Opera Study Guide Der FREISCHUTZ (the Free-Shooter)


Book Description

A comprehensive study guide for Carl Maria on Weber's DER FREISCHUTZ, a Singspiel featuring Principal Characters,Brief Story Synopsis, Story Narrative with Music Highlight Examples, a new Libretto translation with German-English side-by-side, and Burton D. Fisher's insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis.




Carl Maria von Weber and the Search for a German Opera


Book Description

Stephen C. Meyer details the intricate relationships between the operas Der FreischÃ1⁄4tz and Euryanthe, and contemporary discourse on both the "Germany of the imagination" and the new nation itself. In so doing, he presents excerpts from a wide range of philosophical, political, and musical writings, many of which are little known and otherwise unavailable in English. Individual chapters trace the multidimensional concept of German and "foreign" opera through the 19th century. Meyer's study of Der FreischÃ1⁄4tz places the work within the context of emerging German nationalism, and a chapter on Euryanthe addresses the opera's stylistic and topical shifts in light of changing cultural and aesthetic circumstances. As a result, Meyer argues that the search for a new German opera was not merely an aesthetic movement, but a political and social critique as well.




Adult Piano Adventures - Classics, Book 1


Book Description

(Faber Piano Adventures ). Adult Piano Adventures Classics Book 1 celebrates great masterworks of Western music, including symphony themes, opera gems, and classical favorites. The melodies of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and other master composers are arranged at just the right level for adult beginners and for those who are returning to the keyboard. Section 1 features piano arrangements with minimal hand position changes, and many selections include an optional duet part. Section 2 introduces the I, IV, and V7 chords in the key of C major, harmonizing themes such as Sibelius's Finlandia, Schubert's The Trout, and Mendelssohn's Spring Song. Section 3 presents the primary chords in the key of G major, with arrangements of Vivaldi's Autumn (from The Four Seasons), Mozart's theme from The Magic Flute, Lizst's Liebestraum, and more.




Weber's Der Freischütz


Book Description

A comprehensive guide to Weber's DER FREISCH TZ, featuring Principal Characters in the opera, Brief Story Synopsis, Story Narrative with Music Highlight Examples, and an insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis by Burton D. Fisher, noted opera author and lecturer."




Carl Maria von Weber


Book Description

The first edition of John Warrack's study of Weber was published in 1968 and quickly became recognized as the standard 'life and works' - indeed the best book on Weber in any language. The second edition was produced in 1976 to mark the 150th anniversary of Weber's death in London, and is reissued here. John Warrack's study gives a detailed account of the life in which the music is discussed (with analysis and music examples) in chronological order. It is a scholarly study based on first-hand research in German and other archives, but it is also elegantly written, and fully alive to general cultural and historical implications. It is a book for the music-lover as well as the scholar. This second edition contains a new concluding chapter, an important select bibliography of over 100 entries, and a useful family tree which was not in the first edition.




Adagio and Rondo


Book Description

A Cello solo with Piano Accompaniment composed by Carl Maria von Weber and arranged by Gregor Piatigorsky.




Corresponding with Carlos


Book Description

Carlos Kleiber (1930-2004) was the greatest conductor of his generation. His reputation is legendary, and yet astonishingly-during five decades on the podium-he conducted only 89 concerts and some 600 opera performance, and produced 12 recordings. How did someone who worked so little compared to his peers achieve so much? Between his relatively small output and well-known aversion to publicity, many came to regard Kleiber as reclusive and remote, bordering on unapproachable. But in 1989 a conducting student at Stanford University wrote him a letter, and an unusual thing occurred: the world-renowned conductor replied. And so began a 15-year correspondence, study, and friendship by mail. Drawing heavily on this decade-and-a-half exchange, Corresponding with Carlos is the first English-language biography of Kleiber. Based on their long and detailed correspondence, Charles Barber offers unique insights into how Kleiber worked. This examination of one friend by another considers, among other matters, Kleiber's singular aesthetic, his playful and often erudite sense of humor, his reputation for perfectionism, his much-studied baton technique, and the famous concert and opera performances he conducted. Comic and compelling, Corresponding with Carlos explores the great conductor's musical lineage and the contemporary contexts in which he worked. It repudiates the myths that inevitably surround his genius and reflects on Kleiber's contribution to modern musical performance. This biography is ideal for musicians, scholars, and anyone with a special love of the great classical music tradition. Book jacket.




Experiencing Carl Maria von Weber


Book Description

Scholars have long recognized Carl Maria von Weber as the father of the German Romantic and Nationalist music. The success of his opera Der Freischütz almost single handedly brought German operatic style onto the world stage, competing with and challenging established operatic traditions in France and Italy. Indeed the overtures to his last three operas, Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, and Oberon initiated the genre of the concert overture and are a part of the standard repertoire for most modern symphony orchestras. His works in other genres, including his various concerti and chamber works also stand as centerpieces in the modern concert hall. In Experiencing Carl Maria von Weber: A Listener's Companion, Joseph Morgan walks readers through the many masterpieces that comprise Weber's oeuvre, providing key insights by integrating critical points in the composer's life with the burgeoning Romantic and Nationalist movements in Germany that Weber's music came to champion. Morgan brings to life the musical character of Weber's most important compositions, from his most popular works such as his programme work Aufforderung zum Tanz (Invitation to the Dance), his majestic solo pieces, and his path-breaking song cycle DieTemperamente beim Verluste der Geliebten (Temperaments on the Loss of a Lover). At every turn, Morgan brings together biographical, political, aesthetic, and historical matters to inform our understanding of Weber's compositional genius. From the virtuosity of his piano works and their influence on Liszt and Chopin to his relationships with composers from the earliest parts of the 19th century, including Giacomo Meyerbeer, Franz Schubert and Beethoven, Experiencing Carl Maria vonWeber reveals not only the compositional genius of this figure in Romantic music, but his achievements as well as a conductor, music director, and critic who lent his powerful support to his musical peers on stage and page.




The Freischütz Phenomenon: Opera As Cultural Mirror


Book Description

Der Freischütz, a German opera composed by Carl Maria von Weber, premiered to great acclaim in 1821. It eventually became a “national treasure” in its homeland as well as an enduring fixture in the international repertory. Wilhelm Furtwängler, a renowned conductor of the twentieth century, proclaimed it to be an utterly unique opera and one of the greatest masterworks of world literature. The story is deeply rooted in German folklore. It involves rustic life in the forest, threatening supernatural machinations, strong communal bonds, and the triumph of love and simple faith over dark power. Der Freischütz is not a typical opera. There are two reasons for considering it to be a singular cultural phenomenon: (1) an extraordinary charisma in the Germanic sphere, and (2) a fateful vulnerability to alteration and exploitation in its long performance history, which undermined the opera’s integrity while refl ecting a wide range of ideas and attitudes in Western culture. The ultimate goal of this book is to restore the integrity of the original Freischütz and its depth of reference as well.