Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation - Softcover

Whittall, Arnold

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521016681 ISBN 13: 9780521016681

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

In this wide-ranging book, Arnold Whittall considers a group of important composers of the twentieth century, including Debussy, Webern, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartók, Janácek, Britten, Carter, Birtwistle, Andriessen and Adams. He moves skilfully between the cultural and the technical, the general and the particular, to explore the various contexts and critical perspectives which illuminate certain works by these composers. Considering the extent to which place and nationality contribute to the definition of musical character, he investigates the relevance of such images as mirroring and symmetry, the function of genre and the way types of identity may be suggested by such labels as classical, modernist, secular, sacred radical, traditional. These categories are considered as flexible and interactive and they generate a wide-ranging series of narratives delineating some of the most fundamental forces which affected composers and their works within the complex and challenging world of the twentieth century.

About this title

About the Author

Arnold Whittall is Professor Emeritus of Music Theory and Analysis at King's College London and he has written widely on twentieth-century music. His recent publications include The Music of Britten and Tippett (1990) and Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century (1999).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0521016681
• ISBN 13: 9780521016681
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 252