Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Neil Powell: ‘Music’
- Introduction
- Dana Gioia: ‘Lives of the Great Composers’
- Thomas Tallis (1505–85)
- William Byrd (?1543–1623)
- John Dowland (?1563–1626)
- Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
- Gregorio Allegri (1582–1652)
- Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
- Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)
- Henry Purcell (1659–95)
- François Couperin (1668–1733)
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
- Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
- Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757)
- Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–87)
- Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
- Antonio Salieri (1750–1825)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
- Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840)
- John Field (1782–1837)
- Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
- Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
- Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
- Fryderyk Chopin (1810–49)
- Robert Schumann (1810–56)
- Franz Liszt (1811–86)
- Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
- Richard Wagner (1813–83)
- Anton Bruckner (1824–96)
- Bedřich Smetana (1824–84)
- Johannes Brahms (1833–97)
- Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–93)
- Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
- Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
- Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
- Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
- Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)
- Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
- Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
- Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
- Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
- Frederick Delius (1862–1934)
- Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
- Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
- Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
- Erik Satie (1866–1925)
- Amy Beach (1867–1944)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
- Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
- Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
- Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
- Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936)
- Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
- Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
- Percy Grainger (1882–1961)
- Arnold Bax (1883–1953)
- Anton Webern (1883–1945)
- Alban Berg (1885–1935)
- George Butterworth (1885–1916)
- Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
- Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
- Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
- Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) (1894–1930)
- Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
- Aaron Copland (1900–90)
- Gerald Finzi (1901–56)
- Michael Tippett (1905–98)
- Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–75)
- Olivier Messiaen (1908–92)
- Samuel Barber (1910–81)
- John Cage (1912–92)
- Benjamin Britten (1913–76)
- Witold Lutosławski (1913–94)
- György Ligeti (1923–2006)
- Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934)
- Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934)
- Arvo Pärt (b.1935)
- Epilogue
- Composers
- Poets
- Acknowledgements
- Index of First Lines
- Index of Titles
Richard Wagner (1813–83)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Neil Powell: ‘Music’
- Introduction
- Dana Gioia: ‘Lives of the Great Composers’
- Thomas Tallis (1505–85)
- William Byrd (?1543–1623)
- John Dowland (?1563–1626)
- Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
- Gregorio Allegri (1582–1652)
- Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
- Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)
- Henry Purcell (1659–95)
- François Couperin (1668–1733)
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
- Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
- Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757)
- Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–87)
- Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
- Antonio Salieri (1750–1825)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
- Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840)
- John Field (1782–1837)
- Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
- Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
- Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
- Fryderyk Chopin (1810–49)
- Robert Schumann (1810–56)
- Franz Liszt (1811–86)
- Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
- Richard Wagner (1813–83)
- Anton Bruckner (1824–96)
- Bedřich Smetana (1824–84)
- Johannes Brahms (1833–97)
- Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–93)
- Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
- Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
- Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
- Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
- Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)
- Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
- Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
- Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
- Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
- Frederick Delius (1862–1934)
- Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
- Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
- Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
- Erik Satie (1866–1925)
- Amy Beach (1867–1944)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
- Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
- Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
- Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
- Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936)
- Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
- Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
- Percy Grainger (1882–1961)
- Arnold Bax (1883–1953)
- Anton Webern (1883–1945)
- Alban Berg (1885–1935)
- George Butterworth (1885–1916)
- Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
- Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
- Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
- Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) (1894–1930)
- Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
- Aaron Copland (1900–90)
- Gerald Finzi (1901–56)
- Michael Tippett (1905–98)
- Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–75)
- Olivier Messiaen (1908–92)
- Samuel Barber (1910–81)
- John Cage (1912–92)
- Benjamin Britten (1913–76)
- Witold Lutosławski (1913–94)
- György Ligeti (1923–2006)
- Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934)
- Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934)
- Arvo Pärt (b.1935)
- Epilogue
- Composers
- Poets
- Acknowledgements
- Index of First Lines
- Index of Titles
Summary
Wagner
After the sick adventure and insolence
of steep soaring notes, heaven-lit,
the romantic convulsive fall and
fall to nuances of German black.
The suited orchestra inhabit the pit –
like the dead must be hidden.
Cthonic music must come back as if
bidden from the deeps of the earth.
Wagner, is this your dream or Wotan’s?
An organ dismembered, a sexual shout,
scream and burn – climax of a candle-flame
blown out, more a woman's than a man’s.
Genius with the soul of a vulture
your overgrown music is good for heroes,
for cheap Hollywood; yet there's something else,
something taciturn, almost remembered.
Outside the Hall even your statue, moon-blown,
stone-deaf, smells of the urn; and ghosts soaped
in moonlight weep. The streets of Germany
are clean, like the hands of Lady Macbeth.
And does your stern distinguished statue keep
vigil for another Fuhrer's return?
Some statues never awaken,
some never seem to sleep.
DANNIE ABSE
Brunhild
My father laid me in a ring
Of fire, and then like thunder rolled
Away, though I had been more close
To him than in his arms. He told
Me I should never see his face
Now he had voiced me like a song,
Made me a separate thing, no more
His warrior daughter but a woman.
But I do see his face, I see
It all the time. Though I am human
He can still rule. He promised me
That a brave man should break the fire,
A man he would approve of, no
Tentative weakling. He will have
My father's dominant beard and mighty
Shoulders, and instead of love
This obligation to be doughty.
I wait for the entrance of the hero
Dressed up in my father's fashion.
If I were free to love I would
Decide on someone thin and shaven.
But in the ring I lie like wood
Or soil, that cannot yield or even
Be raped except with his permission.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Accompanied VoicesPoets on Composers: From Thomas Tallis to Arvo Pärt, pp. 70 - 71Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2015