Author: Pietro Metastasio
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : it
Pages : 72

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Author: Daniel E. Freeman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
Of all the prominent musicians born in Bohemia in the eighteenth century, none is surrounded with as much mystery and mystique as Josef Myslivecek (1737-1781), known as "Il Boemo" ("The Bohemian") in Italy among music lovers unable to grapple with his unpronounceable Czech name. Scion of a wealthy family of millers from Prague (and himself a master miller), he acquired training as a composer only in his twenties; nonetheless he quickly became one of the most talented composers active in late eighteenth-century Europe. Despite a composing career of only eighteen years, Myslivecek produced a large and diverse body of work: twenty-seven operas, eight oratorios, many shorter vocal compositions, about fifty symphonies, twenty-nine overtures, sixteen concertos, and one hundred thirty-four instrumental chamber works. Prodigious, successful, and resourceful, he lived most of his adult life as an itinerant composer in Italy, uninterested in employment at any aristocratic or ecclesiastical musical establishment. A friend of both Wolfgang and Leopold Mozart for eight years between 1770 and 1778, his dynamic personality ("full of fire, spirit, and life" according to Wolfgang) is vividly brought to life in the Mozart correspondence - and not only the praiseworthy aspects, but also the air of scandal that often followed him. Complete and accurate information about Myslivecek's biography and works has remained elusive for many years. The present study narrates his life in light of all available biographical documentation, offers analytical discussions of all the genres in which he composed, and for the first time presents catalogs of all his music fully detailing its sources, editions, and recordings. During much of the last century Myslivecek's contributions to music literature were largely forgotten outside the Czech lands, in part, it is argued, because of national biases. In this book Myslivecek's particular style of composition is approached more systematically, and his participation in the creation of what is now recognized as an era of "high classicism" in European art music evaluated more comprehensively than in any previous study. There is also a critical re-appraisal of Myslivecek's relationship with the Mozart family and of his place in Wolfgang's musical development. Some twenty-eight letters in the surviving Mozart family correspondence mention Myslivecek, and for no other composer did Wolfgang express such a degree of affection. Indeed, the full implications of their strong personal rapport invite revision of older assumptions about their standing with each other: through scrutiny of specific works by both composers, the author makes the case the Myslivecek was a distinctive compositional model for the young Mozart.

Author: Kathryn L. Libin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788088081067
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Gesa zur Nieden
Publisher: transcript Verlag
ISBN: 3839435048
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 429

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Book Description
During the 17th and 18th century musicians' mobilities and migrations are essential for the European music history and the cultural exchange of music. Adopting viewpoints that reflect different methodological approaches and diversified research cultures, the book presents studies on central scopes, strategies and artistic outcomes of mobile and migratory musicians as well as on the transfer of music. By looking at elite and non-elite musicians and their everyday mobilities to major and minor centers of music production and practice, new biographical patterns and new stylistic paradigms in the European East, West and South emerge.

Author: John Rosselli
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521426978
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Adelina Patti was the most highly regarded singer in history. She earned nearly $5,000 a night and had her own railway carriage. Yet a minor comic singer would perform for the cost of his food and a pair of shoes to wear on stage. John Rosselli's wide-ranging study introduces all those singers, members of the chorus as well as stars, who have sung Italian opera from 1600 to the twentieth century. Singers are shown slowly emancipating themselves from dependence on great patrons and entering the dangerous freedom of the market. Rosselli also examines the sexist prejudices against the castrati of the eighteenth century and against women singers. Securely rooted in painstaking scholarship and sprinkled with amusing anecdote, this is a book to fascinate and inform opera fans at all levels.

Author: Szymon Paczkowski
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0810888947
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 419

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Book Description
Now appearing in an English translation, this book by Szymon Paczkowski is the first in-depth exploration of the Polish style in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach spent almost thirty years living and working in Leipzig in Saxony, a country ruled by Friedrich August I and his son Friedrich August II, who were also kings of Poland (as August II and August III). This period of close Polish-Saxon relations left a significant imprint on Bach’s music. Paczkowski’s meticulous account of this complex political and cultural dynamic sheds new light on many of Bach’s familiar pieces. The book explores the semantic and rhetorical functions that undergird the symbolism of the Polish style in Baroque music. It demonstrates how the notion of a Polish style in music was developed in German music theory, and conjectures that Bach’s successful application for the title of Court Composer at the court of the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland would induce the composer to deliberately use elements of the Polish style. This comprehensive study of the way Bach used the Polish style in his music moves beyond technical analysis to place the pieces within the context of Baroque customs and discourse. This ambitious and inspiring study is an original contribution to the scholarly conversation concerning Bach’s music, focusing on the symbolism of the polonaise, the most popular and recognizable Polish dance in 18th-century Saxony. In Saxony at this time the polonaise was associated with the ceremonies of the royal-electoral court in Dresden, and Saxon musicians regarded it as a musical symbol of royalty. Paczkowski explores this symbolism of the Polish royal dance in Bach’s instrumental music and, which is also to be found to an even greater extent, in his vocal works. The Polish Style in the Music of Johann Sebastian Bach provides wide-ranging interpretations based on a careful analysis of the sources explored within historical and theological context. The book is a valuable source for both teaching and further research, and will find readers not only among musicologists, but also historians, art historians, and readers in cultural studies. All lovers of Bach’s music will appreciate this lucid and intriguing study.

Author: Melania Bucciarelli
Publisher: BWV Verlag
ISBN: 3830503814
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780793567096
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Vocal

Author: Reinhard Strohm
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521619349
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 744

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Book Description
This is a detailed and comprehensive survey of music in the late middle ages and early Renaissance. By limiting its scope to the 120 years which witnessed perhaps the most dramatic expansion of our musical heritage, the book responds, in the 1990s, to the tremendous increase in specialised research and public awareness of that period. Three of the four main Parts (I, II, IV) describe the development of polyphony and its cultural contexts in many European countries, from the successors of Machaut (d. 1377) to the achievements of Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries working in Renaissance Italy around 1500. Part III, by contrast, illustrates the musical life of the institutions, and musical practices outside the realm of composed polyphony that were traditional and common all over Europe. The book proposes fresh views in each chapter, discussing dozens of musical examples adducing well-known and hitherto unknown documents, and referring to and evaluating the most recent scholarship in the field.

Author: Mark Everist
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108577075
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Spanning a millennium of musical history, this monumental volume brings together nearly forty leading authorities to survey the music of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. All of the major aspects of medieval music are considered, making use of the latest research and thinking to discuss everything from the earliest genres of chant, through the music of the liturgy, to the riches of the vernacular song of the trouvères and troubadours. Alongside this account of the core repertory of monophony, The Cambridge History of Medieval Music tells the story of the birth of polyphonic music, and studies the genres of organum, conductus, motet and polyphonic song. Key composers of the period are introduced, such as Leoninus, Perotinus, Adam de la Halle, Philippe de Vitry and Guillaume de Machaut, and other chapters examine topics ranging from musical theory and performance to institutions, culture and collections.