In our visually-oriented society, music appears to stand apart from other arts. Yet just as a poet can write a poem whose focus is a painting, so musicians have composed scores based on poems, paintings, and other non-musical art forms. In instrumental music such reinterpretations are especially intriguing as the verbal or visual stimulus does not appear in performance but is rendered in musical form. In this study, Siglind Bruhn investigates how three French composers of the twentieth century, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Olivier Messiaen, express extra-musical subtexts in their piano works. She shows how the relation between the subtexts and the musical works can be broadly catagorized in terms of pictoriality and interiority. In all cases, Bruhn analyzes each musical piece and each source text in its entirety and in depth, drawing on her broad background in both literary and musical interpretation of the twentieth century. For pianists who seek to better understand an individual work, for scholars in the growing field of musical hermeneutics, and for lovers of music in general, this volume explores and makes explicit connections between music and other arts.

"A true gold mine of information, this book is a mustread for every pianist, and for every music lover. Insight of this kind is priceless." Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Concert Pianist and Distinguished Professor of Piano, Cleveland Institute of Music "Neil Rutman is to be congratulated for his foresight in bringing to pianists, teachers, and aficionados alike a volume of indispensables of piano playing"- that of interpretive imagery. This book belongs in the hands of everyone who loves the piano." Nancy Lee Harper, EPTA JOURNAL Stories, Images, and Magic from the Piano Literature will stimulate the imagination of pianists as they study and perform the great works of the piano literature. This book brings together for the first time under one cover, for the delight and edification of the musician, a plethora of programmatic, poetic, or imaginative musical images and stories on piano works from the classical literature. Many images originate with the composers themselves, the pens of their acquaintances or contemporaries, while others derive from pianists and authors of distinction from later generations, as well as from translations of poetry on which a piano work is based.

The contemporary music scene thus embodies a uniquely broad spectrum of activity, which has grown and changed down to the present hour. With new talents emerging and different technologies developing as we move further into the 21st century, no one can predict what paths music will take next. All we can be certain of is that the inspiration and originality that make music live will continue to bring awe, delight, fascination, and beauty to the people who listen to it. This book cover modernist and postmodern concert music worldwide from the years 1888 to 2018. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on the most important composers, musicians, methods, styles, and media in modernist and postmodern classical music worldwide, from 1888 to 2018. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about modern and contemporary classical music.

Originally published in 1997, The Pianist's Bookshelf, was, according to the Library Journal, "a unique and valuable tool." Now rewritten for a modern audience, this second edition expands into the 21st century. A completely revised update, The Pianist's Bookshelf, Second Edition, comes to the rescue of pianists overwhelmed by the abundance of books, videos, and other works about the piano. In this clear, easy-to-use reference book, Maurice Hinson and Wesley Roberts survey hundreds of sources and provide concise, practical annotations for each item, thus saving the reader hours of precious research time. In addition to the main listings of entries, such as "Chamber Music" and "Piano Duet," the book has indexes of authors, composers, and performers. A handy reference from the masters of piano bibliography, The Pianist's Bookshelf, Second Edition, will be an invaluable resource to students, teachers, and musicians.

This book explores the historical-cultural interactions between French concert music and American jazz across 1900-65, from both perspectives.

Claude Debussy’s exquisite piano works have captivated generations with their dreamlike atmosphere and mysterious soundscapes. Written in Paris at the height of the Belle Époque, the music creates a soundtrack for Parisians’ enjoyment of such delights as clowns, mermaids, eccentric dances, and the dark tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque explores how key works reflect not only the most appealing and innocent aspects of Paris but also more disquieting attitudes of the time such as racism, colonial domination, and nationalistic hostility. Debussy left no avenue unexplored, and his piano works present a sweeping overview of the passions, vices, and obsessions of the era. Pianist Catherine Kautsky reveals little-known elements of Parisian culture and weaves the music, the man, the city, and the era into an indissoluble whole. Her portrait will delight anyone who has ever been entranced by Debussy’s music or the city that inspired it.

Focusing on the music of Debussy and its legacy in the century since his death, this book offers a groundbreaking new perspective on twentieth-century music that foregrounds a sensory logic of sound over quasi-linguistic ideas of structure or meaning

How can we define the referential systems by which music is determined and through which music gets its own sense and meaning? What is the relation between these systems? Such questions are of particular weight in relation to current music practices, characterized by a great many of analytical procedures and hermeneutical views. The questions raised open a series of different thematic fields presented in this book. The authors allocate the place of music to the field of aesthetic autonomy or describe its specific sign system(s). Special attention is focused on the systems of musicological contextualization and the meaning/understanding of music in different historical and/or functional contexts, from traditional liturgical chant up to recent compositions. Various contributions in the collection are dedicated to the relation between music and film, while others deal with the special sociological conditions that constitute some specific musical praxis, such as folk or rock music.

Maurice Ravel: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography concerning both the nature of primary sources related to the composer and the scope and significance of the secondary sources which deal with him, his compositions, and his influence as a composer and theorist.

Introducing the concept of music and painting as 'rival sisters' during the nineteenth century, this interdisciplinary collection explores the productive exchange - from rivalry to inspiration to collaboration - between the two media in the age of Romanticism and Modernism. The volume traces the relationship between art and music, from the opposing claims for superiority of the early nineteenth century, to the emergence of the concept of synesthesia around 1900.