The Songs of Hugo Wolf

This book concentrates on the 242 published songs that Wolfe wrote for voice and piano, though the Ibsen songs for voice and orchestra are also discussed. English translations are provided together with the German texts and the background to the original poems - by Morike, Eichendorff and Goethe, as well as the Italian and Spanish sources from which the songbooks were drawn - are fully explored. Each song is dated, its keys identified and vocal range determined.

Biographies & Memoirs

Meyer, Gabriel

Sams, Eric

Arts & Literature

Indiana University Press

The Songs of Robert Schumann

Eric Sams' study of Schumann's 246 songs (Faber 1961, revised 1993) - a companion volume to his The Songs of Hugo Wolf, also available in Faber Finds - remains a classic text. By providing a translation, commentary and notes for each of the songs, tracing original sources and relating recurring themes vividly to Schumann's life, Sams provides a unique documentary of Schumann's song-writing art. The book includes a foreword (to the First Edition) by the legendary accompanist, Gerald Moore, who writes: 'So felicitous is the writing that one is hardly conscious of the erudition and profound thought that have gone into the making of it . . . Eric Sams has produced a work that will be read and read again as long as Robert Schumann's songs are loved.'

Indiana Univ. Pr

Arts & Photography

Music

Eric Sams' study of Schumann's 246 songs (Faber 1961, revised 1993) - a companion volume to his The Songs of Hugo Wolf, also available in Faber Finds - remains a classic text. By providing a translation, commentary and notes for each of the songs, tracing original sources and relating recurring themes vividly to Schumann's life, Sams provides a unique documentary of Schumann's song-writing art.  The book includes a foreword (to the First Edition) by the legendary accompanist, Gerald Moore, who writes:  'So felicitous is the writing that one is hardly conscious of the erudition and profound thought that have gone into the making of it . . . Eric Sams has produced a work that will be read and read again as long as Robert Schumann's songs are loved.'

Brahms songs (BBC music guides)

University of Washington Press

One of the central assumptions of established Shakespeare scholarship has been that the playwright produced flawless work needing no revision―that if a text was inferior in style, it could be assumed that Shakespeare did not write it. Thus Shakespeare had nothing to do with the "bad" quartos; these were instead the work of "memorial reconstruction," in which actors remembered and subsequently wrote down entire texts composed by others. In this controversial book, Eric Sams suggests that there is no evidence to substantiate memorial reconstruction, that Shakespeare very probably revised his plays repeatedly, and that he may therefore be the author of the "bad" quartos and of other works not attributed to him. Drawing on testimony from Shakespeare's contemporaries and on documents concerning his family, Sams presents a vivid biographical picture of the first thirty years of the playwright's life. He establishes that Shakespeare's origins were humble: his parents were illiterate Catholics and the family trade was farming and animal husbandry. During this period Shakespeare acquired some knowledge of legal practice, served as the legal hand in an attorney's office, married, and moved to London to join a theatre company and to establish a career as an actor and playwright. Sams traces the impact of Shakespeare's upbringing in the plays themselves―not only those of the Folio edition but others, including the "bad" quartos. He finds that these texts are filled with figurative language that would have been gleaned from a rural upbringing and legal experience. Using detailed textual analysis, he argues compellingly that during these early "lost" years, Shakespeare was in fact writing first versions of his later great works.

The Real Shakespeare: Retrieving the Early Years, 1564-1594

Yale University Press

In this highly anticipated book, Eric Sams examines each of Johannes Brahms’s 213 songs, translates the texts into English, and provides original commentary on points of musicology and literary detail. Sams here reveals for the first time the full extent of the poetry, fantasy, and humor of the composer’s work. After an introduction to Brahms as a songwriter and to his use of motifs, the book offers a complete song-by-song analysis and will serve as an invaluable companion for students, performers, and listeners alike. Sams demonstrates how Brahms built a verbal expressiveness from his unsurpassed devotion to musicianship and musicology. Songs were among Brahms’s first and last works, and much of his music is associated with words, whether overt texts or covert allusions. Essential to the composer’s method of songwriting was a harmony between musical form and poetic text. Sams underscores the use of motifs at the core of Brahms’s song-music. He argues that it is not so much with words that Brahms sings to us, but with the very music itself. Brahms became the innovator of an all-pervasive new language in which musical form became a medium for poetic dialogue.

The Songs of Johannes Brahms

Literature & Fiction

Sams, Dr. Eric

Poetry

In this long awaited book, Eric Sams examines each of Johannes Brahms's 213 songs and reveals the full extent of the poetry, fantasy and humour of the composer's work. The book begins with an introduction to Brahms the song-writer, and then provides a complete song-by-song analysis, giving the German text as set by Brahms followed by an English translation of each of the poems, a commentary on points of musicology and literary detail, as well as practical help and suggestions for the singer. Sams believes Brahms to be the most neglected of all the great lied composers. Here, as part of the continuing re-evaluation of the composer's work over the last twenty years, he demonstrates the greatness of the Brahms song with sensitivity and scholarship. Songs were among Brahms's first and last works, and much of his music is associated with words, whether overt texts or covert allusions. Essential to the composer's method of song-writing was a harmony between musical form and poetic text. Sams takes us right to the heart of that creative method and helps to explain how and why a particular part of the text matches a particular piece of music. He includes a list of the motifs employed by Brahms to help show how the mind of the composer worked when seeking apposite music for the imagery of the poem. Written with wit and filled with subtle detail, 'The Songs of Johannes Brahms' will serve as an invaluable companion for students, performers and listeners alike. '... the fruit of a lifetime's immersion in the topic. There is no doubt in my mind that this will be the standard work on the Brahms lieder for years to come.' Graham Johnson Eric Sams is a world authority on Lieder and the author of numerous works of musicology.

The songs of Robert Schumann;

Methuen young books

Light wear to covers, content is excellent

Songs of Hugo Wolf

Faber&Faber

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

Books by Sams, Eric

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

The Songs of Hugo Wolf

The Songs of Robert Schumann

The Songs of Hugo Wolf

The Songs of Robert Schumann

Brahms songs (BBC music guides)

The Real Shakespeare: Retrieving the Early Years, 1564-1594

The Songs of Johannes Brahms

The Songs of Johannes Brahms

The songs of Robert Schumann;

Songs of Hugo Wolf