Talks With Great Composers [Paperback]

Arthur Abell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1998

What Inspires Creativity?

Between the years 1890 and 1917 Arthur M. Abell engaged in lengthy, candid conversations with the greatest composers of his day-- Johannes Brahms, Giacomo Puccini, Richard Strauss, Engelbert Humperdinck, Max Bruch, and Edvard Grieg-- about the intellectual, psychic, and spiritual tensions of their great creative endeavors. The result of their probing and insightful discussions is quite simply a masterpiece-- a document that reveals the agony, triumphs, and the religiosity inherent in the creative mind.

The six composers readily agreed to explore with their friend their innermost thoughts regarding the psychology of the creative process. Brahms insisted, however, that his disclosures not be published until fifty years after his death, because, he said, "I will not find my true place in musical history until at least half a century after I am gone."

A tribute to creative inspiration, "Talks with Great Composers" sparkles with wit, candor, humor, and the genius of the most cherished composers of all time.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Citadel (August 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806515651
• ISBN-13: 978-0806515656
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brahms blows me away, September 27, 2000

By 

Kenneth R. Sundberg (Sylva, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Talks With Great Composers (Paperback)

I have to give this little book very high marks. It taught me a lot. The prose can be stilted, it can be repetitive, and it was astonishing for me. I recommend it to anyone interested in the workings of great minds. I have no works with which to compare it, but one needs to start somewhere.

I want to honest about this. I was astonished when I read the Brahms interview. The prospect of a creative man, however great, consciously and deliberately asking God to speak through him to the man's audience floors me. Basically all of the composers whom Abell treats carried out the same or similar invocation, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. I was though.

I've given the book to others, and I've asked for their reactions to it. Remarkably, for me at least, no one else admitted to surprise on finding that Brahms speaks with the authority of the almighty Himself. That was a really cool revelation too,in it's own way. We must live in a world with a lot more mystic connections than a reprobate such as me appreciates. Many people in this second audience I created wished to dispute Brahms on his theology, but no one seemed surprised by his activities or reacted to them as a first response. I had to drag responses out of these individuals, and they gave them up with reluctance. Something really personal is going on here, and if you read this little book, you can get in on it.

I'm currently in a position to lead a discussion group at a university. For fun I'm going to speak on spirituality in teaching and in the classroom, and I'm going to try to do an end run around the syllabus and introduce the Brahms conversation from this little book. I'm sure it's going to be interesting, and I may come away from the event not only surprised but also a little better informed. Wish me luck.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be Skeptical of the Skeptics, April 3, 2011

By 

T. Berner (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Talks With Great Composers (Paperback)

The skeptics raise ligitimate questions about the accuracy of this work, but they are overwrought in their judgment. For the last 2000 years, almost all of the great artists have believed that their inspiration came from God. Why should they be so upset that Arthur Abell claims that Brahms was part of this tradition?

True, Brahms was very reticent about his religious beliefs and the Cambridge Companion to Brahms says that "most" Brahms scholars "question" the account solely because of that reticence, but Abell met Brahms near the end of his life and some people become garrulous as they sense the end coming. Also, Abell was introduced to Brahms by a very close friend which may have loosened him up a bit. What's more, the Cambridge Companion concludes that accounts of other composers in this book are correct. And Patrick Kavanaugh reaches the same conclusion as this book about Brahm's spirituality without relying on Abell, so there is plenty of material to suggest that Abell's account is accurate in its main premise.

Abell was a prominent music critic for more than 20 years and got to know many composeers very well. He wrote this book from memory many years after his conversations with these composers, with all the unreliability that creates. But that's different than fabrication.

This book is charming, instructive and covers more than the spiritual values of the composers. Puccini's account about his first meeting with Caruso is alone worth the price of the book.

One should be skeptical of everything one reads, but don't pass this one up.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Content excellent/forget hardcover edition, May 18, 2007

By 

Marlene Iser (Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Talks With Great Composers (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book, which I love to give to my personal and musical friends.The interviews are true and facinating with a unique insight to the composers creative inspiration. Stick with the soft cover the hard cover production is inferior. Not easy to find.