Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex

This clear and concise guide is the first ever to be written on this work and it describes the music and its staging in close detail.

Stephen Walsh (Author)

9780521404310, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 June 1993

132 pages, 16 music examples
22.4 x 14.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.29 kg

"There is much in this book that is considerable, and the author opens up areas that almost demand further research. In preparing Oedipus Rex for performance, one should use this book, with score in hand, as a starting point or reference source. The extensive notes and bibliography make the handbook a valuable tool." Choral Journal

Stravinsky's opera-oratorio Oedipus rex is widely acknowledged as one of the most original music-theatre works of the twentieth century. This clear and concise guide is the first ever to be written on this work and it describes the music and its staging in close detail. It offers the first proper explanation of the plot and its relation to its literary sources and provides a fully documented discussion of the origins of Oedipus rex in Stravinsky's own work and thinking. By placing the work in its social context Stephen Walsh paints a vivid picture of Parisian artistic politics in the twenties from which emerges one of the richest and most suggestive works of art of modern times.

Preface
List of abbreviations
1. The exile finds a new home
2. Of masks, masses and magic
3. In which the music unfolds
4. How it all came to be known
Appendix A. The libretto
Appendix B. The Latin text and its setting
Appendix C. Cast and orchestra
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH]