James Huneker

Broschiertes Buch

Chopin

The Man and His Music

Beschreibung

Chopin, "subtle-souled psychologist," is more kin to Keats than Shelley, he is a greater artist than a thinker. His philosophy is of the beautiful, as was Keats', and while he lingers by the river's edge to catch the song of the reeds, his gaze is oftener fixed on the quiring planets. He is nature's most exquisite sounding-board and vibrates to her with intensity, color and vivacity that have no parallel. Stained with melancholy, his joy is never that of the strong man rejoicing in his muscles. -from "Poet and Psychologist" James Huneker describes Chopin's mazurkas as the music in which "the Pole suffers in song the joy of his sorrow." Such distinctive literary lyricism fills this classic 1900 life of the 19th-century French-Polish pianist and composer. After exploring the storied artistic circles in which Frédéric Chopin moved in Paris and his tempestuous relationship with the novelist George Sand, Huneker delves into the artistic psychology of his music, with in-depth analyses of Chopin's studies, many of which Huneker finds "poetic"; his preludes, which Huneker deems "moods in miniature"; and the "melancholy mysteries" of Chopin's nocturnes. A striking portrait of genius, Huneker captures an artist who was "pleasant" and "persuasive" in public and "a neurotic being" in private, and finds a composer whose music aches with "the pathos of spiritual distance." American arts critic JAMES HUNEKER (1860-1921) also wrote Iconoclasts: A Book of Dramatists (1905), Egoists: A Book of Supermen (1909), Franz Liszt: Illustrated (1911), and The Pathos of Distance (1912).

Autor

James Gibbons Huneker was an American art, literary, music, and theatrical reviewer. A colorful individual and an ambitious writer, he was "an American with a great mission," in the words of his friend, the critic Benjamin De Casseres, and that mission was to educate Americans about the best cultural achievements, native and European, of his day. From 1892 to 1899, he was the husband of sculptor Clio Hinton. Huneker was born in Philadelphia. His parents forced him to study law, but he realized that a legal career was not for him; he was enthusiastic about music and writing, and hoped to one day be a concert pianist and novelist. Huneker and his wife and child returned to Philadelphia the next year, but he was never content in his hometown and longed for the larger stage of New York, where he wanted to try his luck as a journalist while continuing his musical studies. He relocated to New York City in 1886, abandoning his wife and child. He scraped by providing piano lessons and lived a downtown bohemian lifestyle while studying with Franz Liszt's student Rafael Joseffy, who became a friend and mentor. (Huneker's musical gods were Liszt, Chopin, and Brahms. In 1900, he released a biography of Chopin and wrote a commentary on Chopin's complete works for Schirmer's Music Publishing Company.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cosimo Classics
• Seitenzahl: 424
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Januar 2006
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 203mm x 127mm x 25mm
• Gewicht: 507g
• ISBN-13: 9781596057470
• ISBN-10: 1596057475
• Artikelnr.: 22425787