Singing Archaeology : Philip Glass's Akhnaten, Paperback by Richardson, John,...

Description: Singing Archaeology : Philip Glass's Akhnaten, Paperback by Richardson, John, ISBN 0819563420, ISBN-13 9780819563422, Brand New, Free shipping in the US Illuminates the aesthetics of a major American composer.

While Philip Glasss operas, film scores, symphonies, and popular works have made him Americas best-known classical composer, almost no analysis of his compositional techniques grounded in current cultural theory has yet been published. John Richardsons in-depth examination shows how the third opera of Glasss famous trilogy, the story of an adrogynous monarch who authored radical social and religious reforms, encapsulates Glasss ideational orientation at the time, both in terms of his unique conception of music theater and with regard to broader social questions. Glasss nontraditional musical syntax, his experimental, minimalist approach, and his highly ambiguous tonality have resisted interpretation, but Richardson overcomes those difficulties by developing new theoretical models through which to analyze both the work and its genesis.

In Akhnaten, Richardson says, the composers concepts of sound and dramatic context, cultural theory, and gender construction intersect, providing perhaps the best demonstration of "the very nature of Glasss aesthetic, which places a strong emphasis on implicit levels of signification and steers clear of conventional story telling narrative strategies." Careful explanations of theory and compositional strategies, close readings of the work itself, consideration of the collaborative aspects of the operas evolution, and incorporation of previously unpublished interviews with Glass himself combine to illuminate both a landmark work of contemporary musical theater and a dominant figure on the American musical landscape.

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End Time: 2024-12-01T03:06:33.000Z

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