The music of Harrison Birtwistle

Author(s)

    • Adlington, Robert

Bibliographic Information

The music of Harrison Birtwistle

Robert Adlington

(Music in the twentieth century)

Cambridge University Press, 2000

  • : hb

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-231) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Harrison Birtwistle has become the most eminent and acclaimed of contemporary British composers. This book provides a comprehensive view of his large and varied output. It contains descriptions of every published work, and also of a number of withdrawn and unpublished pieces. Revealing light is often cast on the more familiar pieces by considering these lesser-known areas of Birtwistle's oeuvre. The book is structured around a number of broad themes - themes of significance to Birtwistle, but also to much other music. These include theatre, song, time and texture. This approach emphasizes the music's multifarious ways of meaning; now that even the academic world no longer takes the merits of 'difficult' contemporary music for granted, it is all the more important to assess what it represents beyond mere technical innovation. Adlington thus avoids in-depth technical analysis, focusing instead upon the music's wider cultural significance.

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgements
  • Abbreviations and note on sources
  • Introduction
  • Part I. Theatres: 1. Violence
  • 2. Myth
  • 3. Music and drama
  • 4. Narratives and rituals
  • Part II. Roles: 5. Dramatic protagonists
  • 6. Ceremonial actors
  • 7. Negotiated identities
  • 8. Soloists
  • Part III. Texts: 9. Narration
  • 10. Fragment
  • 11. Phone
  • 12. Expression
  • Part IV. Times: 13. Time
  • 14. Pulse
  • 15. Journeys
  • Part V. Sections: 16. Verse
  • 17. Fragment
  • 18. Context
  • Part VI. Layers: 19. Melody
  • 20. Polyphony
  • 21. Strata
  • Part VII. Audiences
  • Notes
  • Chronological list of works
  • Bibliography
  • Index of works
  • General index.

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