Lexicon of musical invective : critical assaults on composers since Beethoven's time / Nicolas Slonimsky.
| Author/creator | Slonimsky, Nicolas author. |
| Other author | Schickele, Peter writer of foreword. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | New York : W.W. Norton, 2000. |
| Description | xiv, 325 pages ; 21 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Foreword / Peter Schickele -- Prelude: Non-Acceptance of the Unfamiliar -- Bartok -- Beethoven -- Berg -- Berlioz -- Bizet -- Bloch -- Brahms -- Bruckner -- Chopin -- Copland -- Cowell -- Debussy -- Franck -- Gershwin -- Gounod -- Harris -- D'Indy -- Krenek -- Liszt -- Mahler -- Milhaud. |
| Abstract | A snakeful of critical venom aimed at the composers and the classics of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music. Who wrote advanced cat music? What commonplace theme is very much like Yankee Doodle? Which composer is a scoundrel and a giftless bastard? What opera would His Satanic Majesty turn out? Whose name suggests fierce whiskers stained with vodka? And finally, what third movement begins with a dog howling at midnight, then imitates the regurgitations of the less-refined or lower-middle-class type of water-closet cistern, and ends with the cello reproducing the screech of an ungreased wheelbarrow? For the answers to these and other questions, readers need only consult the "Invecticon" at the back of this inspired book and then turn to the full passage, in all its vituperation. Among the eminent reviewers are George Bernard Shaw, Virgil Thomson, Hans von B ow, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard Hanslick, Olin Downes, Deems Taylor, Paul Rosenfeld, and Oscar Wilde. Itself a classic, this collection of nasty barbs about composers and their works, culled mostly from contemporaneous newspapers and magazines, makes for hilarious reading and belongs on the shelf of everyone who lovesor hates classical music. With a new foreword by Peter Schickele ("P.D.Q. Bach"). |
| Abstract | An anthology of critical assaults on composers since the time of Beethoven. Gathering together 669 excerpts from critical reviews, it cites biased, unfair, ill-tempered, and singularly unprophetic judgments of 49 composers. |
| General note | Includes indexes. |
| LCCN | 2001266586 |
| ISBN | 039332009X |
| ISBN | 9780393320091 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML3785.S5 L4 2000 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |