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The whistling blackbird : essays and talks on new music / Robert Morris.
| Author/creator | Morris, Robert, 1943- author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Rochester, NY : University of Rochester Press, 2010. |
| Description | xxv, 416 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | Eastman studies in music ; v. 80 Eastman studies in music ; v. 80. ^A494093 |
| Contents | Some issues facing the contemporary American composer -- Part one. Essays on composers. Cage contemplating/contemplating Cage -- Some things I learned (didn't learn) from Milton Babbitt, or why I am (am not) a serial composer -- Not only rows in Richard Swift's Roses Only -- A footnote to Hasty, Whitehead, and Plato: more thoughts on Stefan Wolpe's music -- Part two. Talks on my music. Composing Each Time -- Why Not Lilacs -- Cold Mountain Songs -- Music as poetry: a talk on my Fourteen Little Piano Pieces -- Nature, music and nature, my music outdoors -- Part three. Essays on criticism and aesthetics. Aspects of confluence between western art music and ethnomusicology -- Musical form, expectation, attention, and quality -- Autocommentary: thoughts on music theory at the millennium -- Thinking about musical time -- Appendixes. Some serial music terms ; Set-class table ; Hexachordal combinatoriality ; Two-row combinatoriality. |
| Abstract | This is the long-awaited book of essays from the author, the greatly admired composer and music theorist. In these essays, Morris presents a new and multifaceted view of recent developments in American music. His views on music, as well as his many compositions, defy easy classification, favoring instead a holistic, creative, and critical approach. This book contains fourteen essays and talks, divided into three parts, preceded by an Overture that portrays what it means to compose music in the United States today. Part 1 presents essays on American composers John Cage, Milton Babbitt, Richard Swift, and Stefan Wolpe. Part 2 comprises talks on Morris's music that illustrate his ideas and creative approaches over forty years of music composition, including his outdoor compositions, an ongoing project that began in 1999. Part 3 includes four essays in music criticism: on the relation of composition to ethnomusicology; on phenomenology and attention; on music theory at the millennium; and on issues in musical time. Threaded throughout this collection of essays are Morris's diverse and seemingly disparate interests and influences. English romantic poetry, mathematical combinatorics, group and set theory, hiking, Buddhist philosophy, Chinese and Japanese poetry and painting, jazz and nonwestern music, chaos theory, linguistics, and the American transcendental movement exist side by side in a fascinating and eclectic portrait of American musical composition at the dawn of the new millennium. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 395-401) and index. |
| LCCN | 2010032030 |
| ISBN | 9781580463492 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 1580463495 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML200.5 .M67 2010 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |