The Music of Brahms (Companion to the Great Composers S.) - Hardcover

Musgrave, Michael

9780710097767: The Music of Brahms (Companion to the Great Composers S.)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 071009776X ISBN 13: 9780710097767

Publisher: Routledge, 1985

Michael Musgrave presents a contemporary view of Brahms 150 years after his birth, seeing him not simply as the "conservative" figure so often stressed in the past, but as one who creatively reinterpreted a wider range of historical elements than any composer of his time. Brahms absorbed his studies directly into his music making and composition and in so doing helped to evolve not merely a personal language which was regarded as progressive and sometimes difficult by a range of contemporaries and successors, but also helped to establish an ethos of historical reference which anticipates the twentieth century. The Music of Brahms concentrates on the music, with Brahms's life discussed briefly in the introduction. The works are considered in four phases according to genre, with an emphasis on connection and on the development and elaboration of a unified language. The list of works includes recent discoveries and a calendar outlines the pattern of his musical life, including relevant information concerning performances.

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Review:

Succeeds splendidly....This is a work of music criticism in the true sense that it is actually exciting to read, and it can help one to listen to Brahms with new ears. (Gramophone)

From the Back Cover:

First published in 1985, The Music of Brahms laid a fresh emphasis on the vital role of Brahm's studies and performance of earlier music on the formation of his style and musical ethos. Once regarded as providing evidence of musical conservatism, the remarkable scope of his knowledge of music of periods distant from his own, and the range of the stylistic sources which he drew together, now seem progressive from the vantage point of the historically-oriented culture of the late twentieth century. In details of his compositional technique also, he was far more influential on his successors, especially Schoenberg, than was till recently fully acknowledged. Illustrated with many music examples, the book concentrates on details of style and structure in Brahm's development, rather than on biography, the life being discussed briefly in the introduction. The works are considered in four phases according to genre, with an emphasis on connection in the development and elaboration of a unified language. For this revised edition, corrections to the first edition have been incorporated, and the work list and calendar, including details of Brahm's own performances, brought up to date.

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