Elliott Carter

by Carter, Elliott; Bernard, Jonathan W.

• ISBN13: 9781580460255
• ISBN10: 1580460259
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Rochester Pr

Summary

Elliott Carter (b.1908) is now generally acknowledged as America's most eminent living composer. This definitive volume of his essays and lectures - many previously unpublished or uncollected -shows his thinking and writing on music and associated issues developing in parallel with his career as a composer; his reputation became established in the 1950s, and the material in this book offers an important and knowledgeable commentary on the course of American and European music in the succeeding decades. Carter's articles on his own music have become classic texts for students of his oeuvre; he also writes on the state of new music in Europe and the United States and the relations between music and the other arts. Other pieces range from a consideration of aspects of music to the work of individual composers. As a whole, the collection is the expression of Carter's musical philosophy, and a valuable record for historians of modern music.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Essayist Despite Himself
Acknowledgments
A Carter Chronology
The Composer's Viewpoint (1946)	p. 3
A Further Step (1958)	p. 5
The Challenge of the New (1960-62/94)	p. 11
Fallacy of the Mechanistic Approach (1946)	p. 15
"La Musique serielle aujourd'hui" (1965/94)	p. 17
ISCM Festival, Rome (1959)	p. 18
Rasputin's End and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1960)	p. 28
Letter from Europe (1963)	p. 31
ISCM Festival, Amsterdam (1963/94)	p. 40
Once Again Swing; Also "American Music" (1939)	p. 45
American Music in the New York Scene (1940)	p. 48
The Agony of Modern Music in America, 1955 (1955/94)	p. 53
The Rhythmic Basis of American Music (1955)	p. 57
The European Roots of American Musical Culture (1961/94)	p. 62
Expressionism and American Music (1965/72)	p. 72
"The Composer Is a University Commodity" (1970)	p. 83
The Case of Mr. Ives (1939)	p. 87
Ives Today: His Vision and Challenge (1944)	p. 90
An American Destiny (1946)	p. 93
Charles Ives Remembered (1974)	p. 98
Documents of a Friendship with Ives (1975)	p. 107
Gabriel Faure (1945)	p. 119
The Three Late Sonatas of Debussy (1959/94)	p. 122
American Figure, with Landscape [Henry F. Gilbert] (1943)	p. 134
Stravinsky in 1940 (1940)	p. 138
Igor Stravinsky: Two Tributes (1971)	p. 141
On Edgard Varese (1975/79)	p. 146
Edward Steuermann (1966)	p. 151
Walter Piston (1946)	p. 158
Roger Sessions: Violin Concerto (1959)	p. 175
In Memoriam: Roger Sessions, 1896-1985 (1985/95)	p. 180
In Memoriam: Stefan Wolpe, 1902-1972 (1972)	p. 185
Two Essays on Goffredo Petrassi (1960, 1986)	p. 187
To Think of Milton Babbitt (1976)	p. 197
For Pierre Boulez on His Sixtieth (1985)	p. 199
To Be a Composer in America (1953/94)	p. 201
The Composer's Choices (c.1960)	p. 210
Shop Talk by an American Composer (1960)	p. 214
The Time Dimension in Music (1965)	p. 224
Two Sonatas, 1948 and 1952 (1969)	p. 228
String Quartets Nos. 1, 1951, and 2, 1959 (1970)	p. 231
The Orchestral Composer's Point of View (1970)	p. 235
On Saint-John Perse and the Concerto for Orchestra (1974/94)	p. 250
Brass Quintet (1974)	p. 256
Double Concerto, 1961, and Duo, 1974 (1975)	p. 258
Music and the Time Screen (1976)	p. 262
"Elle est la musique en personne": A Reminiscence of Nadia Boulanger (c.1985/95)	p. 281
Reminiscence of Italy (1988)	p. 292
More about Balanchine (1937)	p. 295
With the Dancers (1938)	p. 296
Remembering Balanchine (1991/95)	p. 299
Theatre and Films (1943)	p. 304
The Genial Sage [Paul Rosenfeld] (1948)	p. 306
Introduction to a Poetry Reading by W. H. Auden (1969)	p. 307
Music as a Liberal Art (1944)	p. 309
Time Lecture (1965/94)	p. 313
The Gesamtkunstwerk (1966/94)	p. 319
Soviet Music (1967/94)	p. 331
Music Criticism (1972)	p. 335
Notes on Sources	p. 343
Published Writings by Carter Not Included in This Collection	p. 351
Index	p. 355
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.