Szymanowski on Music

Szymanowski on Music
Author: Karol Szymanowski
Publisher: Toccata Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 1999
Genre: Music
ISBN:

The first comprehensive selection of Szymanowski's writings to be published in English, containing all the most important of the composer's essays and interviews. Karol Szymanowski [1882-1937] is now widely acknowledged to be the most important Polish composer since Chopin. He was also a considerable thinker on musical topics: the role of music in society, the goal of musical education, thepurpose of criticism, the nature of Romanticism, the hallmarks of national identity - indeed, he was passionately concerned with the emergence of the Polish voice in music, and the role of Chopin in particular. Szymanowski on Music is the first comprehensive selection of his writings to be published in English. It contains all the most important of the composer's essays and interviews, throws light on the trying conditions under which he was obliged to work in the 1920s and '30s, especially in education, and gives perceptive assessments of the work of some of the major composers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - Wagner, Strauss, Stravinsky, Ravel, Satie and others - and the trends they embodied. A number of pieces of a more biographical nature are also included. Overall it provides, in the words of the translator Alistair Wightman, `abundant evidence of the breadth and depthof Szymanowski's personal culture, and at the same time a telling demonstration of his search for an all-embracing humanistic synthesis'. Dr Wightman faces his pioneering translations from Szymanowski's Polish originals with an extensive introductory essay that places his literary activities in the context of his life and career. This book will be a vital element in the rediscovery of the music of one of the twentieth century's most appealing composers.

Karol Szymanowski

Karol Szymanowski
Author: Alistair Wightman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 520
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1351561375

The music of the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) has enjoyed a resurgence of interest in recent years. Despite wide recognition in his own lifetime, Szymanowski‘s works were somewhat overlooked in the decades following his death. Outside Poland, changing fashions militated against acceptance of his achievement, and subsequent generations of Polish composers regarded his music as too reactionary to provide a basis on which to found a national musical identity. In this full-scale study of Karol Szymanowski‘s life and music, Alistair Wightman explores the composer‘s position as a constant outsider in his own country, yet agood European in the ways in which he responded positively to a diverse range of musical talents, in particular as Stravinsky, Strauss, Berg, Hindemith, Prokofiev and Ravel. The book throws light on Szymanowski‘s relationship to the Polish musical establishment, the reception of his works at home and abroad, his work as an educationalist, and the essentially European dimension of his art, drawing on letters, polemical writings, verse, theatrical sketches and the memoirs of family, friends and contemporaries. All of Szymanowski‘s significant works are discussed, illustrated with nearly 140 music examples. Evaluation is made of the close links existing between the composer‘s musical and literary works from the earliest stages of his career, as well as the various ideological strands that went together to form the unique, humanistic synthesis, characteristic of his mature work.

The Szymanowski Companion

The Szymanowski Companion
Author: Stephen Downes
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317014448

The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski is one of the most fascinating musical figures of the early twentieth century. His works included four symphonies, two violin concertos, the operas Hagith and King Roger, the ballet-pantomime Harnasie, the oratorio Stabat Mater, as well as numerous piano, violin, vocal and choral compositions. The profile and popularity of Szymanowski's music outside Poland has never been higher and continues to grow. The Szymanowski Companion constitutes the most significant and comprehensive reference source to the composer in English. Edited by two of the leading scholars in the field, Paul Cadrin and Stephen Downes, the collection consists of over 50 contributions from an international array of contributors, including recognized Polish experts. The Companion thus provides a systematic, authoritative and up-to-date compilation of information concerning the composer's life, thought and works.

Music for the Piano

Music for the Piano
Author: James Friskin
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 466
Release: 1973-01-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0486229181

First published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1954.

Polish piano music

Polish piano music
Author:
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 210
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0486406245

Biographical information and critical commentary in English.

Lutoslawski on Music

Lutoslawski on Music
Author: Witold Lutosławski
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2007
Genre: Music
ISBN: 081084804X

The writings of twentieth-century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski reveal many important aspects of his approach to music and his viewpoints as an artist and as a man. In Lutoslawski on Music, the first full collection of writings by this famous composer, Zbigniew Skowron has amassed an exciting assortment of essays, speeches, lectures, and articles, many of which are newly translated in English and previously unpublished. After an introductory autobiography, the writings, grouped in five parts, illustrate various aspects of the composer's creativity, and discuss musical form, compositional technique, and perception. Lutoslawski examines his own works as well as those of other composers, and expresses his views on crucial aspects of twentieth-century music, including the role of Schoenberg and Debussy and the impact of the western avant-garde of the 1950s. The book also contains Lutoslawski's Artistic Diary, his "notebook of ideas" written from 1959 to 1984 containing intensely personal reflections that do not appear in his public speeches and writings. Concluding with a select bibliography, this collection will give readers a unique and comprehensive overview of the man and his music, encouraging a full appreciation of Lutoslawski's compositional technique and aesthetic views, as well as his position in the history of twentieth-century music.

The Piano

The Piano
Author: Jeremy Siepmann
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1998
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780793599769

(Book). For more than 200 years, the piano has been an inspirational force in the world of music. The Piano shows how this characterful instrument has won its place at the center of the affections of music lovers everywhere. This is the first popular book to cover every aspect of the instrument's dynamic history, including: origins, technical developments, novelties and experiments; piano music throughout the centuries; profiles of the instruments' musical giants and analyses of their greatest works; and much more. With over 200 photographs and full color throughout, The Piano is a handsome tribute to a great musical personality. 192 pages, 9 1/2 x 11 1/4

The Art of Piano Playing

The Art of Piano Playing
Author: Genrikh Gustavovich Neĭgauz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1993
Genre: Piano
ISBN: 9781871082456

Neuhaus taught at the Moscow Conservatory and his pupils included some of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century: Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter, Nina Svetlanova, Alexei Lubimov and Radu Lupu. His legacy continues today and many teachers around the world regard this book as the most authoritative on the subject of piano playing.

Contemporary Piano Music

Contemporary Piano Music
Author: Madalena Soveral
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 415
Release: 2021-05-20
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1527569934

This collection addresses different issues involving performance and musical creation in contemporary piano music. Organised into three sections, it examines the aesthetic and technical aspects of musical creation in the 20th century, and evaluates the questions that these aspects pose regarding the interpretative and performative process. It also offers a reflection on artistic practices in the 21st century, and explores their contribution to redefining the contemporary performative field.

The Piano

The Piano
Author: Albert Ernest Wier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 494
Release: 1940
Genre: Pianists
ISBN: