Purcell Remembered

Purcell was the greatest ornament of English music in the seventeenth century, and has been a source of inspiration for British composers ever since. Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten and Peter Maxwell Davies are among those who have expressed indebtedness to Purcell's musical genius. But his personality has seemed shadowy; in Purcell's day there were no newspapers to illuminate his career, no colour supplements to delve into his sitting room. From the mass of assorted material that does exist, Michael Burden has assiduously and cunningly devised a portrait of the composer both in his time and since, using diaries, letters and official and published writings from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. Many pieces that are known in excerpts are given here in full and placed in context, including all Purcell's prefaces and dedications, collected together for the first time. There is a comparative chronology of the period, a time of extreme political fragility in England. The fragility of Purcell's own life is bleakly evoked in the composer's final will, signed on the day he died, aged 36. As the views of musicians from the three hundred years since his death show, however, the 'English Orpheus' remains a vital thread in his country's musical thought.

Arts & Photography

BURDEN, Michael

Music

Amadeus Press

EMI is 100 years old. Using their previously untapped archives, this work tells the whole story of the company that discovered the Beatles and was at the forefront of the 1960s revolution in popular music. Illustrated with photographs, documents and recording memorabilia this guide outlines the development of the music industry.

Since Records Began Emi the First Yr

Business & Money

Martland, Peter

Economics

This text looks at opera singers of the 20th century, seeing how their art develops with the opportunities of their professional lives. The 50 singers chosen are from different parts of the 20th century. Several are from the early years, such as Adelina Patti, Emma Calve, Geraldine Farrar, and the tenors Smirnov and Sobinov. The singers from the middle years include Flagstad and Ferrier, and those from the later years of the century include Regine Crespin, Carlo Bergonzi, Arleen Auger and Lucia Popp. The book is illustrated with photographs and memorabilia.

Singers of the Century, Vol. 1

Biographies & Memoirs

Steane, J. B.

Arts & Literature

For more than sixty-five years, the weekly Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera have brought performances from one of the world's great opera companies to millions of listeners. Covering the period from the beginning of the Rudolf Bing era to the destruction of the old Met in 1966, the new volume surveys two hundred broadcasts featuring luminaries inherited from the Johnson regime (Flagstad, Milanov, Albanese, Steber, Stevens, Bjorling, Di Stefano, Tucker, Warren) and Bing recruits (De Los Angeles, Della Casa, Tebaldi, Nilsson, Price, Sutherland, Crespin, Siepi, Bergonzi, Vickers, Corelli), under the leadership of such great conductors as Fritz Reiner, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Georg Solti. As in Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1931-1950, the author uses unpublished documents and letters from the Metropolitan Opera Archives to tell behind-the-scenes stories of the players involved.

Sing-off for the Old Met: Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1950-66

Jackson, Paul

The musical dialogue: Thoughts on Monteverdi, Bach and Mozart

Harnoncourt, Nikolaus

On singers and singing

HAHN, Reynaldo

(Amadeus). Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, one of today's great interpreters of vocal music, examines Schumann's life in relation to his entire vocal oeuvre. The songs, his only opera, Genoveva , his secular oratorios, the Scenes from Goethe's Faust, Manfred , and the Mass and Requiem are all given careful consideration, with suggestions for interpretation. HARDCOVER.

Robert Schumann: Words and Music: The Vocal Compositions

FISCHER-DIESKAU, Dietrich

(Amadeus). Franz Shubert's two great song cycles are among the summits of the repertoire for Lieder singers and their accompanists. Arnold Feil, Professor of Music at Tubingen University, has written a thoughtful and subtle analysis of these two masterworks. His aim has been to provide a guide for musicians and their audiences that may lead to more meaningful interpretation and more intelligent listening. HARDCOVER.

Franz Schubert: Die schone Mullerin * Winterreise (The Lovely Miller Maiden * Winter Journey)

Feil, Arnold

Humor & Entertainment

(Amadeus). A selective critical survey of organ literature from Hofhaimer and Paumann to the present day, with music examples showing the principal themes of significant works.

A Guide to Organ Music

Lee, Garrett

Victor Lukas

(Amadeus). This is the first collection of writings that deal with the life and career of the great American baritone, Lawrence Tibbett. In the articles and interviews selected for inclusion in this volume Tibbett writes about his artistic concerns: voice production, singing and acting on stage and in film, operatic teamwork, opera and the movies, modern music, and a variety of related topics.

Lawrence Tibbett: Singing Actor

Farkas, Andrew

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