Product Description

"In this splendid volume, Richard Sylvester treats Tchaikovsky's songs with great sympathy and understanding, with special emphasis on relating the texts to the music. The songs are presented chronologically, interspersed with insightful observations about their relevance to the composer's life. This book will be welcomed by performers and scholars, but its fluent readability and avoidance of unnecessary detail make it easily accessible to the general reader. A welcome bonus is a CD with 22 songs interpreted by outstanding singers of at least two generations." -- George Jellinek, author, critic, andhost of WQXR's nationally syndicated program The Vocal Scene

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #836168 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review

For the first time ever, texts of the 103 songs (romances) set by Tchaikovsky are assembled in a single collection, presented in their Cyrillic original, together with transliterations and nonrhyming English translations. Taken in chronological order, the songs provide a fascinating journey through the composer's complete song oeuvre. Sylvester (Colgate Univ.) selected the 22 songs on the accompanying CD not only on performance merit but because they present excellent examples of cultivated, lyric Russian diction. He offers occasional commentary regarding performance practices but deals chiefly with the literary sources of the songs. A discography and a selected bibliography are appended. No other publication covers the same scholarly territory, so this book will be a valuable source of information for all performers and scholars interested in the Russian song repertoire. Upper -- division undergraduate voice students through faculty and professionals.R. Miller, Oberlin College, Choice, October 2002

Review

"[T]he songs provide a fascinating journey through the composer's complete song oeuvre... No other publication covers the same scholarly territory, so this book will be a valuable source of information for all performers and scholars interested in the Russian song repertoire." -- Choice, October 2002

"It's not often that a book really does 'fill a long -- felt want', but here is an example, and an outstanding one... [T]he core of the book is the discussion of each poem, its author, and it significance to Tchaikovsky. These come from a deep knowledge of Russian poetry and ideas; they are in themselves absorbing, but they are also vital to an understanding of the literary traditions from which Russian song came and of what inspired its greatest master." -- John Warrack, Gramophone

"It is a model of research and organization, an indispensable handbook for students of Tchaikovsky's work, singers, musicians and musicologists and lovers of vocal music. However, this volume is much more... [E]merging from the whole is the story of an inspired life in an extrarodinary era... [I]t is a unique portrait of the cultural world of 19th century Russia, and the international swirl of art, friendship and performance in which Tchaikovsky dwelled." -- Nancy Ries, Colgate Scene

Customer Reviews

All the songs and much more
"splendid... its fluent readability and avoidance of unnecessary detail make it easily accessible to the general reader. A welcome bonus is a CD with 22 songs interpreted by outstanding singers of at least two generations."
-George Jellinek, author, critic, and host of WQXR's nationally syndicated program "The Vocal Scene"

"as user-friendly a guide to Tchaikovsky song as the general reader could wish for."
-Andrew Green, "Classical Music"

"indispensable... each short chapter, focused on a different song, is a snapshot of a creative moment in Tchaikovsky's career, and emerging from the whole is the story of an inspired life in an extraordinary era."
-Nancy Ries, "The Colgate Scene"

"It's not often that a book really does 'fill a long-felt want,' but here is an example, and an outstanding one... The core of the book is the discussions of each [lyric], its author and its significance to Tchaikovsky. These come from a deep knowledge of Russian poetry and ideas... The three-page introduction to Tchaikovsky's finest set, for instance, the Op 73 group, is ideal preparation for enjoyment of these amazing songs."
-John Warrack, "Gramophone"

"... an unexpected, long-overdue, and welcome labor of love, imbued with intelligent scholarship... much more than a song anthology or pedantic study." -Elizabeth Blades-Zeller, "Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association"

"presents an enormous amount of information in a convenient format, with comprehensible translations and a coherent organization, making these songs more accessible to the non-Russian speaker than perhaps any Russian vocal music has heretofore been."
-Leslie Kearney, "Slavic Review"

"Sylvester ... sweeps the reader into the creative world of Tchaikovsky, describing the 'romances,' and, in the process, the cultural and political times in which the composer lived... [sharing] a wealth of information with a storyteller's knack."
-Debra Greschner, "Journal of Singing"

"Richard Sylvester has wrapped Tchaikovsky's songs in such vibrant, illuminating layers of information-linguistic, musical, biographical, poetic-that they emerge from this volume as living events, resonant with stories of their own. With these scrupulous contextualizations, a new standard is set for scholarship on Russian song."
-Caryl Emerson, Princeton University, author of "The Life of Musorgsky"