| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £3.30
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £3.30, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
(T)he author's style is very easy indeed, informal and communicative. RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS SOCIETY JOURNALThe book is very well researched and immensely informative. (...) From reading this particular biography, there is also the wish to read more by Diana McVeagh. THE ELGAR SOCIETY JOURNAL McVeagh's analyses unfailingly draw the reader's attention to the melodic and harmonic subtleties of Finzi's writing. At her best, as in a beautiful passage on Finzi and Hardy, she sings with a lyricism that matches Finzi's own. This book comes as a timely reminder that there should be a place for the finely wrought music of a minor master. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (Richard Lawrence)This has been long in preparation, but the wait has been worthwhile. Lucky the composer who finds so fair-minded, candid and scrupulous a biographer and one who writes so well...(McVeagh's) analyses achieve the rare distinction of being both illuminating and readable. This is one of the best-written books about a musician to appear for many years. BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE (Michael Kennedy) McVeagh surely loves Finzi's music and it shows. However her devotion is clear-eyed and her writing completely avoids the sort of pastoral hagiography that Finzi scholarship can easily collapse into. The book is self-recommending but that does not stop me recommending it. - CLASSICAL MUSIC ON THE WEB (This) is unquestionably destined to be the standard biography of Gerald Finzi. - RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS SOCIETY JOURNAL (Rolf Jordan) (Now) we have McVeagh at last, so good and so well written that those who already possess...other books must have it, not only to complement them but for the sheer pleasure afforded by such a winning combination of scholarship, insight and clear-eyed humanity.. their belief will be reinforced and intensified by Miss McVeagh's candour and her remarkable achievement in writing not only a good biography but in re-creating the atmosphere of English musical life in the half-century of Finzi's life. FINZI NEWSLETTERWith clear-eyed affection for her subject, McVeagh relates Finzi's poignant history with clarity of design that does not preclude empathy, and never allows herself the luxury of letting him off lightly over either musical or personal foibles...(a) lovely, warm and elegiac book. MUSIC & LETTERS (Byron Adams)
CLASSICAL MUSIC ON THE WEB
The book is self-recommending but that does not stop me recommending it.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Graceful work captures composer's heart and mind
15 Dec 2009
Format:Hardcover
This is a detailed, chronological account of Finzi. Important episodes in his life are punctuated by discrete sections that provide analysis of concurrent musical works. Finzi is shown as a man who loved poetry and music (he had significant collections of each) and whose entire life was devoted to what he felt was his role as an artist in modern society. He comes off as a bit cold and critical, dismissive of those who didn't evince creativity, but endlessly giving of time and attention to his fellow musicians, especially composers. As a reader who knew very little about the world of music in mid-20th-century England, I rather enjoyed being plunged into the company of those who lived for discussion, ideas, and performance. Yet Finzi's world, his rural cottage life, and his devotion to works of long-dead artists seem utterly disconnected from the world of popular culture around him. After all, this was the ago of Big Bands and Jazz. But it appears that nothing in the popular taste had an impact on Finzi and his coterie. In fact, very little in the "outside" world seems to matter, except of course World War II, which found Finzi clerking in London and not terribly productive musically. The author pauses now and again to offer a discourse into Finzi's way of approaching work, and his attitudes toward art. The portraits of his companions, and especially his wife, Joy, suggest what was likable about Finzi and never intrude greatly on the narrative. Musicologists will appreciate the extended musical analyses. Much of this was over my head, so I read and skipped along in these parts and didn't worry so much about whether I fully underestood them. I was after a portrait of the man and his times, and while I can't say Finzi led a dramatic life, his life is certainly one of intense dedication and integrity with regard to his work, and in that sense has much to recommend it. The long labors of the author are obvious in this at times fascinating account.
Good information useful to Music community
21 Oct 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This "Life and Music" title is a good addition to any Music Library. There is a need to understand Gerald Finzi's contribution to this period in musical growth.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
