Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface: Grigory Kogan: His Life and Times
- Acknowledgments
- Busoni as Pianist
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Busoni's childhood and youth, 1866–88
- Chapter 2 Finland and Moscow, 1889–94
- Chapter 3 Berlin: Busoni's emergence as a great pianist
- Chapter 4 Busoni's technique: Piano orchestration, tone production
- Chapter 5 Busoni's repertoire: An anti-Romantic approach
- Chapter 6 Busoni's interpretation of Beethoven, Liszt, and Chopin
- Chapter 7 Busoni's interpretations. Textural liberties
- Chapter 8 Busoni's interpretations of Bach. Articulation
- Chapter 9 Rhythm and dynamics
- Chapter 10 Busoni's recording of the Liszt's Rigoletto Paraphrase
- Chapter 11 Technical phrasing
- Chapter 12 Technical variants
- Chapter 13 Fingering, pedal
- Chapter 14 Compositions, transcriptions, editions, teaching, writings
- Chapter 15 Busoni's esthetics
- Chapter 16 Busoni's esthetics, continued
- Chapter 17 World War I. Operas
- Chapter 18 Busoni's final years, 1918–24
- Conclusion
- Annotated Discography
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Translator's Bibliography
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Chapter 14 - Compositions, transcriptions, editions, teaching, writings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface: Grigory Kogan: His Life and Times
- Acknowledgments
- Busoni as Pianist
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Busoni's childhood and youth, 1866–88
- Chapter 2 Finland and Moscow, 1889–94
- Chapter 3 Berlin: Busoni's emergence as a great pianist
- Chapter 4 Busoni's technique: Piano orchestration, tone production
- Chapter 5 Busoni's repertoire: An anti-Romantic approach
- Chapter 6 Busoni's interpretation of Beethoven, Liszt, and Chopin
- Chapter 7 Busoni's interpretations. Textural liberties
- Chapter 8 Busoni's interpretations of Bach. Articulation
- Chapter 9 Rhythm and dynamics
- Chapter 10 Busoni's recording of the Liszt's Rigoletto Paraphrase
- Chapter 11 Technical phrasing
- Chapter 12 Technical variants
- Chapter 13 Fingering, pedal
- Chapter 14 Compositions, transcriptions, editions, teaching, writings
- Chapter 15 Busoni's esthetics
- Chapter 16 Busoni's esthetics, continued
- Chapter 17 World War I. Operas
- Chapter 18 Busoni's final years, 1918–24
- Conclusion
- Annotated Discography
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Translator's Bibliography
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
Let us now return to describing Busoni's activities after he moved from America to Europe and settled in Berlin. Piano playing, to which we have devoted so much attention on the preceding pages, was the Master's central occupation, but far from the only one during these years. He continued to devote a great deal of attention to the field of musical creation, to composition. The change that he had undergone in his artistic worldview made its mark here, too: his composing went down a new road. He ardently attempted to disavow everything he wrote earlier. “… In the ideal sense,” he declares, “I first found my way as a composer in the Second Violin Sonata (Op. 36a), which among friends I also call my Opus 1…. But my entire personal vision I put down at last and for the first time in the Elegies (finished January 1908).”
The Elegies are a cycle of seven pieces for the piano, dedicated to Busoni's students; the four piano pieces that make up the cycle An die Jugend are dedicated to them as well.
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- Information
- Busoni as Pianist , pp. 82 - 91Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010