Simeone, Nigel 1956-

The Leonard Bernstein letters by Leonard Bernstein( )

17 editions published between 2013 and 2019 in English and Italian and held by 1,830 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

"Leonard Bernstein was a charismatic and versatile musician-a brilliant conductor who attained international super-star status, and a gifted composer of Broadway musicals (West Side Story), symphonies (Age of Anxiety), choral works (Chichester Psalms), film scores (On the Waterfront), and much more. Bernstein was also an enthusiastic letter writer, and this book is the first to present a wide-ranging selection of his correspondence. The letters have been selected for the insights they offer into the passions of his life-musical and personal-and the extravagant scope of his musical and extra-musical activities. Bernstein's letters tell much about this complex man, his collaborators, his mentors, and others close to him. His galaxy of correspondents encompassed, among others, Aaron Copland, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Thornton Wilder, Boris Pasternak, Bette Davis, Adolph Green, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and family members including his wife Felicia and his sister Shirley. The majority of these letters have never been published before. They have been carefully chosen to demonstrate the breadth of Bernstein's musical interests, his constant struggle to find the time to compose, his turbulent and complex sexuality, his political activities, and his endless capacity for hard work. Beyond all this, these writings provide a glimpse of the man behind the legends: his humanity, warmth, volatility, intellectual brilliance, wonderful eye for descriptive detail, and humor"--

Messiaen by Peter Hill( Book )

11 editions published between 2005 and 2007 in 3 languages and held by 910 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

"The French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-92) is a musician about whom most remains to be discovered. More than a decade after his death our knowledge of Messiaen is largely conditioned by what he said about himself - in lectures and interviews, in his work as a teacher, and in the monumental seven-volume treatise that encompassed the whole of his composing world. But Messiaen's public documents conceal as much as they reveal, seldom explaining why a work was written, or what complexities went into its making. Almost nothing has been known about Messiaen's working practices. Indeed, the composer became fanatically secretive about any work in progress, and was similarly reticent about his private life

Leonard Bernstein, West Side story by Nigel Simeone( Book )

16 editions published between 2009 and 2017 in English and held by 486 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

One of the Broadway musicals that can genuinely claim to have transformed the genre, West Side Story has been featured in many books on Broadway, but it has yet to be the focus of a scholarly monograph. Nigel Simeone begins by exploring the long process of creating West Side Story, including a discussion of Bernstein's sketches, early drafts of the score and script, as well as cut songs. The core of the book is a commentary on the music itself. West Side Story is one of the very few Broadway musicals for which there is a complete published orchestral score, as well as two different editions of the piano-vocal score. The survival of the original copied orchestral score, and the reminiscences of Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, reveal details of the orchestration process, and the extent to which Bernstein was involved in this. Simeone's commentary considers: musical characteristics and compositional techniques used to mirror the drama (for example, the various uses of the tritone), motivic development, the use and reinvention of Broadway and other conventions, the creation of dramatic continuity in the score through the use of motifs and other devices, the unusual degree of dissonance and rhythmic complexity (at least for the time), and the integration of Latin-American dance forms (Mambo, Huapango and so on). Simeone also considers the reception of West Side Story in the contemporary press. The stir the show caused included the response that it was the angular, edgy score that made it a remarkable achievement. Not all reviews were uncritical. Finally, the book looks in detail at the making of the original Broadway cast recording, made in just one day, included on the accompanying CD [Publisher description]

Olivier Messiaen : music, art, and literature by Christopher Philip Dingle( Book )

14 editions published between 2007 and 2017 in English and held by 456 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

This collection of essays has its foundation in the Messiaen 2002 International Conference in Sheffield. However, this is not a set of conference proceedings. Rather, the book gathers some of the best recent scholarship on the composer, filling substantial gaps in the literature and reassessing his legacy

Charles Mackerras by Nigel Simeone( )

8 editions published in 2015 in English and held by 443 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

"By the time of his death in 2010 at the age of 84, Sir Charles Mackerras had achieved widespread recognition, recorded extensively and developed into a conductor of major international significance. In addition to areas in which he already had forged a distinctive and definitive profile (Janáček, Mozart, Handel, Sullivan) he revisited - and rethought - much of the standard repertoire. The last thirty years were particularly momentous in the coming to fruition of so many cherished projects: not only the Janáček operas but the Gilbert and Sullivan series, the Mozart operas, the two Beethoven cycles, other projects with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Schumann and Brahms at Edinburgh; the outstanding late Mozart) and at the Royal Opera House and the Met. Unspoilt by fame, and undeterred by personal tragedies and increasing physical frailty, he remained productive and inventive: for him music-making, whether with world-class professionals or with students, was a kind of joyous oxygen that kept him going right to the end. A detailed narrative account of his life is complemented by chapters written by performers and scholars who worked closely with Mackerras: as well as interviews with his family. The book is richly illustrated with photographs and documents, and it includes a comprehensive discography along with listings of many of his concert and opera performances. While Sir Charles' whole life is considered, emphasis is given to his final quarter century, a period in which so many important projects were realized. This book celebrates and epitomizes an exceptional life."--Jacket

Janáček's works : a catalogue of the music and writings of Leoš Janáček by Nigel Simeone( Book )

14 editions published in 1997 in English and held by 385 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Paris--a musical gazetteer by Nigel Simeone( Book )

6 editions published in 2000 in English and held by 340 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

This guidebook explores the historic musical landmarks in Paris

Olivier Messiaen, Oiseaux exotiques by Peter Hill( Book )

11 editions published in 2007 in English and held by 308 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

What makes Oiseaux exotiques so important is that it is arguably the first of Messiaen's major works to create a successful synthesis between his music and his passion for ornithology. The earliest composition to use birdsong to a significant extent was the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (1940-41). A newspaper interview a few years later (France-Soir, 1948) demonstrates Messiaen's growing desire to move away from the stylization that had characterized the Quatuor towards a much greater realism, based on a close observation of birds in their natural habitat. At the same time, Messiaen continued to regard birdsong as music--and divinely inspired music at that--a belief that led for a time to an obsession with truth-to-nature. Against this background, Oiseaux exotiques proves to be a landmark, the work in which Messiaen the musician began to regain the upper hand over Messiaen the ornithologist. The introductory chapter (Chapter 1) outlines the background to Oiseaux exotiques, discussing Messiaen's relations with the 1950s avant garde--in particular with his former pupil Pierre Boulez--and his involvement with the concerts of the Domaine musical, for which Oiseaux exotiques was composed. In Chapter 2, access to Messiaen's sketches enables the authors to analyse his compositional methods in unprecedented detail; a generous number of music examples refer to birdsong recordings actually used by Messiaen (which can be heard on the accompanying CD), and trace step-by-step the evolution of musical ideas from first notation to finished score. Chapter 3 provides a commentary on the music, investigating issues of continuity and texture, and revealing the processes underlying the score's dazzling profusion. In two further chapters Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone recount the reception history of Oiseaux exotiques, and compare recorded interpretations, taking as their point of departure the historic premiere, included in full on the CD. Finally, the Conclusion considers the implications of Oiseaux exotiques for the composer's subsequent music, from the Catalogue d'oiseaux (1956-58) to the later masterpieces of Messiaen's style oiseau. [Publisher description]

The Janáček compendium by Nigel Simeone( )

10 editions published in 2019 in English and Undetermined and held by 223 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

One of the greatest and most original composers of the early twentieth century, Leos Janacek (1854-1928) occupied a pre-eminent position in Moravian culture, not only as a composer but also as a folksong collector, journalist, educator and nationalist. His friends and associates included artists, writers, ethnographers and politicians, as well as conductors, singers and instrumentalists. Janacek's many pupils included the conductor Bretislav Bakala and the composer Pavel Haas. He had important associations with publishers in Vienna and Prague and with the earliest years of Czech Radio. Janacek was strongly attached to particular places - Hukvaldy, Brno, Luhacovice - and had professional links with Prague, Berlin, London and beyond. The Janacek Compendium includes nearly 300 entries on every aspect of Janacek's life and works, with detailed notes on all his significant compositions - above all the operas - providing the latest information to emerge about some of his most famous pieces. An extensive bibliography supports the entries, which are cross-referenced to enable wider exploration of particular topics

Oliver Messiaen : a bibliographical catalogue of Messiaen's works : first editions and first performances, with illustrations of the title pages, programmes, and documents by Nigel Simeone( Book )

11 editions published in 1998 in 3 languages and held by 197 WorldCat member libraries worldwide