Mendelssohn: A Life in MusicOxford University Press, 2003 M10 23 - 736 páginas An extraordinary prodigy of Mozartean abilities, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a distinguished composer and conductor, a legendary pianist and organist, and an accomplished painter and classicist. Lionized in his lifetime, he is best remembered today for several staples of the concert hall and for such popular music as "The Wedding March" and "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." Now, in the first major Mendelssohn biography to appear in decades, R. Larry Todd offers a remarkably fresh account of this musical giant, based upon painstaking research in autograph manuscripts, correspondence, diaries, and paintings. Rejecting the view of the composer as a craftsman of felicitous but sentimental, saccharine works (termed by one critic "moonlight with sugar water"), Todd reexamines the composer's entire oeuvre, including many unpublished and little known works. Here are engaging analyses of Mendelssohn's distinctive masterpieces--the zestful Octet, puckish Midsummer Night's Dream, haunting Hebrides Overtures, and elegiac Violin Concerto in E minor. Todd describes how the composer excelled in understatement and nuance, in subtle, coloristic orchestrations that lent his scores an undeniable freshness and vividness. He also explores Mendelssohn's changing awareness of his religious heritage, Wagner's virulent anti-Semitic attack on Mendelssohn's music, the composer's complex relationship with his sister Fanny Hensel, herself a child prodigy and prolific composer, his avocation as a painter and draughtsman, and his remarkable, polylingual correspondence with the cultural elite of his time. Mendelssohn: A Life offers a masterful blend of biography and musical analysis. Readers will discover many new facets of the familiar but misunderstood composer and gain new perspectives on one of the most formidable musical geniuses of all time. |
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Página 19
... Weber, and with whom Felix later considered collaborating); Gaspare Spontini, smugly triumphant from his opera La Vestale (1807); Madame de Staël, expelled from France in 1810 for her book about German manners, De l'Allemagne; and the ...
... Weber, and with whom Felix later considered collaborating); Gaspare Spontini, smugly triumphant from his opera La Vestale (1807); Madame de Staël, expelled from France in 1810 for her book about German manners, De l'Allemagne; and the ...
Página 45
... Weber was developing a new analytical technique, the series of Roman numerals still familiar to students of harmony today.120 After completing figured bass, Felix notated some thirty chorales in in nebel und nacht N 45.
... Weber was developing a new analytical technique, the series of Roman numerals still familiar to students of harmony today.120 After completing figured bass, Felix notated some thirty chorales in in nebel und nacht N 45.
Página 49
... Weber's “romantic opera” Der Freischütz would premiere in Berlin in 1821)—were not a significant factor in the very earliest stage of Felix's training. Paralleling this musical conservatism was the reactionary temper of the time, which ...
... Weber's “romantic opera” Der Freischütz would premiere in Berlin in 1821)—were not a significant factor in the very earliest stage of Felix's training. Paralleling this musical conservatism was the reactionary temper of the time, which ...
Página 57
... Weber, all of whom were appearing in Berlin during the 1820s. Instead, Felix took to heart Zelter's injunction to model his compositions after Mozart and Haydn.26 Thus, the Duo Sonata in G minor, of which only one movement survives ...
... Weber, all of whom were appearing in Berlin during the 1820s. Instead, Felix took to heart Zelter's injunction to model his compositions after Mozart and Haydn.26 Thus, the Duo Sonata in G minor, of which only one movement survives ...
Página 64
... Weber's “romantic” opera Der Freischütz. The two operas galvanized critical opinion, humorously anticipated in Felix's Lustspiel, when Abraham dismisses Olympia as totally wretched, while Joseph defends it as very beautiful. Their ...
... Weber's “romantic” opera Der Freischütz. The two operas galvanized critical opinion, humorously anticipated in Felix's Lustspiel, when Abraham dismisses Olympia as totally wretched, while Joseph defends it as very beautiful. Their ...
Contenido
The Road to Damascus | 199 |
Elijahs Chariot | 345 |
Abbreviations | 571 |
Notes | 573 |
Bibliography | 629 |
Index of Mendelssohns Works | 645 |
General Index | 653 |
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Términos y frases comunes
Abraham Andante appeared April aria August autograph Bach’s bass Beethoven’s Berlin cantata Cécile chorale chords chorus com composer composer’s composition con concert counterpoint December Devrient duet Düsseldorf Eduard Elijah English Fanny Fanny Hensel Fanny’s February Felix Mendelssohn Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Felix to Lea festival final Frankfurt French fugue German Gewandhaus Goethe Goethe’s Handel’s Henriette Hensel Hiller Ibid J. S. Bach January July June Klingemann Kraków later Leipzig Letters libretto Lied ohne Worte Lieder London major March Marx MDM GB melody Mendelssohn Bartholdy Midsummer Night’s Dream minor Moscheles Moses Moses Mendelssohn movement Mozart musicians November numbers NYPL October opera oratorio orchestra organ overture Paulus performed pianist Piano Concerto played premiere Prussian Psalm published Rebecka rehearsals Robert Schumann scherzo Schubring score September Singakademie solo soloists song soprano String Quartet Symphony theme tion Trio verses violin Ward Jones Weber Wilhelm Wilhelm Hensel Zelter