Variations on the Canon
Essays on Music from Bach to Boulez in Honor of Charles Rosen on His Eightieth Birthday
Published on 15. October 2008
Book
Hardback
395 pages
978-1-58046-285-3 (ISBN)
Description
Masterful essays honoring the great pianist and critic Charles Rosen, on masterpieces from Bach and Beethoven to Chopin, Verdi, and Stockhausen.
Charles Rosen, the pianist and man of letters, is perhaps the single most influential writer on music of the past half-century. While Rosen's vast range as a writer and performer is encyclopedic, it has focused particularly on theliving "canonical" repertory extending from Bach to Boulez. Inspired in its liveliness and variety of critical approaches by Charles Rosen's challenging work, Variations on the Canon offers original essays by some of the world's most eminent musical scholars. Contributors address such issues as style and compositional technique, genre, influence and modeling, and reception history; develop insights afforded by close examination of compositional sketches; and consider what language and metaphors might most meaningfully convey insights into music. However diverse the modes of inquiry, each essay sheds new light on the works of those composers posterity has deemed central to the modern Western musical tradition.
Contributors: Pierre Boulez, Scott Burnham, Elliott Carter, Robert Curry, Walter Frisch, David Gable, Philip Gossett, Jeffrey Kallberg, Joseph Kerman, Richard Kramer, William Kinderman, Lewis Lockwood, Sir Charles Mackerras, Robert L. Marshall, Robert P. Morgan, Charles Rosen, Julian Rushton, David Schulenberg, Laszlo Somfai, Leo Treitler, James Webster, and Robert Winter.
Robert Curry is principalof the Conservatorium High School and honorary senior lecturer in the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney; David Gable is Assistant Professor of Music at Clark-Atlanta University; Robert L. Marshall is Louis, Frances, and Jeffrey Sachar Professor Emeritus of Music at Brandeis University.
Charles Rosen, the pianist and man of letters, is perhaps the single most influential writer on music of the past half-century. While Rosen's vast range as a writer and performer is encyclopedic, it has focused particularly on theliving "canonical" repertory extending from Bach to Boulez. Inspired in its liveliness and variety of critical approaches by Charles Rosen's challenging work, Variations on the Canon offers original essays by some of the world's most eminent musical scholars. Contributors address such issues as style and compositional technique, genre, influence and modeling, and reception history; develop insights afforded by close examination of compositional sketches; and consider what language and metaphors might most meaningfully convey insights into music. However diverse the modes of inquiry, each essay sheds new light on the works of those composers posterity has deemed central to the modern Western musical tradition.
Contributors: Pierre Boulez, Scott Burnham, Elliott Carter, Robert Curry, Walter Frisch, David Gable, Philip Gossett, Jeffrey Kallberg, Joseph Kerman, Richard Kramer, William Kinderman, Lewis Lockwood, Sir Charles Mackerras, Robert L. Marshall, Robert P. Morgan, Charles Rosen, Julian Rushton, David Schulenberg, Laszlo Somfai, Leo Treitler, James Webster, and Robert Winter.
Robert Curry is principalof the Conservatorium High School and honorary senior lecturer in the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney; David Gable is Assistant Professor of Music at Clark-Atlanta University; Robert L. Marshall is Louis, Frances, and Jeffrey Sachar Professor Emeritus of Music at Brandeis University.
Reviews / Votes
[Charles Rosen's] reviews show him tackling some of the major issues and names in musicology with an authority that few could muster and in a style that is compulsively readable, a combination of acid and elegance. . . . A series of essays by well-established scholars covering subject areas associated with the honoree [and] three short tributes from Pierre Boulez, Elliot Carter, and Charles Mackerras. -- W. Dean Sutcliffe * MUSIC & LETTERS * When it comes to superlatives, . . . [pianist and author] Charles Rosen is the genuine article. . . . All of the essays in this fine book are insightful or informative. . . . For [Scott] Burnham, . . . Rosen's readers 'are in for something special.' The same can be said for readers of this book. -- Mark Kroll * EARLY MUSIC AMERICA * The eminence of most contributors is matched by the eminence of the composers discussed: from Bach to Boulez and Stockhausen via Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Verdi, Brahms and Schoenberg. -- Peter Williams * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT * It is difficult to imagine a more intellectually invigorating and heartfelt tribute to the man Mackerras rightly describes as 'one of the truly great musical minds of our time'. -- Julian Haylock * INTERNATIONAL PIANO * Each of the essays . . . is on a subject that Rosen himself has written on [or music that he's recorded] with magisterial authority. . . . The final section comprises a trio of short tributes by three 'big names' -- Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, and Charles Mackerras. . . . [It] made me keen to go back to the music and hear it again for myself, through more enlightened ears. One can't ask more from a piece of writing about music than that. -- Mark L. Lehman * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE * As fine a collection of writings on music as has been created in our time. --Maynard Solomon, author of Mozart: A Life, and Late Beethoven: Music, Thought, Imagination * . * It is hard to imagine a more vivid testimony to the far-reaching and enduring impact of Charles Rosen's musical thoughts, words, and deeds over the last half century than the extraordinary line-up of scholars assembled in these pages. The copious new insights these essays offer shows how much we can learn through encounters with Rosen's provocative, inspiring, and energizing writings and performances, all usefully cataloged in the extensive discography and bibliography. -- Joseph Auner, Tufts University</i>More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Rochester
United States
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
2 colour, 4 b/w, 79 line illus.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
725 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-58046-285-3 (9781580462853)
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
Additional editions
Robert Curry | David Gable | Robert L. Robert L. Marshal
Variations on the Canon
Essays on Music from Bach to Boulez in Honor of Charles Rosen on His Eightieth Birthday
E-Book
10/2008
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€48.99
Available for download
Persons
ROBERT L MARSHALL is the Louis, Frances, and Jeffery Sachar Professor Emeritus of Music at Brandeis University. DAVID SCHULENBERG has performed on historical keyboard instruments across North America, Europe and Asia, and has recorded for Naxos, Hungaroton, and Brilliant Classics. His publications include The Music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (University of Rochester Press, 2014). He has taught at Boston University, the Juilliard School, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he directed the Collegium Musicum. His website schulenbergmusic.org features numerous recordings and editions. JULIAN RUSHTON is Emeritus Professor of Music, University of Leeds, UK. ROBERT L MARSHALL is the Louis, Frances, and Jeffery Sachar Professor Emeritus of Music at Brandeis University.
Content
Fugue and Its Discontents - Joseph Kerman
Fugues, Form, and Fingering: Sonata Style in Bach's Preludes and Fugues - David Schulenberg
Notational Irregularities as Attributes of a New Style: The Case of Haydn's "Sun" Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, no. 5 - Laszlo Somfai
The Fugal Moment: On a Few Bars in Mozart's Quintet in C Major, K. 515 - Richard Kramer
A Tale of Two Quintets: Mozart's K. 452 and Beethoven's Opus 16 - William Kinderman
Vestas Feuer: Beethoven on the Path to Leonore - Lewis Lockwood
Sonority and Structure: Observations on Beethoven's Early and Middle-Period Piano Compositions - Robert L. Marshall
Recomposing the Grosse Fuge: Beethoven and Opus 134 - Prof. Robert Winter
Schubert, the Tarantella, and the Quartettsatz, D. 703 - Julian Rushton
On the Scherzando Nocturne - Jeffrey Kallberg
Chopin's Modular Forms - Robert P. Morgan
The Hot and the Cold: Verdi Writes to Antonio Somma about Re Lear - Philip Gossett
The Ironic German: Schoenberg and the Serenade, Op. 24 - Walter Frisch
Words for the Surface: Boulez, Stockhausen, and "Allover" Painting - David Gable
Rosen's Modernist Haydn - James Webster
Facile Metaphors, Hidden Gaps, Short Circuits: Should We Adore Adorno? - Leo Treitler
The Music of a Classical Style - Scott Burnham
Montaigne hors de son propos - Charles Rosen
Tribute: Une culture vraiment intimidante - Pierre Boulez
Tribute: Charles Rosen for His Eightieth Birthday - Elliott Carter
Tribute: Charles Rosen: A Personal Appreciation by a Contemporary - Charles Mackerras
Appendix 1: A Discography of the Recordings of Charles Rosen - David Gable
Appendix 2: A Bibliography of the Writings of Charles Rosen - Robert Curry
Fugues, Form, and Fingering: Sonata Style in Bach's Preludes and Fugues - David Schulenberg
Notational Irregularities as Attributes of a New Style: The Case of Haydn's "Sun" Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, no. 5 - Laszlo Somfai
The Fugal Moment: On a Few Bars in Mozart's Quintet in C Major, K. 515 - Richard Kramer
A Tale of Two Quintets: Mozart's K. 452 and Beethoven's Opus 16 - William Kinderman
Vestas Feuer: Beethoven on the Path to Leonore - Lewis Lockwood
Sonority and Structure: Observations on Beethoven's Early and Middle-Period Piano Compositions - Robert L. Marshall
Recomposing the Grosse Fuge: Beethoven and Opus 134 - Prof. Robert Winter
Schubert, the Tarantella, and the Quartettsatz, D. 703 - Julian Rushton
On the Scherzando Nocturne - Jeffrey Kallberg
Chopin's Modular Forms - Robert P. Morgan
The Hot and the Cold: Verdi Writes to Antonio Somma about Re Lear - Philip Gossett
The Ironic German: Schoenberg and the Serenade, Op. 24 - Walter Frisch
Words for the Surface: Boulez, Stockhausen, and "Allover" Painting - David Gable
Rosen's Modernist Haydn - James Webster
Facile Metaphors, Hidden Gaps, Short Circuits: Should We Adore Adorno? - Leo Treitler
The Music of a Classical Style - Scott Burnham
Montaigne hors de son propos - Charles Rosen
Tribute: Une culture vraiment intimidante - Pierre Boulez
Tribute: Charles Rosen for His Eightieth Birthday - Elliott Carter
Tribute: Charles Rosen: A Personal Appreciation by a Contemporary - Charles Mackerras
Appendix 1: A Discography of the Recordings of Charles Rosen - David Gable
Appendix 2: A Bibliography of the Writings of Charles Rosen - Robert Curry