Masters of the Keyboard: Individual Style Elements in the Piano Music of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, and Brahms

Masters of the Keyboard: Individual Style Elements in the Piano Music of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, and Brahms. Enlarged Edition.

Konrad Wolff characterizes in detail the personal musical language of the great masters of the piano, pursuing different unes of investigation to discover each composer's essential traits. Thus, in the longest chapter in the book, he approaches Bach from the "old-fashioned premise that he was the father of music." The following, brief yet insightful, chapter is devoted mainly to Haydn's sonatas. Wolfffinds in Mozart's idiom an unmistakable desire to create unity and an intuition for drama. The brilliant chapter on Beethoven draws analogies between the master's personal phi- losophy of individualism and independence and his style of composition. Wolffsees in Schubert's writing for the piano the influence of his chamber music and his songs. Two new chapters, added for this enlarged edition, explore the works of two masters of the Romantic period. According to Wolff, Chopin's piano compositions at times uncannily evoke vocal and instrumental, even orchestral, sounds; and although Brahms was "a true conservative," he anticipated many features of twentieth-century music in his later works. Konrad Wolff brings the accumulated wisiom of his long career as pianist and teacher to this delineation ofcompositional styles. He expresses his cogent observations in writing as eloquent as the music he describes.

CONTENIDO:

Preface to the Enlarged Edition
Preface

Bach
Haydn
Mozart
Beethoven
Schubert
Chopin
Brahms
Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index