Walter Aaron Clark

William Walton : a source book

A detailed reference source on the life and works of William Walton. The text contains a chronology of Waltons life and works, bibliographical descriptions of original manuscripts and printed first editions, a listing of Waltons recorded works and a location list of the composers letters.

Isaac Albeniz : A Research and Information Guide

Foreword by Jacinto Torres Preface List of Abbreviations 1. Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909). The Man and His Music 2. Works 3. Annotated Bibliography Appendix: Chronology of Albenizs Life Index 1: Proper Names (Authors and Subjects in Chapters One and Three) Index 2: Works (All Chapters)

Manuel de Falla: Modernism in Spain, 1898-1936 (review)

Thoughts: Reading Between the Lines,” an overview of the holdings of the Stravinsky Archives, under the form of a discussion of works (The Rake’s Progress especially), unpublished letters, business documents, phonograph recordings, and the 1939–40 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard. Around these central chapters, another four are more haphazardly laid out. “Truths and Illusions: Rethinking What We Know” probes the construction of Stravinsky’s public persona. “Rediscovering the American Apollon Musagète: Stravinsky, Coolidge, and the Forgotten Washington Connection” is an exercise in history unexpunged, as it describes the commission and subsequent American premiere of Apollo, whose history “as with so many other aspects of the composer’s chronicle, has been all but expunged” (p. 63). “Fathers and Sons: Remembering Sviatoslav Soulima” is dedicated to salvaging the memory of the third of Stravinsky’s four children. It confirms, however, that “[Soulima’s] life was lived under a microscope, and perhaps more than anything else, it was destined to be viewed as a footnote to his father’s biography” (p. 98). This chapter seems to serve yet another purpose, that of highlighting the humanism of Soulima Stravinsky against the doctrinarism of Nadia Boulanger. Joseph says, “Questioning her authority—an authority that approached papal infallibility—was tantamount to excommunication” (p. 77). As it happens, “Father and Sons . . .” is as much an homage to a former teacher as an indictment of another. “Boswellizing an Icon: Stravinsky, Craft, and the Historian’s Dilemma” is placed toward the end of Stravinsky Inside Out and takes the controversy surrounding James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson as a point of departure to reassess the Igor Stravinsky–Robert Craft association. A very short epilogue serves as the summation of Joseph’s theses. Stravinsky Inside Out is a close scrutiny of aspects of the Stravinsky biography that have only recently become available. It amplifies (and transforms) the received notions from previous accounts of Stravinsky’s life. Joseph anchors his arguments firmly on the evidence, turning away from oftrepeated anecdotes and episodes. As he contends, “we must simply go about the business of screening, evaluating, balancing, restoring, and assembling as accurately as we can a complete profile of Stravinsky. Only then will a fuller understanding of one of the century’s most fascinating and complex cultural figures begin to emerge” (p. 265). It seems, then, that the time has not yet come for a unified approach that informs the biography with the music and, conversely, the music with the biography. Such an all-inclusive view seems to lie in the future, when these two apparently irreconcilable extremes will be integrated into a lasting and satisfying whole. Only then will the definitive book on Igor Stravinsky (which Stravinsky Inside Out does not attempt to be) have been written, uniting temporary scaffold and permanent edifice, demonstrating what solid music structures can result from the seminal, but necessarily fleeting, support of a life.