Harrison Birtwistle's Operas and Music Theatre

A definitive source study of the stage works of Harrison Birtwistle, one of Britain's foremost living composers.

David Beard (Author)

9780521895347, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 October 2012

488 pages, 8 b/w illus. 11 tables 174 music examples
25.2 x 18 x 2.6 cm, 1.11 kg

'… the nature of Beard's focus enables him consistently to provide fresh, alternative insights that complement and enhance the existing literature … [He] provides the reader with valuable, fascinating insights into Birtwistle's compositional workshop … [and] draws on an impressive range of technical and conceptual tools alongside a keen eye for musical details that open up new interpretative vistas. This is a serious, committed volume that makes a significant contribution to Birtwistle scholarship, and should be essential reading for anyone interested in stage music of the late twentieth century.' Edward Venn, Tempo

David Beard presents the first definitive survey of Harrison Birtwistle's music for the opera house and theatre, from his smaller-scale works, such as Down by the Greenwood Side and Bow Down, to the full-length operas, such as Punch and Judy, The Mask of Orpheus and Gawain. Blending source study with both music analysis and cultural criticism, the book focuses on the sometimes tense but always revealing relationship between abstract musical processes and the practical demands of narrative drama, while touching on theories of parody, narrative, pastoral, film, the body and community. Each stage work is considered in terms of its own specific musico-dramatic themes, revealing how compositional scheme and dramatic conception are intertwined from the earliest stages of a project's genesis. The study draws on a substantial body of previously undocumented primary sources and goes beyond previous studies of the composer's output to include works unveiled from 2000 onwards.

1. The roots of Birtwistle's theatrical expression: from Pantomime to Down by the Greenwood Side
2. Punch and Judy: parody, allusion, and the grotesque
3. The Mask of Orpheus: 'lyrical formalism', time and narrative
4. Yan Tan Tethera: pastoral labyrinths and the scene-agent ratio
5. The shadow of opera: dramatic narrative and musical discourse in Gawain
6. 'A face like music': shaping images into sound in The Second Mrs Kong
7. Corporeal music: Bow Down, The Io Passion and The Corridor
8. The Last Supper and The Minotaur: eyes 'half filled and half deserted'
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], Opera [AVGC9], Music [AV], Theatre direction & production [ANF]