Aging and creativity can seem a particularly fraught relationship for artists, who often face age-related difficulties as their audience’s expectations are at a peak. In Four Last Songs, Linda and Michael Hutcheon explore this issue via the late works of some of the world’s greatest composers. Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), Richard Strauss (1864–1949), Olivier Messiaen (1908–92), and Benjamin Britten (1913–76) all wrote operas late in life, pieces that reveal unique responses to the challenges of growing older. Verdi’s Falstaff, his only comedic success, combated Richard Wagner’s influence by introducing young Italian composers to a new model of national music. Strauss, on the other hand, struggling with personal and political problems in Nazi Germany, composed the self-reflexive Capriccio, a “life review” of opera and his own legacy. Though it exhausted him physically and emotionally, Messiaen at the age of seventy-five finished his only opera, Saint François d’Assise, which marked the pinnacle of his career. Britten, meanwhile, suffering from heart problems, refused surgery until he had completed his masterpiece, Death in Venice. For all four composers, age, far from sapping their creative power, provided impetus for some of their best accomplishments. With its deft treatment of these composers’ final years and works, Four Last Songs provides a valuable look at the challenges—and opportunities—that present themselves as artists grow older.

Product Description: Eigentlich ist Elynia ein ganz normales Mädchen. Doch außerhalb der Schule muss sie sich vor den lauschenden Ohren der Jungalix hüten. Während sie sich schwer tut, ihr Geheimnis für sich zu bewahren, tauchen immer mehr Familiengeheimnisse auf, die ihr Leben nicht leichter machen...read more

Product Description: Sest medalja Ovo je pogled u bolju proslost domaceg rukometa i osvrt na nastupe “plavih” na Svetskim prvenstvima od 1958. do ove 2005. godine. Osvojeno je ukupno sest medalja, zlato 1986. godine u Svajcarskoj , srebro 1982. godine u tadasnjoj SR Nemackoj, i cetiri bronzane medalje - 1970...read more

Product Description: Looks at the history and evolution of music and musical instruments during the Renaissance, and profiles such composers as Heinrich Issac, Binchois, Orlando di Lasso, and John Bull.

Product Description: Noted historian of the Broadway musical chronicles the braided lives of two of the twentieth century's most influential artistsFor the first time, Ethan Mordden chronicles the romance of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya in Love Song, a dual biography that unfolds against the background of the tumultuous twentieth century, scored to music from Weil's greatest triumphs: Knickerbocker Holiday, Lost in the Stars, Lady in the Dark, Happy End, One Touch of Venus and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny...read more

Although such works as Messiah and the Water Music have remained firmly in the repertory since their composition, only recently have the delights of Handel's operas been rediscovered: his lyrical arias, sublime choral style and large-scale musical canvasses. Centring on Handel's pre-eminence as a composer of opera and oratorio, Donald Burrow's comprehensive and accessible study also covers all other important genres, such as the concerto and church music. Taking account of the most modern scholarship, and drawing on his experience as an editor, performer and conductor, Donald Burrows charts the interaction of life and music, from handel's childhood and student years, through his successive professional activities in Germany and Italy, to his establishment as Georgian England's greatest composer. This book is intended for musicians, general music lovers, students of music from A-level onwards, university music departments, opera lovers, performers of church music and oratorios.

Product Description: Passionate and pioneering, Liszt's biography of Chopin flaunts its author's celebrity while straddling the divide between the scholarly and the popular. In this volume Meirion Hughes combines a new translation of the first edition with an introduction that places the work in its cultural and political context...read more

Product Description: This book provides an illustrated guide to the most influential composers from the beginnings of composition in the 12th century to the golden age of Western music in the mid-19th century.

Product Description: You might not know the name "Jean-Jacques Perrey", but chances are that you're heard his music. It's been everywhere: on commercials, in cartoons, and Top 40 hits. It's been sampled by over 70 hip-hop artists including Ice T, Dr. Dre and A Tribe Called Quest...read more

Product Description: Amid a background of wars and revolution, the 19th century produced many of the world's best-loved composers including Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin and Tchaikovsky. "Discover Music of the Romantic Era" charts the course of music through these turbulent but exhilarating times with 40 music excerpts...read more

Product Description: Language:Chinese.Paperback. Pub Date: 2008 Pages: 240 in Publisher: Phaidon Press Inc.. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) is regarded as the inventor of modern music. The His phenomenal achievements are Comparable to those of his close friend and contemporary Pablo Picasso...read more

The celebrated author and intellectual ponders the possibility and probability of the miraculous and addresses the issue of how God intervenes in nature and human affairs. Reprint. 35,000 first printing. (view table of contents)