The Indispensables A Critics Personal Guide To Classical Composers Hardcover Anthony Tommasini by Anthony Tommasini 9781594205934, 1594205930 instant download after payment.

An exploration into the question of greatness in classical music
In 2011, Chief Classical Music Critic of the New York Times Anthony Tommasini wrote a wildly popular series in which he somewhat cheekily engaged his readers to determine the ten all-time greatest composers. With his readers, Tommasini wrestled with questions of criteria. What made the greatest the greatest? Would a composer's popularity factor in? Should influence matter? What about someone whose range was narrow? And what do you do with opera? Readers went nuts. Commenters were inspired to make their own lists. Some railed against the elitism inherent to classical music, but then they raged when Mahler was left off the final list. Tommasini had hit a nerve, but he'd only just begun. Now in THE INDISPENSABLES, he makes the case for his own canon of composers--and what greatness really means in classical music.
Classical music lovers have always cared about greatness; but what does it mean to be canonical now? Who gets to say? And do we have enough perspective on the 20th century to even begin assessing it? This book is Tommasini's argument for the composers he finds indispensable and why.
To make his case, Tommasini draws on elements of biography, the anxiety of influence, the composer's relationships with colleagues, and shifting attitudes toward a composer's work over time. Because he has spent his life contemplating these titans, Tommasini also shares impressions from performances he has heard or given or moments when his own biography proves revealing.
As he argues for his particular pantheon of indispensable composers, Anthony Tommasini provides a masterclass in what to listen for and how to understand what music does to us.
Classical music lovers have always cared about greatness; but what does it mean to be canonical now? Who gets to say? And do we have enough perspective on the 20th century to even begin assessing it?
THE INDISPENSABLES is Tommasini's argument for the composers he finds essential and why. To make his case, he draws on elements of biography, historical background, the anxiety of influence, the composer's relationships with colleagues, and shifting attitudes toward a composer's work over time.
As he argues for his particular pantheon, Tommasini also provides a masterclass in what to listen for and how to understand what music does to us. If Alex Ross' THE REST IS NOISE used music to tell a history, Tommasini here is using history to explain music.