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Book Description

The life of pianist, composer, conductor, and musical lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky encompassed nearly all of 20th-century music history. His 1988 autobiography, newly expanded by his daughter Electra Yourke, tells the fascinating story of his journey from his native Russia to France and the United States, where he became known as a champion of modern music.

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Book Description

“A supermarket tabloid of classical music criticism.”―from the foreword by Peter Schickele.

A snakeful of critical venom aimed at the composers and the classics of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music. Who wrote advanced cat music? What commonplace theme is very much like Yankee Doodle? Which composer is a scoundrel and a giftless bastard? What opera would His Satanic Majesty turn out? Whose name suggests fierce whiskers stained with vodka? And finally, what third movement begins with a dog howling at midnight, then imitates the regurgitations of the less-refined or lower-middle-class type of water-closet cistern, and ends with the cello reproducing the screech of an ungreased wheelbarrow? For the answers to these and other questions, readers need only consult the “Invecticon” at the back of this inspired book and then turn to the full passage, in all its vituperation. Among the eminent reviewers are George Bernard Shaw, Virgil Thomson, Hans von Bulow, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard Hanslick, Olin Downes, Deems Taylor, Paul Rosenfeld, and Oscar Wilde. Itself a classic, this collection of nasty barbs about composers and their works, culled mostly from contemporaneous newspapers and magazines, makes for hilarious reading and belongs on the shelf of everyone who loves–or hates–classical music. With a foreword by Peter Schickele (“P.D.Q. Bach”).

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Book Description

Since its publication in 1947, great musicians and composers of all genres – from Arnold Schoenberg and Virgil Thomson to John Coltrane and Freddie Hubbard – have sworn by this legendary volume and its comprehensive vocabulary of melodic patterns for composition and improvisation.

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Book Description

In the mid-twentieth century renowned musicologist, conductor, and lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky traveled to cities throughout the world to play and conduct music of the American avant-garde. From trips to Paris, Berlin, Havana, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Moscow, Slonimsky wrote letters to his wife, the art critic Dorothy Adlow, vividly and humorously describing his adventures. Dear Dorothy: Letters from Nicolas Slonimsky to Dorothy Adlow is a collection of these missives. Though personal, they chronicle Slonimsky’s work as an ambassador of modern music who introduced twentieth-century composers, particularly American composers, to audiences worldwide. Full of his admired wit and energy, the letters recount his performances, rehearsals, lectures, day-to-day activities in foreign cities and concert halls, and the anxieties of stretching limited funds to cover an ever-expanding itinerary. They also reveal a side of Slonimsky not seen from his other published writings: a man with deep devotion to his wife and family. Annotated and with an introduction by Slonimsky’s daughter, Electra Slonimsky Yourke, this collection documents the meeting of historic musical cultures-Old World Europe, the Soviet Union, and the vibrant countries of Latin America-with the modernist music of the United States. Written in a lively, humorous style, these letters will be of interest to scholars and students of American music and social historians as well as musicians, music lovers, and concertgoers.

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Book Description
No other single volume offers as much information as is contained in these pages, including definitive biographies of every significant classical musician from cultures worldwide and hundreds of artists in jazz, rock, country, blues, and other popular forms. More than just information, this volume offers insight, analysis, and history, as expressed in Slonimsky’s inimitable lapidary prose. Copied, expanded, updated, but never surpassed.

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Book Description

Nicolas Slonimsky’s first edition of Music Since 1900 came out in 1937–his entry into the world of lexicography–and this fifth edition, published in 1994, was the last book he wrote. But that’s only one reason why this book should be acquired, cherished, and continually browsed. The “Descriptive Chronology” begins January 1, 1900, with the publication of Hector Berlioz’s first volume of collected works, wends its way through Gershwin’s first performance of “Rhapsody in Blue” (February 12, 1924) and the founding of the Polish Music Publishing Society (April 15, 1945), and ends with the death of Ernst Krenek, composer of “Jonny spielt auf,” (December 23, 1991). With letters (such as those to Slonimsky from Charles Ives) and documents (such as the transcript of the House Un-American Activities Committee hearing on Hanns Eisler), a Dictionary of Terms (abecedarianism to Zen), and a comprehensive index, the result is a scrupulous, eccentric, irresistible music reference.

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Book Description

Renowned for his literary style as well as his musical scholarship, Nicolas Slonimsky wrote many program notes and articles for newspapers and other periodicals, in addition to his well-known books. These shorter writings, edited by Slonimsky’s daughter, Electra Yourke, are collected for the first time in this excellent introduction to the classical repertoire, from Bach to Shostakovich. Arranged chronologically by composer, the chapters begin with biographical sketches and go on to describe some of each composer’s most popular and important works.

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Book Description

Quirky anecdotes and observations abound in this volume now published by Routledge. Enter a surreal and humorous world of medicinal music, musical schizophrenia, conductorless orchestras, suing seals, cat operas, musical beds and more. Let Slonimsky regale you with tales of Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini and the other expected Classical Music figures, the ugly ducking of Russian music, the Kafka of modern music and other sublime misfits. First published in 1948, this book has earned well-deserved acclaim for being insightful, witty and enthralling. Charming illustrations by Robert Bonotto complete this superb collection of musical vignettes.

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Book Description from Library Journal

Editor Kostelanetz has collected some of Slonimsky’s greatest articles, biographies, musical definitions, and observations of the 20th century. As a composer, conductor, and prolific writer, Slonimsky virtually defines 20th-century musical scholarship with his well-known editorial work in Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians ( LJ 1/92), as well as numerous other books and journal articles. The new work presents a broad enough view of music, in both historical scope and content, to appeal to both musician and music lover. Slonimsky’s famous sense of humor emerges in full force, especially in biographical pieces on popular musicians like Frank Zappa and Frank Sinatra. The inclusion of such items as Slonimsky’s timeline of 20th-century opera libretti and his infamous censorship lecture, “Sex and the Music Librarian,” gives some idea of the all-inclusive nature of the book. Recommended for public libraries and academic libraries from the high school to the graduate level.

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Book Description

It’s sad but nonetheless true that Nicolas Slonimsky died in 1995, yet the 1997 Dictionary of Music is thoroughly Slonimsky. It includes all the material written for his Lectionary of Music (that was expunged by editors), and then some. After Slonimsky’s death, Schirmer Book editors reconstructed his work (using original manuscripts) and added hundreds of Slonimsky articles for a new, comprehensive, mostly Slonimsky dictionary of music. The result is that most deadly of dictionaries: the text that can’t be put down. From Slonimsky’s highly entertaining introduction to the A to Z itself―1,171 pages of musical definitions, biographies, and Slonimsky storytelling―this is a rare volume that both instructs and amuses.

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