"A very good introduction to anyone beginning to listen to Messiaen's music."--Music and Musicians (on the first edition).  This second edition of Roger Nichols' critical study of Olivier Messian--considered the most important composer since Debussy and Ravel--has been brought up to date with new material on the two works composed since the first edition was published.  This is a perceptive guide to the composer's development and aims, and a valuable introduction to his compositions.

Messiaen (Oxford studies of composers)

Arts & Photography

NICHOLS, ROGER

Music

Oxford University Press

Messiaen (Oxford Studies of Composers)

"A very good introduction to anyone beginning to listen to Messiaen's music."--Music and Musicians (on the first edition). This second edition of Roger Nichols's critical study of Olivier Messiaen--considered the most important French composer since Debussy and Ravel--has been brought up to date with new material on the two works composed since the first edition was published. This is a perceptive guide to the composer's development and aims, and a valuable introduction to his compositions.

Poulenc: A Biography

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Yale University Press

This new biography of Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), by one of the leading scholars of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French music, is based on a wealth of written and oral evidence, some newly translated and some derived from interviews with the composer’s friends and associates. As well as describing the circumstances in which Ravel composed, the book explores new evidence to present radical views of the composer’s background and upbringing, his notorious failure in the Prix de Rome, his incisive and often combative character, his sexual preferences, and his long final illness. It also contains the most detailed account so far published of his hugely successful American tour of 1928. The world of Maurice Ravel—including friendships (and some fallings-out) with Debussy, Fauré, Diaghilev, Gershwin, and Toscanini—is deftly uncovered in this sensitive portrait.

Ravel

Humor & Entertainment

<div>An authoritative account of the life and work of Francis Poulenc, one of the most prolific and striking figures in twentieth-century classical music "An assured overview of Poulenc's life and work."--Alex Ross, New Yorker "Essential reading for anyone interested in the French musical culture of Poulenc's time. This is the biography the composer deserves."--Christopher Dingle, BBC Music Magazine,&nbsp; Named one of the Best Books on Classical Music in 2020 by&nbsp;BBC Music Magazine Francis Poulenc is a key figure in twentieth-century classical music, as well as an unorthodox and striking individual. Roger Nichols draws upon Poulenc's music and other primary sources to write an authoritative life of this great artist. &nbsp; Although associated with five other French composers in what came to be called "Les Six", Poulenc was very much sui generis in personality and in his music, where he excelled over a wide repertoire--opera, songs, ballet scores, chamber works, piano pieces, sacred and secular choral works, orchestral works and concertos. This book fully covers this wide range, while also describing the vicissitudes of Poulenc's life and the many important relationships he had with major figures such as Satie, Ravel, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Cocteau and others.</div>

Offers brief profiles of seven French composers, and analyzes each one's major works

The New Grove Twentieth-Century French Masters: Faure, Debussy, Satie, Ravel, Poulenc, Messiaen, Boulez (Composer Biography Series)

Nectoux, Jean-Michel

Govers, Patrick

Hopkins, Gary W.

Grif

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Ravel Remembered

A melange of accounts of Maurice Ravel and his music, by people who knew him, including Stravinsky, Cocteau, Colette, Poulenc and Manuel de Falla. The topics discussed include Ravel's philosophy of orchestration, his passion for curries, his mental illness and his death.

J.M.Dent & Sons Ltd.

Few decades in the life of any European city have been as rich in musical personalities and achievements as the 1920s in Paris. It was, as Stravinsky said, the hub of the musical world, popular for travelers because it was cheap. Composers working in or near the city included Ravel, Fauré, Satie, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev as well as the up-and-coming members of Les Six, most notably Poulenc, Milhaud, and Auric. Among their collaborators were the painters Picasso, Braque, Dufy, and Juan Gris, while Jean Cocteau kept a watchful eye on new trends. Horowitz, Robert Casadesus, and Vlado Perlemuter all made their Paris debuts in this decade, as did the young violin prodigies Ginette Neveu and Yehudi Menuhin. Women musicians were coming into their own: the composers Germaine Tailleferre and Lili Boulanger, salon hostesses like the Princesse de Polignac and Mae Clemenceau. The Harlequin Years charts a nimble course through this remarkable era, noting currents as well as personalities, telling stories as well as pondering the occasional philosophical problem. Through the whole book runs the double thread spun by Jean Cocteau in his little volume Le coq et l'harlequin: the warp of the traditional French cock being pulled by the weft of the foreign, multicolored harlequinade. Roger Nichols's spirited narrative shows that this was also an uncertain time, as the war had cast doubt on old assumptions. Did wisdom necessarily come with age? Were hierarchies necessary? Irreverence was in, the circus was aesthetically at least as valuable as the finest symphony orchestra. Against all this some composers, like Fauré and Roussel, continued with traditional forms, though each brought to them his own highly personal language and syntax.

The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917-1929

University of California Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by NICHOLS, ROGER. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by NICHOLS, ROGER

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by NICHOLS, ROGER. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Messiaen (Oxford studies of composers)

Messiaen (Oxford Studies of Composers)

Poulenc: A Biography

Ravel

Ravel

Poulenc: A Biography

The New Grove Twentieth-Century French Masters: Faure, Debussy, Satie, Ravel, Poulenc, Messiaen, Boulez (Composer Biography Series)

Ravel Remembered

Ravel

The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917-1929