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Hans Keller : essays on music / edited by Christopher Wintle with Bayan Northcott and Irene Samuel.

By: Keller, Hans, 1919-1985.
Contributor(s): Wintle, Christopher | Northcott, Bayan | Samuel, Irene, 1955-.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1994Description: xx, 269 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.ISBN: 0521462169 .Subject(s): Music -- History and criticismDDC classification: 780

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Hans Keller (1919-1985) was one of the most brilliant and stimulating writers on music of his day, and this is the first large selection of his essays. His work draws on his rich and diverse experience as a string-player, composer, teacher, analyst and critic, and also reflects a deep interest in psychoanalysis. The first part of the book addresses psychological issues relating to critics, listeners, players and composers; the second analyses music by a wide range of composers from Haydn to the present day; and the third propounds his new theory of music, with essays on unity and contrast, motifs, themes, keys, timbre and rhythm. There is also a 'wordless functional analysis' of a Mozart piano sonata published here for the first time. The volume concludes with a magisterial account of what Keller deemed to be 'the principles of composition'.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-264) and index.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • A Note on the Text
  • Introduction
  • Part I Criticism
  • 1 Problems in writing about music
  • 2 Resistances to Britten's music: their psychology
  • 3 National frontiers in music
  • 4 Sport and art: the concept of mastery
  • 5 Music and psychopathology
  • Part II Composers and Their Music
  • 6 Art as departure (Haydn)
  • 7 New Music: Beethoven's Choral Fantasy
  • 8 Schubert: tune and melody
  • 9 Little known greatness (Mendelssohn and Mozart)
  • 10 Schumann was a symphonist
  • 11 Tristan and the realism of adolescence (Wagner)
  • 12 Resistances to Brahms
  • 13 Elgar the progressive
  • 14 The unpopularity of Mahler's popularity
  • 15 The sentimental violin (Glazounov)
  • 16 The 'Lucky' Hand and other errors (Schoenberg)
  • 17 Natural master (Schmidt)
  • 18 Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw
  • 19 Film music: The Harry Lime theme (Karas and Weill)
  • 20 Mátyás Seiber 1905-1960
  • 21 Gloriana as music drama (a reaffirmation) (Britten)
  • 22 Shostakovich's Twelfth Quartet
  • 23 Stravinsky v. Stravinsky
  • 24 The state of the symphony: not only Maxwell Davies's
  • 25 Britten's last masterpiece
  • 26 The Man and the Music (Simpson)
  • Part III Towards a Theory of Music
  • 27 Towards a theory of music
  • 28 The musical analysis of music
  • 29 Functional Analysis No. 9A: Mozart's Piano Sonata in A minor, K 310
  • 30 A slip of Mozart's: Its analytical significance (1956/57)
  • 31 Knowing things backwards
  • 32 Mozart's wrong key signature
  • 33 Key characteristics
  • 34 Strict serial technique in classical music
  • 35 Schoenberg: the future of symphonic thought
  • 36 Whose fault is the speaking voice?
  • 37 Why this piece is about Billy Budd
  • 38 Rhythm: Gershwin and Stravinsky
  • 39 Principles of composition
  • Notes
  • Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This first collection of essays by noted English critic Keller brings together 38 of his pieces on music (written 1954-84) plus a "Functional Analysis," that is, a wordless analysis--in musical score--showing the "unity of contrasts" in Mozart's Piano Sonata, K. 310. Drawn from a 34-page bibliography, the selections are but a small part of Keller's writing. Though concentrating on "art music," they necessarily reflect Keller's wide-ranging interests--including film and popular music, sports and psychology, among others. The volume is organized into three sections: five essays deal with music criticism; 21 essays discuss composers, ranging from Haydn to Peter Maxwell Davies, and their music (only Schoenberg and Britten are examined more than once); the final 13 chapters fall under the heading "Towards a Theory of Music." Keller wrote about composers whose music attracted him--German composers from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras; Schoenberg; Shostakovich; Stravinsky; Britten--and avoided those he admired less (Debussy, Delius, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams). The collection begins with an enlightening introduction by the editor and concludes with extensive endnotes and a complete index of proper names and titles. Written for both professionals and the knowledgeable laity, these writings can be recommended to a similarly wide range of readers. R. Stahura; Ripon College