The Music of Harrison Birtwistle

by Robert Adlington

• ISBN13: 9780521027809
• ISBN10: 0521027802
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Harrison Birtwistle has become the most eminent and acclaimed of contemporary British composers. This book provides a comprehensive view of his large and varied output. It contains descriptions of every published work, and also of a number of withdrawn and unpublished pieces. Revealing light is often cast on the more familiar pieces by considering these lesser-known areas of Birtwistle's oeuvre. The book is structured around a number of broad themes - themes of significance to Birtwistle, but also to much other music. These include theatre, song, time and texture. This approach emphasizes the music's multifarious ways of meaning; now that even the academic world no longer takes the merits of 'difficult' contemporary music for granted, it is all the more important to assess what it represents beyond mere technical innovation. Adlington thus avoids in-depth technical analysis, focusing instead upon the music's wider cultural significance.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
Abbreviations and note on sources	xiv
Introduction	1	(4)
1 Theatres	5	(33)
Violence	6	(6)
Myth	12	(9)
Music and drama	21	(5)
Narratives and rituals	26	(12)
2 Roles	38	(30)
Dramatic protagonists	39	(8)
Ceremonial actors	47	(5)
Negotiated identities	52	(9)
Soloists	61	(7)
3 Texts	68	(28)
Narration	68	(5)
Fragment	73	(5)
Phone	78	(4)
Expression	82	(14)
4 Times	96	(25)
Time	96	(9)
Puke	105	(7)
Journeys	112	(9)
5 Sections	121	(35)
Verse	122	(11)
Fragment	133	(9)
Context	142	(14)
6 Layers	156	(34)
Melody	156	(8)
Polyphony	164	(16)
Strata	180	(10)
7 Audiences	190	(8)
Notes	198	(22)
Chronological list of works	220	(5)
Bibliography	225	(7)
Index of works	232	(3)
General index	235