The Cambridge Companion to Wagner

Author: Thomas S. Grey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139825941
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 692

Book Description
Richard Wagner is remembered as one of the most influential figures in music and theatre, but his place in history has been marked by a considerable amount of controversy. His attitudes towards the Jews and the appropriation of his operas by the Nazis, for example, have helped to construct a historical persona that sits uncomfortably with modern sensibilities. Yet Wagner's absolutely central position in the operatic canon continues. This volume serves as a timely reminder of his ongoing musical, cultural, and political impact. Contributions by specialists from such varied fields as musical history, German literature and cultural studies, opera production, and political science consider a range of topics, from trends and problems in the history of stage production to the representations of gender and sexuality. With the inclusion of invaluable and reliably up-to-date biographical data, this collection will be of great interest to scholars, students, and enthusiasts.

The Cambridge Companion to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen

Author: Mark Berry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108916139
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 409

Book Description
The Companion is an essential, interdisciplinary tool for those both familiar and unfamiliar with Wagner's Ring. It opens with a concise introduction to both the composer and the Ring, introducing Wagner as a cultural figure, and giving a comprehensive overview of the work. Subsequent chapters, written by leading Wagner experts, focus on musical topics such as 'leitmotif', and structure, and provide a comprehensive set of character portraits, including leading players like Wotan, Brünnhilde, and Siegfried. Further chapters look to the mythological background of the work and the idea of the Bayreuth Festival, as well as critical reception of the Ring, its relationship to Nazism, and its impact on literature and popular culture, in turn offering new approaches to interpretation including gender, race and environmentalism. The volume ends with a history of notable stage productions from the world premiere in 1876 to the most recent stagings in Bayreuth and elsewhere.

Richard Wagner: Parsifal

Author: Lucy Beckett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521296625
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Book Description
A comprehensive account of Wagner's last, and strangest opera.

The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord

Author: Mark Kroll
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107156076
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 407

Book Description
Covers every aspect of the harpsichord and its music, including composers, genres, national styles, tuning, and the art of harpsichord building.

The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera

Author: David Charlton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139825895
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 524

Book Description
This 2003 Companion is a fascinating and accessible exploration of the world of grand opera. Through this volume a team of scholars and writers on opera examine those important Romantic operas which embraced the Shakespearean sweep of tragedy, history, love in time of conflict, and the struggle for national self-determination. Rival nations, rival religions and violent resolutions are common elements, with various social or political groups represented in the form of operatic choruses. The book traces the origins and development of a style created during an increasingly technical age, which exploited the world-renowned skills of Parisian stage-designers, artists, and dancers as well as singers. It analyses in detail the grand operas by Rossini, Auber, Meyerbeer and Halévy, discusses grand opera in Russia and Germany, and also in the Czech lands, Italy, Britain and the Americas. The volume also includes an essay by the renowned opera director David Pountney.

The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Opera

Author: Mervyn Cooke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521780094
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 430

Book Description
This Companion celebrates the extraordinary riches of the twentieth-century operatic repertoire in a collection of specially commissioned essays written by a distinguished team of academics, critics and practitioners. Beginning with a discussion of the century's vital inheritance from late-romantic operatic traditions in Germany and Italy, the text embraces fresh investigations into various aspects of the genre in the modern age, with a comprehensive coverage of the work of individual composers from Debussy and Schoenberg to John Adams and Harrison Birtwistle. Traditional stylistic categorizations (including symbolism, expressionism, neo-classicism and minimalism) are reassessed from new critical perspectives, and the distinctive operatic traditions of Continental and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and United States are subjected to fresh scrutiny. The volume includes essays devoted to avant-garde music theatre, operettas and musicals, filmed opera, and ends with a discussion of the position of the genre in today's cultural marketplace.

The Cambridge Companion to Music in Digital Culture

Author: Nicholas Cook
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107161789
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 347

Book Description
Digital technology has profoundly transformed almost all aspects of musical culture. This book explains how and why.

The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz

Author: Peter Bloom
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107494060
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Book Description
Still chiefly known as the extravagant composer of the Symphonie fantastique, Berlioz was an artist caught in the crossfire between the academic classicism of the French musical establishment and the romantic modernism of the Parisian musical scene. He was a thinker in an age that invented both the religion of art and the notion of the 'genius' who preached and practised it. This Companion contains essays by eminent scholars on Berlioz's place in nineteenth-century French cultural life, on his principal compositions (symphonies, overtures, operas, sacred works, songs), on his major writings (a delightful volume of memoires, a number of short stories, large quantities of music criticism, an orchestration treatise), on his direct and indirect encounters with other famous musicians (Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner), and on his legacy in France. The volume is framed by a detailed chronology of his life and a usefully annotated bibliography.

The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia

Author: Nicholas Vazsonyi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108795913
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 899

Book Description
Richard Wagner is one of the most controversial figures in Western cultural history. He revolutionized not only opera but the very concept of art, and his works and ideas have had an immeasurable impact on both the cultural and political landscapes of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From "absolute music" to "Zurich" and from "Theodor Adorno" to "Hermann Zumpe," the vividly-written entries of The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia have been contributed by recognized authorities and cover a comprehensive range of topics. More than eighty scholars from around the world, representing disciplines from history and philosophy to film studies and medicine, provide fascinating insights into Wagner's life, career, and influence. Multiple appendices include listings of Wagner's works, historic productions, recordings, and addresses where he lived, to round out a volume that will be an essential and reliable resource for enthusiasts and academics alike.

The New Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche

Author: Tom Stern
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107161363
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 467

Book Description
Provides comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of Nietzsche's philosophy, his key works and themes, his major influences and his legacy.