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Opus est : six composers from northern Europe : Matthijs Vermeulen, Vagn Holmboe, Havergal Brian, Allan Pettersson, Fartein Valen, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
eng, Pages 305. Reprinted in 2013 with the help of original edition published long back. This book is in black & white, Hardcover, sewing binding for longer life with Matt laminated multi-Colour Dust Cover, Printed on high quality Paper, re-sized as per Current standards, professionally processed without changing its contents. As these are old books, there may be some pages which are blur or missing or black spots. If it is multi volume set, then it is only single volume. We expect that you will understand our compulsion in these books. We found this book important for the readers who want to know more about our old treasure so we brought it back to the shelves. (Customisation is possible). Hope you will like it and give your comments and suggestions.Original Opus est : six composers from Northern Europe [Hardcover] Rapoport, Paul Ernest
- GenresMusic
200 pages
First published January 1, 1978
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About the author
Paul Rapoport
11 books3 followersPaul Rapoport is a musicologist, music critic, composer and professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Rapoport received his bachelor's degree in linguistics and music at the University of Michigan in 1970 and his master's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1972 with a thesis on Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony. He went on to gain a doctorate at the same university in 1975, with a dissertation about Vagn Holmboe's four Symphonic Metamorphoses.
Part of the substantial collection of material related to composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji at McMaster University's library was obtained thanks to then-professor Rapoport's efforts. In addition to his work on Sorabji, he has been most associated with the music of Havergal Brian, Vagn Holmboe and Allan Pettersson as well as with various aspects of microtonal music. He has made use of microtones in his own compositions, which include a set of partsongs to poems by Erica Jong. As a critic he wrote mostly for the American magazine Fanfare, but also for Tempo, the American Record Guide, and others.
Rapoport received his bachelor's degree in linguistics and music at the University of Michigan in 1970 and his master's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1972 with a thesis on Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony. He went on to gain a doctorate at the same university in 1975, with a dissertation about Vagn Holmboe's four Symphonic Metamorphoses.
Part of the substantial collection of material related to composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji at McMaster University's library was obtained thanks to then-professor Rapoport's efforts. In addition to his work on Sorabji, he has been most associated with the music of Havergal Brian, Vagn Holmboe and Allan Pettersson as well as with various aspects of microtonal music. He has made use of microtones in his own compositions, which include a set of partsongs to poems by Erica Jong. As a critic he wrote mostly for the American magazine Fanfare, but also for Tempo, the American Record Guide, and others.
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April 12, 2012
Paul Rapoport's Opus Est, published in 1978, presents portraits of six 20th century composers from Northern Europe, namely: Matthijs Vermeulen, Vagn Holmboe, Havergal Brian, Allan Pettersson, Fartein Valen and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji. What do these composers have in common? As Rapoport explains:
Each of these composers had a unique personal style and is difficult to categorize. All of them avoided 20th century trends towards serialism. Rapoport's introduction argues that it is unfair to overlook composers who weren't part of dominant trends. His portraits of the composers consist of a biographical sketch and then an analysis of one or two representative works. There follows a catalogue of works (now generally superseded since some of this composers lived on for years and continued to write) and a bibliography of relevant articles from the serious music press.
Not all the composers here interest me at this time, so I only read the chapters for Holmboe (which look at the Symphony No. 7 and the Symphonic Metamorphoses), Pettersson (Symphony No. 2) and Sorabji (Opus Clavicembalisticum). Even though Rapoport's book is old and his format allows no more than 15-20 pages for each composer, I still learned quite a bit of new trivia here, and his analysis has helped me get more out of the works.
In addition to being approximate contemporaries and from the less influential area of northern Europe, the six composers all wrote music for nonelectronic instruments in a standard five-line staff notation. Their music retains at least some traces of tonality and assumes standard, essentially 19th-century ideas about the roles of and the relationships among composer, performer, and listener. All six also wrote at least a few works titled Symphony. They are “traditionalists”, then, but this label does not mean that their music is conventional, reactionary, and irrelevant, or is to be marked neoclassical, neoromantic, or neo- something else and popped away into a neatly compartmentalized filing cabinet of musical “isms”.
Each of these composers had a unique personal style and is difficult to categorize. All of them avoided 20th century trends towards serialism. Rapoport's introduction argues that it is unfair to overlook composers who weren't part of dominant trends. His portraits of the composers consist of a biographical sketch and then an analysis of one or two representative works. There follows a catalogue of works (now generally superseded since some of this composers lived on for years and continued to write) and a bibliography of relevant articles from the serious music press.
Not all the composers here interest me at this time, so I only read the chapters for Holmboe (which look at the Symphony No. 7 and the Symphonic Metamorphoses), Pettersson (Symphony No. 2) and Sorabji (Opus Clavicembalisticum). Even though Rapoport's book is old and his format allows no more than 15-20 pages for each composer, I still learned quite a bit of new trivia here, and his analysis has helped me get more out of the works.
Displaying 1 of 1 review