Wagner's Parsifal

Wagner's Parsifal PDF Author: William Kinderman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190623543
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 736

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Book Description
William Kinderman's detailed study of Parsifal, described by the composer as his "last card," explores the evolution of the text and music of this inexhaustible yet highly controversial music drama across Wagner's entire career. This book offers a reassessment of the ideological and political history of Parsifal, shedding new light on the connection of Wagner's legacy to the rise of National Socialism in Germany. The compositional genesis is traced through many unfamiliar manuscript sources, revealing unsuspected models and veiled connections to Wagner's earlier works. Fresh analytic perspectives are revealed, casting the dramatic meaning of Parsifal in a new light. Much debated aspects of the work, such as Kundry's death at the conclusion, are discussed in the context of its stage history. Path-breaking as well is Kinderman's analysis of the religious and ideological context of Parsifal. During the half-century after the composer's death, the Wagner family and the so-called Bayreuth circle sought to exploit Wagner's work for political purposes, thereby promoting racial nationalism and anti-Semitism. Hitherto unnoticed connections between Hitler and Wagner's legacy at Bayreuth are explored here, while differences between the composer's politics as an 1849 revolutionary and the later response of his family to National Socialism are weighed in a nuanced account. Kinderman combines new historical research, sensitive aesthetic criticism, and probing philosophical reflection in this most intensive examination of Wagner's culminating music drama.

Wagner's Parsifal

Wagner's Parsifal PDF Author: William Kinderman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190623543
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 736

Get Book Here

Book Description
William Kinderman's detailed study of Parsifal, described by the composer as his "last card," explores the evolution of the text and music of this inexhaustible yet highly controversial music drama across Wagner's entire career. This book offers a reassessment of the ideological and political history of Parsifal, shedding new light on the connection of Wagner's legacy to the rise of National Socialism in Germany. The compositional genesis is traced through many unfamiliar manuscript sources, revealing unsuspected models and veiled connections to Wagner's earlier works. Fresh analytic perspectives are revealed, casting the dramatic meaning of Parsifal in a new light. Much debated aspects of the work, such as Kundry's death at the conclusion, are discussed in the context of its stage history. Path-breaking as well is Kinderman's analysis of the religious and ideological context of Parsifal. During the half-century after the composer's death, the Wagner family and the so-called Bayreuth circle sought to exploit Wagner's work for political purposes, thereby promoting racial nationalism and anti-Semitism. Hitherto unnoticed connections between Hitler and Wagner's legacy at Bayreuth are explored here, while differences between the composer's politics as an 1849 revolutionary and the later response of his family to National Socialism are weighed in a nuanced account. Kinderman combines new historical research, sensitive aesthetic criticism, and probing philosophical reflection in this most intensive examination of Wagner's culminating music drama.

Mahler's Fourth Symphony

Mahler's Fourth Symphony PDF Author: James L. Zychowicz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195346149
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Following the earlier volumes in the Studies in Musical Genesis and Structure series, Mahler's Fourth Symphony is a study of origins of one of Mahler's most popular and accessible works. James Zychowicz examines how the composition evolved from the earliest ideas to the finished score, and in doing so sheds new light on Mahler's working process.

Studies in Musical Genesis, Structure, and Interpretation

Studies in Musical Genesis, Structure, and Interpretation PDF Author: William Kinderman
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195366921
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
This study explores the evolution of the text and music of this inexhaustible yet highly controversial music drama across Wagner's entire career, and offers a reassessment of the ideological and political history of 'Parsifal' that illuminates the connection of Wagner's legacy to the rise of National Socialism in Germany. The compositional genesis is traced through many unfamiliar sketches and manuscript sources held at Bayreuth, revealing unsuspected models and veiled connections to Wagner's earlier works.

Beethovens Diabelli Variations

Beethovens Diabelli Variations PDF Author: William Kinderman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199711747
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
The Thirty-three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120, represent Beethovens most extraordinary achievement in the art of variation-writing. In their originality and power of invention, they stand beside other late Beethoven masterpieces such as the Ninth Symphony, the Missa Solemnis, and the last quartets. William Kindermans study of the compositional history of the work includes the first extended investigation and reconstruction of the sketches and drafts, and reveals, contrary to earlier views of its chronology, that it was actually begun in 1819, then put aside, and completed in 1822-3. Kinderman also provides an analytical discussion of the complete work, and he demonstrates how insights derived from a close study of the sketches can illuminate Beethovens compositional ideas and attitudes and contribute substantially to a better understanding of this massive and complex set of variations. The book includes complete transcriptions of the two central documents in the genesis of the Diabelli variations - the reconstructed Wittgenstein Sketchbook and the Paris - Landsberg - Montauban Draft.

John Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra

John Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra PDF Author: Martin Iddon
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190938471
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
Looking at one of the twentieth century's most notorious musical masterpieces, John Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra examines Cage's compositional process, its infamous performance history, and its influence on philosophical ideas of what music actually is.

Anna Bolena and the Artistic Maturity of Gaetano Donizetti

Anna Bolena and the Artistic Maturity of Gaetano Donizetti PDF Author: Philip Gossett
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
In this close study of Donizetti's seminal masterpiece Anna Bolena, Gossett examines the composer's autograph manuscripts to reveal the arduous procedure of composition as well as his relationship with the Rossinian tradition and his efforts to define a personal style. Gossett also develops a general vocabulary and method for the analysis of Italian Opera.

Terry Riley's In C

Terry Riley's In C PDF Author: Robert Carl
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199717133
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Setting the stage for a most intriguing journey into the world of minimalism, Robert Carl's Terry Riley's In C argues that the work holds its place in the canon because of the very challenges it presents to "classical" music. Carl examines In C in the context of its era, its grounding in aesthetic practices and assumptions, its process of composition, presentation, recording, and dissemination.

Beethoven's 'Appassionata' Sonata

Beethoven's 'Appassionata' Sonata PDF Author: Martha Frohlich
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Focusing on the manuscript sources for one of Beethoven's most popular piano sonatas, the OP.57 in F minor (known as the "Appassionata," 1804-5), this book presents transcriptions of all the known sketches for this work and evaluates them in terms of their specific stage of evolution and their relationship to the final version. Incorporating the analytic vocabulary proposed by Jan LaRue, Frohlich summarizes salient points for each movement which serve as a basis for the sketch discussions. The detailed sketch analysis explores such topics as harmonic rhythm, phrase structure, and climax planning. Facsimile reproductions of the sketches allow scholars to compare the transcriptions with the originals. Also included is an examination of the significant revisions of the finale in the autograph.

Wagner's Das Rheingold

Wagner's Das Rheingold PDF Author: Warren Darcy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold is a milestone in the composer's output and in the history of music in general. It marked Wagner's return to operatic composition after a hiatus of five years, and signified his definitive break with earlier operatic conventions. It also represents a reconsideration of the whole question of dramatic-musical form, and the role of tonality in articulating this form. Warren Darcy traces here the genesis of Das Rheingold through the various textual and musical sketches and drafts to the full score, and also develops a theoretical framework within which the opera may be meaningfully analysed. Using Wagner's manuscripts as a point of departure, Darcy discusses the formal, harmonic, and linear structure of the work. In so doing, he challenges a number of contemporary views about the opera, including those of Curt von Westernhagen and Carl Dahlhaus.

Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony

Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony PDF Author: Alain Frogley
Publisher: Studies in Musical Genesis, St
ISBN: 9780198162841
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Ever since its premiere just before the composer's death, Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony has divided critical opinion and remained something of an enigma. Yet the composer thought highly of the work, and went against his usual practice by preserving all the sketches. This study, the firstof its kind on a work of Vaughan Williams, analyses the symphony and traces its genesis through hundreds of pages of sketches and drafts; it also offers a general introduction to the composer's working methods. The manuscripts show how the composer worked meticulously to create the complexexpressive ambivalence of the finished work, transforming in the process simpler conceptions redolent of his earlier music. Most crucially, however, the sketches reveal an underlying programme, centred on the theme of innocent sacrifice and drawing on Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Stonehenge,and Salisbury Cathedral. Vaughan Williams's new musical path in the symphony, it emerges, was closely allied to the continuing evolution of his visionary agnosticism.