Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation

by Arnold Whittall

Overview

This study of the music of a group of important composers of the twentieth century includes Debussy, Webern, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartók, Janácek, Britten, Carter, Birtwistle, Andriessen and Adams. Arnold Whittall explores the cultural contexts and critical perspectives which shed light on certain works by these composers. In particular, he reveals the continuum between the progressive and the conservative underlying the great variety of styles and musical genres in twentieth-century composition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521016681
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/27/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.85(w) x 9.72(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Arnold Whittall is Professor Emeritus of Music Theory and Analysis at King's College London and he has written widely on twentieth-century music. His recent publications include The Music of Britten and Tippett (1990) and Musical Composition in the Twentieth Century (1999).

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. The work in the world; 2. Reflections, reactions; 3. Rites of renewal and remembrance; 4. Transcending the secular; 5. Overlapping opposites: Schoenberg observed; 6. The subject of Britten; 7. Engagement or alienation?; 8. Rites of transformation; 9. Modernism, lyricism; 10. Experiment and orthodoxy; 11. Modernism in retreat?; Notes; Bibliography; Index.