The Variations of Johannes Brahms (Poetics of Music, 1)

Lamenting the `regrettable tendency (of musical analysis) towards intellectual gymnastics that overlook aesthetic reality', Julian Littlewood makes good again and again his promise to consider the `broader contexts of affect, kinetic control, stylistic reference, and closural strategies'. He is particularly attentive to performance makings and matters of texture. It is a tribute to his originality of approach that he has been able to add distinctively to the already considerable literature on this subject. Nicholas Marston, King's College Cambridge