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A book of memoirs and essays by notable composer, critic and teacher Arthur Berger. The author writes vividly about the music scenes in New York, Paris, and Boston, and of his work with notable colleagues such as Stravinsky, Copeland, and Virgil Thompson.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Contractions
Introduction
1. Composers and their Audience in the Thirties
2. Nationalism
3. Is Music in Decline?
4. Rendezvous with Apollo: Form Is Feeling
5. Reinventing the Past: Pastiche, "Criticism," or Collage?
6. Serialism: Composer as Theorist
7. Rapprochement or Friendly Takeover?
8. Postmodern Music
9. Virgil Thomson and the Press
10. Music on My Beat
11. PNM and the Ph. D.
12. Do We Hear What We Say We Hear?
13. New Linguistic Modes and the New Theory
14. Backstage at the Opera
15. A Tale of Two Critics: Rosenfeld and Haggin
16. A Tale of Two Conductors: Koussevitzky and Mitropoulos
17. Octatonic Scale
18. Brief Encounters: From My Diary
NOTES
About the author
Arthur Berger is Irving Fine Professor of Music Emeritus at Brandeis University and Fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of Aaron Copland (1990) and composer of orchestral, piano, choral, and chamber music.
Summary
In this collection of essays, distinguished composer, theorist, journalist and educator Arthur Berger invites us into the vibrant and ever-changing American music scene that has been his home for most of the 20th century.
