Words on Music: From Addison to BarzunJack Sullivan Ohio University Press, 1990 - 438 pages For centuries, distinguished writers have taken on the challenge of describing great music and its significance in their lives. From Joseph Addison to Virgil Thomson, writers in and out of the music field have used their most vivid language to conjure the sounds and emotions of the music that mattered most to them. Yet until this book, no single volume has ever collected the best of this writing in one place. Scattered in magazines, essay collections, and program notes, this literature is largely unknown to the general reader--who often thinks that music essays are for musicians only--and even to the musician--who often reads only narrow specialty publications. Words on Music is thus the first book of its kind. Covering instrumental and vocal music from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, it features essays distinguished by their literary quality, their readability, and their appeal to a wide audience. Included is writing by novelists, essayists, composers, performers, cultural historians, and others who have written about music with precision and passion. Here is George Bernard Shaw on Handel, Albert Schweitzer on Bach, Glenn Gould on Scarlatti, E. T. A. Hoffman on Beethoven, Heinrich Heine on Rossini, Aaron Copland on Mozart, George Eliot on Wagner, G. K. Chesterton on Gilbert and Sullivan, Leonard Bernstein on Mahler, Guy Davenport on Ives, Pierre Boulez on Stravinsky, Ned Rorem on Ravel, and more than fifty others. Here also are essays on broader topics--Joseph Addison on opera, Anthony Burgess on music and literature, Jacques Barzun on music criticism, H. L. Mencken on "Music an Sin"--as well as musical memoirs by such masters of the genre as Hector Berlioz, Leigh Hunt, and Ethel Smyth. Words on Music is a uniquely literary and readable book on music. With its wide range of tones and voices, it is ideal for the general reader, the humanities educator, and the musical specialist. Each article is introduced by an informative headnote on the writer and subject. In addition, the volume offers a bibliography with valuable clues for further reading and a substantial essay introducing the elusive art of writing about music. |
From inside the book
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Page 11
... century , in writers ranging from Thomas Mann to Robert Craft , has criticism begun to come to terms with Wagner and his legacy . ) Musical politics , along with a curious propensity toward matters highly technical , also accounts for ...
... century , in writers ranging from Thomas Mann to Robert Craft , has criticism begun to come to terms with Wagner and his legacy . ) Musical politics , along with a curious propensity toward matters highly technical , also accounts for ...
Page 185
... century , musical traditions— which had been chiefly Italian in the two preceding centuries - now became almost entirely German . We think in German forms : the plan of phrases , their development , their balance , and all the rhet ...
... century , musical traditions— which had been chiefly Italian in the two preceding centuries - now became almost entirely German . We think in German forms : the plan of phrases , their development , their balance , and all the rhet ...
Page 269
... century , and his right , rather less firmly , seeking solid ground in the twentieth . Some say he never found this foothold ; others ( and I agree with them ) insist that twentieth - century music could not exist as we know it if that ...
... century , and his right , rather less firmly , seeking solid ground in the twentieth . Some say he never found this foothold ; others ( and I agree with them ) insist that twentieth - century music could not exist as we know it if that ...
Contents
The Elusive Art Jack Sullivan | 3 |
Music into Words Jacques Barzun | 14 |
Three Diatribes George Bernard Shaw | 32 |
Copyright | |
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admiration artist audience Bach Bach's Barzun beauty Beethoven Berlioz Billy Billy Budd Boulez Brahms called century Chopin chords composer composer's composition concert death Debussy delight Don Giovanni dramatic E. T. A. Hoffmann effect emotions essay expression Faust feeling French genius German give Glenn Gould Gluck H. L. Mencken Handel harmony Haydn hear heard heart ideas imagination inspired instrumental Italian Jacques Barzun Les Huguenots less listener Liszt literary literature living master means melody ment Meyerbeer mind movement Mozart music criticism musician nature never Ninth Symphony once opera orchestra passages passion perfect performance perhaps phrase piano pianoforte piece played poem poetic poetry produced quartet rhythm Richard Strauss romantic scene Schubert Schumann score seems sense singers sonata song soul sound spirit Strauss Stravinsky strings style Tchaikovsky theme thing thought tion tone violin Virgil Thomson voice Wagner whole words writing wrote