Edited by Scott Burnham (NHC Fellow, 1998–99) and Michael P. Steinberg Few composers even begin to approach Beethoven’s pervasive presence in modern Western culture, from the concert hall to the comic strip. Edited by a cultural historian and a music theorist, Beethoven and His World gathers eminent scholars from several disciplines who collectively speak to the range … Continued
By Philip Rupprecht (NHC Fellow, 2005–06) British Musical Modernism explores the works of eleven key composers to reveal the rapid shifts of expression and technique that transformed British art music in the post-war period. Responding to radical avant-garde developments in post-war Europe, the Manchester Group composers – Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and Harrison Birtwistle … Continued
Edited by Richard Will (NHC Fellow, 2009–10) and Mary Hunter (NHC Fellow, 1991–92) Haydn is enjoying renewed appreciation as one of the towering figures of Western music history. This lively collection builds upon this resurgence of interest, with chapters exploring the nature of Haydn's invention and the cultural forces that he both absorbed and helped … Continued
By R. Larry Todd (NHC Fellow, 2007–08) Granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and sister of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel (1805-1847) was an extraordinary musician who left well over four hundred compositions, most of which fell into oblivion until their rediscovery late in the twentieth century. In Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn, R. … Continued
By Susan Youens (NHC Fellow, 2003–04) More than any other poet, Heinrich Heine has provided composers for almost two hundred years with texts for music: more than eight thousand compositions to date. Nineteenth-century composers were drawn in particular to a limited selection of Heine's early lyrical works from the Buch der Lieder and the Neue … Continued
Edited by Samuel A. Floyd, Jr. (NHC Fellow, 1992–93; 1996–97; 2003–04) A two-volume reference work with biographies and work information for 185 black music composers from across two centuries. The Dictionary was a project of the Center for Black Music at Columbia College Chicago
Edited by R. Larry Todd (NHC Fellow, 2007–08) Fanny Mendelssohn received a lyrical piano piece as a birthday present from her brother Felix in 1828; he wrote it out in her music album, and she called it “Lied ohne Worte ” (Song without Words). Mendelssohn wrote such songs for piano, “true music, which fill a … Continued
By Carol J. Oja (NHC Fellow, 1995–96) New York City witnessed a dazzling burst of creativity in the 1920s. In this pathbreaking study, Carol J. Oja explores this artistic renaissance from the perspective of composers of classical and modern music, who along with writers, painters, and jazz musicians, were at the heart of early modernism … Continued
By Scott Burnham (NHC Fellow, 1998–99) It is a common article of faith that Mozart composed the most beautiful music we can know. But few of us ask why. Why does the beautiful in Mozart stand apart, as though untouched by human hands? At the same time, why does it inspire intimacy rather than distant … Continued
Edited by Katherine K. Preston (NHC Fellow, 2009–10) George Frederick Bristow (1825–98), American composer, conductor, teacher, and performer, was a pillar of the New York musical community for the second half of the nineteenth century. His participation in an important mid-century battle of words—between William Henry Fry and the journalist Richard Storrs Willis, concerning a … Continued