A clockwork counterpoint : the music and literature of Anthony Burgess / Paul Phillips.
| Author/creator | Phillips, Paul Schuyler, 1956- |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed in the U.S. exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. |
| Description | xix, 467 pages : illustrations, music ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Prologue. The truly great artistic moment -- Beginnings. Boyhood (1917-35) ; Burgeoning composer (1935-40) -- Emergent author. War : Britain and Gibraltar (1940-46) ; Peace : Brinsford Lodge, Bamber Bridge, and Banbury (1946-54) ; Malaya (1954-57) ; Brunei (1958-59) ; "Terminal" year (1959-60) ; Nasty little shockers ; Eschatological escapades ; Shakespeare in love ; Pure music -- Celebrity novelist. Family affairs ; Kubrick the sinny vick ; Ancient evenings ; Bonaparte con brio -- Resurgent composer. Symphonic Shakespeare ; The old Joanna ; The love song of F.X. Enderby ; Roman carnival ; Knickerbocker holiday ; Poetic license ; Grace notes ; Ode to Joyce ; Nuns and lovers ; Blest pair of sirens ; Alex in Eden ; The sad suck-and-blow ; One-handed clavichord ; Wind and son ; Commemorations ; Manchester and Mozart united -- Endings. Confessions and conclusions -- Epilogue. Opus posthumous (1993-2009) -- Appendix. List of music compositions ; Song texts and poems ; Prologue to A Clockwork Orange. |
| Abstract | This is the first book to examine the musical side of Anthony Burgess, an astonishingly prolific and talented composer, revealing how his lifelong involvement in music is an essential key toward understanding his life and work. Whether explaining the sonata form structure of A Clockwork Orange and the musical underpinnings of dozens of his other novels, his distinctive views on the interrelationship between music and literature, music's role in his ties to his father and wives, or what his compositions tell us about his troubled relationship with his son, this book illuminates Burgess's dual creative life, providing the first complete portrait of a prodigious artist whose musical accomplishments have remained largely unknown until now. |
| Abstract | "While Burgess deserves attention strictly as a composer, what makes him such a singular creative figure is how he intertwined literature and music. While there are composers, like Wagner and Menotti, who fashioned their own libretti, and novelists, like Bowles and Montgomery, who were also highly regarded composers, none of them engaged in music and literature in a manner comparable to Burgess. Unlike Wagner and Menotti, whose literary work served their compositional needs by providing texts for their operas, Burgess rarely set his own words to music, and unlike Bowles and Montgomery, who regarded composing and writing as essentially separate activities, he viewed them as complementary and genuinely interrelated. As long as Burgess's musical side has remained largely unknown, understanding of his twin accomplishments has been incomplete, concealing much of what makes Burgess so distinctive. This book's primary aim is thus to examine this heretofore disregarded aspect of his creative life and, by doing so, reveal both halves of this remarkable dual artist, like casting light on the dark side of the moon so as to illuminate the entire sphere."--Pages 5-6. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 413-428) and indexes. |
| Bibliography note | "Discography": pages 429-430. |
| Bibliography note | "Filmography": pages 431-432. |
| LCCN | 2011281286 |
| ISBN | 9780719072048 |
| ISBN | 0719072042 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk | PR6052.U638 P485 2010 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |