Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016) has been called Finland's most notable musical export after Sibelius. His prolific output includes eleven operas; eight symphonies; eleven concertos; choral works for the Orthodox, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic churches; secular choral works; chamber music; vocal solos; and keyboard works. Many of these works were ......
Villa-Lobos and Modernism: The Apotheosis of Cannibal Music provides a new assessment of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos in terms of his contributions to the Modernist Movement of the twentieth century. In this profound study, Ricardo Averbach elevates Cultural Cannibalism as a major manifestation of the Modernist aesthetics and ......
In Opera as Art: Philosophical Sketches, Paul Thom argues for opera as an art, standing alongside other artforms that employ visual and sonic media to embody the great themes of human life. Thom contends that in great operatic art, the narrative and expressive content collaborate with the work's aesthetic qualities towards achieving this aim. This ......
Bruno Maderna was one of the most influential composers in the twentieth century. He was the eldest of the group of Italian composers born in the 1920s (along with Berio, Nono, Donatoni, and others) who began their career shortly before the second World War and were able to exploit the opportunities offered by the new world that emerged in the ......
Based on his decades of experience conducting these works, Leonard Slatkin delves into eight of the most beloved orchestral pieces of the twentieth century and the problems conductors face before stepping onto the podium. These works are: Claude Debussy's La Mer Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra Igor ......
Music Glocalization and the Composer: The Case of Franz Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924) examines the life and compositions of composer Franz Xaver Scharwenka. Mikolaj Rykowski argues that Scharwenka held the ability to function on a global scale relatively early in music history, founding conservatories in Berlin and New York, becoming one of the ......
An Allegorical Interpretation of Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung
Paul Brian Heise's The Wound That Will Never Heal is an original allegorical reading of Richard Wagner's epic music drama The Ring of the Nibelung. Heise challenges the standard view that Wagner merely dramatizes the conflict between love and power and demonstrates instead that his greatest work is an allegory exploring humanity's longing for ......
Scholars and performers have long noted J.S. Bach's abundant use of parody procedures: that is, the recycling and reworking of pre-existing material from his own compositions or from other sources. Laura Buch edits essays exploring how the composer parodied the work of others and how other composers did the same with him. The contributors delve ......
Conducting Opera discusses operas in the standard repertory from the perspective of a conductor with a lifetime of experience performing them. It focuses on Joseph Rescigno's approach to preparing and performing these masterworks in order to realize what opera can uniquely achieve: a fusion of music and drama resulting in a whole that is greater ......
