Composer and nation : the folk heritage of music / by Sidney Finkelstein.
| Author/creator | Finkelstein, Sidney |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | New York : International Publishers, [1960] |
| Description | 333 pages ; 21 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction: Music as national expression. The world of music, 150 years ago and today ; Pride in nation and chauvinistic nationalism ; How music speaks -- Social origins of melody. Folk music as realistic art ; Tribal chants and melodic forms ; Speech-inflected and rhythm-controlled folk music ; Families of melodies ; The rounded song and the rise of nations -- Baroque music and popular audiences. Folk strains in Italian opera and instrumental music ; Handel's oratorios and the English middle class ; Bach and the divided German nation -- Classic form and critique of aristocracy. The classic sonata form and dramatic conflicts ; Haydn, Mozart and court patronage ; Haydn and folk music ; Social criticism in Mozart's operatic music ; Beethoven and marketplace contradictions -- Classic form and social revolution. Beethoven's early experiments and national ties ; The "poetic" principle and the democratic spirit ; Reaction in society and inner conflict in music ; Music and history: the Eroica Symphony ; The Ninth Symphony and the popular style -- Patriotism and peasant music. Weber and the "childlike" folk ; Schubert and the social fund of melody ; Song writing and psychology ; Liszt and Hungary, Chopin and Poland ; Glinka and Russian national consciousness -- The romanticist battle for freedom. Classic and romantic views of the individual and society ; Contrasts between classic and romantic form ; The battle of Berlioz with society ; Schumann and national expression turned inward ; Wagner and the nation without the people -- Opera, tone poem and politics. Verdi and Italian independence ; Smetana and the national-heroic past of Bohemia ; Mussorgsky and the peasantry moving in history -- The search for classical balance. Architecture in Brahms, and subjective use of folk music ; Dvorak and the brotherhood of peoples ; Tchaikovsky, popular art and the social mind ; Self-searching and modernism of Rimsky-Korsakov -- The humanist crisis in the twentieth century. Puccini, Richard Strauss, and the lack of a critical mind ; Philosophical loneliness of Mahler, Schoenberg and Berg ; Sibelius and the freedom of Finland ; Vaughan Williams and questions of English progress ; Ives and a vanished American tradition ; Bloch and Jewish consciousness -- Folk music in the revolt against romanticism. Debussy, Ravel and the search for a national style ; Falla and the Spanish poor ; Stravinsky and the primitivist use of folk music ; Form in Villa-Lobos ; Janacek and the music of speech ; Bartok and the Hungarian peasant tragedy -- The Soviet Union and problems of a people's music. Partisanship and artistic truth ; Experiments of the early Prokofiev ; Shostakovich and Soviet music in the 1930's ; Harmful tendencies of the music criticism of 1936 ; Music and the Second World War and after -- Jazz as folk and art music. Origins of jazz ; The blues ; The jazz age of the 1920's ; American national trends in the 1930's ; Coming breakdown of barrier between the "fine" art and "popular". |
| Abstract | "Intended for laymen and musicians alike, this book surveys the past four centuries of music from the standpoint of present-day knowledge of folk music and its place in creative musical composition. This theme usually has been applied only to those 19th century composers who consciously allied their art with national traditions, such as Smetana, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Although dealing appreciatively with these, the author for the first time extends this theme to all leading composers. He throws new light upon the masters writing during the period of the rise of modern nations and the baroque era, such as Vivaldi, Handel and Bach. He presents in a new way the classic era of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert; and uncovers the social and psychological issues affecting the great romantic composers, such as Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz, Wagner and Brahms. Fully a third of the book deals with 20th century music, discussing such figures as Debussy, Richard Strauss, Mahler, Schoenberg, Vaughan Williams, Ives, Bartok, Bloch, Villa-Lobos and Stravinsky, in terms of the new problems raised in contemporary music. A chapter is devoted to jazz as a creative part of American music. Another chapter deals with the recent criticism of contemporary composers in the Soviet Union. With unusual sensitivity both to musical values and to the relation of the composer to society, the author examines the achievements of each composer, discussing such problems as national expression and universality, the social origins of melody, the nature of musical form, and the reasons for its change. A central theme is the manner in which the very structure and texture of a musical work reflect the composer's view of people and nation, and his place in the social and historical currents of his time."--Dust jacket. |
| Bibliography note | Bibliography: pages 323-330. |
| Biographical note | "Sidney Finkelstein holds degrees from the College of the City of New York, Columbia University and New York University. His studies started with English and American literature, then went on to music and the plastic arts. His first book, Art and Society, was written at the beginning of World War II, revised at odd moments during his four years' service in the U. S. Army, and was published in 1947, when it caused considerable discussion. This was followed by Jazz: A People's Music, relating jazz to the musical tradition and to the freedom fight of the negro people. Continuing to develop his central theme, Finkelstein showed in his third book, How Music Expresses Ideas, how the so-called 'purest' of the arts was shaped by the composer's thoughts about life. In his fourth book, Realism in Art, the author provided both a study of painting at various historical stages and a general theory of art. Finkelstein has won a wide audience not only as an author but also as a lecturer and magazine writer. His extensive writings on music and art are also known abroad. His books have appeared in England, and they have been translated into German, Italian, Russian, Hebrew and Japanese."--Dust jacket. |
| LCCN | 60009947 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk | ML3545.F55 C6 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |