Music Lessons: The Collège de France Lectures

Synopsis

The eminent French composer’s groundbreaking lectures, available for the first time in English: “a major event” (Alex Ross).Music Lessons collects the yearly lectures of French composer Pierre Boulez, prepared for the Collège de France between 1976 and 1995. These lectures offer a sustained intellectual engagement with themes of creativity in music by a widely influential cultural figure, who has long been central to the conversation around contemporary music. In his essays Boulez explores the process through which a musical idea is realized in a full-fledged composition; the complementary roles of craft and inspiration; the degree to which the memory of other musical works can influence and change the act of creation; and other deeply fascinating topics. Boulez also gives a penetrating account of problems in classical music that are still present today, such as the crippling conservatism of many musical institutions. Woven into the discussion are stories of Boulez’s own compositions and those of fellow composers whose work he championed, as both a critic and conductor: from Stravinsky to Stockhausen and Varèse, from Bartók to Berg, Debussy to Mahler and Wagner, and all the way back to Bach.This edition includes a foreword by Jean-Jacques Nattiez and a preface by Jonathan Goldman.

Copyright:

2019

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

688 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780226672625

Related ISBNs:

9780226672595

Publisher:

The University of Chicago Press

Date of Addition:

02/06/25

Copyrighted By:

Pierre Boulez

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Education, Social Studies, Music, Philosophy

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.

Edited by:

Jonathan Dunsby

Edited by:

Jonathan Goldman

Edited by:

Arnold Whittall