Amazon.com

Marian Anderson is often perceived more as a civil rights legend than a singer. In this first complete biography, Allan Keiler, a music professor at Brandeis University, gives his primary allegiance to Anderson the artist. In the first decades of the 20th century, a time when black classical musicians were rare, she rose from a poor neighborhood in Philadelphia to a level of supreme accomplishment. Although she came to be identified with spirituals, she resisted being pegged as a black singer and emphasized her mastery of the European art song.

Virtually all of Anderson's career took place on the concert stage; opera was even harder to break into. She was in her late 50s when she became the first black singer to appear at the Metropolitan Opera. In any period, though, opera would not have suited her personality. She preferred the intimate engagement she could achieve with a song and a single accompanist.

Anderson's most indelible moment came in 1939, when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused her the use of its segregated Constitution Hall in Washington. In response, her supporters organized a huge concert at the Lincoln Memorial, an emotional event that propelled her to iconic status. But Anderson was neither outspoken nor comfortable in the political limelight. After World War II, she was criticized for not refusing to perform in the segregated South. In the last decades of her long life (she died at 96, in 1993), she was revered as a symbol of humanitarianism and restrained dignity--a quality that made her seem remote to younger, more impatient generations.

Keiler is a methodical rather than inspired writer. His prose can be flat-footed, and his chronology is often murky. But he successfully evokes what made Anderson's singing unique: the "opulent" tone and the interpretive ability that cut to the heart of a varied repertoire embracing spirituals, folk songs, and pieces by Schubert, Brahms, Handel, Sibelius, Purcell, and de Falla. And his sympathetic portrait transforms her from a civics lesson into a woman of her time, one who believed the most valuable contribution she could make to a better world was to offer it her gift. --David Olivenbaum ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Humanizing a legend
Allan Keiler's biography of the great African-American contralto Marian Anderson is meticulously researched and detailed. Having exhaustively consulted contemporary sources neglected by other researchers, such as black newspapers, and personally interviewed many people, including the singer herself, Keiler sheds new light on the familiar story of Anderson's life and career.

Of particular interest is his detailed chronology of the famous events of 1939 that began with the refusal of the Daughters of the American Revolution to allow Anderson to give a concert in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., and ended with her outdoor concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a performance that propelled the singer to iconic status in the civil rights movement. His recounting of this and subsequent events, including her eventual success in obtaining a performance in Constitution Hall years later, reveals Anderson to have been surprisingly hesitant and passive in combatting segregation, and by no means unequivocally in favor of some of the bolder, more confrontational moves of her supporters.

Likewise, Keiler probes her personal relationships, something Anderson was reticent about in her own autobiography, and reveals a human being with faults and frailties, one who could be dictatorial and impatient toward members of her family, and aloof and uncommunicative when terminating relationships with lovers and artistic collaborators (notably Billy King, her first regular accompanist, who never recovered from the pain of being replaced by Kosti Vehanen). In no way do these revelations detract from Anderson's accomplishments as a musician; rather, they form a touching picture of the real sacrifices she had to make in the service of her talent.

The one major area in which this book falls short is a detailed examination of Anderson's vocal art. Despite her unique status in American history, the singer comes from and joins several well-defined artistic traditions--the low-voiced female classical singer, a vocal species now almost extinct; the singer who makes a career through concert and oratorio work rather than opera; and the African-American classical singer. With her well-documented performance history and large recorded legacy, the time is ripe for a definitive study of Anderson the vocal artist, writing of the kind John Ardoin and Michael Scott have published about Maria Callas and her work. Despite its many virtues this volume does not pretend to, nor does it accomplish this task.

Engaging Bio Of A Pioneering Diva
In 1939 world-class contralto Marian Anderson was barred -- because of her race -- from performing an Easter concert in Washington's Constitution Hall when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to rent her the space.

Instead, supported by the NAACP and Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial. In so doing she brought attention to both her magnificent voice and the reality of segregation in the capital.

This absorbing authorized biography puts Anderson's career before her skin color, but Brandeis University music professor Keiler, who interviewed the singer shortly before her death in 1993 at age 96, carefully documents both her musical evolution and civic triumphs.

Though clearly awed by the stately vocalist who dressed in white satin, Keiler celebrates the humanitarian who served as a U.N. delegate, funded scholarships for black youth (both Jessye Norman and Leontyne Price auditioned for one but lost), mastered works by Brahms, Schubert and Sibelius and became the first African-American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.

An important read of a voice which sang so true.

Talent and Grace
Though Mr. Keiler does a tremendous job of putting Ms. Anderson's life on paper, at the end I still felt I did not know her. I don't know if it was because he had the cooperation of her family and was overly cautious, or if she is just a personality to complicated to really get to know. Anyway, a great read, but just left me wanting to know more. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In this post-Heifetz age, in which virtuoso violin playing is identified with perfection of execution, it is difficult to comprehend that within living memory the reigning king of violinists was a man who detested practice, loved to drink and gamble, was benignly casual about the truth when it suited him--sometimes passing off his own music as the obscure work of little-known 18th- and 19th-century composers, or embellishing anecdotes--and felt that too-precise execution of a musical work robbed it of its soul. Indeed, this would seem to be the profile of some legendary jazz player, not a giant of the classical repertory. Yet Fritz Kreisler--a onetime piano prodigy whose first career sputtered out after he lost the novelty of youth--as an adult dominated the practice of the violin during the years between the two world wars. His expressive and emotional style of playing enabled him to make contact with audiences in a way that earlier masters of the 19th century could not. Sadly, as related here by Amy Biancolli, the public remembers Kreisler today more for his pleasing violin compositions than his influence on performance technique, even if some of the greater violinists know better.

This well-written, positive biography is intended to remedy that neglect. It puts Kreisler's place in history and his importance in terms of performance practice into greater perspective. Though she is not entirely able to put the reader emotionally in touch with the vanished milieu of imperial Vienna, Biancolli does provide a well-rounded, late-20th-century perspective on the career of the great violinist, and includes an excellent discography to help the reader become better acquainted with the performances of this likable figure. --Sarah Bryan Miller ... Read more

Book Description

The Guarneri Quartet is fabled for its unique longevity and high-spirited virtuosity. Here is its story from the inside--a story filled with drama, humor, danger, compassion, and, of course, glorious music.

A player who studies and performs the exalted string-quartet repertoire has opted for a very special life. Arnold Steinhardt, tracing his own development as a student, orchestra player, and budding young soloist, gives a touching account of how he and his intrepid colleagues were converted to chamber music despite the daunting odds against success. And he reveals, as no one has before, the intensely difficult process by which--on the battlefield of daily three-hour rehearsals--four individualists master and then overcome the confining demands of ensemble playing.
... Read more

Reviews (15)

The Four Chambered Heart
If you are intrigued by music and how it's made, by the hearts and minds of those who have devoted their lives to making instruments sing, then this will be one of the most interesting and satisfying books you've ever read.

Arnold Steinhardt, the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet, has that rare ability to step outside his discipline and bring it alive for others. Indivisible by Four is the story not only of how the Guarneri String Quartet came to be, but of how four very different musicians have managed to forge a unique musical identity for themselves as well.

Here you will hear how Steinhardt and his colleagues approach a piece - about their differences and how they are resolved, the things that worked and those that didn't, the inevitable surprises and how they got through them. Best of all, from the perspective of someone who is not a professional musician, is Steinhardt's ability to bring the technical as well as the human elements alive for the reader. I came away with a good solid introduction to chamber music in general, and to the music and composers that have shaped it. Steinhardt even manages to toss in some music theory without allowing the pace to slow to a crawl.

An action packed thriller with plenty of twists and turns in the plot this is not. Expect instead to be treated to a very personal and intimate glimpse into the hearts of four very gifted and dedicated musicians.

Review of this book and For the Love of It by Wayne Booth
This review from the April 27, 1999 issue of the University of Chicago (my daughter's school) Maroon by Daniel B. Ginsberg is excellent. I'm look forward to reading the books and listening to the Guarneri Quartet.

It would be difficult to find two more different people to write memoirs on their encounters with chamber music. Wayne Booth is professor emeritus of English at U of C. At thirty-one, he took up the cello with little prospect of sounding like virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma or Pablo Casals. Years of practice would be required for Booth to extract lush phrasing and warm sonorities from his cello. Yet Booth maintained a rigorous practice schedule for over four decades, and he now plays lovely chamber music with his wife and friends. In For the Love of It, he explains his passion in hopes of inspiring others to follow his lead. Gifted with talent and early musical education, Arnold Steinhardt went on to become the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet, one of the most successful string quartets of the twentieth century. Composed of its original members for thirty-five years, the ensemble has shed new light on many of the towering masterpieces of the string quartet repertoire. Through their sure technique and warm, supple tone, they have encouraged a slow but steady growth in chamber music listening across the country. Their concert to a packed Mandel Hall last October is only indicative of that ever-rising interest. With Indivisible by Four, Steinhardt seeks to review their career and get at the question of how the ensemble could remain together for such a long time.

From these vastly different perspectives, Booth and Steinhardt come to similar conclusions about what has kept them going. Booth seemingly strives for the impossible while Steinhardt and the Guarneri adhere to their busy recording and performing schedule because the rewards of sharing some of the finest music ever composed with an audience and one another far outweigh the challenges of the lifestyle.

These challenges are no small thing for either musician. For Booth the

impediments in his amateur hobby -- what he calls his "cello-reach" -- all flow from picking up the instrument late in life. Because he lacked the early training, he never developed the dexterity and coordination to play at the highest levels. No matter how much he practices or how high quality the teaching he receives, there is simply no way that he will ever be able to master the intricate thumb positioning and effortlessly ripple those arpeggios. This unfortunate physiological fact deters most from picking up the instrument and compels many a daring soul to quit.

For Steinhardt and the Guarneri, subjugation of one's musical identity to the group and the search to find balance among four musical voices provide the primary source of tension. Each member of the quartet, including Steinhardt, cellist David Soyer, violist Michael Tree, and violinist John Dalley, often has a different view on how to interpret certain passages of a work. The process of compromise is not unlike democratic government and can be equally frustrating. Beyond these essential interpretive issues are the logistical problems of a nine-month performing schedule that takes the group across the world. Most troubling for Steinhardt is the fact that the Guarneri will spend far more time with each other than their families.

But a lifelong, active engagement with chamber music provides almost innumerable benefits. Booth argues that there is something very special in the status of being an amateur, when the risk of failure is a central part. Learning to manage the inevitable pitfalls and slips has deepened his life, lodging the music that he plays deep in his soul and soothing the process of aging as a result. The Guarneri, meanwhile, have the undeniable joy of commercial success to propel them along.

Ultimately, though, what underlies the Guarneri's accomplishments and Booth's struggles is an all-encompassing love of the music itself. Both of the authors think that the great composers saved their best work for the chamber genre. Beethoven's string quartets, for instance, are monumental works that not only inspired Booth's original interest in chamber music, but also provided far and away his most memorable playing experiences.

For the Guarneri, playing the entire cycle of 16 quartets is the ultimate experience, though the thrilling final five pages of Indivisible by Four should leave no doubt about Steinhardt's affinity for the string quartets of Franz Schubert. His description of a

performance of Schubert's quartet in D minor, Death and the Maiden, is perhaps the best literary account of what it is like to play in a string quartet, compelling the reader to listen along on one of the Guarneri's two recorded versions.

How this music could be some of the greatest ever composed is a question both authors seek to explore. Steinhardt thinks the answer lies somewhere in the wonderful economy of four-part harmony. "The four-note chord contains what is essential, even of interest, but nothing superfluous or ornamental." This idea seems to confirm what Romain Rolland has written about Beethoven's final quartets, whose precise, clean lines lack the subterfuge of an orchestra's wash of tonal color. Booth, the lifetime scholar, thinks that this music reveals a divine force.

Whatever the ultimate root of the music's greatness, Booth and Steinhardt believe that the communal aspect of playing chamber music with others transforms music making to almost a spiritual undertaking. Along with the gorgeous instruments themselves and the opportunity to connect with the great composers, Booth writes that the other amateur players have given him something more than he could ever hope to return -- the ability to quickly become intimate with another person through music. Such intimacy is something few worldly endeavors can provide.

Unlike Booth, whose worst playing experiences involve playing for an audience, the Guarneri finds additional spirituality in sharing this amazing music with their dedicated listeners. Early in their career, they found it difficult to adjust to sparse recording studios. After a number of unsatisfactory takes in one recording session, their friend, cellist Jacqueline du Pre, showed up early for their dinner date and sat down to listen. Steinhardt charmingly recounts how her presence inspired them to their finest playing in days.

Thus, at a time when rapid technological changes may be wrenching traditional relationships asunder, Arnold Steinhardt and Wayne Booth have offered a way to reconnect with others. Without some rigid doctrine, playing chamber music gives a sense of hope, modesty, and spiritual fulfillment that few other activities can bestow. Along with a full season of the U of C Presents chamber music series, the message of these two fine books has compelled this twenty-five-year-old doctoral student to rush to the Music Department for a list of violin instructors. To regretfully use an old cliche, better late than never.

GREAT book about chamber music
This book is required reading in the chamber music literature class I teach at a university. Steinhardt's writing is charming and easy to read, and he gives a fascinating look into what it's like to work with the same 3 men in such close quarters for 30+ years. If you have ever enjoyed a chamber music concert, or played chamber music yourself it is a must read. My students who play in rock bands also have found it a very valuable book, since a band is a similar animal to the string quartet.

A Fantastic Insight into the World of Chamber Music
I'm a musician, and I play in chamber groups, so had a blast reading this book not just because it's a great biography but also because I could relate to a lot of what happened to the quartet!

Even if you aren't a musician, you'll like this book because it gives you a feel for what it's like to be a part of a chamber group (and being a classical musician!)

Very Interesting Book
As a violin student, I find this book to be an incredibly valuable and entertaining look at the history and techniques of the Guarneri Quartet. I would also recommend their other book, "The Art of Quartet Playing," which is a series of interviews with the quartet. ... Read more

Book Description

A son's coming to terms with his mother's decision to abandon her career as a concert pianist in order to raise her children. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Beautiful Book
This is a story about a fascinating woman, the writer's mother Gitta Gradova, a brilliant pianist who--after all kinds of pressures and for all kinds of reasons--stopped performing publicly in order to raise her family. Her son has brought her back to life on the pages of this book along with her dozens of brilliant celebrated friends and colleagues. That's not the half of it, though.
This writer, an experienced and articulate student of human nature whose background in psychology has--somehow--not dulled his personal honesty, takes the oppurtunity to explore the landscape of children and parents as children grow up, the motives of artists in general and of his mother in particular, the conflict all talented women face as their children are born, and the nature of performance of all kinds. Cottle's tangential discussions of the nature of art--rich with thought and examples--are more complete, provocative and loving than many books devoted to the subject.
This is a book about art and a book about family showing the balance between the two that all artists most somehow find. It's a book about women and their sons, about the sacrifices and frictions of life here on earth, and ultimately about all of us. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Best 1-volume synopsis of all of the Master's works
And that about says it all. Some pieces are graced by a paragraph, and some (Sym. 41, various opera) by a couple of pages. I won't let this book go (along with Alfred Einstein's study); I consult it all the time before listening and purchasing Mozart music. I find the reviews right on. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

extremely informative book
I have been doing a major project at school which Mozart and his life are a base. My teacher ordered this book for our use and i was enthralled by it. I have always been a fan of mozart and there is not much that i don't already know about, but this book is one of the best i have read. The information is absolute in its entirety. A little slow on the uptake, but once you are in, you are held in its power. ... Read more

Book Description

In a series of powerful strokes, the music of Beethoven's last years redefined his legacy and enlarged the realm of experience accessible to the creative imagination. Maynard Solomon's Late Beethoven investigates the phenomenon of the final phase, focusing especially on the striking metamorphosis in Beethoven's system of beliefs that began early in his fifth decade and eventually amounted to a sweeping realignment of his views of nature, antiquity, divinity, and human purpose. Using the composer's letters, diaries, and conversation books, Solomon traces Beethoven's attraction to a constellation of heterogeneous ideas, drawn from Romanticism, Freemasonry, comparative religion, Eastern initiatory ritual, Mediterranean mythology, aesthetics, and classical and contemporary thought. Through these often arcane sources, Beethoven gained access to a vast reservoir of imagery and ideas with the potential to expand music's expressive and communicative reach. This "multitude of productive images," writes Solomon, "provided kindling for the blaze of his imagination." Late Beethoven is a rich tapestry of original perspectives on Beethoven's music. Solomon sees the Seventh Symphony as a deployment of the rhythms of antiquity in an effort to revalidate the premises of the Classical world; the Ninth as an essay on the prospects and limits of affirmative, monumental endings; and the "Diabelli" Variations as a doorway to the universe of metaphoric significances that attach to beginnings. In the Violin Sonata in G, op. 96, Solomon finds a restoration of the full range of pastoral experience that the ancient poets had known. In the Grosse Fuge he locates issues of fragmentation and reassembly, and he suggests that pivotal passages of the last sonatas evoke sacred states of being. These stimulating perspectives illuminate the inner world within which Beethoven dwelled during his last fifteen years and the ways in which his thought and music may be interrelated. Written in accessible and eloquent prose, and with numerous music examples, Late Beethoven is a serious contribution to understanding this miraculous quantum leap in Beethoven's creative evolution. Illustrations: 5 figures, 61 music examples ... Read more

Book Description

English Only. Translated by Reese. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Intimate look at Stravinsky's world
Craft's amazing gifts as a writer are as interesting as is the story of the extraordinary relationship of which he writes. His famous and intimate long-time relationship with Stravinsky and wife Vera makes for fascinating, if not fast, reading. Some of the most interesting people on the planet make their appearance throughout the pages of this massive book (including Auden, Huxley, Spender, and so many more), and all are treated with a prepossessing intelligence, wit and intellectual candor by this remarkable conductor/musician/friend, Robert Craft. If Craft's own art is not that well known to the man in the street, all the better for the role he assumes in his many books about Stravinsky -that of an 'intimate without portfolio', as it were, able to illumine Stravinsky from the inside out, no small feat indeed. Of course, Craft's own art is indeed prodigious, as his many definitive recordings of Stravinsky's music, made since the composer's death, have proven time and again. Page after page of this 'diary' reveals the unique friendship between a genius and his 'brother-son'; Craft's ability to disappear within his observorship in order to reveal the man to whom he devoted such a great part of his life seems infinite, and so admirable. Craft's is a most perceptive mind, a mirror-mind to Stravinsky's in many ways, and more than a glimpse is thereby afforded of one of the titanic creative forces of the twentieth century. He acted as Stravinsky's alter-genius, if you will, and the results here are spellbinding. The book's journey traverses the world, and includes lengthy episodes in Venice, Paris, Los Angeles, Switzerland- all critical places in Stravinsky's history. The pages of the book devoted to Vera Stravinsky, wife, painter, and someone clearly especially loved by Robert Craft, that appear toward the end of the volume after the detailing of Stravinsky's funeral in Venice (of which there is a marvelous photo, the Orthodox priests in fierce array!), are lovely, loving and devoted, and worthy of mention. Craft's books are meat indeed for the Stravinskyphile, and even the uncommitted admirer can find in this work (as in his 'Theme and Variations', in the Dialogues, etc.) an epic chronicling of our time, and will find sure residue of the world's becoming modern through the uncompromising art of Igor Stravinsky. Impossible to overstate either the importance of this book as a testament, or the value of encountering it. ... Read more

Book Description

One of the greatest and most celebrated American singers of the twentieth century, Eileen Farrell is blessed with two voices.A classically-trained dramatic soprano who also loves to belt pop songs and torch the blues, she successfully conquered the worlds of opera and popular music over the course of her whirlwind career.Now, in this long-anticipated memoir, Farrell shares reminiscences about her remarkable professional and personal life.

With candor, humor, and affection, she recalls her New England childhood, her overnight success at age twenty as star of her own CBS radio show, her big break dubbing vocals for Eleanor Parker in the MGM movie Interrupted Melody, and her many guest appearances on television shows.Farrell discusses her rise to fame as an opera star, from her highly acclaimed performance in Medea in 1955, to her historic debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Alceste in 1960. She also fondly recollects her marriage of forty years to New York police officer Robert Reagan and her life outside the limelight, including her frustrating tenure as a faculty member at Indiana University.

Farrell speaks frankly about her tumultuous years at the Met, where her head-to-head confrontations with Sir Rudolph Bing brought her promising operatic career to an abrupt close after five seasons.While she loved singing the music of Verdi, Mascagni, and Giordano, Farrell reveals that she never reconciled herself to the life of a diva, preferring the friendliness of show business to the aloofness of the opera world.

Populated with such figures as Leonard Bernstein, Arturo Toscanini, Maria Callas, Ethel Merman, Mabel Mercer, and Carol Burnett, this engaging memoir takes the reader from backstage at the Met to behind-the-scenes of the Ed Sullivan Show, providing a fascinating view of opera and the entertainment industry. Eileen Farrell's legion of fans will delight in her inviting story of a career that was like no other singer's. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Can't help liking
Classical, jazz, and pop singer Eileen Farrell comes across as a down-to-earth, generous, happy, and satisfied person in this book. What's not to like?

Couldn't Help Reading
Thank you, Eileen Farrell, for a wonderful career and for your candor in telling your very personal and inspiring story. I couldn't put the book down! As a professional singer myself, I found your experiences from your innocence at the first audition to your regular radio show moving and encouraging. Your book is as honest and refreshing as your performances and a must-read for even those with no interest in opera.

Farrell biography fine. How about a sequel?
Like another reviewer I found the biography too short. Surely Miss Farrell could divulge with her writer's help more anecdotes. And SURELY Sony/CBS could re-release more of her albums, particulary the Puccini Arias. Thank God there are historical recordings available, for which, unfortunately, Miss Farrell doesn't get royalties. I would happily send her a check anytime.

a fun read
Do not confuse this witty, sparkling memoir with the stilted, egocentric ("I" this and "I" that) memoirs you may have encountered. Farrell, one of the Met's most underused artists - yet one of its greatest, writes with charm and style that enthrall the reader making us wish she had easily written a book twice as long. Brava! Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a great read and "meeting" a great lady.

A marvelous biography of an outstanding performer.
Eileen Farrell is one of the most gifted and celebrated American singers of the twentieth century. She is both a classically trained dramatic soprano and a talented songstress of pop songs and the blues. Can't Help Singing: The Life Of Eileen Farrell is a superbly crafted memoir in which she shares candid reminiscences about her professional career and her personal life. With humor and affection she surveys her New England childhood, her sudden success at the age of twenty starring in her own CBS radio show, dubbing for Eleanor Parker in the MGM movie "Interrupted Melody", her many guest appearances on television, and her operatic work, including an historic debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Alceste in 1960. Eileen also recollects her sometimes troubled marriage of forty years to New York police officer Robert Reagan and her frustrating tenure as a faculty member at Indiana University. In this wonderful memoir we meet the famous figures of music who were her contemporaries, fellow performers, and associates from Leonard Bernstein to Maria Callas, from Ethel Merman to Carol Burnett. Can't Help Singing is a marvelous biography that will hold great interest and appeal for her many fans and for students of 20th Century American music. ... Read more

Book Description

George Gershwin is one of the giants of American music, unique in that he was both a brilliant writer of popular songs ("Swanee," "I Got Rhythm," "They Can't Take That Away From Me") and of more serious music, including "Rhapsody in Blue," "An American in Paris," and "Porgy and Bess." Now, in The George Gershwin Reader, music lovers are treated to a spectacular celebration of this great American composer. The Reader offers a kaleidoscopic collection of writings by and about Gershwin, including more than eighty pieces of superb variety, color, and depth. There is a who's who of famous commentators: bandleader Paul Whiteman; critics Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and Brooks Atkinson; fellow musicians Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Alec Wilder (who analyzes the songs "That Certain Feeling" and "A Foggy Day"), Leonard Bernstein, and the formidable modernist composer Arnold Schoenberg (who was Gershwin's tennis partner in Hollywood). Some of the most fascinating and important writings here deal with the critical debate over Gershwin's concert pieces, especially "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris," and there is a complete section devoted to the controversies over "Porgy and Bess," including correspondence between Gershwin and DuBose Hayward, the opera's librettist (a series of excerpts which illuminate the creative process), plus unique interviews with the original Porgy and Bess--Todd Duncan and Anne Brown. Sprinkled throughout the book are excerpts from Gershwin's own letters, which offer unique insight into this fascinating and charming man. Along with a detailed chronology of the composer's life, the editors provide informative introductions to each entry. Here then is a book for anyone interested in American music. Scholars, performers, and Gershwin's legions of fans will find it an irresistible feast. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Both informative and enjoyable reading
Having four biographies of George Gershwin (GG) already in my collection, I wondered if something called "The George Gershwin Reader" would be of any value. I needn't have wondered! Reading it cover to cover has been one of the more pleasant tasks I have encountered as a reviewer.

This Oxford University Press book retails for $30. Edited by Robert Wyatt and John Andrew Johnson, it is organized into eight sections: Portraits of the Artist, The Growing Limelight (1919-1924), Fame and Fortune (1924-1930), Maturity (1930-1935, Porgy and Bess, Last Years: Hollywood (1936-1937), Obituaries and Eulogies, and As Time Passes. There are 83 reading selections in all. Some are contemporary reports, essays, letters, biographies; some are backward looks written since the composer's death.

In short, this can be used as a sourcebook for those studying various aspects of Gershwin's life and works (practically the same things) or read for pure enjoyment. My favorite anecdote that so wonderfully reveals the innocent egotism of GG is the story told on pp. 181-182 about a remark he made to composer Harry Ruby and his reaction to being reminded of it two years later. Priceless.

Each selection is introduced by the editors, who give background information about what is to be discussed and the persons involved. There is no dearth of negative criticism about GG's "classical" compositions; and they have even included one which states that Gershwin could not have written the music attributed to him. (The implication is that no Jewish composer could have done that well, a strong echo of Wagner's identical claim, and then contradicted by the writer's claiming the music is bad anyway!)

This OUP book is the very model of what a "reader" should be-and teachers and students of the history of American music, I will be making great use of the information therein.

Need I add, Highly Recommended? ... Read more

Book Description

In this book Lucy Beckett gives a comprehensive account of Wagner's last and strangest opera. The literary sources of this work, its many links with Wagner's life and thought, its libretto, music and stage history, are all thoroughly examined. There is a full commentary, with extensive quotation, on the work's critical history, and finally, a fresh assessment of its place in the Wagner canon and of its unique quality as a music drama that is both modern and Christian. Full references, a bibliography and a discography are provided. A special chapter of musical analysis is contributed by Arnold Whittall. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Down to the point
I have found the book highly fascinating. It not only gives you a fair deal on the story itself - additionally it provides a huge amount on background information to Wagner, the history of the play, the story behind the story...

Particularly the parts about the origination of the theme of Parsifal is well researched and worth reading.

Scholarly review of Parsifal
This is a good book so far as it goes. It's a bit dry, but if you are sufficiently interested in the material than you should be able to get through it OK.

The book is divided into sections about Wagner's source material, a history of Parsifal performances, a musical commentary, a discussion of the critical reactions to Parsifal from Wagner's time to the present, and a proposed interpretation. In the "interpretation" section, the author argues that Parsifal must be interpreted as a religious work.

I was disappoined with the book, because I was expecting a more detailed interpretation (for example, what actually happens in Act II of Parsifal?)

The book is interesting, but was not quite what I was looking for. However, the chapter on Wagner's source material is a necessary prerequisite on forming your own opinion of this work, so those of you still grappling with this opera should consider purchasing this book. ... Read more

Amazon.com

A magnificently detailed portrait of the great Italian composer (1813-1901) that refutes many myths and uncovers some unsavory new material, including the strong likelihood that before their marriage Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi conceived several children who were abandoned at birth. Just as important as her full-bodied rendering of Verdi's personal life is Phillips-Matz's powerful delineation of his confrontations with pre-Unification Italy's foreign masters. Verdi's art was deeply political, she reminds us, and he used his wild popularity to ensure that it would be heard in the form he intended. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Viva Verdi in this magisterial and definitive tome!
Viva Verdi is the opera lover's response to this magisterial work by Phillips-Matz. Her years of research has produced a detailed life of Verd. The author traces the family lineage of Verdi in Bussetto, chronicles the genesis of his operatic masterpieces and delves into the private life of the greatest Italian opera composer of the nineteenth century.
I dove into this huge book during Christmas 2002. The book will immerse you in the life of the complicated composer detailing his relationships, his tragedies and triumphs. The book
is essential to anyone interested in knowing more about Verdi and his times. The book is not easy reading but is worthwhile for the time it takes to peruse it. Viva Phillips-Matz on a superb biography!

What else would you need to know?
I have just finished reading this book. It was my intention to get the bits and pieces I have been taught over the years about Verdi together in order to teach a short course on him in January 2000. It has done so much more. If you're looking for a book that details the opera plots and offers translations of the librettos, this isn't it. But if you're looking for a great summary of what we know about this truly great man, his friends and enemies, his work habits, his interests in farming and charity, the gestation and difficult birth of his operas and other words -- and what we *don't* know, things that might still be discovered -- you've come to the right place. It has NEVER taken me so long to read a book because the pages are so densely detailed. That being said, I am very glad that I did. VERY glad. Here is a hero for the ages, pace his operas.

The definitive biography of Verdi
I can't imagine a more complete collection of information about Verdi's long and productive life. Phillips-Matz captures the feeling of mid-century Italy and among other things she shows how Verdi became a hero in the movement culminating in Italian statehood. Viva Verdi! ... Read more

Book Description

Between May 1949 and August 1954 the composers Pierre Boulez and John Cage exchanged a series of remarkable letters that reflect on their own music and the culture of the time. This correspondence, together with other relevant documents, has been edited and annotated by Jean-Jacques Nattiez and is now available for the first time in English in a paperback edition. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Ernest Newman's study of the major Wagner operas (from Der fliegende Holländer onwards) was originally published in 1949 and rapidly achieved the status of a classic opera text, which it retains to this day. There are plenty of other, differing treatments of the stories of the operas, but none as detailed or as dramatically aware as Newman's magisterial volume. Of course, the reprint does not contain information about the composer and his works that would later come to light, nor does it traffic in current modes of thought about the operas (in some cases, thankfully). What Newman does is begin with a history of the myth or the tales on which each opera is based, widening that out to a discussion of Wagner's interest in the story, his involvement with its genesis, and an account of how the work in question was created and first produced. Since in some cases this gestation took years, Newman's clear explication does much to lift the mists surrounding even the simplest of Wagner's operas. He then discusses each opera in detail. The plethora of musical examples and Newman's understanding of Wagner's use of the leitmotif ensure that his readings are responsive both to the histrionic and musical aspects of the stories.

Reading the details of the often complex backgrounds of the operas, as well as what goes on in the opera itself (the discussion of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg alone runs to more than 110 pages of text), should immeasurably enrich the listener's opera-going experience, even in this age of the surtitle. And an appreciation of the range and cogency of Wagner's musical and dramatic genius, which this book offers, will serve to balance the unflattering portrait of Wagner the human being that dominates today's thinking about the Master. --Patrick J. Smith ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A classic
I won't repeat the praise that other reviewers have expressed for this volume. This book is a classic by a Wagner scholar who really knows what he is talking about. It is an indispensable reference for any Wagner enthusiast.

The best reference I have on the subject.
Scholars and critics say that Herr Wagner's talent was in synthesis. The negative critics, e.g., specialists in a field from which they feel Wagner has stolen, tend to discredit Wagner for that. The grail was not, alas, the cup used at the last supper, prior to the opera "Parsifal" anyway. What's more the Grail theme was plagiarized from Mendelssohn. The plot of the Ring was not, alas, the same plot as the German novel "The Nibelungenlied." Wagnerians like myself, rather, see that synthesis as a symptom of Wagner's genius. He was able to take a series of sources, stories, novels, epics, songs, and cement them into a supreme art form, Gesamptkunstwerk, better than the sum of all the parts.

Newman comments intellegently on all aspects of the operas. He includes musical themes--surely a necessity in the work of that expert user of the leitmotif!--and even the psychological dimensions of the music. (Before I saw "Tristan und Isolde," I attended a presentation of a musicologist who nearly broke into tears as to the depth of the music in that opera. His comments reminded me of those of Newman regarding the same piece, which reminds me of Jung, one, whom you might say, was a product of some of the same Germanic trends of the late 19th century. But, enough on that...)

I read each review before I see the opera to which it applies. I read them again periodically. They are magnificent, allow for reasonable criticism. But they also give the devil his due.

I cannot recommend the book more strongly for anyone interested in Wagner, especially if you plan to hear or see the operas. Then leave the volume next to your bed. It's well worth re-reading, learning all dimensions of the music of perhaps the best composer who ever lived.

Is that extreme? Perhaps. Was Wagner's genius extreme? Off the scale.

Read and enjoy it.

A superb book:astonishing learning, sensible interpretations
Ernest Newman's book remains the best introduction to Wagner's operas. He is astonishingly good on Wagner's sources, and on the draft processes Wagner went through as he transformed source material into his final forms. Other books deal with different aspects of individual operas in more depth, but this is still one of the books to start with. Everybody interested in Wagner should - well, the first thing to do might be to listen to excerpts from "Die Walku:re", "Tristan" or "Parsifal", say, and be awed by the music - but once you've heard the music, if you're still interested, you should get this book.

Laon

This is the place to start, the one you can count on
Nobody ever wrote more insighfully, brilliantly and accessibly about the titanic contribution of Richard Wagner to western culture than did E. Newman. This is a classic that should be read by all and anyone interested in what all the fuss is about. It's an old book but it's not dated. Take his translations seriously. Even though there are a lot of anachronisms (thou sayest...etc), they were anachronisms that RW intended when he wrote the poem. May I also recommend the Solti Recording of the Ring; the Furtwangler studio recording of Tristan; the Jochum Meistersinger and (gasp) the Levine Parsifal (the Knappertsbusch is sublime in so many special ways you may have to buy both. May I also recommend the Ring Interactive CD Rom. It is a blast. ... Read more

Book Description

Yes, I am a singer. But I am also a horseman, an athlete, and a doctor. I am a son, a brother, and a friend. I can sing as I do only because of the life that I've led. With each decade, I've found myself in very different, evermore challenging arenas, but the many stages of my life have always intertwined. I have moved from one stage to the next as if on a wild steeplechase, keeping my eye fixed straight ahead and above me. If there is a single line connecting all the episodes and main events of my life it is this -- a gift both given and received.

-- from the Introduction

In Halfway Home, a beautifully written memoir, Ronan Tynan, a member of the enormously popular Irish Tenors, shares his remarkable story of overcoming adversity and attaining worldwide success in several different areas.

Diagnosed with a lower limb disability at birth, Ronan Tynan had his legs amputated below the knee when he was twenty years old. Eight weeks later, he was climbing the stairs of his college dorm, and within a year, he was winning races in the Paralympic Games, amassing eighteen gold medals and fourteen world records. After becoming the first disabled person ever admitted to the National College of Physical Education, he served a short stint in the prosthetics industry and began a new career in medicine. He continued his studies at Trinity College, where he specialized in orthopedic sports injuries.

After earning his medical degree, Ronan chose music for the next act in his life. Less than one year after he began studying voice, he won both the John McCormick Cup for Tenor Voice and the BBC talent show Go for It. He went on to win the prestigious International Operatic Singing Competition in France, and in 1998 his debut Sony album, My Life Belongs to You, became a top-five hit in England within just two weeks and eventually went platinum. Later that year, he was invited to join The Irish Tenors, furthering a journey that started in a small Irish village and has brought him to the world's grandest stages.

In Halfway Home, Tynan movingly describes his life story, which Barbara Walters called "so amazing you may find it hard to believe." ... Read more

Reviews (19)

A life worth talking about...
Fiction writers would have a hard time creating a story as compelling and inspirational as that of Ronan Tynan's. As an amputee, he's done more in 41 years than 5 able-bodied people could have. He's broken world records as a disabled athlete, and recorded records as a beloved Irish Tenor. Plus he's also helped a few other people continue to live their lives as well, as a doctor. Whew....

So at times, it seems like he's telling the story a little fast: your mind starts swimming as he goes from quickly goes from one phase of life to another. At one point, he knows for sure he's going to be a medical doctor. But a mere six paragraphs later, before he even steps foot in med school, the seeds have already been planted towards a singing career. But that's how he's lived: by always moving forward. It's been said that the man has no reverse gear.

There's a roller coaster of sadness and success in his story. But there's also a lightheartedness that comes through his dry humor, a love of food, women, and pints of Guinness. Simply, he's achieved a lot, but he's still basically a normal man.

Tynan's writing style is British English, so you do have to pay a little more attention than usual. But the payoff is worth it.
It's mind-boggling that this man can add one more accomplishment to his long list: author.

A story worth sharing
Ronan Tynan's life story is one of hardship and perseverance, luck , talent and the loving support of his family. He relates this in a straight forward manner which is easy to read and to visualize. He will have you alternately in tears and holding your sides with laughter. His wonderful sense of humor comes across in every sentence. You can feel in this text his positive attitude toward life and the courage and determination with which he has faced his challenges. Ronan has accomplished many things in his life; record setting athlete, medical doctor and world famous singer. He certainly would leave the Energizer Bunny in his dust!

I enjoyed seeing the pictures of Ronan and his family and friends included in the center of the book. Ronan is the type of person for whom there are no strangers, only friends he has not met.

His journey is only halfway done. I'm sure the days and years to come will provide him with many other stories to share with us in the future.

I can unconditionally recommend this book to you.

A Big Man With A Big Voice And An Ego to Match?
I am a huge fan of the Irish Tenors and so waited anxiously for this book to appear in our local book store. While I found the first half of the book to be an excellent read and found the story of how Ronan, though the love and good sence of his parents, was encouraged to go beyond his abilities to reach for the stars, the second half of the book was difficult to get through. There is no doubt that this man is really an inspiration to others with disabilities, but halfway through the book you find there is little information about others that helped him in his journey and the book becomes all about his Ego - it was a struggle to finish the book as I could not believe the long winded accounts of what he would do next. I would have liked to have read more about his association with the Irish Tenors and his travels there .. instead all you got was Ronan crowing from the rooftops with an Ego the size of Ireland itself. I almost expect any follow up book to announce that he can now walk on water! Very disappointed in this book.

Wow, what a man!
The saying, "Truth is stranger than fiction." has to apply to this moving biography of Ronan Tynan's. His life so far has been filled with more trials and tribulations than any one person I have ever heard of...and he's only 43 years old!!!!! What can possibly happen to him in his next 43 years to top this??? I can only hope he keeps us up-to-date with another fascinating book. As a singer, he is the best. I have been lucky enough to see many of his solo concerts and many of his concerts with the Irish Tenors, and all are as exciting and pleasurable as this book. The man is just a wonder.

Good luck, Ronan, in all you endeavor, and please keep your fans up to date on all your activities. You are truly an inspiration to us all.

A Book Filled With Humanity and the Richness of Life
"Truly, an inspiring book" - I have seen that phrase on more book jackets than I care to count over the years. Perhaps some were truly inspiring to certain people. This book is universally inspiring. I can't imagine anyone, from any walk of life, not being moved by Ronan Tynan's story.

He may be well-known to many people or a total enigma to others.
In his unpretentious way, he describes his journey from a small
farm in Ireland to become one of the most popular singers of our time. And just to make things interesting, he did it without the use of his lower legs which were, eventually, amputated. Fitted with prostheses of varying quality he became a star disabled athlete, a top-rated equestrian, and picked up a few degrees along the way - physical education, music, and medicine.

He is now known in the great opera houses of the world as a tenor with few peers. To most of us he is known as one of the
Irish Tenors. You simply MUST read his autobiography to really
know the many obstacles he overcame by unwavering determination and faith in himself.

The book is as unpretentious as Dr.Tynan, beautifully written,
and shows you just how good life can be - no matter how many things were against you as you passed through life's starting gate. ... Read more

Book Description

A fresh look at Beethoven's life, career, and milieu highlighting his development as a composer.

In this brilliant portrayal of the world's most famous composer, eminent Beethoven scholar Lewis Lockwood interweaves his subject's musical and biographical dimensions and places them in their historical and artistic contexts. Written for the lay reader, the book describes the special problems Beethoven faced as a highly gifted artist who fulfilled his destiny as Mozart's main successor while remaining a true, rebellious original. It sketches the turbulent personal, historical, political, and cultural frameworks in which Beethoven worked and demonstrates their effects on his music. Finally, it turns to the composer in his last years, with great achievements behind him, surmounting the crisis of finding still further artistic paths by which to continue. Also, by providing glimpses into the composer's sketchbooks and autograph manuscripts, Lockwood allows us to gain substantial insights into Beethoven's compositional methods.

In a publishing first, musically literate readers will find some one hundred notated music examples on a special Web site. 50 illustrations, 8 music examples. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Paperback Edition Forthcoming...
Checking on Amazon today for this book revealed that a paperback edition is forthcoming. One of the criticisms of the hardcover edition is that the musical examples are available only through a web site. Also, reviewers have said that the binding of the hardcover edition is poor. (Check recent editions of the Beethoven Journal for that review.)

Personally, I am waiting for the paperback.

Lockwood's Beethoven
Lewis Lockwood's "Beethoven: the Music and the Life" (2003)is an outstanding introduction to Beethoven, aimed at the nonspecialist rather than the scholar. Those readers who are new to Beethoven's music will find this book a guide to his major work. Readers familiar with Beethoven's music and life will find much to learn and enjoy as well. I found this a book to be savored. Reading the book, I think, will encourage the reader to explore further the inexhaustible richness of Beethoven's music.

Lookwood concentrates on Beethoven's compositions and on their historical and musical contexts. He does not offer a full biography of Beethoven but rather offers only sufficient broad outline of Beethoven's life to give a sense of the composer and to allow the reader to reflect upon the relationship between the life of Beethoven and his music. Lookwood himself has some interesting things to say on various views of this relationship. (pp 17-21)

Lockwood sees Mozart and Bach as Beethoven's primary musical influences. As a young composer, Beethoven both set out to learn from Mozart without becoming an imitator. His early works are greatly influence by Mozart, Lockwood argues, until Beethoven breaks away and finds his own voice in what Lockwood terms Beethoven's second maturity. As Beethoven continued to compose, his work becomes more influenced by the counterpoint of Bach. (Beethoven had played Bach's "well-tempered clavier" as a boy of twelve.) Bach's influence becomes increasingly apparent in the close-textured and fugal works of Beethoven's third maturity.

Lockwood basically organizes his book in terms of what he describes as Beethoven's first, second and third maturities of musical development. In each case, he begins with brief details of Beethoven's life, followed by a substantial overview of Beethoven's work and influences in each period, followed by a description of some of the major individual works of the period. For the period of Beethoven's first maturity, Lockwood finds the apex of Beethovens' work in the six opus 18 string quartets.

For Beethoven's first and third maturity Loockwood approaches the works chronologically. Interestingly, for the second maturity, Lockwood organizes Beethoven's work by type: the symphonies, concertos, piano sonatas, string quartets, etc, to account for Beethoven's tendency during this time to work on many various compositions simultaneously.

Some of the individual works receive little discussion in Lockwood's approach, but this is more than balanced by his excellent overviews of Beethoven's varying styles. Of the early and middle maturity works, Lockwood discusses well Beethoven's third through eighth symphonies, particularly the Eroica. But he does not see Beethoven's work at this time as predominantly "heroic" in tone. Unlike some writers, Lockwood gives good attention to Beethoven's lyrical, melodic, and reflective writing during his second maturity as exemplified by the even-numbered symphonies and by works such as the violin concerto and the cello sonata in A, opus 69. Loockwood emphasies as well the lyrical aspect of Beethoven's writing in his detailed consideration of Beethoven's song-cycle "An Die Ferne Geliebte" (to the distant beloved), opus. 98 (pp.344-46)and in his discussion of Beethoven's songs. (pp 274-279).

The compositions of Beethoven's third maturity receive the most individualized and detailed attention in this book. Lookwood considers at some length the Hammerklavier piano sonata and the opus 101 piano sonata (somewhat less attention is given to the final three sonatas), the Missa Solemnis, Diabelli variations, and to each of the five final string quartets and to the great fugue. Lockwood clearly loves this difficult music and impresses its character well upon the reader. But he gives his fullest discussion to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Lookwood gives a detailed musical discussion of each of the four movements of this work, not merely its choral finale which sets Schiller's "Ode to Joy"; and he places the work well in its historical situation. He admirably rejects the attempts in some modern writers to policticize or deconstruct this great symphony.

In the Ninth, Lockwood shows, Beethoven combined two tendencies which tend to separate in some of his works: his tendency to write works to appeal to a large public on the one hand, and his tendency to write artistically elevated and striving works on the other hand. Lockwood's treatment of the Ninth is one of the highlights of his book.

Lockwood has written a basic book, but probably the best overall book that will increase the reader's understanding of Beethoven and his music. May this book lead its readers to explore and to deepen their appreciation of Beethoven's great music

A treasure
Two other readers have reviewed this, the first complains that biographical details are subordinated to discussion of the music and also that not all the music is discussed in depth (this would take a multivolume set). The second says that musicians will find nothing new here, but if you are not a professional musician but a layman deeply interested in music, you'll treasure the musical analysis and suggestions for illuminating comparisons between works. The biographical details have been covered amply many times over, not just in Solomon, and they are treated adequately and sensibly here, I think.

Some excellent sections but uneven in scope and content
This is a curious book. First, it leaves most of the biographical details (and psychoanalysis) to others, notably Maynard Solomon. This disappointed me, since I think some of Solomon's occasionally reductionist interpretations of Beethoven's behaviour, motivation, etc. could and should be challenged. Given that the composer had such a difficult life, fraught with political, financial and family instability as well as illness and disability, it is very important to understand more about this man of such intense and resolute character in order to more fully appreciate his music.

Second, while Lockwood's concentration on the music is interesting and sometimes insightful, it is at times difficult to understand for those without more than a passing knowledge of music theory. Furthermore, Lockwood's analysis is uneven. Some compositions such as the Missa Solemnis, Ninth Symphony and late quartets get substantial coverage, much of it remarkably good at dismissing historical criticism that has mistakenly assigned various political, sexual and other interpretations while more or less ignoring the music itself. Unfortunately, Lockwood does not give the same attention to other major compositions--the five piano concertos and the Violin Concerto among them. This also disappointed me. Given Lockwood's thought-provoking and balanced approach to the later works, it was too bad that he gave other major works more superficial or cursory treatment.

Nonetheless, this book is worth reading. Having read numerous books about Beethoven, I have come to the conclusion that no single book could possibly do justice to this complex and fascinating man and the incredible music he produced.

So what's new?
A well researched and well written book, but musicians will find nothing new here. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Short, but great page turner
A delightful book for Bernstein fans. As the author says in his preface, it's not a biography. It consists of episode after episodes of Bernstein's genius work life. We, the general public, take his work for granted and be amazed by his genius, but we have no idea how much commitment and dedication were given to each work he has delivered. NOt just his dedication but everybody else who had collaborated with him. After reading this book, I can appreciate his work even more.
The author never loses good humor and he writes about the most difficult situations he and the maestro had faced with good spirits and wit. Bernstein was a great man, but so was Schuyler Chapin, I should say.
Humphrey Burton's Bernstein's biography is a good book to go with this one (it's a great book also, by the way). Just as some episodes made me laugh in Burton's bio, this one made me laugh and smile many times. The dinner party episode, visit with Japanese writer Mishima, the helicopter episode, and many more will tell you warmly and humrously about the man. The great maestro was not only a genius but quite a character.
It also tells what and how much effort it takes to put a great performace up on stage for us to enjoy. I shall not complain about concert tickets being expensive any more!
Easy read, relaxed and reader-friendly, great page-turner.
I didn't want to finish reading it. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Must Read Book For Anyone Interested in Gould's Philosophies
I think the best way to look at this book is as a book by Gould filtered through the mind of a professional philosopher. Read Friedrich's book for an example of the influence that Gould had on how this book was written. Although this might detract from this book as an objective analysis of Gould's thought (I got the same sense reading the book that I do when listening to or reading a transcript of one of Gould's famous scripted "off-the-cuff" interviews), it is still very important as a compendium of his ideas, articulated in a coherent framework. Especially interesting is Gould's denunciation of much of the Romantic piano