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works (termed by one critic "moonlight with sugar water"), Todd reexamines the composer's entire oeuvre, including many unpublished and little known works.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. |
Dentro del libro
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Página 41
... verses. Emulating the artful simplicity of folksong, Zelter favors strophic arrangements with undemanding piano accompaniments and syllabic vocal parts. Rarely does his music challenge the text; rather, the music typically recedes into ...
... verses. Emulating the artful simplicity of folksong, Zelter favors strophic arrangements with undemanding piano accompaniments and syllabic vocal parts. Rarely does his music challenge the text; rather, the music typically recedes into ...
Página 53
... verses of Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794), who had specialized in pastorals and fables derived from Cervantes and Aesop. Typically strophic, Fanny's settings evince a lyrical melodic gift and a certain “lightness and ...
... verses of Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794), who had specialized in pastorals and fables derived from Cervantes and Aesop. Typically strophic, Fanny's settings evince a lyrical melodic gift and a certain “lightness and ...
Página 55
... verses on wooden, academic subjects, but also an ambitious, cantata-like rendition of Psalm 19. All these pieces follow the string-quartet fugues in the second volume of Felix's Berlin Nachlass; in addition, surviving in Oxford are two ...
... verses on wooden, academic subjects, but also an ambitious, cantata-like rendition of Psalm 19. All these pieces follow the string-quartet fugues in the second volume of Felix's Berlin Nachlass; in addition, surviving in Oxford are two ...
Página 56
... (verses 1, 2, 4, and 7) reveals Felix planned a work in several movements, blending homophonic and polyphonic choruses with smaller ensembles and solo settings along the lines of C. F. C. Fasch's psalms from the 1790s. These youthful ...
... (verses 1, 2, 4, and 7) reveals Felix planned a work in several movements, blending homophonic and polyphonic choruses with smaller ensembles and solo settings along the lines of C. F. C. Fasch's psalms from the 1790s. These youthful ...
Página 71
... verses an hour, in order to reach Daphne's transformation into a laurel in Book 1. In mathematics he was reading the fifth book of Euclid's Elements and with Fanny had lessons in history, arithmetic, geography, and German conversation ...
... verses an hour, in order to reach Daphne's transformation into a laurel in Book 1. In mathematics he was reading the fifth book of Euclid's Elements and with Fanny had lessons in history, arithmetic, geography, and German conversation ...
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