Pleasants, Henry

The great singers : from the dawn of opera to our own time by Henry Pleasants( Book )

33 editions published between 1966 and 1983 in English and held by 1,320 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Here, with a splendid richness of color and detail, the distinguished author recreates the personalities and performances, the lives and art of "the great singers" who have left their mark on our musical culture

The great American popular singers by Henry Pleasants( Book )

23 editions published between 1974 and 1985 in English and German and held by 1,236 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

From Jolson to Streisand, here are the singers whose artistry, innovative styles and sheer vocal accomplishments have made American popular song uniquely what it is- the true people's music of the Western world

The agony of modern music by Henry Pleasants( Book )

15 editions published between 1954 and 1967 in English and held by 939 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Serious music, and all that jazz : an adventure in music criticism by Henry Pleasants( Book )

18 editions published between 1969 and 1971 in English and Undetermined and held by 892 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Vienna's golden years of music, 1850-1900 by Eduard Hanslick( Book )

8 editions published between 1950 and 1969 in 3 languages and held by 865 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

In musical history, Hanslick has popularly come down as a bigoted reactionary who never could or would understand the magnificence of Wagner. Here for the first time in English one can get a corrected impression. The reader discovers that Hanslick far from being a reactionary was way ahead of his time; that his opinions and analyses for the most part are as valid and exciting today as they ever were; and that there is no music criticism more delightful to read for its learning, wit and authority

On music and musicians by Robert Schumann( Book )

4 editions published in 1965 in English and German and held by 607 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

"Robert Schumann was almost as important in his day for his criticism as for his compositions. His influence was great: it was thanks to him for instance that Berlioz was taken up with enthusiasm by the new romantic school in Germany when he visited the country in 1842. Schumann was one of the very first, also, to recognise the genius of Chopin, and to poke fun at German extra-musical Beethoven-worship. For ten years (1834-44) he owned, edited, and for the most part, wrote the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, but there has been no satisfactorily edited volume of these writings to date. A selection was translated by Fanny Raymond Ritter in 1876-79 and another translated by Paul Rosenfeld in 1946; in both cases, however, chronological order was disregarded and annotation was meagre. Moreover, the latter concentrated almost exclusively on what Schumann had written about the great masters. Henry Pleasants believes that chronological arrangement is essential to an understanding both of Schumann's progress as a writer and critic and of music in Germany during a decisive decade. He also believes that Schumann's status as a critic cannot be assessed and enjoyed simply from his glowing accounts of the greatest works, but that his views on composers such as Spohr, Hiller, Thalberg, Cramer and Sir William Sterndale Bennett (to name only a few of his contemporaries, famous then but little remembered today) are also important. Many of these composers were Schumann's friends, and his criticisms of their work tell us not only about them but also about Schumann himself. Mr. Pleasants has chosen a cross-section that reveals Schumann's critical powers as fully as possible, places him in perspective among his fellow musicians, and demonstrates his knowledge and appreciation of the composer's craft. The Neue Zeitschrift itself had a romantic beginning, late in 1833. Beethoven, Schubert and Weber were dead, and there seemed little ground for optimism about the future of music in Germany. A group of young men, eager for an advance, launched the magazine: but like many enterprises of its kind it was on the point of early dissolution when Schumann took it over. Wishing to express widely divergent views, he invented for the purpose the Davidsbundler, with Florestan and Eusebius as the principal members and master Raro as an intermediary. These names--so familiar to lovers of music and ballet, for he used two of them in his Carnaval variations--appear throughout the selection, humorously combining truth and poetry. Schumann was a sophisticated critic whose knowledge of, and sympathy with, his art and its exponents make him a model for generations to come. His selected writings, now for the first time fully annotated, are an outstanding and distinguished addition to our growing list of classics about music." --Dust jacket

The musical journeys of Louis Spohr by Louis Spohr( Book )

16 editions published between 1961 and 1987 in English and German and held by 505 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

One of the great figures in the evolution of European music and the greatest German violinist of his time (1784-1859), Louis Spohr has been largely forgotten by the music world. Until his nine symphonies were eclipsed by those of Schubert and Brahms, they were held to be the best after Beethoven's. This volume concentrates upon the journeys Spohr took as a young virtuoso, composer, and conductor to Russia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, England, and France between 1800 and 1820, not forgetting his travels in Germany itself. Much of the account consists of quotations from diaries which Spohr kept during his trips. In a period of transition, musically as well as sociologically, the record of the journeys offers an extraordinarily honest and instructive picture of musical life in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Musical domination on the continent had been shifting slowly from Italy to Germany throughout the preceding century, and on Spohr's journeys we encounter Germans, where formerly one would have met only Italians, moving out to Russia, Italy, France, and England, bearing with them the gospel of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. This was the day of the virtuoso, and throughout the pages of the diaries, we find Spohr demanding that his profession be treated with respect. If he was conspicuously aware of himself as the representative of an honorable profession, he was equally aware of himself as a German. With the revival of interest in early romanticism, this first modern book on Spohr should be of great interest to all music lovers

The music criticism of Hugo Wolf by Hugo Wolf( Book )

11 editions published between 1978 and 1979 in English and held by 500 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Music criticisms, 1846-99 by Eduard Hanslick( Book )

15 editions published in 1963 in English and held by 464 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Opera in crisis : tradition, present, future by Henry Pleasants( Book )

10 editions published in 1989 in English and Undetermined and held by 350 WorldCat member libraries worldwide