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Demonstrates the profound impact of
The Poems of Ossian on composers of the Romantic Era and later: Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Massenet, and many others.
List of contents
Note to the Reader
Battling Critics, Engaging Composers: Ossian's Spell
On Macpherson's Native Heath: Primary Sources
A Culture without Writing, Settings without A Score, Haydn without Copyright, and Two
Oscars on Stage
"A Musical Piece": Harriet Wainewright's Opera,
Comàla (1792)
Between Gluck and Berlioz: Méhul's
Uthal (1806)Fingallo e Comala (1805) and
Ardano e Dartula (1825): The Ossianic Operas of Stefano Pavesi
From Venice to Lisbon and St. Petersburg:
Calto, Clato, Aganadeca,
Gaulo ed Oitona and Two
FingalsBeethoven's Ossianic Manner, or, Where Scholars Fear to Tread
Excursus: Mendelssohn Waives the Rules: "Overture to the Isles of Fingal" and an "Unfinished" Coda
The Maiden Bereft: "Colma" from Rust (1780) to Schubert (1816)
Scènes lyriques sans frontières: Louis Théodore Gouvy's
Le dernier Hymne d'Ossian (1858) and Lucien Hillemacher's
Fingal (1880)
Ossian in Symbolic Conflict: Bernhard Hopffer's
Darthula's Grabesgesang (1878), Jules Bordier's
Un rêve d'Ossian (1885), and Paul Umlauft's
Agandecca (1890)
The Musical Stages of "Darthula": From Thomas Linley Jr (ca.1775) to Arnold Schoenberg (1903) and Armin Knab (1906)
Cantatas as Drama: Joseph Jongen's
Comala (1897), Jørgen Malling's
Kyvala (1902) and Liza Lehmann's
Leaves from Ossian (1909)
Symphonic Poem and Orchestral Fantasy: Alexandre Levy's
Comala (1890), and Charles Villiers Stanford's
Lament for the Son of Ossian (1903)
Neo-Romanticism in Britain and America: John Laurence Seymour's "Shilric's Song" (from
Six Ossianic Odes), and Cedric Thorpe Davie's cantata,
Dirge for Cuchullin (both 1936)
Modernity, Modernism and Ossian: Erik Chisholm's
Night Song of the Bards (1944-51), James MacMillan's
The Death of Oscar (2013), and Jean Guillou's
Ballade Ossianique No. 2: Les Chants de Selma (1971, rev. 2005)
Afterword: The "Half-Viewless Harp" - Secondary Resonances of Ossian
Appendix 1:Title Page and Dedication of Harriet Wainewright's
ComàlaAppendix 2: French and German Texts of Gouvy's
Le dernier Hymne d'OssianAppendix 3: Texts for Erik Chisholm's
Night Song of the BardsAppendix 4: Provisional List of Musical Compositions Based on the Poems of Ossian
Notes
Selected Bibliography
About the author
JAMES PORTER is Professor Emeritus of Music at UCLA and an Honorary Professor of the University of Aberdeen.
Summary
Demonstrates the profound impact of The Poems of Ossian on composers of the Romantic Era and later: Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Massenet, and many others.
