
Musorgsky
His Life and Works
David Brown(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 14. October 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
416 pages
978-0-19-973552-5 (ISBN)
Description
Hailed by the New York Times Book Review as a "no-holds-barred biography" and "a state-of-the-art guide to the composer's life and works," this superb volume in the Master Musicians series offers the first life-and-works study of this towering composer of nineteenth-century Russian music to appear in English for over a half century. David Brown shows how the largely untrained Modest Musorgsky emerged as a supreme musical dramatist in his first opera, Boris Godunov. Along with this impressive debut and his much-loved piano suite, Pictures at an Exhibition, Musorgsky produced some of the most startlingly novel music of the nineteenth century. He also displayed a prodigious gift for uncovering the emotional content of a text in his highly original song compositions. While illuminating Musorgsky's work, Brown paints a detailed portrait of a fitful composer who could apply himself with superhuman intensity when the inspiration was upon him, but who deteriorated into alcoholism and died tragically young.
Reviews / Votes
This does a good job of putting those red-blooded melodies into context - from a childhood spent listening to his nurse's folk tales, to his death surrounded by unfinished potential masterpieces. * Anna Britten, Classic FM - The Magazine *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Illustrations
18 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
620 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-973552-5 (9780199735525)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
David Brown is Professor of Musicology Emeritus at the University of Southampton. The editor of the New Grove Russian Masters series, he is one of the leading authorities on nineteenth-century Russian music.
Author
Emeritus Professor of MusicologyEmeritus Professor of Musicology, University of Southampton

