After the Golden Age

Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Music, Instruments & Instruction, Piano & Keyboard, General Instruments
Cover of the book After the Golden Age by Kenneth Hamilton, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kenneth Hamilton ISBN: 9780199884391
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: December 7, 2007
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Kenneth Hamilton
ISBN: 9780199884391
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: December 7, 2007
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

Kenneth Hamilton's book engagingly and lucidly dissects the oft-invoked myth of a Great Tradition, or Golden Age of Pianism. It is written both for players and for members of their audiences by a pianist who believes that scholarship and readability can go hand-in-hand. Hamilton discusses in meticulous yet lively detail the performance-style of great pianists from Liszt to Paderewski, and delves into the far-from-inevitable development of the piano recital. He entertainingly recounts how classical concerts evolved from exuberant, sometimes riotous events into the formal, funereal trotting out of predictable pieces they can be today, how an often unhistorical "respect for the score" began to replace pianists' improvisations and adaptations, and how the clinical custom arose that an audience should be seen and not heard. Pianists will find food for thought here on their repertoire and the traditions of its performance. Hamilton chronicles why pianists of the past did not always begin a piece with the first note of the score, nor end with the last. He emphasizes that anxiety over wrong notes is a relatively recent psychosis, and playing entirely from memory a relatively recent requirement. Audiences will encounter a vivid account of how drastically different are the recitals they attend compared to concerts of the past, and how their own role has diminished from noisily active participants in the concert experience to passive recipients of artistic benediction from the stage. They will discover when cowed listeners eventually stopped applauding between movements, and why they stopped talking loudly during them. The book's broad message proclaims that there is nothing divinely ordained about our own concert-practices, programming and piano-performance styles. Many aspects of the modern approach are unhistorical-some laudable, some merely ludicrous. They are also far removed from those fondly, if deceptively, remembered as constituting a Golden Age.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Kenneth Hamilton's book engagingly and lucidly dissects the oft-invoked myth of a Great Tradition, or Golden Age of Pianism. It is written both for players and for members of their audiences by a pianist who believes that scholarship and readability can go hand-in-hand. Hamilton discusses in meticulous yet lively detail the performance-style of great pianists from Liszt to Paderewski, and delves into the far-from-inevitable development of the piano recital. He entertainingly recounts how classical concerts evolved from exuberant, sometimes riotous events into the formal, funereal trotting out of predictable pieces they can be today, how an often unhistorical "respect for the score" began to replace pianists' improvisations and adaptations, and how the clinical custom arose that an audience should be seen and not heard. Pianists will find food for thought here on their repertoire and the traditions of its performance. Hamilton chronicles why pianists of the past did not always begin a piece with the first note of the score, nor end with the last. He emphasizes that anxiety over wrong notes is a relatively recent psychosis, and playing entirely from memory a relatively recent requirement. Audiences will encounter a vivid account of how drastically different are the recitals they attend compared to concerts of the past, and how their own role has diminished from noisily active participants in the concert experience to passive recipients of artistic benediction from the stage. They will discover when cowed listeners eventually stopped applauding between movements, and why they stopped talking loudly during them. The book's broad message proclaims that there is nothing divinely ordained about our own concert-practices, programming and piano-performance styles. Many aspects of the modern approach are unhistorical-some laudable, some merely ludicrous. They are also far removed from those fondly, if deceptively, remembered as constituting a Golden Age.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book Apparitions of Asia by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book Verdun by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book Seneca and the Idea of Tragedy by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book Conversations on Consciousness by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book A Theory of Fields by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book The New Anti-Catholicism by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book Living with the Living Dead by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book Neurodegenerative Diseases by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book Balanchine & the Lost Muse by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book La Catastrophe by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book The Marketplace of Revolution by Kenneth Hamilton
Cover of the book Harmful and Undesirable by Kenneth Hamilton
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy