Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Divided into four sections, each covering a key histo rical period, this trenchant examination of the development of different styles and compositional techniques integrates historical and artistic details with a sophisticated and generally accessible approach to the music. Burge (piano, Eastman School of Music) offers cogent suggestions for the performance of Copland, Stockhausen, Boulez, Berio, Cage, Crumb, and others. Annotation(c) 2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

For three decades Burge has been in the forefront of those pianists who through performance and recordings have been persuasive advocates of the piano music of this century. His book should be perused with Burge's "aim" in mind (a "personal study" of "what I consider the better repertoire for solo piano") and possibly within reach of Maurice Hinson's Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire (2nd ed., CH, Sep'87). This work is perhaps most useful when Burge offers performance suggestions such as how to find pitches quickly inside the piano and how to organize seemingly irrational rhythms; his discussion of the music itself inclines toward the descriptive rather than the rigorously analytical. The discography is useful though limited (46 composers--almost all from the US and Europe) and the "Chronological List of Works and Publishers" includes one "unpublished" work, lists two with no publisher named, and includes none from such repositories as Donemus or the Canadian Music Centre. Nevertheless these listings will assist in ferreting out compositions Burge discusses. The dozens of musical examples are illuminating (although 13.6 and 13.8 substitute treble for bass clefs). Advanced undergraduates. -J. Behrens, University of Western Ontario