Review by Choice Review
Emerging out of Steinberg's careers as musicologist, music critic, and symphony program annotator, this volume is engaging to read and informed by superb, up-to-date scholarship and broad musical knowledge of live performances, recordings, study, and personal communication. Steinberg acknowledges he selected pieces according to his personal preferences, and this method results in the inclusion of one or more major choral works by each of 25 mainstream men composers--virtually all canonical pieces, most with orchestra and of long duration. Combining textual and musical exegesis and writing in a lively style, Steinberg brings these compositions vividly to life and includes quotations from contemporaneous documents. He offers scholarly insights without pretensions: documentation, given in footnotes or within the prose, does not intrude but offers sufficient information. Each entry is individually crafted and includes such information as historical background, compositional influences, biography, harmonic analysis, cultural context, reception, orchestration, and performance history. A short introduction, "Sacred Texts in a Secular World," is a bonus and recommended to all who encounter music with text. Although written chiefly for choristers and those who enjoy listening to choral work, this volume also assembles important material for conductors and practicing musicians. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. J. M. Edwards emerita, Macalester College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Steinberg, program annotator for the San Francisco, Boston, and New York Philharmonic orchestras, describes some 50 works for accompanied chorus. For each, he begins with the composer's statistics, continues to the voices and instruments in the piece, sketches its genesis and first performances and how it fits into its creator's compositional history, and leads the reader through its sections, noting what to listen for. The big boys--Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, and Stravinsky--are represented by their major works, but the less-well-known likes of John Adams' Harmonium0 , based on poems by Donne and Dickinson; Luigi Dallapicola's Canti di prigionia0 , settings of writings from prison by Mary Queen of Scots, Boethius, and Savonarola;\b \b0 and Arthur Honegger's Le Roi David0 , the story of David and Saul, also appear. Steinberg's most personal essay is on Sir Michael Tippett's oratorio A Child of Our Time0 , whose genesis lies in the infamous Kristallnacht of 1938, and whose structure is based on Handel's Messiah0 . Well-written, concise introductions that record collectors, concertgoers, and chorus members alike should enjoy. --Alan Hirsch Copyright 2005 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
In this third entry of his "Listener's Guides" series (after The Symphony and The Concerto), Steinberg turns to a musical form that may seem less familiar in comparison but that 20 million Americans practice on a regular basis. Discussed here are the choral masterworks of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, as well as those of Luigi Cherubini, Luigi Dallapiccola, and Charles Wuorinen. For each of the 28 pieces, the author includes information on its first performance and vocalists/orchestration; a description that both the layperson and the musician who knows these works well will find accessible and satisfying; and a discussion of its genesis, musical analysis, and a cultural history, which together serve as an overview of the music and its place in the canon of Western music. Numerous footnotes contribute greatly to the text. Another nice feature is the opening essay, "Sacred Texts in a Secular World: A Word to Nonbelievers-and Believers," which explores the religious nature of most Western choral music and its meaning for listeners today. The only fault is that many masterworks are left out. Still, this is ostensibly the first listener's guide to choral music-and an informed and enjoyable one at that. Recommended for all libraries.-Bruce R. Schueneman, Texas A&M Univ. Lib., Kingsville (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
