Passionate and pioneering, Liszt’s biography of Chopin flaunts its author’s celebrity while straddling the divide between the scholarly and the popular. In this volume Meirion Hughes combines a new translation of the first edition with an introduction that places the work in its cultural and political context. In his introduction Hughes explores the complex relationship between the two composers, the highly charged political context in which the book was written, and the discourse of cultural nationalism and progressivism that dominates content. He argues that Chopin (put in italics) was more than a tribute to an erstwhile friend, but rather a polemic of national music rooted in the politics of that ‘year of revolutions’, 1848-9. Hughes remains faithful to the original while putting clarity before strict adherence to what is, by general agreement, a quirky text. Controversial in its approach, Liszt’s ‘Chopin’ challenges the long-held view of the memoir is as lightweight, inaccurate portrait of its subject, but rather as one of the most important and daring musical biographies of the nineteenth century.
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Meirion Hughes combines a new translation of the first edition with an introduction that places the work in its cultural and political context
List of figuresAcknowledgementsTranslator’s noteLiszt’s ‘Chopin’ Part One: IntroductionI. ‘Comrades’ and ‘Friends’II. ‘Men of the Future’III. Voices IV. Some Contexts and Conclusions Part Two: TextF.Chopin Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Bibliography
Les mer
Passionate and pioneering, Liszt’s biography of Chopin flaunts its author’s celebrity while straddling the divide between the scholarly and the popular. In this volume Meirion Hughes combines a new translation of the first edition with an introduction that places the work in its cultural and political context. In his introduction Hughes explores the complex relationship between the two composers, the highly charged political context in which the book was written, and the discourse of cultural nationalism and progressivism that dominates content. He argues that Chopin (put in italics) was more than a tribute to an erstwhile friend, but rather a polemic of national music rooted in the politics of that ‘year of revolutions’, 1848-9. Hughes remains faithful to the original while putting clarity before strict adherence to what is, by general agreement, a quirky text. Controversial in its approach, Liszt’s ‘Chopin’ challenges the long-held view of the memoir is as lightweight, inaccurate portrait of its subject, but rather as one of the most important and daring musical biographies of the nineteenth century.
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780719085680
Publisert
2010-10-15
Utgiver
Vendor
Manchester University Press
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
138 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet

Forfatter

Biographical note

Meirion Hughes is a freelance historian and writer