Graphic Music Analysis

Graphic Music Analysis
Author: Eric Wen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2019-02-14
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1538104679

This book approaches Schenkerian analysis in a practical and accessible manner fit for the classroom, guiding readers through a step-by-step process. It is suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students of musicology, music theory, composition, and performance, and it is replete with a wide variety of musical examples.

The Rhythmic Structure of Music

The Rhythmic Structure of Music
Author: Grosvenor W. Cooper
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1963-04-15
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780226115221

In this book, the authors develop a theoretical framework based on a Gestalt approach, viewing rhythmic experience in terms of pattern perception or groupings. Musical examples of increasing complexity are used to provide training in the analysis, performance, and writing of rhythm.

The Finale in Western Instrumental Music

The Finale in Western Instrumental Music
Author: Michael Talbot
Publisher: Oxford Monographs on Music
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2001
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780198166955

The knowledge that finales are by tradition (and perhaps also necessarily) 'different' from other movements has been around a long time, but this is the first time that the special nature of finales in instrumental music has been examined comprehensively and in detail. Three main types offinale, labelled 'relaxant', 'summative', and 'valedictory', are identified. Each type is studied closely, with a wealth of illustration and analytical commentary covering the entire period from the Renaissance to the present day. The history of finales in five important genres -- suite, sonata,string quartet, symphony, and concerto -- is traced, and the parallels and divergences between these traditions are identified. Several wider issues are mentioned, including narrativity, musical rounding, inter-movement relationships, and the nature of codas. The book ends with a look at thefinales of all Shostakovich's string quartets, in which examples of most of the types may be found.

Tchaikovsky Through Others' Eyes

Tchaikovsky Through Others' Eyes
Author: Alexander Poznansky
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 378
Release: 1999-04-22
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780253335456

The result is a dynamic portrayal of the composer, with all the complexities and paradoxes of a real life.

Sviatoslav Richter

Sviatoslav Richter
Author: Bruno Monsaingeon
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2002-09-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0691095493

"Sviatoslav Richter was a dazzling performer but an intensely private man. Though world famous and revered by classical music lovers everywhere, he guarded himself and his thoughts as carefully as his talent. Fascinated, author and filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon tried vainly for years to interview the enigmatic pianist. Richter eventually yielded, granting Monsaingeon hours of taped conversation, unlimited access to his diaries and notebooks, and, ultimately his friendship. This book is the product of that friendship. It offers readers the sizable pleasure of lingering in the thoughts and words of one of the most important pianists of the twentieth century. Sviatoslav Richter belongs on the shelves of everyone with a classical music collection and will also appeal to lovers of autobiography and admirers of Russian musical culture." -- Back cover

The Variations of Johannes Brahms

The Variations of Johannes Brahms
Author: Julian Littlewood
Publisher: Plumbago Books and Arts
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2004
Genre: Variations
ISBN: 0954012348

Variation is a fundamental musical principle, yet its most naked expression - variation form - resists all but the broadest of descriptions. This book offers listener, performer, analyst and composer an eclectic array of approaches to `Theme and Variations', including: patterns of departure and return; real versus perceived time; strategies of propulsion and closure in an intrinsically cyclic and open-ended form; the interplay of authorial voices deriving from dialogue between the `self' of variations and the `other' of their theme; critique of a theme through a set's generic references; drama and narrative achieved through textural and tonal control; and the intrinsic sound of a variation, so different from that of a freely composed work. These topics are introduced through a general survey of the form, seen through the prisms of the provenance of themes and the ideologies of sets, before being developed through close study of Brahms's variation sets and movements. Brahms was supremely aware of his place in music history and was uncommonly self-conscious in his manipulation of different techniques of composition. His variation sets - some of the most well-crafted and beloved examples - place the interplay of forms and styles at the heart of their identity. Moreover, in their stunning breadth and diversity they offer a microcosm of Brahms's entire output, a succinct revelation of his life-long concerns. Through them we marvel at his technical and poetic mastery, and journey to the heart of his creative character.