Britten's Musical Language
Britten's Musical Language
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USDBlending insights from linguistic and social theories of speech, ritual and narrative with music-analytic and historical criticism,Britten's Musical Language offers fresh perspectives on the composer's fusion of verbal and musical utterance in opera and song. It provides close interpretative studies of the major scores (including Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, War Requiem, Curlew River and Death in Venice) and explores Britten's ability to fashion complex and mysterious symbolic dramas from the interplay of texted song and wordless discourse of motives and themes.
- An in-depth analytic account of Britten's mature works in twenty years
- Combines traditional musicological study with ideas from linguistic and cultural theorists
- Illustrated throughout with numerous music examples
Reviews & endorsements
"A probing examination of selected works from Britten's massive oeuvre." --Opera Journal
Product details
November 2006Paperback
9780521031035
372 pages
244 × 170 × 19 mm
0.599kg
97 music examples
Available
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Introduction: Britten's musical language
- 2. Peter Grimes: the force of operatic utterance
- 3. Motive and narrative in Billy Budd
- 4. The Turn of the Screw: innocent performance
- 5. Rituals: the War Requiem and Curlew River
- 6. Subjectivity and perception in Death in Venice
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index.
