- •Music in the Modern World western music of the twentieth century (general survey)
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Additional Assignments
- •Some twentieth-century composers arnold schoenberg (1874-1951)
- •The composer speaks: arnold schoenberg
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Bela bartok (1881-1945)
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions about Bartok
- •Discussion Points
- •Paul hindemith: his life and work (1895-1963)
- •The composer speaks: paul hindemith
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Electronic music
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions about Stravinsky
- •Additional Assignments
- •Britten's operas
- •The composer speaks: benjamin broten
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions about Britten
- •Additional Assignments
- •Menotti. The opera composer
- •The composer speaks: gian carlo menotti
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Additional Assignments
- •Michael tippett: a child of our time
- •30 Questions on the Text
- •Experimental (avant-garde) music
- •Olivier messiaen
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Additional Assignments
- •George ligeti (b. 1923)
- •Karlheinz stockhausen
- •35 Discussion Activities Questions on the Text about Ligeti
- •About Stockhausen and Experimental Composers
- •Questions about Western Music of the 20th Century
- •Points for Discussion and Written Compositions
- •Popular music rock
- •Points about rock
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Additional Assignments
- •Elvis presley - story of a superstar
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The beatles
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •English and American Musical History english music (general survey)
- •1. Opera.
- •2. Performing groups.
- •3. Festivals.
- •4. Education.
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •The golden age in england
- •The english virginal school
- •Virginal music composers. William Byrd (1542-1623)
- •Byrd in his time and ours
- •English madrigalists
- •"The british orpheus"
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •56 American music (general survey)
- •61 Charles ives, the first truly american composer (1874-1954)
- •Charles ives and american folk music
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The relation of jazz to american music
- •Louis armstrong
- •The swing era (duke ellington)
- •Spirituals
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The Art of Musical Interpretation the problem of interpretation
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions for Discussion
- •Additional Assignments
- •Conducting
- •The art of conducting
- •Questions on the Text
- •Some musical encounters
- •Questions on the Text
- •86 Leonard bernstein
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Herbert von karajan
- •Interview with herbert von karajan
- •The art of piano playing: glenn gould
- •Interview with glenn gould
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The art of violin playing: eugene ysaye
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The world of opera handel in performance
- •Franco zeffirelli: the romantic realist
- •La divina: maria callas
- •Callas remembered
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Peter pears: ronald crichton speaks
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Notes Page 5
- •Page 21
- •Page 31
- •Page 32
- •Page 34
- •Page 35
- •Page 37
- •Page 39
- •Page 46
- •Page 47
- •Page 48
- •Page 49
- •Page 52
- •Page 53
- •Page 54
- •Page 57
- •Page 58
- •Page 59
- •Page 60
- •Page 61
- •Page 62
- •Page 63
- •Page 65
- •Page 66
- •Page 111
- •Page 112
- •Sources
- •Contents
Callas remembered
by Herbert Von Karajan
She was born with the instinct of the true prima donna, and that, I think, is something one cannot learn. I don't know if this was really the case, but certainly before an audience she displayed remarkable assurance, and enthusiasm quite out of the ordinary: she really believed in opera. 110
Her roots were in bel canto, of which she was an admirable exponent. It should also be said that she was marvellously guided by that master and great connoisseur of bel canto style Tullio Serafin.
One very characteristic aspect of her personality was the immense care she took with preparation. She would already have mastered a work by the time she arrived for the first rehearsal, which meant of course that we could then work on those details that lent her performances such authenticity. She grasped everything immediately. It was unthinkable that she would ever bring a score,* as so many singers do. She was sure of herself, and she understood things straight away, without the slightest prompting - hence my great admiration for her. We always worked happily together. She didn't have very good eyesight - I doubt she could even see the conductor-but she was guided by an inner sense. She would turn her back to you and sing perfectly in tempo. With her, making music was the simplest thing in the world.
From: Gramophone, 1987
Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
1. Briefly describe Callas' career.
2. What kind of voice did she have? Characterize her style of performance.
3. Which tenor was her almost constant partner?
4. What was Callas' approach to the score? How did she work on it?
5. In what roles did she excel?
6. Which of Callas' qualities did Karajan point out in his memoirs?
7. What makes Maria Callas a great opera singer?
8. Have you heard any of her records? What do you think of them?
Peter pears: ronald crichton speaks
It is hard to think of any British male singer who has had so long, versatile and influential a career.
Pears was born in 1910 at Farnham, Surrey. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, sang in the BBC Chorus, and, in 1938, the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus. By now he had met the young Britten, whose lifelong companion and chosen interpreter he became. They had already given the first of what was to become a long and outstandingly distinguished series of recitals in which the song-cycles which Britten wrote for them featured with other English songs of many styles and periods and - most notably - with the Lieder* of Schubert and Schumann.
With Britten he went to the USA in 1939 for three years. On their return Pears started his operatic career, mainly, in those days,
111
at Sadler's Wells. Here, in 1945, he sang the title-role in the memorable first performance of Peter Crimes, the first of many leading roles composed by Britten "on" the voice of Pears, culminating nearly 30 years later in Aschenbach in Death in Venice (1973).
Profound musicianship, intelligence and theatrical flair enabled Pears to be convincing in characters one might have thought outside his natural scope - for example the rough, half-crazed fisherman Grimes, the grocer's boy Albert Herring, the Madwoman in Curlew River.* It was less surprising (though the degree of success was remarkable) that he should shine as the introspective Vere in Billy Budd, as the sinister Quint in The Turn of the Screw, the impetuous Essex in Gloriana, and the military grandfather in Owen Win-grave. He excelled in the principal tenor roles of Mozart, coming to Idomeneo at about the same age as Raaff, the original singer of the
role.
Of equal importance was Sir Peter's Protean concert work, not only in recital with Britten and other eminent partners but in specially-written works by Berkeley, Tippett, Henze and many other composers. He was pre-eminent in oratorio - Schütz, the Bach Passions (as Evangelist), Elgar's Gerontius,* Britten's War Requiem. These no less than his operatic roles made him a widely admired figure in Europe and further afield.
Pears was a founder-member of the English Opera Group, a resourceful, tireless, active director of the Aldeburgh Festival, a pillar of the Britten-Pears School at nearby Snape. Through these and kindred activities he left his mark on the succeeding generation of British singers. He was not inimitable. Many singers could and did imitate, even unconsciously mimic, him. But his influence went deeper than the surface mannerisms. Numerous gramophone records will perpetuate as well as peculiarities of timbre and diction his acutely musical style, and his wide culture, gift for languages and his unassailable musical integrity.
He was made a CBE* in 1957 and knighted* in 1977.
From opera, 1986. Abridged