Thomas Adès: Asyla

Edward Venn is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Leeds and Critical Forum editor for Music Analysis. His research focuses on twentieth-century and contemporary music, and his first monograph, The Music of Hugh Wood, appeared in 2008. His research on Adès’s Asyla was supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship.

"Edward Venn’s monograph provides the most thorough-going technical assessment Adès’s music has yet received." - Arnold Whittall, The Musical Times"Edward Venn’s superb monograph Thomas Adès: Asyla serves the interests of at least two distinct audiences: one broad, and one deep. Three chapters (the first, second, and seventh) provide the richest survey of Adès’s work in the 1990s, its broader cultural context, and its critical reception currently in print. The four other chapters, taken together, constitute the single most in-depth exploration of any of Adès’s compositions that has been undertaken to date.Venn’s book is a treasure trove of insights and information about one of the most lauded symphonic works written since the fall of the Berlin Wall." - Drew Massey, NABMSA Reviews"Venn’s writing is extremely lucid. He clearly communicates the ways in which Ad 'es plays with and expands very basic compositional processes in order to create a musical sound that draws the ear in its immediacy, but also rewards further contemplation and study. In this respect, Venn’s prose is much like Ade' s’s music: he manages to convey these processes in all their intricacy, inviting intense consideration while maintaining an overall compelling flow. In terms of the overall argument, Venn is un-doubtedly original, since he manages to blend theoretical work with a political dimension that has been absent from Ad 'es scholarship until now. This book is a long-overdue critical analysis of Ade' s’s cultural impact." - Alexis Vellianitis, St. Peter's College, Oxford

• 1. Thomas Adès in the 1990s 2. Towards Asyla (1990–97) 3. ‘Trying to Find Refuge’: The Symphonic Logic of the First Movement 4. ‘A Safe Place to go in Times of Trouble’ 5. ‘Ecstasio’: A ‘Freaky, Funky Rave’? 6. Asylum Gained? 7. Interpreting Asyla Epilogue: After Asyla