Liszt's B minor Sonata is now regarded as his finest work for piano, and one of the pinnacles of Romantic piano music. This handbook opens with a survey of Liszt's early attempts at sonata composition - which include some well-known pieces that, hitherto, have been unrecognised as sonata forms - and clears away some of the persistent myths regarding programme music in Liszt's output. In the central chapters, built around an analysis of the B minor Sonata, Kenneth Hamilton discusses various interpretative approaches, arguing that the contradictory writings on the subject stem from the deliberate formal ambiguity of the piece itself - one reason for its perennial fascination, perhaps. The book concludes with a chapter on the performance practice and the performing history of the work, which should be of particular interest to pianists.
Mozart composed only two sonatas in minor keys and it has been suggested that the dark quality of this A minor sonata was influenced by events surrounding the death of Mozart's mother. The three movements are Allegro Maestoso, Andante cantabile con espressione, and Presto. Dr. Hinson includes performance footnotes and pedaling suggestions.
This book is a sequel to Frederick Neumann's Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music, With Special Emphasis on J.S. Bach (Princeton, 1978). In the present volume, the first work on this subject for Mozart's music, the author continues his important contributions to the search for historically correct performance practices, and to the liberation of the performer from improperly conceived and overly restrictive interpretation of musical scores. The first part of this book attempts to free ornamentation in Mozart from rigorism that has resulted from confusing the pure abstraction of ornament tables with concrete musical situations. The second part deals with pitches that were not written in the score yet often intended to be added when Mozart left "white spots" in his notation. These additions range from single notes to lengthy cadenzas. The problem addressed is the question of where such additions are possible or necessary and how they might best be designed. Professor Neumann draws on an immense knowledge of the literature written during Mozart's time and on his own comprehension of the subtleties of Mozart's music and musical styles. Refusing to interpret the sources dogmatically, he frees performers of Mozart from the rigid princples too often imposed by modern scholars. Frederick Neumann is Professor of Music Emeritus at the University of Richmond. Originally published in 1986. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
