Elliott Carter Studies

An international team of scholars presents historic, philosophic, philological and theoretical perspectives on Carter's extensive musical repertoire.

Marguerite Boland (Edited by), John Link (Edited by)

9781316639962, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 February 2017

364 pages, 10 b/w illus. 7 tables 147 music examples
24.5 x 17.2 x 2 cm, 0.64 kg

'… this is a most valuable addition to the growing body of Elliott Carter literature. The fourteen chapters present a broad range of topics and approaches to this music, and address pieces throughout his career … a few of the essays, particularly those by Heinemann, Ravenscroft, and Schmidt should become essential reading for musicians undertaking their initial forays into Carter's unique approach to composition. Finally, the book is well edited, and the musical examples are beautifully engraved.' Notes

Over the course of an astonishingly long career, Elliott Carter has engaged with many musical developments of the twentieth and now twenty-first centuries - from his early neo-classic music of the interwar period, to his modernist works of conflict and opposition in the 1960s and 1970s, to the reshaping of a modernist aesthetic in his latest compositions. Elliott Carter Studies throws new light on these many facets of Carter's extensive musical oeuvre. This collection of essays presents historic, philosophic, philological and theoretical points of departure for in-depth investigations of individual compositions, stylistic periods in Carter's output and his contributions to a variety of genres, including vocal music, the string quartet and the concerto. The first multi-authored book to appear on Carter's music, it brings together research from a distinguished team of leading international Carter scholars, providing the reader with a wide range of perspectives on an extraordinary musical life.

Preface Marguerite Boland and John Link
Part I. Overview: Music Early and Late: 1. The true significance of Elliott Carter's early works Jonathan Bernard
2. Elliott Carter's late music John Link
Part II. Analysis and Aesthetics: 3. The search for order: Carter's late-modern thematicism Arnold Whittall
4. Ritornello form in Carter's Boston and ASKO concertos Marguerite Boland
5. 'The matter of human cooperation' in Carter's mature style John Roeder
6. Time management: rhythm as a formal determinant in certain works of Elliott Carter Andrew Mead
7. 'I try to write music that will appeal to an intelligent listener's ear': on Elliott Carter's string quartets Dörte Schmidt
8. Composition with intervals: melodic invention in Elliott Carter's recent concertos Stephen Heinemann
Part III. Sketch Studies: 9. Left by the wayside: Elliott Carter's unfinished sonatina for oboe and harpsichord Felix Meyer
10. At the edge of creation: Elliott Carter's sketches in the Library of Congress Stephen Soderberg
Part IV. Music and Text: 11. Three Illusions … and maybe a fourth: a hermeneutic approach to Carter's music Max Noubel
12. Layers of meaning: expression and design in Carter's songs Brenda Ravenscroft
13. 'It's as if our voices made no sound': irony in episodes 10-15 of What Next? Guy Capuzzo
14. Words and music in The Defense of Corinth Annette van Dyck-Hemming
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], 20th century & contemporary classical music [AVGC6], Music [AV]