Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons

Rating:
Summary: From a composer's perspective....
Review: As a composer of over 250 classical and jazz works, I can't stress enough how important "Poetics of Music" was to me in my musical development. I read this book from a composer's perspective with hopes that I could get into the mind of this great composer. From "Poetics of Music" I learned that inspiration is never contrived and always accidental. Stravinsky said that a composer "improvises aimlessly" the way an animal grubs for food. Both seek personal satisfaction. He said this in the context of the "rules of music", making it clear that there really are no rules in musical composition. All that drives us in our art is that need to find our musical satisfaction.

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Summary: Essential Stravinsky
Review: No student or lover of Stravinsky's music should be without this book. It is a rare opportunity to see into his thought processes, and it makes one realise just how much music meant to him- that he sought to serve it by understanding it as deeply as he could.

In communicating this understanding, Stravinsky makes for an engaging, if somewhat challenging, read. The book is a transcript of six lectures given by the composer to French students, and the translators have seen fit to cast his words into a large quantity of "verbal Victoriana." If at times it seems boring, it is all due to that style of language. Apart from that, it is an excellent account on the part of a man who (for all his known self-contradictions) clearly used his heart as well as his hands and his head.

For students of Stravinsky, this book is essential. As a record of his personality and thought processes, it takes some beating.

Rating:
Summary: recommended
Review: Stravinsky was an engaging writer and thinker as well as a great composer. Here he discusses aesthetics and defends his music. (I also recommend PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.)

Rating:
Summary: Interesting book
Review: This is an interesting book, especially during his discussions of his music and compositional aesthetic. I also found enlightening his opinions of Wagner and Berlioz (not good), and his chapter on the typology of music.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting book
Review: This is an interesting book, especially during his discussions of his music and compositional aesthetic. I also found enlightening his opinions of Wagner and Berlioz (not good), and his chapter on the typology of music.