Variations on the Canon

Masterful essays honoring the great pianist and critic Charles Rosen, on masterpieces from Bach and Beethoven to Chopin, Verdi, and Stockhausen.

Masterful essays honoring the great pianist and critic Charles Rosen, on masterpieces from Bach and Beethoven to Chopin, Verdi, and Stockhausen.

Charles Rosen, the pianist and man of letters, is perhaps the single most influential writer on music of the past half-century. While Rosen's vast range as a writer and performer is encyclopedic, it has focused particularly on theliving "canonical" repertory extending from Bach to Boulez. Inspired in its liveliness and variety of critical approaches by Charles Rosen's challenging workVariations on the Canon offers original essays by some of the world's most eminent musical scholars. Contributors address such issues as style and compositional technique, genre, influence and modeling, and reception history; develop insights afforded by close examination of compositional sketches; and consider what language and metaphors might most meaningfully convey insights into music. However diverse the modes of inquiry, each essay sheds new light on the works of those composers posterity has deemed central to the modern Western musical tradition.

Contributors: Pierre Boulez, Scott Burnham, Elliott Carter, Robert Curry, Walter Frisch, David Gable, Philip Gossett, Jeffrey Kallberg, Joseph Kerman, Richard Kramer, William Kinderman, Lewis Lockwood, Sir Charles Mackerras, Robert L. Marshall, Robert P. Morgan, Charles Rosen, Julian Rushton, David Schulenberg, László Somfai, Leo Treitler, James Webster, and Robert Winter.

Robert Curry is principalof the Conservatorium High School and honorary senior lecturer in the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney; David Gable is Assistant Professor of Music at Clark-Atlanta University; Robert L. Marshall is Louis, Frances, and Jeffrey Sachar Professor Emeritus of Music at Brandeis University.

Fugue and Its Discontents - Joseph Kerman
Fugues, Form, and Fingering: Sonata Style in Bach's Preludes and Fugues - David Schulenberg
Notational Irregularities as Attributes of a New Style: The Case of Haydn's "Sun" Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, no. 5 - Laszlo Somfai
The Fugal Moment: On a Few Bars in Mozart's Quintet in C Major, K. 515 - Richard Kramer
A Tale of Two Quintets: Mozart's K. 452 and Beethoven's Opus 16 - William Kinderman
Vestas Feuer: Beethoven on the Path toLeonore - Lewis Lockwood
Sonority and Structure: Observations on Beethoven's Early and Middle-Period Piano Compositions - Robert L. Marshall
Recomposing theGrosse Fuge: Beethoven and Opus 134 - Prof. Robert Winter
Schubert, the Tarantella, and theQuartettsatz, D. 703 - Julian Rushton
On theScherzando Nocturne - Jeffrey Kallberg
Chopin's Modular Forms - Robert P. Morgan
The Hot and the Cold: Verdi Writes to Antonio Somma aboutRe Lear - Philip Gossett
The Ironic German: Schoenberg and the Serenade, Op. 24 - Walter Frisch
Words for the Surface: Boulez, Stockhausen, and "Allover" Painting - David Gable
Rosen's Modernist Haydn - James Webster
Facile Metaphors, Hidden Gaps, Short Circuits:Should We Adore Adorno? - Leo Treitler
The Music of a Classical Style - Scott Burnham
Montaigne hors de son propos - Charles Rosen
Tribute:Une culture vraiment intimidante - Pierre Boulez
Tribute: Charles Rosen for His Eightieth Birthday - Elliott Carter
Tribute: Charles Rosen: A Personal Appreciation by a Contemporary - Charles Mackerras
Appendix 1: A Discography of the Recordings of Charles Rosen - David Gable
Appendix 2: A Bibliography of the Writings of Charles Rosen - Robert Curry