[PDF] The Winchester Magnificat And Nunc Dimittis eBook

Author : Paul Rodmell
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 506 pages
File Size : 43,19 MB
Release : 2017-07-05
Category : Music
ISBN : 1351572253

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The first book devoted to the composer Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) since 1935, this survey provides the fullest account of his life and the most detailed appraisal of his music to date. Renowned in his own lifetime for the rapid rate at which he produced new works, Stanford was also an important conductor and teacher. Paul Rodmell assesses these different roles and considers what Stanford's legacy to British music has been. Born and brought up in Dublin, Stanford studied at Cambridge and was later appointed Professor of Music there. His Irish lineage remained significant to him throughout his life, and this little-studied aspect of his character is examined here in detail for the first time. A man about whom no-one who met him could feel indifferent, Stanford made friends and enemies in equal numbers. Rodmell charts these relationships with people and institutions such as Richter, Parry and the Royal College of Music, and discusses how they influenced Stanford's career. Perhaps not the most popular of teachers, Stanford nevertheless coached a generation of composers who were to revitalize British music, amongst them Coleridge-Taylor, Ireland, Vaughan-Williams, Holst, Bridge and Howells. While their musical styles may not be obviously indebted to Stanford's, it is clear that, without him, British music of the first half of the twentieth century might have taken a very different course.

Author : Peter Horton
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 406 pages
File Size : 15,96 MB
Release : 2004-03-04
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780191513213

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Peter Horton paints a detailed picture of the life and career of this remarkable man whose output includes such favourites as 'Blessed be the God and Father' and 'The wilderness'. Born into one of England's best-known families, Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-76) was not only the foremost organist and church musician of his generation, but a vigorous campaigner for higher standards in cathedral music. He was also a troubled, difficult character, and accounts of his abrasive personality or anecdotes about his fishing exploits have tended to obscure his very real achievements as a composer. Peter Horton has drawn on a wide range of source material to produce a detailed account of Wesley's life and career as he moved from cathedral to cathedral in search of an unattainable ideal, his youthful idealism gradually giving way to the cynicism and disillusion familiar to those who encountered him late in life. He also examines his development as a composer and presents a study of his complete output (including the many non-church works) against the background of his restless career and in a wider European context. The book is illustrated by a generous selection of musical examples and plates, and includes the most detailed list of works to appear in print.

Author : Michael Downes
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Page : 170 pages
File Size : 43,53 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780754660224

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Jonathan Harvey (b. 1939) is one of Britain's leading composers: his music is frequently performed throughout Europe, the United States (where he has lived and worked) and Japan. He is particularly renowned for his electro-acoustic music, an aspect on which most previous writing on his work has focused. The present volume is the first detailed study of music from Harvey's considerable body of work for conventional forces. It focuses on two pieces that span one of the most fertile periods in Harvey's output: Song Offerings (1985; awarded the prestigious Britten Award), and White as Jasmine (1999). The book explores the links between the two works - both set texts by Hindu writers, employ a solo soprano, and adumbrate a spiritual journey - as well as showing how Harvey's musical language has evolved in the period between them. It examines Harvey's techniques of writing for the voice, for small ensemble (Song Offerings), and for large orchestra, subtly and characteristically enhanced with electronic sound (White as Jasmine). It shows how Harvey's music is informed by his profound understanding of Eastern religion, as well as offering a clear and accessible account of his distinctive musical language. Both works use musical processes to dramatic and clearly audible effect, as the book demonstrates with close reference to the accompanying CD recordings. The book draws on interviews with the composer, and benefits from the author's exclusive access to sketches of the two works. It contextualizes the works, showing how they are the product of a diverse series of musical influences and an engagement with ideas from both Eastern and Western religions. It also explores how Harvey has continued to develop the musical and spiritual preoccupations revealed in these pieces in his recent work, up to and including his third opera, Wagner Dream (2007).