Percy Grainger

Erscheinungsjahr 1999
ISBN: 978-0-19-816652-8
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 404 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 242 mm, Gewicht: 749 g

This extensively revised edition of John Bird's acclaimed biography of Percy Grainger gives the first circumstantial account of the life and works of one of the strangest figures in twentieth-century music. Behind Grainger's highly original compositional achievements, folksong collecting and glittering career as a virtuoso concert pianist lay a tragic and chaotic personal life--long domination by his mother, unorthodox sexual predilections, an eccentric athleticism, a demonic spiritual drive and wildly inconsistent personal philosophy with Anglo-Saxon obsessions such as his famous `Blue-Eyed English'. A list of published compositions, a current discography of performances by Grainger, and a selection of his seminal writings complete what has already proved to be a standard work. In their Prefatory Note to the first edition, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears wrote: `In his sympathetic and tactful biography John Bird has beautifully balanced the brilliance with the turbulence of this unbalanced genius--we are grateful to him'.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bird, John

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik Geschichte der Musik: Klassische Musik des 20./21. Jahrhunderts
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikwissenschaft Allgemein Einzelne Komponisten und Musiker

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- List of Illustrations

- Prefatory Notes by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears

- Appreciaton by Leopold Stokowski

- Author's Preface

- 1: `Bubbles'

- 2: Doctors and Dustbin Lids

- 3: `Perks' joins the Frankfurt Gang

- 4: Saint and Sinner

- 5: Grettir the Strong Flexes his Muscles

- 6: `The years before the war were Hell'

- 7: The Twisted Genius and the Dinkum Aussie

- 8: Packed Houses and Zulu Warriors

- 9: `I am an Australian, not a Corsican'

- 10: Unto Brigg Fair

- 11: The Little Half-Viking

- 12: `Poor put-upon Percy'

- 13: `Adieu Old World! I would hail a New World'

- 14: `Your mad side has ruined us'

- 15: Beatless Music, Blue-Eyed English, and a Nordic Princess

- 16: `The measure of my artistic defeat'

- 17: `I shall go back to the joys of my teen-years'

- 18: `Your loving but defeated, Percy'

- Select Source List

- Appendix A. Catalogue of Grainger's Published Original Compositions and Arrangements

- Appendix B. Statements on `Free Music'

- Appendix C. Preface to Spoon River, American Folk-Music Setting No. 2

- Appendix D. Discography: Performances by Grainger

- Appendix E. Catalogue of Duo-Art Piano Rolls made by Grainger

- Appendix F. Select Bibliography: Performances of Grainger's Works by Others

- Index