Chigiana: Reference

Now available in paperbackAn indispensable guide to French songContains commentary by internationally famous accompanist Graham JohnsonInvaluable reference tool with line-by-line translations of all songs includedHardback edition (which is still selling well) has sold 778 copies since publication date of June 2000 - 289 UK 400 USA and 89 ROW.Hardback edition has been widely reviewed in magazines such as The Singer Musical Times Gramaphone Literary Review (to name a few). More to follow since it's early days.The French Song Companion is the most comprehensive book of French mélodie in any language. The greataccompagnist Graham Johnson a noted authority of song provides repertoire guides to the work of some 150 composers - the majority of them from France but including British American German Spanish and Italian musicians who have written French vocal music. There are major articles on such figures as Fauré Duparc Debussy Ravel and Poulenc; substantial articles on Bizet Chabrier Gounod Chausson Hahn and Satie; and reassessments of such composers as Massenet Koechlin and Leguerney. A host of less celebrated figures who have contributed to the genre take their place in a book which is both informative and entertaining.The biographical articles are supplemented by the song translations of Richard Stokes some 700 in all and a veritable treasury of great French poetry from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. These stand in their own right as indispensable to music lovers concert-goers and professional singers and their accompanists. This is a book which not only reflects the repertoire as found in today's concert halls but also encourages performers and armchair enthusiasts to explore the neglected highways and biways of an endlessly fascinating and highly civilised body of music.

Carl Maria von Weber's fame rests mainly on ?Der Freischütz'. The unprecedented success of this opera overshadowed all his other works and contributed to their increasing fall into oblivion. Certain works such as ?Preciosa', ?Oberon', and ?Euryanthe', the overtures, solo concertos and piano sonatas, the lieder and chamber works enjoyed great popularity and were widely known in Germany and abroad as late as the second half of the 19th century. However, any chance of a revival of Weber's influential and substantial oeuvre was wasted in the 1920s, when a complete edition - begun by Hans Joachim Moser and with potential contributors including Wilhelm Kempff, Hans Pfitzner, Max von Schillings, Fritz Stein and Richard Strauss - failed after the third volume.Ever since there have been numerous attempts to restart a complete edition of Weber's works, but as this kind of project would have required the co-operation of scholars from both sides of the inter-German border, the political situation after 1945 was not conducive to any such enterprise. Careful negotiations led to the first tangible steps in the 1980s. The intention, right from the beginning, was to place Weber's work in context, and not to separate his musical output from his influential work as a writer, critic and organiser in the musical field, but to publish his compositions together with his letters, diaries and other literary output as the best way to document the cross-fertilisation between his musical, literary and practical activities.Since the German re-unification both working-parties concerned - at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and at the Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar, Detmold/Paderborn - have co-operated on the complete edition of the musical works (c. 45 volumes in 10 series: sacred music - cantatas, odes and other occasional works - stage works - lieder and vocal works - orchestral works - chamber music - music for piano - piano reductions - miscellanea, arrangements and orchestrations - works of doubtful attribution). The diaries (6-8 vols.) are edited in Berlin and the letters (8-10 vols.) and other writings (2 vols.) in Detmold. This complete edition aims to be a reliable basis of scholarly debate as well as for the authentic performance practice of Carl Maria von Weber's music. Conforming to the standards of recent historico-critical editions, the textual material will be based on all available authentic sources, accompanied by a detailed documentation of the genesis and a list of variants for each work. The musicological importance of the works will be evaluated by placing them in their historical context, the presentation of their genesis, history and Critical Commentaries. The letters, writings and diaries will be treated as inter-related and relevant to each other in the commentaries, therefore readers should benefit from a wealth of concise information and cross-references. / Score