The Complete Book of 20th Century Music [antikvár]

PrefaceThe Complete Boo\ of 20th-Century Music is the first book in any language to analyze today's musical compositions in all the major forms.The need for such a work is apparent. Modern music is no longer an esoteric field to be cultivated only by trained musicians. It is today heard so frequently in the concert hall, over the radio, and on phonograph records that the layman has learned to appreciate it as intelligently as he does the classics. But, for the most part, twentieth-century music is not so readily assimilable as the music of the pastcertainly not on first hearing, at least. And analytical information on the major works of this century is not readily available.The author has therefore felt that a convenient volume embracing at once the leading composers of our time and their most important works and the major trends, movements, and techniques that influenced these composers and workswould be welcome. It should serve as a convenient help to the layman in better understanding contemporary works with which he is not yet familiar.The plan of this book is simple. Composers are presented alphabeti-cally, from Albéniz to Wolf-Ferrari. Each section begins with a critical analysis of the composer's style; and in certain cases where the composer initiated new techniques or movements, these are alsó clarified. (A convenient table of these techniques and movements, showing the sections where they are discussed, will be found at the end of the volume, beginning on page 473.) A brief biography of the composer follows. After that appear his major works, in chronological order, with such programmatic and analytical information as will help throw illumination on the music. Wherever possible, the author has utilized the programmatic analyses of the composers themselves, somé of which were prepared by them expressly for this book. Discussions of operas and ballets include a succinct plot.The attempt has always been to be informative without becoming technical, to avoid fastidiously terminologies that can be understood only by the conservatory graduate.The greatest single problem facing the author has been the question of selection. Limitations of space have made impossible the inclusion of every functioning composer of the twentieth century; nor could every major work by composers represented be discussed. In generál, the author has chosen those composers and those of their works about which the layman isvii