Peter Laki - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Peter Laki
Notes, 2012
Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers. By Balint Andras Varga. (Eastman Studies in Music.) Roc... more Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers. By Balint Andras Varga. (Eastman Studies in Music.) Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2011. [xiv, 333p. ISBN 9781580463799. $49.95.] Illustrations, index. Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers has been almost thirty years in the making. The author, Balint Andras Varga, spent his entire career promoting the music of contemporary composers, first at Editio Musica Budapest, and later at Universal in Vienna. His work brought him into contact with many of the most prominent composers of the last half-century. Although not a trained musicologist, his devotion to music, his keen ear and intelligence, as well as his flawless command of the English language have made him one of the most sensitive and successful advocates for new music in recent times. His book-length conversations with Witold Lutoslawski, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis and Gyorgy Kurtag (Witold Lutoslawski [London: Chester Music, 1976]; Luciano Berio: Two Interviews [London: Boyars, 1985]; Conversations with Iannis Xenakis [London: Faber & Faber, 1996]; Gyorgy Kurtag: Three Interviews and Ligeti Homages [Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2009]) are models of insight and empathy. The present project- putting the same three questions to as many composers as possible-has occupied him since the early 1980s, and the first version of the volume under review was published in Hungarian exactly a quarter of a century ago. At that time, 82 composers were included; in the American edition, Varga eliminated 21 of these and added 4 new ones, arriving at a new total of 65. Prior to the publication of the book's new incarnation, Varga gave his interviewees a chance to revise or update their answers, and quite a few of them availed themselves of the opportunity. The result is a fascinating panorama of many issues central to music in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and a testament to the wide range of aesthetic positions held by composers today. (Gyorgy Kurtag's answers to the three questions were already included in the Kurtag interview book referenced above.) The questions have to do, respectively, with any particular pieces of music that changed the composers' creative lives; their responsiveness to sounds of the everyday environment; and their views on personal style versus self-repetition. They are excellent questions, sufficiently focused to give the book its thematic unity, yet broad enough to allow the composers to discuss their music on their own terms. The answers vary widely not only in their content but also in their length and depth. Some composers provided very brief, oneparagraph responses while others contributed many pages. Some, with whom Varga has enjoyed a closer professional contact, are obviously more comfortable with the interviewer than others. The author describes his connections to the composers in introductory paragraphs inserted before each interview; here we may learn how the meetings came about. Varga also offers thumbnail sketches of his impressions of composers' personalities, freely admitting if he was unable to get close to a certain composer, either personally or musically. Out of the 65 composers, 10 are from Varga's native Hungary, and 10 from the United States; the remaining 45 represent 14 more countries. There is only one woman-Sofia Gubaidulina-among the 65. A full 40%, or 26 composers, have passed away since the interviews were made, which gives the volume a certain retrospective character. (Milton Babbitt and Emil Petrovics died since the book was published.) Chronologically, the interviewees represent the entire span of the twentieth and the early twenty-first century: the oldest composer in the volume is Wladimir Vogel, born in 1896; the youngest, Johannes Maria Staud, born in 1974. …
Notes, Sep 1, 1992
Zoltan Kodaly's first published work, the chorus Este (Evening), was written in 1904, the yea... more Zoltan Kodaly's first published work, the chorus Este (Evening), was written in 1904, the year in which the composer graduated from Hans Koessler's class at the Budapest Academy of Music.' It was written in a highly personal idiom that already contained many of the stylistic features characteristic of the mature Kodaly; in it the twenty-two-year-old composer had definitely moved far beyond the student stage. It is wellknown that Este was preceded by other compositions; however, our knowledge of Kodaily's earlier music is extremely scarce. We know that an overture was performed by the orchestra of Kodaly's high school in the North Hungarian town of Nagyszombat (now Trnava, Czechoslovakia) in 1898.2 The next year, Kodaily and two colleagues played his string trio in a school concert. In addition to these early compositions, the various Kodaly work lists3 contain several titles dating from the years before 1904, but very few of these works have been treated in the literature;4 many are apparently lost, and only a few have been published to date.5 In his conversations with Lutz Besch in 1964, Kodaly commented on the two pieces performed in Nagyszombat, describing their style as hav-
Notes, 1992
Zoltan Kodaly's first published work, the chorus Este (Evening), was written in 1904, the yea... more Zoltan Kodaly's first published work, the chorus Este (Evening), was written in 1904, the year in which the composer graduated from Hans Koessler's class at the Budapest Academy of Music.' It was written in a highly personal idiom that already contained many of the stylistic features characteristic of the mature Kodaly; in it the twenty-two-year-old composer had definitely moved far beyond the student stage. It is wellknown that Este was preceded by other compositions; however, our knowledge of Kodaily's earlier music is extremely scarce. We know that an overture was performed by the orchestra of Kodaly's high school in the North Hungarian town of Nagyszombat (now Trnava, Czechoslovakia) in 1898.2 The next year, Kodaily and two colleagues played his string trio in a school concert. In addition to these early compositions, the various Kodaly work lists3 contain several titles dating from the years before 1904, but very few of these works have been treated in the literature;4 many are apparently lost, and only a few have been published to date.5 In his conversations with Lutz Besch in 1964, Kodaly commented on the two pieces performed in Nagyszombat, describing their style as hav-
In Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue, Gon... more In Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue, Goncz probes the philosophic-theological background of The Art of Fugue, revealing the special structures that supported the 1993 reconstruction. Bach's Testament investigates the reconstruction's metaphysical dimensions, focusing on the quadruple fugue. As a summary of Zoltan Goncz's extensive research over many years, which resulted in the completion of the fugue, this work explores the complex combinatorial, philosophical and theological considerations that inform its structure. Bach's Testament is ideally suited not only to Bach scholars and musicologists but also intellectual historians with particular interests in 18th-century religious and philosophical ideas.
Oxford Music Online, 2001
Music, 2021
Béla Bartók (b. 1881–d. 1945) was one of the most influential musical figures of the 20th century... more Béla Bartók (b. 1881–d. 1945) was one of the most influential musical figures of the 20th century, particularly from outside the historic musical centers of Germany, France, and Italy. Now remembered principally as a composer, he was also an international concert pianist, teacher of piano, and pioneer in folk music research. Bartók was born and educated in the provincial periphery of late-19th-century Hungary; when he was admitted to institutions in both Vienna and Budapest for his advanced education, he made the fateful decision to enroll in Budapest’s Royal Academy of Music. In 1907 he joined its piano faculty, continuing until 1934, when he transferred to a full-time position doing folk music research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He performed his works widely, especially during the interwar period, though after 1934 his performances in Germany ceased, in part due to his refusal to certify his Aryan origins. As Bartók grew uneasy about Hungary’s alliance with the Third Re...
Choice Reviews Online, 1996
... Conversely, Bartok never lost his desire to influ-ence the course of politics and culture in ... more ... Conversely, Bartok never lost his desire to influ-ence the course of politics and culture in his native land. The sources of his unique contribution to modernism lie in the special circum-stances of the early twentieth-century Hungarian context. ...
Atti Del Xiv Congresso Della Societa Internazionale Di Musicologia Trasmissione E Recezione Delle Forme Di Culture Musicale Vol 3 1990 Isbn 88 7063 070 6 Pags 905 914, 1990
Notes Quarterly Journal of the Music Library, 2002
Notes, 2012
Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers. By Balint Andras Varga. (Eastman Studies in Music.) Roc... more Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers. By Balint Andras Varga. (Eastman Studies in Music.) Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2011. [xiv, 333p. ISBN 9781580463799. $49.95.] Illustrations, index. Three Questions for Sixty-Five Composers has been almost thirty years in the making. The author, Balint Andras Varga, spent his entire career promoting the music of contemporary composers, first at Editio Musica Budapest, and later at Universal in Vienna. His work brought him into contact with many of the most prominent composers of the last half-century. Although not a trained musicologist, his devotion to music, his keen ear and intelligence, as well as his flawless command of the English language have made him one of the most sensitive and successful advocates for new music in recent times. His book-length conversations with Witold Lutoslawski, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis and Gyorgy Kurtag (Witold Lutoslawski [London: Chester Music, 1976]; Luciano Berio: Two Interviews [London: Boyars, 1985]; Conversations with Iannis Xenakis [London: Faber & Faber, 1996]; Gyorgy Kurtag: Three Interviews and Ligeti Homages [Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2009]) are models of insight and empathy. The present project- putting the same three questions to as many composers as possible-has occupied him since the early 1980s, and the first version of the volume under review was published in Hungarian exactly a quarter of a century ago. At that time, 82 composers were included; in the American edition, Varga eliminated 21 of these and added 4 new ones, arriving at a new total of 65. Prior to the publication of the book's new incarnation, Varga gave his interviewees a chance to revise or update their answers, and quite a few of them availed themselves of the opportunity. The result is a fascinating panorama of many issues central to music in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and a testament to the wide range of aesthetic positions held by composers today. (Gyorgy Kurtag's answers to the three questions were already included in the Kurtag interview book referenced above.) The questions have to do, respectively, with any particular pieces of music that changed the composers' creative lives; their responsiveness to sounds of the everyday environment; and their views on personal style versus self-repetition. They are excellent questions, sufficiently focused to give the book its thematic unity, yet broad enough to allow the composers to discuss their music on their own terms. The answers vary widely not only in their content but also in their length and depth. Some composers provided very brief, oneparagraph responses while others contributed many pages. Some, with whom Varga has enjoyed a closer professional contact, are obviously more comfortable with the interviewer than others. The author describes his connections to the composers in introductory paragraphs inserted before each interview; here we may learn how the meetings came about. Varga also offers thumbnail sketches of his impressions of composers' personalities, freely admitting if he was unable to get close to a certain composer, either personally or musically. Out of the 65 composers, 10 are from Varga's native Hungary, and 10 from the United States; the remaining 45 represent 14 more countries. There is only one woman-Sofia Gubaidulina-among the 65. A full 40%, or 26 composers, have passed away since the interviews were made, which gives the volume a certain retrospective character. (Milton Babbitt and Emil Petrovics died since the book was published.) Chronologically, the interviewees represent the entire span of the twentieth and the early twenty-first century: the oldest composer in the volume is Wladimir Vogel, born in 1896; the youngest, Johannes Maria Staud, born in 1974. …
Notes, Sep 1, 1992
Zoltan Kodaly's first published work, the chorus Este (Evening), was written in 1904, the yea... more Zoltan Kodaly's first published work, the chorus Este (Evening), was written in 1904, the year in which the composer graduated from Hans Koessler's class at the Budapest Academy of Music.' It was written in a highly personal idiom that already contained many of the stylistic features characteristic of the mature Kodaly; in it the twenty-two-year-old composer had definitely moved far beyond the student stage. It is wellknown that Este was preceded by other compositions; however, our knowledge of Kodaily's earlier music is extremely scarce. We know that an overture was performed by the orchestra of Kodaly's high school in the North Hungarian town of Nagyszombat (now Trnava, Czechoslovakia) in 1898.2 The next year, Kodaily and two colleagues played his string trio in a school concert. In addition to these early compositions, the various Kodaly work lists3 contain several titles dating from the years before 1904, but very few of these works have been treated in the literature;4 many are apparently lost, and only a few have been published to date.5 In his conversations with Lutz Besch in 1964, Kodaly commented on the two pieces performed in Nagyszombat, describing their style as hav-
Notes, 1992
Zoltan Kodaly's first published work, the chorus Este (Evening), was written in 1904, the yea... more Zoltan Kodaly's first published work, the chorus Este (Evening), was written in 1904, the year in which the composer graduated from Hans Koessler's class at the Budapest Academy of Music.' It was written in a highly personal idiom that already contained many of the stylistic features characteristic of the mature Kodaly; in it the twenty-two-year-old composer had definitely moved far beyond the student stage. It is wellknown that Este was preceded by other compositions; however, our knowledge of Kodaily's earlier music is extremely scarce. We know that an overture was performed by the orchestra of Kodaly's high school in the North Hungarian town of Nagyszombat (now Trnava, Czechoslovakia) in 1898.2 The next year, Kodaily and two colleagues played his string trio in a school concert. In addition to these early compositions, the various Kodaly work lists3 contain several titles dating from the years before 1904, but very few of these works have been treated in the literature;4 many are apparently lost, and only a few have been published to date.5 In his conversations with Lutz Besch in 1964, Kodaly commented on the two pieces performed in Nagyszombat, describing their style as hav-
In Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue, Gon... more In Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological Background of The Art of Fugue, Goncz probes the philosophic-theological background of The Art of Fugue, revealing the special structures that supported the 1993 reconstruction. Bach's Testament investigates the reconstruction's metaphysical dimensions, focusing on the quadruple fugue. As a summary of Zoltan Goncz's extensive research over many years, which resulted in the completion of the fugue, this work explores the complex combinatorial, philosophical and theological considerations that inform its structure. Bach's Testament is ideally suited not only to Bach scholars and musicologists but also intellectual historians with particular interests in 18th-century religious and philosophical ideas.
Oxford Music Online, 2001
Music, 2021
Béla Bartók (b. 1881–d. 1945) was one of the most influential musical figures of the 20th century... more Béla Bartók (b. 1881–d. 1945) was one of the most influential musical figures of the 20th century, particularly from outside the historic musical centers of Germany, France, and Italy. Now remembered principally as a composer, he was also an international concert pianist, teacher of piano, and pioneer in folk music research. Bartók was born and educated in the provincial periphery of late-19th-century Hungary; when he was admitted to institutions in both Vienna and Budapest for his advanced education, he made the fateful decision to enroll in Budapest’s Royal Academy of Music. In 1907 he joined its piano faculty, continuing until 1934, when he transferred to a full-time position doing folk music research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He performed his works widely, especially during the interwar period, though after 1934 his performances in Germany ceased, in part due to his refusal to certify his Aryan origins. As Bartók grew uneasy about Hungary’s alliance with the Third Re...
Choice Reviews Online, 1996
... Conversely, Bartok never lost his desire to influ-ence the course of politics and culture in ... more ... Conversely, Bartok never lost his desire to influ-ence the course of politics and culture in his native land. The sources of his unique contribution to modernism lie in the special circum-stances of the early twentieth-century Hungarian context. ...
Atti Del Xiv Congresso Della Societa Internazionale Di Musicologia Trasmissione E Recezione Delle Forme Di Culture Musicale Vol 3 1990 Isbn 88 7063 070 6 Pags 905 914, 1990
Notes Quarterly Journal of the Music Library, 2002