The Music of Elliott Carter (Photos Not Included) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Carter's five quartets are the spinal column of his body of works..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, The Music of Elliott Carter, First Quartet (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When David Schiff finished his overview of Elliott Carter's music in 1983, Carter was already 75 years old. No one could have predicted the flood of marvelous new pieces (including three large-scale concertos and two string quartets) the composer would produce in the intervening years. This second edition is current through April 1998 and arrives in time for the composer's 90th birthday. Schiff is the ideal guide for this repertoire: a composer himself who studied with Carter, he has also conducted the Triple Duo. His writing is stylish--in the String Quartet No. 4, he writes, the second movement "seems to begin over the first violin's repeated objections." Schiff is lucid without ever being superficial. Instead of the strictly chronological organization of the first edition, he now groups the music by genre. (This system is especially helpful in understanding the five string quartets.) Each chapter has a brief general introduction--the first few paragraphs of the vocal music chapter in particular are a model of practical musical thought. There is a technical glossary, an eight-page bibliography (which might have mentioned Andrew Porter's enthusiastic New Yorker reviews of the pieces), and an 18-page discography. Although there are a few dozen musical examples, readers will need scores to follow some of the discussion. Of necessity, Schiff describes some of the most recent music instead of analyzing it. Anyone who wishes to gain a foothold in Carter's endlessly rewarding world might listen to the excellent Chicago Symphony recording of Variations for Orchestra and follow Schiff's elegant commentary. --William R. Braun

From Library Journal

Schiff has thoroughly revised and updated his seminal 1983 study of contemporary American composer Elliott Carter. This new edition effectively replaces the earlier one and is particularly welcome for its inclusion of a wealth of compositions and bibliographic citations from 1981 to 1998. Its thematic organization and tightly conceived plan, eschewing descriptions of Carter's musical vocabulary in favor of a straightforward glossary, are an improvement in reader-friendliness. Detailed musical analyses of major works still form the core of the book, requiring at least some preparation on the part of the intended audience of "performers, listeners, composers, and critics." A narrative overview places Carter in the context of the literary, artistic, and musical developments of the century and shows how he drew inspiration from poets and other creative figures. A chronological list of works, an extensive bibliography, and a discography add immeasurably to this volume. Highly recommended for sophisticated music collections.?Barry Zaslow, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press; 2 Sub edition (November 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801436125
• ISBN-13: 978-0801436123
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #186,839 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly readable on great structural innovator, April 5, 2000

By	scarecrow "scarecrow" (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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Schiff has done a lucid job here for the readers,he writes quite well, not slipping into piles of set theory or analytical jargoneze,that speaks to a diminishing elite. Many have labeled Carter an elite creator,but that's a matter of reference(well Carter did walk out on a performance in Chicago due to Leonard Slatkin's pre-concert remarks). Schiff remarkably covers all the great Carter works, the turbulent works of the Sixties and Seventies, the darkly brooding Piano Concerto(written in West Berlin) and the Concerto for Orchestra,a Sixties work of violence, a reflection on the Anti-War Times. The latter unaccompanied solos are all here as well, all works written,for the most part after the First Edition. Schiff frequently reflects upon what works in a piece, a purely function premise that explains much, and is food for thought to any youngster hoping to someday write just like Elliot Carter. I miss the photographs from the First Edition, those with Stravinsky and Boulez, and the Carter manuscript reproductions included there. Schiff seems quite lucid in speaking about all this complexity whether rhythmic,structural or pitchbound. I didn't know for instance that Carter has kept a harmony book, sort of a creative Oracle to refer to over ones life. The chapters divide things again quite clearly, The Chamber Music, The Vocal Music, The Piano Music and Orchestral, with a nice Appendix of Carter's Listing of Three to Six Note Chords, also a Chronological Catalogue of Works, a select Bibliography and Discography, a List of Charts. A shame however is, although the winner of numerous Pulitzers, Carter until quite recent times has been neglected here in this country fighting in his home territory, the Eastern Musical Establishment and the Bernstein Clique of the Sixties and Seventies. Boulez did much to repair this damage with The New York Philharmonic and now Barenboim has in Chicago, as well as premiere ensembles,Arditti and soloists,Chas Rosen and Ms Oppens. Schiff also always points to Carter's extracurricular interests in literature, where he frequently finds an impetus for a work, as well as the Italian language for a conceptual working premise. The Glossary at the beginning also is a wonderful clarifier, of forms we frequently hear about but seldom understand within the context of the subsequent work these terms refer to.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tried....can't.......sorry, November 25, 2007

By	G. Faville "gfav611" (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This reference to a line from a recent comedian popped into my head as I was trying to get into this book. After my 6th re-read of the beginning of the second chapter I felt like I was beginning to grasp some of the concepts the author put forth regarding Carter's music and Time, and it wasn't too far after that that I realized this book was interesting but not really necessary to enjoy Carter's music. And most likely, if you don't enjoy Carter's music for the way it sounds and unfolds, this book will not help you enjoy it.

The author does a great job of putting the concepts behind Carter's music into words, but I still found them to be very esoteric. This book reminds me of texts that I used to read in my 20th Century music theory and history classes in college, and I would have benefited greatly with this text by having a professor around to help clarify some of the more obscure comments. For example, in the section describing Carter's music as Collage, the author quotes Carter as saying: "`The form I seek is Coleridge's "form as proceeding", and I try to avoid "shape as superinduced".' For the latter, he says, `is either the death or the imprisonment of the thing; the former is its self-witnessing and self-effected sphere of agency.'" Far out. And gibberish, to me. Along with some of the rhythmic tables that made me chuckle, as a musician, imagining trying to figure it out--for example, from the 2nd quartet, part of the structure of the rhythm: 2nd violin pulse--six dotted 32nd notes plus a dotted 32nd rest under a septuplet bar=70, matched to a tempo of dotted quarter=60, with a ratio to the others of 7:6. Okay. There's also the tempo marking of dotted eighth=163.3 and 186.7.

I soon realized that I though I already like Carter's music, the contents of this book will not make me listen to Carter's music any differently. Even though I find the concept of the Time Screen interesting, I won't be envisioning it next time I listen to his Concerto For Orchestra. So, if you like to read about what's behind really high concept music and have a mind to hold the information, I can see getting through the whole tome. Otherwise, browsing for fun seems to be a better use for someone approaching Carter's music non-academically.