Review (PDF) Camille Saint-Saens: On Music And Musicians
Camille Saint-Saëns is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen observer of the musical culture in which he lived. A composer of vast intelligence and erudition, Saint-Saëns was at the same time one of the foremost writers on music in his day. From Wagner, Liszt and Debussy to Milhaud and Stravinsky, Saint-Saëns was at the center of the elite musical and cultural fin de siècle and early 20th Century world. He championed Schumann and Wagner in France at a period when these composers were regarded as dangerous subversives whose music should be kept well away from the impressionable student. Yet Saint-Saëns himself had no aspirations to being a revolutionary, and his appreciation of Wagner the composer was tempered by his reservations over Wagner the philosopher and dramatist, suspicious as he was of what he called "the Germanic preoccupation with going beyond reality." Whether defending Meyerbeer against charges of facility or Berlioz against those who questioned his harmonic grasp, Saint-Saëns was always his own man: in both cases, he claimed, it was "not the absence of faults but the presence of virtues" that distinguishes the good composer. Saint-Saëns's writings provide a well-argued counter-discourse to the strong modernist music critics who rallied around Debussy and Ravel during the fin de siècle. And above all, they demonstrate a brilliantly sharp and active brain, expressing itself through prose of a Classical purity and balance, enlivened throughout with flashes of wit and, at times, of sheer malice. In this generously annotated volume, renowned scholar, seasoned translator and radio broadcaster Roger Nichols brings some of the composer's most striking and evocative writings brilliantly to life in English translation, many for the first time. Nichols has carefully chosen these selections for their intrinsic interest as historical documents to create a well-balanced and engaging view of the man, the music, and the age.
File Size: 1910 KB
Print Length: 208 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (October 27, 2008)
Publication Date: October 27, 2008
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B001NPE8N6
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Not Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #2,125,402 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #70 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Saint-saens #361 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Appreciation #2264 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Appreciation
I ordered this biography to learn about Saint-Saens--right from the "horse's mouth," so to speak. It is a very insightful group of observations by the composer of his musical mileau and views on his craft.
Camille Saint-Saens: On Music and Musicians Camille Saint-Saens and the French Solo Concerto: From 1850 to 1920 Organ Music for Manuals Only: 33 Works by Berlioz, Bizet, Franck, Saint-Saens and Others (Dover Music for Organ) Saint-Saens - Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso & Mozart - Serenade No. 5, K204 & Adagio K261: Music Minus One Violin (Music Minus One (Numbered)) Great Organ Transcriptions: 26 Works by Liszt, Saint-Saens, Bach and Others (Dover Music for Organ) Camille Saint-Saëns and His World (The Bard Music Festival) L'elephant - Clarinet and Piano - Camille Saint-Saëns - Sheet Music Saint-Saens and the Organ (The Complete Organ No.7) A Saint-Saens Organ Album JUKE BOX COMICS 1 (Issues 1-2-3): TRUE STORIES OF BAND LEADERS, SINGERS, SONG WRITERS, MUSICIANS AND ENTERTAINERS FROM THE 'SWING MUSIC BIG BAND' ERA A Natural History of the Piano: The Instrument, the Music, the Musicians--from Mozart to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between On Music and Musicians The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Harvard University Press Reference Library/Belknap) SAINT KITTS and NEVIS Country Studies: A brief, comprehensive study of Saint Kitts and Nevis SAINT LUCIA Country Studies: A brief, comprehensive study of Saint Lucia Profile: Order of Saint Lucia - The Saint Lucia Cross Irène (Un caso del comandante Camille Verhoeven 1) (Spanish Edition) Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems Mail Order Bride Camille: Sweet Clean Historical Western Mail Order Bride Inspirational Romance (Silver River Brides Book 2) A Treasury of Organ Music for Manuals Only: 46 Works by Bach, Mozart, Franck, Saint-Saëns and Others (Dover Music for Organ)
