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Subject Area: Music-Subjects & Themes
Flynn, Timothy2024 1-4955-1239-8 468 pages
"The materials examined in the present study represent an overview of the scholarship regarding the life and music of Cesar Franck (1822-1890) as well as selected sources associated with nineteenth century French music in general. Studies pertaining to other composers and musical genres connected with Franck have been included to offer the researcher more extensive information regarding the composer's life and times. This monograph is not meant to be an exhaustive collection of material, but rather it consists of a cross section of what has been written about the composer, his music, and the history surrounding him. The purpose of this resource tool is to facilitate further research and deeper inquiry into Franck as a composer, teacher, and organist in addition to his influence upon music history through his works." (Dr. Timothy Flynn, "Preface") [This is a revised version of the book published by Pendragon Press in 2019].
Schmidt, Carl B.
2024 1-4955-1217-7 312 pages
"In 1946, Poulenc wrote that 'inspiration is such a mysterious thing that it is best not to explain it.' Explain it or not, Poulenc reminded us that 'my music is my portrait,' and Dialogues is both his most substantial work and his most inspired creation. Tens of thousands have encountered his music through this opera, and many of them have been brought to tears by its emotionally wrenching last scene. ... It is time that the complex history of this splendid opera, including the many documents surrounding it, be made available together." -Dr. Carl B. Schmidt ("Preface") This book is also available in softcover.
Schmidt, Carl B.
2024 1-4955-1241-X 312 pages
This is a softcover book. "In 1946, Poulenc wrote that 'inspiration is such a mysterious thing that it is best not to explain it.' Explain it or not, Poulenc reminded us that 'my music is my portrait,' and Dialogues is both his most substantial work and his most inspired creation. Tens of thousands have encountered his music through this opera, and many of them have been brought to tears by its emotionally wrenching last scene. ... It is time that the complex history of this splendid opera, including the many documents surrounding it, be made available together." -Dr. Carl B. Schmidt ("Preface")
Bruhn, Siglind
2023 1-4955-1181-2 296 pages
"Olivier Messiaen, master of sounds, was gifted with an unusual visual sense. While his physical eyes always needed thick glasses, his inner eye saw much that remains hidden to most. Music and Color is the title of the only volume of conversations published under the composer's own name rather than under that of the respective interviewer, thus drawing the readers' attention to the importance Messiaen attached to one of the basic aspects of visual perception. ...Were one to move in the direction of inner perception, one would arrive at the dimension of contemplations and visions. This book aims to direct its readers' interest specifically toward the metaphysical, theological, and sometimes mystical visions manifested in the two piano cycles whose movements are compiled under the titles of 'visions' and 'contemplations' respectively." -Siglind Bruhn (Preface)
Greene, David B.
2012 0-7734-2589-6 120 pages
In pieces of music set to biblical or liturgical texts, the musical connections of one passage or one movement to one another. In a musical sense, these texts have a meaning and significance that can be and often distinct from the meanings achieved by syntactic relationships. Sometimes the syntactic meanings are lost in the musical repetitions and overlapping entries of many voices; in the case of texts for different movements, syntactic relations often simply do not exist. Consequently, the music does not merely parallel or illustrates the text’s theological meaning or guide an affective response to an already familiar contemplation of God and the Divine presence in the world. Rather, it relates the texts’ images to one another in a specific and particular way and achieves a theological coherence that is distinctive to the particular piece. The book carries out this approach in analyzing three works of sacred music: The Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah, the Credo of Beethoven’s Mass in D, and the Dies Irae of Verdi’s Requiem. The analyses show how the composers’ melodic, harmonic, and structural events work on and determine the ideas and images in the texts. The goal is to point to the “heard analogy” that becomes available when listeners pay attention to the musical relationships and their impact on the contemplation of God.
Bruhn, Siglind
2023 1-4955-1167-7 326 pages
This edited volume focuses on various aspects of the connections between the sacred, religion, or spirituality and music. "Up to the Middle Ages, music employed for ritual expressions of faith in sacred contexts and for evocations ...was contrasted with music presented for entertainment." -Siglind Bruhn [Introduction] This book was originally published by Pendragon Press in 2002.