Samuel Barber (1910-1981) is one of the most admired and honored American composers of the twentieth century. An unabashed Romantic, largely independent of worldwide trends and the avant-garde, he infused his works with poetic lyricism and gave tonal language and forms new vitality. His rich legacy includes every genre, including the famous Adagio for Strings, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, three concertos, a plethora of songs, and two operas, the Pulitzer prize-winning Vanessa, and Antony and Cleopatra, the commissioned work that opened the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in 1966. Generously documented by letter, sketches, autograph manuscripts, and interviews with friends, colleagues, and performers with whom he worked, this ASCAP-Award winning book is still unquestionably the most authoritative biography on Barber, covering his entire career and interweaving the events of his life with his compositional process. This second edition benefits from many new discoveries, including a Violin Sonata recovered from an artist's estate, a diary Barber kept his seventeenth year, a trove of letters and manuscripts that were recovered from a suitcase found in a dumpster, documentation that dispels earlier myths about the composition of Barber's Violin Concerto, and research of scholars that was stimulated by Heyman's work. Barber's intimate relations are discussed when they bear on his creativity. A testament to the lasting significance of Romanticism, Samuel Barber stands as a model biography of an important musical figure.
Offering comprehensive coverage of classical music, this guide surveys more than eleven thousand albums and presents biographies of five hundred composers and eight hundred performers, as well as twenty-three essays on forms, eras, and genres of classical music. Original.
Samuel Barber: A Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Works is the first publication to list the entire musical output of Samuel Barber, one of the most beloved and frequently performed American composers. In this exhaustive study, renowned Barber biographer Barbara Heyman chronologically lists and details hundreds of core repertory and the most recently published works, as well as numerous works previously unknown and unpublished. Each entry includes information about first performances, commissions, and the circumstances and inspiration of the composition; the texts of songs; a musical extract containing the opening measures of each work, movement, or major aria; duration, revisions, editions, arrangements, and a select discography of historical and contemporary performances. The descriptions of manuscript sources provide details about the hundreds of holograph manuscripts, sketches, drafts, and significant publisher's proofs with Barber's corrections. Entries are enhanced by Heyman's extensive commentary, which draws from Barber's correspondence, interviews, and diaries. Useful appendices to the catalogue comprise a register of works by genre; an alphabetical directory of works; an index of first lines of vocal works; a listing by nationality of authors and translators of texts set by Barber; and a comprehensive discography. This thematic catalogue is an invaluable guide for musicians, scholars, and students, providing an essential foundation for any serious study of Barber and his music.
With the same authority, insight, and unique ability to bring music to life on the printed page that he brought to his Guide to Chamber Music, Melvin Berger gives us an indispensable guide to the sonata form. Comprehensive, analytical, and historical, including descriptions in nontechnical language of over two hundred of the best best-known sonatas, Guide to Sonatas is designed to help all music lovers−casual listeners, experienced concertgoers, performers, conductors, or teachers−deepen their understanding and enhance their enjoyment of the classical repertoire.
Menahem Pressler is a world-renowned piano soloist, master class teacher, and member of the acclaimed Beaux Arts Trio. In this companion to his first book, Menahem Pressler: Artistry in Piano Teaching, Pressler's former student William Brown brings together Pressler's teachings on an additional 37 piano masterworks by Johann Sebastian Bach, Samuel Barber, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy, George Frideric Handel, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, Franz Schubert, and Robert Schumann. With over 200 musical examples and measure-by-measure lessons on masterpieces of the piano repertoire as well as instructions on phrasing, fingering, imagery, dynamic contrasts, pianistic touches, articulation, and practice drills, pianists of all levels will benefit from Pressler's expertise.
Beethoven wrote 32 sonatas for piano. Volume 2, edited by Stewart Gordon, includes Sonatas 9--15 (Op. 14, Nos. 1--2; Op. 22; Op. 26; Op. 27, Nos. 1--2; and Op. 28), written between 1798 and 1801 and published shortly after they were written. Of the sonatas in this volume, autographs exist for Op. 26; Op. 27, No. 2 (the first and final pages are missing); and Op. 28. This edition is based on the existing autographs and the first editions, published by various Viennese engravers. Dr. Gordon discusses a variety of topics including Beethoven's life; the pianos of his time and their limitations; Beethoven's use of articulation, ornamentation, tempo; and the age-old challenge of attempting to determine the definitive interpretation of Beethoven's music. Valuable performance recommendations, helpful fingering suggestions and ornament realizations are offered in this comprehensive critical body of Beethoven's sonatas. Where performance options are open to interpretation, other editors' conclusions are noted, enabling students and teachers to make informed performance decisions.
Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire continues to be the go-to source for piano performers, teachers, and students. Newly updated and expanded with more than 250 new composers, this incomparable resource expertly guides readers to solo piano literature and provides answers to common questions: What did a given composer write? What interesting work have I never heard of? How difficult is it? What are its special musical features? How can I reach the publisher? New to the fourth edition are enhanced indexes identifying black composers, women composers, and compositions for piano with live or recorded electronics; a thorough listing of anthologies and collections organized by time period and nationality, now including collections from Africa and Slovakia; and expanded entries to account for new material, works, and resources that have become available since the third edition, including websites and electronic resources. The "newest Hinson" will be an indispensible guide for many years to come.