Witold Lutoslawski (1913-) is now established as one of the foremost composers of the post-war era. As a friend of the composer, Charles Bodman Rae has written a book that draws together the threads of Lutoslawski's life and his highly personal musical development. All his works are discussed with detailed musical examples. The book also contains unpublished photographs drawn from the composer's own albums.
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Editorial Reviews
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'This is one serious book! Charles Bodman Rae takes us on a meticulous study of the man and his music...There are plenty of interesting photographs as well as copious samples of (written) music. Rae's in-depth study of the music has to be admired as he takes the reader through the technical details..It really is a deep and serious work. The sections about the man himself, as opposed to his music, make for a break and an interesting insight into his world...Very detailed and well researched. THE MODERN DANCE
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
the polish visionary,
This review is from: The Music of Lutoslawski (Paperback)
Charles Bodman Rae has done a magnificent job assmebling and detailing the development of the late great 20th century Polish composer, Witold Lutoslawski. Breaking his compositional output into several periods and musical examples from the pieces of those periods, Rae covers the early folk inspired workds of the 40s and 50s to the radical discovery of aleatorism in 1960 which helped cement his compositional voice. His unique use of controlled aleatorism would be a trademark of all of his works from 1960 through his last work in 1992. Lutoslawski was one of the very few composers who was able to find a harmonic system which was non-tonal and non-2nd Viennese school i.e. twelve-tone system. (the others who had unique harmonic systems were Messiaen and Ligeti). Rae goes through some of the evolution in his harmonic thinking, but I would recommend Steven Stucky's "Lutoslawski and his music" for more detailed harmonic analysis of his work. The Stucky book does not cover all of the works up to Lutoslawski's death, but does get a significant number of the larger ones. Unlike the Stucky book, Rae's book (part of the Faber and Faber music series) also gives the reader biographical insight which isn't too dry. In this respect, the faber series continues to excel giving readers of differing musical knowledge straws to pick at; those not too interested in the themes and workings of particular pieces can focus on the tidbits of historical working behind the pieces.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of the few English-language books on Lutoslawski, especially for biography,
This review is from: The Music of Lutoslawski (Paperback)
Charles Bodman Rae's THE MUSIC OF LUTOSLAWSKI appears here in a third edition published by Omnibus Press. The book was first completed shortly before the great Polish composer's death, and the second edition was available only in Polish translation, but here we finally get a full view of Lutoslawski's entire career.
Rae knew Lutoslawski personally, and his book makes great use of interviews. There is a great deal of information here on Lutoslawski's personal life that gives context to the works. We learn about the trials of his family after World War I, his daring escape from capitivity in World War II, his ways of evading Stalinist dangers in the '50s, and his constant travels to conduct his music and pick up honorary degrees later in life. Rae also tells of general historical events in Poland and how they might have affected Lutoslawski's music, such as the Cello Concerto and the Symphony No. 3. But it's not all biography. There is plenty of discussion of the music, and score examples abound. Lutoslawski's method of basing harmonies on twelve-note chords is explained fairly well, and the discussions of the String Quartet and Symphony No. 2 are useful to understand the structure of these great applications of limited aleatorism. I paid less attention to the coverage of Lutoslawski's late works, since I find music like the Piano Concerto and "Partita" dreadfully banal, but Rae does indeed manage to cover the composer's entire oeuvre, up to the sketches of the never-to-be-completed violin concerto. My complaints about the work are few. One is that, while the book was generally updated to reflect Lutoslawski's depth, there are still many phrasings that oddly suggest that he is still with us and composing. This is especially true in the notes, but found also in the body of the text as well. Also, Rae doesn't pay much attention at all to Lutoslawski's occasional pieces. One could understand that they lack the inventiveness of the orchestral works and thus don't merit serious analysis, but it would still be helpful to say something about them for the benefit of fans. Full-length books on Lutoslawski are few, whether in English or in other languages. If you enjoy this one, be sure to also seek out Steven Sucky's LUTOSLAWSKI AND HIS MUSIC (Oxford University Press, 1981), as well as the collection LUTOSLAWSKI STUDIES, ed. Zbigniew Skowron (Oxford University Press, 2001). The former has a more rigorous discussion of harmony than Rae's book, though biographical details aren't so many, while the collection of papers examines all sorts of specialized matters.
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