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The Whistling Blackbird: Essays and Talks on New Music by Robert Morris (review)

The Whistling Blackbird: Essays and Talks on New Music by Robert Morris (review) BOOK REVIEWS The Whistling Blackbird: Essays and Talks on New Music. By Robert Morris. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2010. ISBN-13: 9781580463492. Hardcover. Pp. xxv, 416. $95.00. Milton Babbitt maintained that composers made the best theorists. One might demur from this position (not to mention its reverse!), but certainly what composers have to say about music, theirs and others', can provide unique insights into the experience of listening. This is particularly the case when a composer, by dint of circumstance, finds him- or herself assuming what can be a second career of writing about music, in addition to simply writing it. Babbitt himself, of course, comes to mind, but the tradition is a long one, stretching back through the likes of Robert Simpson and Donald Francis Tovey to Robert Schumann. Some of these composer/writers were more concerned with music criticism, but some, like Arnold Schoenberg or Heinrich Schenker (and, again, Babbitt), promulgated theories of music that have a life of their own, separate from and sometimes even better known than their compositions. Robert Morris is another such figure, a composer with a long and active career writing music who has through his writings about music established himself http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Music University of Illinois Press

The Whistling Blackbird: Essays and Talks on New Music by Robert Morris (review)

American Music , Volume 31 (3) – Mar 14, 2013

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Publisher
University of Illinois Press
Copyright
Copyright © University of Illinois Press
ISSN
1945-2349
Publisher site
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Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS The Whistling Blackbird: Essays and Talks on New Music. By Robert Morris. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2010. ISBN-13: 9781580463492. Hardcover. Pp. xxv, 416. $95.00. Milton Babbitt maintained that composers made the best theorists. One might demur from this position (not to mention its reverse!), but certainly what composers have to say about music, theirs and others', can provide unique insights into the experience of listening. This is particularly the case when a composer, by dint of circumstance, finds him- or herself assuming what can be a second career of writing about music, in addition to simply writing it. Babbitt himself, of course, comes to mind, but the tradition is a long one, stretching back through the likes of Robert Simpson and Donald Francis Tovey to Robert Schumann. Some of these composer/writers were more concerned with music criticism, but some, like Arnold Schoenberg or Heinrich Schenker (and, again, Babbitt), promulgated theories of music that have a life of their own, separate from and sometimes even better known than their compositions. Robert Morris is another such figure, a composer with a long and active career writing music who has through his writings about music established himself

Journal

American MusicUniversity of Illinois Press

Published: Mar 14, 2013

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