The Life and Twelve-Note Music of Nikos Skalkottas

The Life and Twelve-Note Music of Nikos Skalkottas
Author: Eva Mantzourani
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2016-03-03
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317025601

Nikos Skalkottas is perhaps the last great 'undiscovered' composer of the twentieth century. In the 1920s he was a promising young violinist and composer in Berlin, and a student of Schoenberg, who included him among his most gifted pupils. It was only after his return to Greece in 1933 that Skalkottas became an anonymous and obscure figure, working in complete isolation until his death in 1949. Most of his works remained unpublished and unperformed during his lifetime, and although he is largely known for his folkloristic tonal pieces, Skalkottas in fact concentrated predominantly on developing an idiosyncratic dodecaphonic musical language. Eva Mantzourani provides here a comprehensive study of this fascinating yet under-researched composer. The book, lavishly illustrated with musical examples, is divided into three parts. Part I comprises a critical biography that, by drawing extensively on his letters and other writings, reappraises the image of Skalkottas with which we are often presented. The main focus of the book, however, is on Skalkottas's twelve-note compositional processes, since these characterize the majority of his output, and are neither well-known nor fully understood. Part II presents the structural and technical features of his twelve-note technique, particularly the different types of sets and their manipulation, and his approach to musical forms. Part III consists of analytical case studies of several works, presented chronologically, which thus provide a diachronic framework within which Skalkottas's dodecaphonic compositional development can be more effectively viewed. This book underlines Nikos Skalkottas's importance as a composer with a distinctive artistic personality, whose work contributed to the development of twelve-note compositional practice, and who deserves a more significant position within the Western art music canon than that to which he is often assigned.

A Chronicle of First Broadcast Performances of Musical Works in the United Kingdom, 1923-1996

A Chronicle of First Broadcast Performances of Musical Works in the United Kingdom, 1923-1996
Author: Alastair Mitchell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 575
Release: 2019-06-04
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1351791249

First published in 2001, this work provides detailed information taken from the ’Programmes-as-Broadcast’ daily log of output held at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham. Arranged in chronological order, entries are given for broadcasts of first performances of musical works in the United Kingdom, and include details of: the date of the broadcast, the composer, the title of the work, performers and conductor. In addition to its usefulness as a reference tool, the Chronicle enables us to gauge the trends in twentieth-century British musical life, and the role of the BBC in their promotion.

Dennis Brain

Dennis Brain
Author: Stephen Gamble
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2011
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1574413074

The British horn player Dennis Brain (1921-1957) is commonly described by such statements as "the greatest horn player of the 20th Century," "a genius," and "a legend." He was both a prodigy and popularizer, famously performing a concerto on a garden hose in perfect pitch. On his usual concert instrument his tone was of unsurpassed beauty and clarity, complemented by a flawless technique. The recordings he made with Herbert von Karajan of Mozart's horn concerti are considered the definitive interpretations. Brain enlisted in the English armed forces during World War II for seven years, joining the National Symphony Orchestra in wartime in 1942. After the war he filled the principal horn positions in both the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras. He later formed his own wind quintet and began conducting. Composers including Benjamin Britten and Paul Hindemith lined up to write music for him. Even fifty years after his tragic death at the age of 36 in an auto accident in 1957, Peter Maxwell Davies was commissioned to write a piece in his honor. Stephen Gamble and William Lynch have conducted numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues and uncovered information in the BBC archives and other lesser known sources about recordings that were previously unknown. This volume describes Brain's life and analyzes in depth his musical career. Its appendices of information on performances will appeal to music historians, and its details on Brain's instruments and equipment will be useful to horn players.

Catalogue

Catalogue
Author: May and May (Firm)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1977
Genre: Booksellers' catalogs
ISBN:

Underground Music from the Former USSR

Underground Music from the Former USSR
Author: Valeria Tsenova
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2014-02-25
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1134371659

What happened to contemporary music in the Soviet Union after Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Prokofiev? This book is a valuable source of information on the composers of the generations following these three great innovators. It is a document of the hidden period of Russian music, of what happened after the denunciation of Shostakovich and Prokofiev by the Composers' Union. It contains profiles of the most interesting and innovative composers from Russia and the former Soviet republics, written by leading musicologists. Featured composers include Andrei Volkonsky, Philip Gershkovich, Sergei Slonimsky, Boris Tishchenko, Valentin Silvestrov, Leonid Grabovsky , Nikolai Karetnikov , Alemdar Karamanov, Roman Ledenyov , Vyacheslav Artyomov , Faraj Karayev , Alexander Knaifel , Vladislav Shoot Alexander Vustin, Victor Ekimovksy , Alexander Raskatov , Sergei Pavlenko, Vladimir Tarnopolsy.

String Figures and How to Make Them

String Figures and How to Make Them
Author: Caroline F. Jayne
Publisher: Ravenio Books
Total Pages: 651
Release:
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN:

This book may be regarded as an introduction to the study of String Figures—games which are widespread among primitive peoples, and played by weaving on the hands a single loop of string in order to produce intricate patterns supposed to represent certain familiar objects. I have gathered together the facts already known concerning these games, and, adding my own studies and the unpublished records of other observers, I have here described and illustrated the methods whereby about one hundred string figures are made. My purpose has been twofold: to interest other students in the subject, in order that additional figures and their methods may be collected among various tribes and races; and to reach a still larger public, that more people may share in the fascinations of the games themselves. The games are certainly fascinating, appealing as they do to young and to old, and to those debarred from all pastimes demanding physical exertion. Moreover, they are not unduly difficult; and, capable as they are of infinite variations, their charm ought to be inexhaustible.

Music of the Soviet Era: 1917-1991

Music of the Soviet Era: 1917-1991
Author: Levon Hakobian
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2016-11-25
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317091876

This volume is a comprehensive and detailed survey of music and musical life of the entire Soviet era, from 1917 to 1991, which takes into account the extensive body of scholarly literature in Russian and other major European languages. In this considerably updated and revised edition of his 1998 publication, Hakobian traces the strikingly dramatic development of the music created by outstanding and less well-known, ‘modernist’ and ‘conservative’, ‘nationalist’ and ‘cosmopolitan’ composers of the Soviet era. The book’s three parts explore, respectively, the musical trends of the 1920s, music and musical life under Stalin, and the so-called ’Bronze Age’ of Soviet music after Stalin’s death. Music of the Soviet Era: 1917–1991 considers the privileged position of music in the USSR in comparison to the written and visual arts. Through his examination of the history of the arts in the Soviet state, Hakobian’s work celebrates the human spirit’s wonderful capacity to derive advantage even from the most inauspicious conditions.

Compositional Process in Elliott Carter’s String Quartets

Compositional Process in Elliott Carter’s String Quartets
Author: Laura Emmery
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2019-11-21
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0429621663

Compositional Process in Elliott Carter’s String Quartets is an interdisciplinary study examining the evolution and compositional process in Elliott Carter’s five string quartets. Offering a systematic and logical way of unpacking concepts and processes in these quartets that would otherwise remain opaque, the book’s narrative reveals new aspects of understanding these works and draws novel conclusions on their collective meaning and Carter’s place as the leading American modernist. Each of Carter’s five string quartets is driven by a new idea that Carter was exploring during a particular period, which allows for each quartet to be examined under a unique lens and a deeper understanding of his oeuvre at large. Drawing on key ideas from a variety of subjects including performance studies, philosophy, music cognition, musical meaning and semantics, literary criticism, and critical theory, this is an informative volume for scholars and researchers in the areas of music theory and musicology. Analyses are supplemented with sketch study, correspondence, text manuscripts, and other archival sources from the Paul Sacher Stiftung, the Library of Congress, and the New York Public Library.

Quantum Mechanics - a Philosophical Perspective

Quantum Mechanics - a Philosophical Perspective
Author: Don Hainesworth
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 715
Release: 2019-09-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1728325587

This book gives a comprehensive treatment on the historical discoveries and scientific developments concerning the Universe at the atomic and subatomic levels. Discussions begin with classical discoveries on the behavior of the atom to Quantum Mechanics and ends with exciting modern discoveries that are leading us to unlocking the hidden mysteries of reality. “Quantum mechanics describes the behavior of very small objects – the size of atoms or smaller – and it provides the only understanding of the world of the very small. In the world of quantum mechanics, the laws of physics that are familiar from the everyday world no longer work. Instead, events are governed by probabilities. During the time of Newton, it was thought that the Universe ran like clockwork, wound up and set in motion by the Creator, down some utterly predictable path. Newton’s classical mechanics provided plenty of support for this deterministic view of the Universe, a picture that left little place for human free will or chance. Could it really be that we are all puppets following our own preset tracks through life, with no real choice at all? Most scientists were content to let the philosophers debate that question. But it returned, with full force, at the heart of the new physics of the twentieth century.” In Search Of Schrodinger’s Cat – John Gribbin In addition, the various interpretations of quantum phenomena has led scientists and philosophers to a real possibility of finding a connection between matter and consciousness. This book contains no advanced scientific concepts, and no complicated formulas are written down for analysis. However, it does present some simple mathematical related examples in the final chapter. This is presented in order to reinforce the important ideas in QM and maintain a clear understanding of its fundamentals. It is not assumed that the reader has an understanding of Quantum Physics. Therefore the text provides the reader with enough historical and scientific information to insure his or her confidence in understanding the properties and behavior of quantum particle/wave elements.