Composers Books - Page 3

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)

Mike Venezia

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Another great book in this series 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Author Mike Venezia does a great job explaining biographies to children in a way that is both understandable and interesting. The writing style is not dumbed down or patronizing in tone. This is book is one in a series, others are about other musical composers and artists.

The first few pages explain what the musical climate was like in Mozart's life and explains how people used music for entertainment purposes. This is brief and a very good opening to put Mozart's life in perspective. The rest of the book is a full span of Mozart's life. Unlike other books for children about Mozart, the fact that Mozart was a boy genius is not the main content of the book. Oddly, Mozart's children are never mentioned. Mozart's marriage is briefly mentioned as is Mozart's death.

I have mixed feelings about the illustrations. I appreciated that the illustrations documented the various time periods of Mozart's life. I loved the illustrations that were photographs, fine drawings, or copies of fine paintings of the places Mozart visited, of Mozart and his family, and scenes of his operas. I did not at all like the eight cartoons whose illustrations and accompanying text were sarcastic and silly. These eight cartoons were completely out of character with the text of the book and I didn't appreciate them at all. My children and I have enjoyed other books by this author that did not have dumb cartoons and jokes. My children, aged 4 and 6 haven't needed these silly and sometimes insulting jokes to make the subject matter enjoyable. The interesting biography's text and other illustrations are high quality and are better off without these cartoons. The cartoons downgrade my rating to a 4.

I recommend this book and others by Mike Venezia to teach young children about important people in history.

Editorial Review:

Presents a biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozar

Wagner's Ring: Turning the Sky Round

M. Owen Lee

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Superb introduction for the novice. 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This little book is an excellent introduction for folks like myself who have tried for years to make sense of the cycle. The narration gives a plot synopsis followed by the author's view of the meaning behind the drama. I have always been fascinated by Wagner's Ring Cycle though I do not know German. I have been very intrigued by the music. Well this book gave me a tiny little bit to get me going.

Much of Father Owens' analysis may not meet with everyone's interpretation of the cycle but it does make one think.

There is a section at the end that contains written music. My knowledge of reading music is very scant so I just ignored that section. It is not germane to the narrative because one can get these examples by listening to the work. For good examples get An Introduction To Wagner's Der Ring Des Nebulungen by Deryck Cooke on CD. Mr. Cooke's CD gives audio examples that one can appreciate without knowing how to read music.

Editorial Review:

Commentary on and a concise, lucid interpretation of the opera world's most complex masterwork, expanded from the author's popular intermission talks during Met Opera broadcasts.

Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung: A Companion

Stewart Spencer, Barry Millington

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The full German text with a new translation and commentaries. There has long been a need for a modern English translation of Wagner's Ring--a version that is reliable and readable yet at the same time is a true reflection of the literary quality of the German libretto. Stewart Spencer's well-reviewed translation, which follows the verse form of the original exactly, has filled that niche. It reads smoothly and idiomatically yet is the result of prolonged thought and deep background knowledge. The translation is accompanied by Spencer's introductory essay on the libretto and a series of specially commissioned texts by Barry Millington, Roger Hollinrake, Elizabeth Magee, and Warren Darcy that discuss the cycle's musical structure, philosophical implications, medieval sources, and Wagner's own changing attitude to its meaning. With a glossary of names, a review of audio and video recordings, and a select bibliography, the book serves as an essential complement to Wagner's great epic. 16 b/w illustrations.

Bach's Goldberg Variations

Anna Harwell Celenza

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

lessons in Bach and Baroque music 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

The legendary-like story behind Bach's immortal "Goldberg Variations" is told accompanied with fancy, often baroque-like illustrations with golden touches. The musically-talented orphan Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was taken in by a German Count. The Count directs him to play something new for him each week; and then later calls on him to do a "piece filled with dances and difficult runs...canons and something quite new...[and] a surprise that will trick me." To meet this demanding challenge, Johann has to turn to his mentor Bach, whose composition in answer to the Count's demand later came to be named after the orphan. The orphan Johann remains the focus of the tale, with Bach giving him musical information and guidance so that readers learn something about the technicalities and style of the "Goldberg Variations." Ages 4-7.

The easiest Celenza to read while listening 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

We have Celenza's Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky) and Farewell Symphony (Haydn), and the kids love them all. I find that this Goldberg Variations, however, lends itself better to reading WHILE the kids are listening to the CD (included) than the others do. Her Farewell Symphony makes a great story, but it is difficult to enjoy and appreciate the music at all while the story is in progress. By contrast, the Goldberg Variations themselves create a delightful backdrop to this engaging story. Warning: Don't expect to learn much about Bach himself in the course of the book; for that, turn to the Classical Kids CD "Mr. Bach Comes to Call."

Mozart: A Life (A Penguin Life)

Peter Gay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Two-Dimensional Mozart 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Somewhere between Maynard Solomon's 650-page opus Mozart: A Life and the Mozart write-up on Wikipedia, there is Mozart by Peter Gay.

Mozart's story should lend itself to the Penguin Lives series of short biographies. It was a remarkable life in spite of its brevity. Mozart gifted the biographer with a voluminous correspondence and Gay makes extensive use of it. If it sometimes seems as if the narrative consists of epistolary excerpts strung together, they do communicate some aspects of Mozart's character, particularly as regards the increasingly difficult father-son relationship.

Gay also enjoys quoting the vulgar witticisms that frequently occur in the correspondence. Peter Gay is also the author of a biography of Sigmund Freud, so the character analysis was perhaps bound to take a psychoanalytic turn. For example, vis-à-vis the penchant for vulgarity, Mozart "yielded more readily than many others to the regressive pull of early fixations." His adolescent attraction to Aloysia Weber was the expression of "agreeable rescue fantasies". It's hard to say what, if anything, these observations add to the reader's insight into Mozart the man. In the end, while we learn the important facts about Mozart's life, we don't really get a clear sense of character from this book.

Not to say that the author fails to recognize and carry out his writerly duties. In a biography of Mozart, or of any famous person, the author is required to engage with the standard mythology, and Gay dutifully sets the record straight. Mozart was in fact dismissed from the Archbishop of Salzburg's service with a kick in the rear end, and he did once write a full symphony in four days (No. 36). He was not, however, poisoned to death by Salieri (rheumatic fever was the culprit) and he was not just taking straight dictation from God - his original manuscripts bear much evidence of rewriting and revision. (Unfortunately, Gay does not address the implicit charge of alcoholism in the film "Amadeus".) As far as Mozart's famous arrogance, Gay's account perhaps affords an improved perspective: "He had no false modesty about his gifts; since they were God-given, it would be sacrilegious, he thought, to make light of them."

To a great extent the story of Mozart's life is the story of his musical compositions. He began to compose in early childhood; by his death in 1791 the corpus had grown to some 600 works - among them, of course, a number of the signal works of the classical era. Gay cites most of the appropriate pieces - the "Turkish" violin concerto, composed at 19; the piano concertos; the great late symphonies including the No. 41 "Jupiter"; the Requiem Mass. Others could have been mentioned, some excluded; it's pointless to quibble. The important thing is that our author should write well about them.

Unfortunately, Gay isn't very good at writing about music. His musical discussions tend to lapse into praise rather than interpretation: "To experience [the late symphonies] is to enjoy a spectacle of energy translated into beauty." He finally throws up his hands: "...how puerile these common metaphors are compared to the experience of *listening* to Mozart!"

The musical analysis we do get generally comes in the form of quotations from other people - established critics and scholars like Alfred Einstein and Charles Rosen. These, along with the bibliographical essay, are helpful for those seeking more substantive discussion.

Character analysis and musicology aside, what we really want from a Mozart essay by Peter Gay is a discussion of the composer's place in the great intellectual movement of his time: the Enlightenment. Gay is the author of a magisterial two-volume survey of the Enlightenment which runs to some 1,650 pages and is considered definitive. So we make our way through the present narrative patiently waiting for the part where Gay reveals his expert insights into Mozart's role in the Age of Reason. In vain. The benefits to Mozart of Emperor Joseph II's reformist policies are briefly acknowledged. Hope glimmers with Mozart's induction into Freemasonry, but Gay pretty much dismisses this as a networking maneuver. The Magic Flute is characterized as "a rationalist Mason's celebration of truth, love, and human warmth", but the analysis goes no further. If the Penguin Enlightenment Reader is correct on the matter, The Magic Flute's libretto "distills the essence of the Enlightenment"; so it's particularly disappointing that Gay has nothing much to say about it here.

Come to think of it, it's hard to say what advantages Gay's book really has over the Wikipedia essay. After all, they offer substantially the same information; Wikipedia includes color pictures of the composer, his family, and his native Salzburg; you can click to hear the musical pieces discussed; and you can save $[...] to spend on something else. Like some music by Mozart, for example.

Editorial Review:

A biography of the greatest musical mind in Western history

Mozart’s unshakable hold on the public’s consciousness can only be strengthened by historian and biographer Peter Gay’s concise and deft look at the genius’s life. Mozart traces the development of the man whose life was a whirlwind of achievement, and the composer who pushed every instrument to its limit and every genre of classical music into new realms.

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue W /CD

Anna Harwell Celenza

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived in the United States as learners of American culture and within a generation became its creators. In print, on stage and screen, on radio and in the world of music, their children created now iconic works which consciously or unconsciously melded their Jewish roots and American experiences. A prime example is George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, a work that contains elements of Jewish, ragtime and blues music. The concerto is a living example of how a "melting pot society" led to the development of a uniquely American art form.

Through invented dialogue, the author reconstructs Gershwin's thought processes as he begins to envision the music and then creates the work. The only mention of Gershwin's Jewish heritage are references to klezmer music - e.g. "the klezmer band at Ira's bar mitzvah" - but the term is not defined. The terms "ragtime" or "blues" are also not explained. In life, Gershwin was very much influenced not only by the Jewish music of his youth but also by his exposure to African American music.

The book offers a very well written and illustrated glimpse into the creative process of a musical genius and could serve to open further discussion with young readers on the contributions of Jews to American music.

A CD of Rhapsody in Blue (from an original piano roll played by Gershwin himself) accompanies the book. For ages 8-10. Reviewed by Norman H. Finkelstein

Nietzsche: The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols: And Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)

Friedrich Nietzsche

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Nietzsche: The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful.

The Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy yet again struck gold, enshrining history's greatest thinkers in pre-eminently handsome texts, robust and readable translations, and scholarly and timely commentary and introductory exegesis.

Despite Nietzsche's admonition greeting us in the very first prefatory page, this book belongs not to the few, but to all seeking meaning beyond society's regurgitated paradigms and ossified constrictions.

A philosopher-bibliophile's "must have"!

Editorial Review:

Nietzsche's late works are brilliant and uncompromising, and stand as monuments to his lucidity, rigor, and style. This volume combines, for the first time in English, five of these works: The Antichrist, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche contra Wagner, and The Case of Wagner. Nietzsche takes on some of his greatest adversaries in these works: traditional religion, contemporary culture, and above all, his one-time hero, Richard Wagner. His writing is simultaneously critical and creative, revealing his alternative philosophical vision, which, after more than a hundred years, still retains its audacious originality.

Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond

Michael Nyman

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Michael Nyman's book is a first-hand account of experimental music from 1950 to 1970. First published in 1974, it has remained the classic text on a significant form of music making and composing that developed alongside, and partly in opposition to, the postwar modernist tradition of composers such as Boulez, Berio, or Stockhausen. The experimentalist par excellence was John Cage whose legendary 4' 33'' consists of four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence to be performed on any instrument. Such pieces have a conceptual rather than purely musical starting point and radically challenge conventional notions of the musical work. Nyman's book traces the revolutionary attitudes that were developed toward concepts of time, space, sound, and composer/performer responsibility. It was within the experimental tradition that the seeds of musical minimalism were sown and the book contains reference to the early works of Reich, Riley, Young, and Glass. This second edition contains a new Foreword, an updated discography, and a historical overview by the author.

Johann Sebastian Bach (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)

Mike Venezia

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Books 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

All of the Venezia books are really great. They are funny yet informative and really help children to learn about Artists and Composers.

Funny and fabulous 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book has both my boys (ages 6 & 4) laughing and singing (there is a made-up ditty about Heinrich the Pizza Man) and wanting to read the whole book repeatedly. The silly illustrations along with actual images make Bach's history understandable and interesting to the very young. Now we're all listening to the Brandenberg Concertos!

Editorial Review:

Presents a biography of Johann Sebastian Bach

Sleeping with Schubert: A Novel

Bonnie Marson

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

It seems that the legendary composer Franz Schubert is alive—well, sort of—in the twenty-first century: His soul has taken up residence in the body of Brooklyn lawyer Liza Durbin. Even more astonishing, so has his prodigious gift. A mediocre pianist at best as a child, Liza can suddenly pound out concertos and compose masterly music out of the blue. But how can a brilliant male Austrian composer from the nineteenth century coexist in the everyday life of a modern American woman? And how can Liza explain what’s happened to her without everyone thinking she’s gone off the deep end?

Fortunately, the evidence is tangible, and Liza is soon brought into the esteemed halls of Juilliard under the tutelage of the revered—and feared—Greta Pretsky, a humorless woman whose only interest in Liza is her channeling of Schubert. Greta’s greedy for her next big star, and the entire New York City press is whispering of Liza’s brilliance as the public awaits her debut at Carnegie Hall. Even Liza’s boyfriend, Patrick, seems more in love with her than ever.

Yet as Liza yields to Franz’s great passion, her own life and identity threaten to elude her. Why was she chosen as the vessel for this musical genius—and when, if ever, will he leave? Their entwined souls follow a path of ecstasy, peril, and surprise as they search for the final, liberating truth.

A strikingly original novel, Sleeping with Schubert plays on years of speculation regarding Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony.” Bonnie Marson’s extraordinary imagination supposes that Schubert cannot truly die until the mystery is solved—even if it means being resurrected in the body of a deceptively ordinary woman. Filled with drama and humor, this irresistible novel explores love, genius, and identity in ways that will engage and amaze readers.