Images and Ideas in Modern French Piano Music: The Extra-Musical Subtext in Piano Works by Ravel, Debussy, and Messiaen

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Year:
Pages:428
ISBN:1-4955-1108-1
978-1-4955-1108-0
Price:$259.95 + shipping
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"This study undertakes to show that some music can be understood as portraying and nuancing, commenting on and interpreting a non-musical stimulus, and to elaborate in detail just how this is achieved in a number of small musical works. The result reveals that there is a wealth of possible relationships between musical components and the extra-musical stimuli that presumably brought them into being." Siglind Bruhn (Preface)

This book was originally published in 1997 by Pendragon Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I: Images and Impressions
The Representation of Fictitious Images
Times of Absorption: Oracles, Funerals and Celebrations
Enchanted Places
Wind and Water, Fog and Snow
Flowers, Insects, and Birds
Comedians and other performers

Part II: Tales and Poems
The Interarts Translation of Narratives
Nymphs, Fairies, and Sprites
Evening Harmony, Morning Delight, and Death
Apparitions and Visitations

Part III: Spiritual Concepts and Divine Attributes
The Meditative Transfiguration of Imagery
God's Love
The Child
Incarnation and Suffering
The Word
The Exchange of Natures and the Nature(s) of Time and Silence
Appendices

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