Full Description
This essential reader includes Thomson's essays on making a living as a musician; his articles on classic composers; his relation to his contemporaries; his articles on newcomers in the music world, including John Cage and Pierre Boulez; his autobiographical writings and commentary on his own works.
Contents
Preface Introduction Autobiography (1971) 1. The Life of Music Life Among the Natives (1939) How Composers Eat (1939) Why Composers Write How (1939) Age Without Honor (1940) Masterpieces (1944) Conducting Modern Music (1942) The Intellectual Audience (1942) Bigger than Baseball (1953) The Burning Question (1966) On Writing Opera and Staging Them (1982) The New Grove. (1981) II. Precursors Mozart's Leftism (1940) The Official Stravinsky (1936) Acquaintance with Wagner (1943) Fairy Tale about Music (1945) The Tradition of Sensability [Claude Debussy] (1965) French Music Here [Erik Satie] (1941) [Edward MacDowell's Music (1944) Carl Ruggles (1971) Ernest Bloch, Robert Nathaniel Dett, Arthur Farwell, Horatio parker, Wallingford Riegger, Deems Taylor (1971) Reactionary Critic (1951) III. Contemporaries-Performers Great Music [Artur Rubenstein] (1940) Pipe-Organ Obsessions [Leopold Stokowski] (1940) Master of Distortion and Exaggeration [Vladimir Horowitz] (1942) Silk-Underwear Music [Jascha Heifitz] (1940) The Toscanini Case (1942) Violence and Charm [Rudolf Firkunsky] (1944) The Koussevitzky Case (1947) In Spite of Conducting [Dimitri Mitropolos] (1953) Jazz (1924) Swing Music (1936) Sacred Swing [Gospel Music] (1941) La Môme Piaf (1947) IV. Contemporaries-Composers George Gershwin (1935) [Charlie] Chaplin Scores (1940) Star Dust and Spun Steel [Anton Webern (1950) Most Melodious Tears [Kurt Weill] (1933) Oliview Messiaen (1945) Music Now (1961) Edgard Varése (1966) Aaron Copland (1932, 1949, 1957, 1971) George Anthiel, Theodore Chanler, Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington, Ross Lee Finney, George Gershwin, Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, Otto Luening, Colin MCPhee, Harry Partch, Alexander Tcherepnin, Randall Thompson (1971) V> Contemporaries: Publishers, Artists, Writers, and a Museum Director The Paper [New York Herald Tribune (1966) A War's End [Modern Music] (1947) Eugene Bergman (1974) Gertrude Stein (1953, 1982, 1989) On, Donald Sutherland (1978) Edwin Denby (1984) The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music [Everett Chick Austin] (1958) VI. Successors Expressive Percussion [John Cage] (1945) Gian-Carlo Menotti (1947, 1950) The Genius Type [Pierre Boulez] (1968) Milton Babbitt, Samuel Berber, Arthur Berger, William Bergsma, Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Paul Bowles, Henry Brant, Elliott Carter, David Diamond, Lucia Dlugoszewski, Vivian Fine, William Flanagan, Lukas Foss, Kenneth Gaburo, Morton Gould, Alan Hovhaness, Hershy Kay, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Eric Salzman, Elie Siegmeister, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Christian Wolff (1971) VII. Autobiography A Personal Statement (c. 1981) The Music Reviewer and His Assignment (1953) Europe in America (1966) All Roads Lead to Paris (1966) Eugene Berman 1899-1972 (1974) Leonid Berman 1896-1976 (1978) Possibilities: V.T. questioned by 8 Composers (1947) VIII. His Own Works On Portraits and Operas About Four Saints and Synopsis Sea Piece with Birds (1952) The Feast of Love The Seine at Night Bibliography
