Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Described by Aaron Copland as 'among the finest creations in the modern repertoire', Alban Berg's Violin Concerto has become a twentieth-century classic. In this authoritative and highly readable guide to the work the reader is introduced not only to the concerto itself but to all that surrounded and determined its composition. This is a book about musical culture in the 1930s, about the Second Viennese School, about tonality, atonality and serialism, about Berg's own musical development, compositional method and the private significance the Violin Concerto held for him. The book describes the genesis of the work, its performance history and critical reception and, in two detailed musical chapters, provides a section-by-section account of the book and a closer analysis of the musical language and structure. Anthony Pople's ability to combine musical anecdote with scholarly discussion makes this guide compelling reading for the amateur and the specialist alike.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements
• 1 Musical ideologies: style and genre in the 1930s
• 2 The Bergian symbiosis: towards the Violin Concerto
• 3 Composition and performance history
• 4 Form, materials and programme
• 5 Harmony, tonality and the series
• 6 Reception and critical evaluation
• Notes
• Select bibliography

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Anthony Pople is a writer and analyst known primarily to readers of Music and Letters and other publications directed to the theorist, musicologist, and conductor. His work as a reviewer places him near the top of his profession; the present work, following his dissertation on Skryabin and Stravinsky, only adds to his stature. The thoroughness of his research is equal to the task, and his personal analyses indicate gifts of perspective and perception. Berg's tonality, atonalism, and serial technique are reviewed and discussed, and Pople relates the theories of others concerning Hauptrhythmen, numerology, and a "secret programme," as well as his own thoughts regarding the use of such devices in the concerto. This is a story of the political and musical thinking of the thirties and it leads into a critical analysis of the work as well as the performances and their reception over a period of years. Both recordings and score attain greater clarity, thanks to Pople's efforts. Another in the "Cambridge Music Handbooks" series, this work is a most worthy endeavor. This reviewer regrets only its small print. Larger public library music departments; academic libraries at upper-division undergraduate level onwards.-D. G. Engelhardt, University of Hawaii at Manoa