Ferruccio Busoni and the Ontology of the Musical Work: Permutations and Possibilities

Front Cover
Stanford University, 2010
Ferruccio Busoni's conception of the musical work derives from his multiple roles as performer, aesthetician, editor, composer, arranger, and intellectual. Drawing on unpublished scores, manuscripts, sketches and documents from the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, concert programs from a private collection in Berkeley, acoustic recordings, information about Busoni's intellectual interests gleaned from an auction catalogue featuring the contents of his extensive library, and the published aesthetic writings, letters, and compositions, the present study offers the first comprehensive account of Busoni's work concept. By establishing connections between his ideas and his musical practice, it explores and clarifies the reasoning behind his idiosyncratic compositional style, a style characterized by a blurring of boundaries between original and borrowed material. Polystylistic mixtures of the old and new and a distinctive performance style, in which Busoni creatively altered and embellished existing texts, exemplify his practice in an age in thrall to Werktreue, when originality of idea was prized above all else.
 

Contents

INTRODUCTION
1
CHAPTER
17
CHAPTER
19
1D
53
CHAPTER
102
J S BACH PRELUDE IN C MAJOR
133
SALUTARUM
146
VAR 5 MEASURES 112 ARRANGED
165
CHAPTER FOUR
279
TRANSCRIBED BY BUSONI FRAGMENT
335
CHAPTER FIVE
342
CHAPTER
347
BUSONI AND DOCTOR FAUST
405
CHAPTER SEVEN
471
BWV 668
490
EDITED BY BUSONI VAR 2
501

BACH
196
CHAPTER THREE
223
WALTHERGEISERFANTASIEI
542
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY
555

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