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An Encyclopedia of Quotations About Music

  • Book
  • © 1977

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Editors:
  1. Nat Shapiro
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Table of contents (48 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Music is ... Music Does ... Music Means ...

    1. Music is ... Music Does ... Music Means ...

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 1-30

  3. Creators and Components

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31
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    2. Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 33-40

    3. Composers and Composition

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 41-66

    4. The Avant-Garde

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 67-72

  4. Exponents

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 73-73
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    2. Conductors and Conducting

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 75-80

    3. Instruments and Instrumentalists

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 81-94

    4. Pianos and Pianists

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 95-101

    5. Violins and/or Fiddles

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 102-106

    6. Woodwinds

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 107-109

    7. Guitars

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 110-111

    8. Concerts

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 112-113

    9. The Music Trade

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 114-119

  5. Proponents and Opponents

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 121-121
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    2. Critics and Criticism

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 123-127

    3. Musical Misanthropy

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 128-141

  6. Lift Every Voice

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143
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    2. Words and/with/for/to Music

      • Nat Shapiro
      Pages 145-153
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Keywords

About this book

Writing about music-about what it is and what it means-is akin to describing the act of love. Somehow, the reduction of the experience to an unblushingly detailed exposition of how, where, when, and why who does what to whom, from prelude to resolu­ tion, loses everything in the translation. The other extreme, the one wherein the writer, in desperation, resorts to metaphor (with or without benefit of meter and rhyme), most often results in im­ agery that is banal, vulgar, inane, obscure, pretentious, and almost always insufferably romantic. To achieve good and accurate writing about music is as rare an accomplishment as expert wine-tasting, lion-taming, diamond-cut­ ting, truffie-finding and (if one just happens to be an unconverted Mohican brave) deer-tracking. Only the intuitive, the pure, the sensual, and the intrepid need apply. Professional musicians often evidence a fixed tendency either to rudely ignore or else to actively despise those of us who bravely try to understand, define, and describe their art. To many composers and instrumentalists, those outsiders (nonmusicians) who have the temerity to discuss anything more abstract than the digital dexterity of a fiddler, the particular vanity of a conductor, or the wage scales for overtime recording sessions are judged worthy only of contempt or-at the most-patronizing tolerance. "Music means itself," insists one of the contributors to the collection that follows, and many practitioners of the art of organ­ ized sound would prefer to leave it at that.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: An Encyclopedia of Quotations About Music

  • Editors: Nat Shapiro

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9627-1

  • Publisher: Springer New York, NY

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Nat Shapiro 1977

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4615-9629-5Published: 09 February 2012

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4615-9627-1Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 418

  • Number of Illustrations: 14 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Music

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