The Music of Harrison Birtwistle

This book gives a comprehensive view of Harrison Birtwistle's music, considering its wider cultural significance.

Robert Adlington (Author)

9780521630825, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 March 2000

258 pages, 28 music examples
24.4 x 17 x 1.6 cm, 0.61 kg

'… a probing, rigorous discussion of his music. This thoughtful book deserves a warm reception.' Diana Burrell, The Musical Times

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 It contains descriptions of every published work, and also of a number of withdrawn and unpublished pieces.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.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and note on sources
Introduction
Part I. Theatres: 1. Violence
2. Myth
3. Music and drama
4. Narratives and rituals
Part II. Roles: 5. Dramatic protagonists
6. Ceremonial actors
7. Negotiated identities
8. Soloists
Part III. Texts: 9. Narration
10. Fragment
11. Phone
12. Expression
Part IV. Times: 13. Time
14. Pulse
15. Journeys
Part V. Sections: 16. Verse
17. Fragment
18. Context
Part VI. Layers: 19. Melody
20. Polyphony
21. Strata
Part VII. Audiences
Notes
Chronological list of works
Bibliography
Index of works
General index.

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