Hugh Macdonald - Böcker

Performing edition of Walton's Piano Quartet, first published in 1918 and one of his first compositions to have survived. The work was later revised by Walton in 1974-5, and this edition is based on the score published in the Walton Edition Chamber Music volume.

Performing edition of Walton's String Quartet in A minor, based on the edition published in the Walton Edition Chamber Music volume. The work was first performed in 1947 and later revised as the Sonata for String Orchestra.

Walton's Violin Sonata was commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin after a chance encounter in Lucerne, Switzerland in September 1947. The work was completed in 1949 and first performed by Menuhin and Louis Kentner that year. This edition is based on the score published in the Walton Edition Chamber Music volume.

In this comprehensive life-and-works study, Hugh Macdonald draws on Berlioz's numerous writings - his Memoires, his critical articles, and his extensive correspondence, including many unpublished documents. Berlioz's provincial upbringing, his enthusiasm for Parisian opera and theatre, his marriage to the actress Harriet Smithson, his activities as composer, critic, and conductor, are covered in a biographical section which concludes with a chapter on his character. Discussion of the music is chronological, from the time when Berlioz arrived in Paris in 1821 to study medicine, through the peak of French Romanticism in the 1830's, to the compositions of his later years. In a final chapter Hugh Macdonald traces influences on Berlioz's style and examines his treatment of melody, harmony, and rhythm, and his distinctive orchestral technique.

Today Georges Bizet is most immediately recognized as the composer of the acclaimed opera Carmen. One of the most frequently performed operas for over a century, Carmen explores concepts such as the femme fatale and murderous jealousy with vivacity, color, and a wealth of melody. Yet it is only one act in Bizet's story. In Bizet, renowned musicologist Hugh Macdonald goes beyond the composer's most famous opera to take an in-depth look at his entire life and oeuvre. In so doing, Macdonald identifies a number of previously unknown pieces by Bizet, assembling the first comprehensive catalogue of the composer's work. Incorporating these little-known pieces with a thorough reading of primary sources, Macdonald considers the latest in Bizet scholarship to create a complete biography of the composer. Revealing the true extent of Bizet's work as arranger and transcriber, Macdonald sheds light on the composer's complex relationships with his contemporaries, and traces the strange misrepresentation of Bizet's work by French publishers and opera houses in the 1880s, when Carmen rose to worldwide popularity ten years after the composer's early death. The first biography of Bizet in the Master Musicians series in nearly four decades, Bizet will be essential reading for students and scholars of nineteenth-century opera, as well as for Carmen devotees and opera fans.

Letter writing, by contrast, provided him with a freer outlet for creative expression, and his surviving correspondences number in the thousands. From that extraordinary output Hugh Macdonald has gathered some 500 letters that span the composer's life and chart the course of his artistic career. The first letter, written by a brash fifteen-year-old Berlioz to a group of music publishers, suggests that they bring out his work at their own expense. The last letter, in which Berlioz begs his brother-in-law for money, reveals the once-prodigious composer and writer reduced to a pathetic state of poverty. Dipped into or read straight through, Selected Letters of Berlioz is entertaining and informative reading for any music lover. Translated aptly and colorfully by Roger Nichols, Berlioz's letters blend personal sentiment with deep insight into nineteenth-century thought, providing an entrancing portrait of one of the century's leading artistic figures.

Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise is a classic textbook which has been used as a guide to orchestration and as a source book for the understanding both of Berlioz's music and of orchestral practice in the nineteenth century. This was the first English translation of Berlioz's complete text since 1856, and it is accompanied throughout by Hugh Macdonald's extensive and authoritative commentary on the instruments of Berlioz's time and on his own orchestral practice, as revealed in his scores. It also includes extracts from Berlioz's writings on instruments in his Memoirs and in his many articles for the Parisian press. The Treatise has been highly valued both for its technical information about instruments but also for its poetic and visionary approach to the art of instrumentation. Berlioz was not only one of the great orchestrators of the nineteenth century, he was also the author with the clearest understanding of the art.

Berlioz's Orchestration Treatise is a classic textbook which has been used as a guide to orchestration and as a source book for the understanding both of Berlioz's music and of orchestral practice in the nineteenth century. This was the first English translation of Berlioz's complete text since 1856, and it is accompanied throughout by Hugh Macdonald's extensive and authoritative commentary on the instruments of Berlioz's time and on his own orchestral practice, as revealed in his scores. It also includes extracts from Berlioz's writings on instruments in his Memoirs and in his many articles for the Parisian press. The Treatise has been highly valued both for its technical information about instruments but also for its poetic and visionary approach to the art of instrumentation. Berlioz was not only one of the great orchestrators of the nineteenth century, he was also the author with the clearest understanding of the art.

Originally published in 1940, this book presents the content of a July 1681 pamphlet created in opposition to widespread discontent over Charles II's dissolution of Whig Parliaments in 1679 and 1681. Attributed by the editor to George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, the text was a direct response to A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend Concerning His Majesties Late Declaration, an anti-dissolution pamphlet created in April 1681. An editorial introduction and bibliography are included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in British history and seventeenth-century history.

The stage works of Saint-Saëns range from grand open-air pageants to one-act comic operas, and include the first composed film score. Yet, with the exception of Samson et Dalila, his twelve operas have lain in the shadows since the composer's death in 1921. Widely performed in his lifetime, they vanished from the repertory - never played, never recorded - until now. With four twenty-first-century revivals as a backdrop, this timely book is the first study of Saint-Saëns's operas, demonstrating the presence of the same breadth and versatility as in his better known works. Hugh Macdonald's wide knowledge of French music in the nineteenth century gives a powerful understanding of the different conventions and expectations that governed French opera at the time. The interaction of Saint-Saëns with his contemporaries is a colourful and important part of the story.

The stage works of Saint-Saëns range from grand open-air pageants to one-act comic operas, and include the first composed film score. Yet, with the exception of Samson et Dalila, his twelve operas have lain in the shadows since the composer's death in 1921. Widely performed in his lifetime, they vanished from the repertory - never played, never recorded - until now. With four twenty-first-century revivals as a backdrop, this timely book is the first study of Saint-Saëns's operas, demonstrating the presence of the same breadth and versatility as in his better known works. Hugh Macdonald's wide knowledge of French music in the nineteenth century gives a powerful understanding of the different conventions and expectations that governed French opera at the time. The interaction of Saint-Saëns with his contemporaries is a colourful and important part of the story.

Essays by the noted authority on nineteenth-century music, the topics ranging from Beethoven and Schubert to comic opera to Scriabin and Janácek.In Beethoven's Century: Essays on Composers and Themes, world-renowned musicologist Hugh Macdonald draws together many of his richest essays on music from Beethoven's time into the early twentieth century. The essays are here revised and updated, and some are printed in English for the first time.Beethoven's Century addresses perennial questions of what music meant to the composer and his audiences, how it was intended to be played, andhow today's audiences can usefully approach it.Opening with a revealing analysis of Beethoven's not always generous regard for his listeners, the essays probe aspects of Schubert's musical personality, the brief friendshipbetween Berlioz and Schumann, Liszt's abilities as a conductor, and Viennese views of Wagner as expressed by Hugo Wolf.Essays on comic opera and trends in French opera libretti in the late nineteenth century reflect the author's long-standing sympathy for French music, and strikingly eccentric personalities in the world of music, such as Paganini, Alkan, Skryabin, and Janácek, are brought to life.Beethoven's Century concludes with a wrylook at some startling developments in early twentieth-century music that have often been overlooked.Hugh Macdonald has taught music at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and Glasgow, and since 1987 has been Avis H. Blewett Distinguished Professor of Music at Washington University, St. Louis. He has written books on Skryabin and Berlioz, and is a regular pre-concert speaker for the Boston and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras.

The first English translation of Bizet's letters and journals from his stay in Italy, with explanatory texts from one of the leading authorities on the composer's life and music.In 1857, Georges Bizet (1838-1875) won the prestigious Prix de Rome scholarship which allowed him to study in Italy for a few years at the expense of the French state. While Bizet's correspondence from this time suggests that he was not fond of Italian music, he was especially drawn to the landscape and Italian Renaissance art and painting. Though Bizet's thoughts later turned away from rural life and the masterpieces of the Renaissance, his letters and journals from this period document the growth of a young musician who would eventually write Carmen. Translated into English for the first time, Bizet's letters from his stay in Italy (at the Villa Medici in Rome, with expeditions to various other parts of the country) reveal much about his character and tastes. These extraordinary documents are fully annotated, and presented alongside never-before-published translations of Bizet's journals from the same years. Linking textual guides supplied by one of the leading authorities on the composer provide unique insights into the composer's formative years that cannot be found anywhere else.

WINNER: 2013 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title AwardNo one composer is at the centre of this fascinating story, but a larger picture emerges of a shift in musical scenery, from the world of the innocent Romanticism of Berlioz and Schumann to the more potent musical politics of Wagner, and of his antidote (as many saw him), Brahms.Why 1853? For many leading composers this year brought far-reaching changes to their lives: Brahms emerged from obscurity to celebrity, Schumann ceased to be an active composer, and both Berlioz and Wagner became active again after long silences. By limiting the perspective to a single year yet extending it to a group of musicians, their constant interconnections become the central motif: Brahms meets Berlioz and Liszt as well as Schumann; Liszt is a constant link in every chain; Joachim is close to all of them; Wagner is on everyone's mind. No one composer is at the centre of the story, but a network of musicians spreads across the map of Europe from London and Paris to Leipzig and Zurich.Music in 1853 shows how musicians were now more closely connected than ever before, through the constant exchange of letters and the rapidly expanding railway network. The book links geography and day-to-day events to show how international the European musical scene had become. A larger picture emerges of a shift in musical scenery, from the world of the innocent Romanticism of Berlioz and Schumann to the more potent musical politics of Wagner and of his antidote (as many saw him) Brahms.HUGH MACDONALD is Avis H. Blewett Professor Emeritus of Music at Washington University, St Louis. He has authored books on Skryabin and Berlioz and has previously published Beethoven's Century: Essays on Composers and Themes with Boydell/URP.