All the Gods

Peter Pears once described Benjamin Britten as `a Greek who worships all the gods'; and in order to come to terms with Britten's music it is necessary to recognize a language deeply embedded in this Western tradition.
This book is devoted to Night-piece (Notturno), written for the first Leeds International Pianoforte Competition of 1963. It addresses the work from many points of view: historical, documentary, analytical, formal, kinetic, hermeneutical, and affective. It also includes a wide range of illustrated allusions to other music, a full set of sketches, the printed score, arrays of modes and voice-leading graphs, and two appendices that take the issues of intensification and neapolitan relations further. In so doing, it provides a new model for the study of Britten's work in general.

Reviews

Immaculately presented, with copious musical examples. It stands as a prime example of how one might go about a critical analysis of a work, moving back and forth between historical, analytical, and expressive interpretations...a major contribution to Britten studies, but its rich ideas have resonance far beyond this field, and deserve closer attention. MUSIC & LETTERS
Winner of the Sue Thomson Foundation Publishing Award for 2006. From the citation: This monograph [is] a ground-breaking case study of the author's work on the successful integration of words and music. The judges suspect that it is rare to find typographical skills of a high level combined with musicological expertise.

Details

First Published: 21 Sep 2006
13 Digit ISBN: 9780954012380
Pages: 136
Size: 24.4 x 17.2
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: Plumbago Books
Series: Poetics of Music
Subject: Music
BIC Class: AV

Details updated on 21 May 2013