was that for? Where is there any indication of it in his hectic star struck life time. Why was it included?
What point did it serve?

There is little need for psychoanalytical applications heaped upon this creative genius. His music speaks the language of the then American heart and soul. He did not caterwaul like Elliot Carter or blast your ears like Reigger, nor create vast intellectual excusions like Sessions who music is terrible. William Schuman could compose for a thousand years and nver approach his teacher Roy Harris' Third Symphony, let alone Gershwin.

So in fact there is alot of intellectual garbage out there oh so rationalized by Boulez et al--who listens to their music? Who listens to late Stravinsky--or the minimalists or the sonorists or the serialists?

Gershwin knew the difference between preprogrammed raucous noise and music from the heart and soul. Serialists are soulless atomatons and are cumulatively not dust between the toes of gershwin creatively--he had the devine spark and we all know it--THEY did not.

Read Levant for some insight and fun about his relationship with George and Ira. There are two other superior biographies around and alot of smaller works by those close to the Gershwins. Get a broad and rounded understanding of this relatively simple man who blazed like a comet through the music world.

The Phaidon label tends toward the intellectualization of music and puts names like Schnittke next to Gershwin--you ever hear of Schnittke? Who has and who listens to his music but that is Phaidon.

Gershwin was not a homosexual, but too many who write about him are--always looking for recruits.

Don't get too intellectual with Gershwin, he is better than them--he is of the people and for the people and he sings to them as no Minimalist, serilaist or sonorist ever could or can.

Read an American author closer to home in time and space. You'll be better off.

A fair and honest book about a musical genius
This was a fascinating look into the development of one of the outstanding musical forces of the 20th century.It traces Gershwin's incredible rise from Brooklyn streets, through Tin Pan Alley, to Broadway, concert halls, and Hollywood.It looks into the many influences to his music, and his aspirations for higher forms. Greenberg introduces us to a man with a huge ego, an insatiable love of music, and an extraordinary gift - a lovable character, around whose piano you would love to stand for even just one song.
The authorgives us a sense of the tragedy in Gershwin's life that was deeply touching without being melodramatic. After reading this book you'll listen to Gershwin's music with a much enriched appreciation and understanding. ... Read more

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The 500 plus entries, which are arranged by the composer's name, provide the composer's dates, very brief biographical details, either a partial or a full list of the films to which the composer contributed scores, and a list of recordings (when applicable). Some entries note significant scores for ... Read more

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This is a comprehensive biography of the French composer Gabriel Faure for the general reader, placing his work in the context of his times. Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) is one of the best-loved French composers of his era: works such as his Requiem, "Pavane", "Dolly Suite, and "Cantique de Jean Racine" are perennial favourites. But Faure's importance runs far deeper. His music has a unique blend of vigour and restraint, sensuality and purity: an individual voice with a degree of integrity that helped him to resist the overwhelming forces - notably the music of Wagner - that held his Parisian contemporaries in thrall. His artistic independence served to inspire many of the next generation of French composers seeking to create a new Gallic identity beyond World War I. At the Paris Conservatoire, Faure's composition teaching was vital to such figures as Maurice Ravel, Nadia Boulanger and Charles Koechlin; when he ultimately became the Conservatoire's director, his reforms were the most radical the institution had yet experienced. Faure has often been thought of as a dreamy, somewhat unworldly individual; this book, however, reveals his ambition and decisiveness.Born in southern France and educated at the Ecole Niedermeyer rather than the powerful Paris Conservatoire, he struggled for years to achieve recognition from France's musical establishment, which often deemed him a dangerous outsider; in his personal life he struggled also against bouts of depression, an unsatisfactory marriage and, later, devastating deafness. Faure's life and works are explored in the context of the creative melting pot of fin-de-siecle Paris. His relationship with such figures as Saint-Saens, Liszt, Proust and Verlaine are considered in detail and help to create a portrait of this fascinating milieu. This biography, which charts Faure's long and difficult rise to fame, sets out to illuminate his individuality and reveal his enduring legacy to French music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great information
This was a great source! I used this for a college presentation as one of my sources.This was a great book. I would recommend it for the singer and scholar to read. ... Read more