This study provides a fuller account of Bruckner's early and middle years than has hitherto been available, and supplements the more accessible information about his years in Vienna by drawing on a rich source of material in contemporary reviews of performances of his works, comparisons between him and Brahms, and the well-documented accounts of hostility between the conservative pro-Brahms faction (represented by Hanslick, Halbeck and others) and the progressive pro-Wagner and pro-Bruckner faction (represented by the Schalk brothers, Ferdinand Lowe and Hugo Wolf).
Biographaical dictionary emphisizes classicaland art music; also gives ample attention to the classics as well as Jazz, Blues, rock and pop, and hymns and showtunes across the ages.
Every musically curious traveler or reader will find this guidebook indispensable. Distinguished musicologists Julie Anne and Stanley Sadie have traveled across Europe to compile an unparalleled directory of more than three hundred houses and museums where composers have lived and worked. Lively commentary on each location is included.
Masterworks of the Orchestral Repertoire was first published in 1968. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The fullest enjoyment of an orchestral performance or a record concert comes with a background of knowledge about the music itself. This handbook is designed to help music lovers get the ultimate pleasure from their listening by providing them with that background about a large portion of the orchestral repertoire. Professor Ferguson analyzes and interprets the most important classical symphonies, overtures, and concertos, as well as selected orchestral works of modern composers. He goes beyond a conventional analysis of structure since he believes (with a majority of the music-loving public) that great music is actually a communication -- that it expresses significant emotions. The great composers, on their own testimony, have striven not merely to create perfect forms but to interpret human experience. Mingled with the analyses, then, the reader will find comments on the expressive purport of the music. For twenty-five years Professor Ferguson has supplied the program notes for the subscription concerts of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and this volume is an outgrowth of that activity. In preparing the material for book publication, however, he studied the musical compositions anew, and the resulting chapters provide a much deeper exploration of the musical subjects than did the program notes. The themes of important works are illustrated by musical notations, and a brief glossary explains technical terms.
" ... Assist[s] ... the student of music toward a better understanding of the musical heritage of the Western world. It seeks to present in compact and understandable form information regarding the history of Western music, the constitution of its more important forms, biographies of the greatest composers, and accounts of compositional techniques, performance media, and acoustic phenomena, together with brief definitions of basic terms in performance and theory ..."--Preface
