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For the three forces competing for political authority in France during World War II, music became the site of a cultural battle that reflected the war itself. German occupying authorities promoted German music at the expense of French, while the Vichy administration pursued projects of national renewal through culture. Meanwhile, Resistance networks gradually formed to combat German propaganda while eyeing Vichy’s efforts with suspicion. In The Musical Legacy of Wartime France, Leslie A. Sprout explores how each of these forces influenced the composition, performance, and reception of five well-known works: the secret Resistance songs of Francis Poulenc and those of Arthur Honegger; Olivi...
In this book, Ronald Ebrecht has meticulously studied each of Duruflé’s works and put together the first book to discuss in detail all of Duruflé’s music. With encouragement from Duruflé’s editor and the foundation established in his name, Ebrecht has compiled copious examples from manuscript sources to be published for the first time along with the little-known contextualizing works of Messiaen and Barraine. Most widely known for his masterpiece Requiem, the composer’s orchestral gems are analyzed alongside his delightful miniature: the orchestration of the Sicilienne. The organ works which set the standard for virtuosity at conservatories around the world are given new insightful and thorough evaluation by Ebrecht, whose long association with late 19th and early 20th century France and French music affords illuminating connections between Duruflé and his predecessors and successors with sweeping insight and minute detail.
EDITORIAL REVIEWSWhether breeding birds or keeping a family companion, diet and nutrition are the most important aspects of their lives in order for them to maintain optimum health and fitness, and Polly Want a Sprout will provide the required information. Such subjects can be quite complex, depending on each particular situation, but nutrition will always be at the top of the list. Since 2002, Leslie has been writing for Parrots magazine, informing our readers about the importance of what their parrots eat, and going by the comments I continually receive, her articles have been a significant element in the good health and well-being of many owners' birds. Leslie's knowledge of nutrition and...
In The Composer as Intellectual, musicologist Jane Fulcher reveals the extent to which leading French composers between the World Wars were not only aware of but also engaged intellectually and creatively with the central political and ideological issues of the period. Employing recent sociological and historical insights, she demonstrates the extent to which composers, particularly those in Paris since the Dreyfus Affair, considered themselves and were considered to be intellectuals, and interacted closely with intellectuals in other fields. Their consciousness raised by the First World War and the xenophobic nationalism of official culture, some joined parties or movements, allying themsel...
The clarinetist Rebecca Rischin has written a captivating book.... Her research dispels several long-cherished myths about the 1941 premiere.... Rischin lovingly brings to life the other musicians-- tienne Pasquier, cellist; Henri Akoka, clarinetist; and Jean Le Boulaire, violinist--who played with Messiaen, the pianist at the premiere."--Alex Ross, The New Yorker "This book offers a wealth of new information about the circumstances under which the Quartet was created. Based on original interviews with the performers, witnesses to the premiere, and documents from the prison camp, this first comprehensive history of the Quartet's composition and premiere held my interest from beginning to end...
French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908 1992) is probably best known for his Quartet for the End of Time, premiered in a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1941. However, Messiaen was a remarkably complex, intelligent person with a sometimes tragic domestic life who composed a wide range of music. This book explores the enormous web of influences in the early part of Messiaen's long life. The first section of the book provides an intellectual biography of Messiaen's early life in order to make his (difficult) music more accessible to the general listener. The second section offers an analysis of and thematic commentaries on Messiaen's pivotal work for two pianos, Visions of Amen, composed in 1943. Schloesser's analysis includes timing indications corresponding to a downloadable performance of the work by accomplished pianists Stphane Lemelin and Hyesook Kim.
424 pages including index, history of the county and the towns in it, businesses, churches, families and organizations, lots of b/w illustrations
Challenges the longstanding perception that modernist composers made art, not money, and that those who made money somehow failed to make art.Patrons have long appeared as colorful, exceptional figures in music history, but this book recasts patrons and patronage as creative forces that shaped the sounds and meanings of new French music between the world wars. Far from mere sources of funding, early twentieth-century patrons collaborated closely with composers, treating commissions for new music as opportunities to express their own artistry. Patrons developed new pathways to participate in music-making, going beyond commissions to establish ballet companies, manage performance venues, and e...
This memoir is less a chronicle of the life of a leading scholar/critic of matters French (and a key figure in the naturalization of French "theory" in English) than a series of differently angled fragments, episodes, each with its attendant surprise, in what one commentator has called his amour vache, his injured and occasionally injurious love, for France and the French.
This collection of essays explores the cultures that coalesced around printed music in previous centuries. It focuses on the unique modes through which print organized the presentation of musical texts, the conception of written compositions, and the ways in which music was disseminated and performed. In highlighting the tensions that exist between musical print and performance this volume raises not only the question of how older scores can be read today, but also how music expressed its meanings to listeners in the past.