Hans Keller wrote the Jerusalem Diary in 1977 and 1979 during two visits to the Mishkenot Sha'ananim, a residence for writers and artists. As a senior figure at the BBC and as a shrewd and witty polymath steeped in music, sociology and psychoanalysis, he was better placed than most to record the artistic, social and political life of Israel at a crucial juncture in its history. The Diary, which he described as an `anti-journal', was in the first place a reaction to Saul Bellow's To Jerusalem and Back. But the result is far more than a topical riposte: at a time of renewed turbulence in the Middle East, with another dramatic shift in favour of the right-wing Likud party, it is as sharp and relevant now as it was then. Milein Cosman has selected her own, remarkable drawings. Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society's Prize for Book of the Year in 2001.

The Jerusalem Diary: Music, Society and Politics, 1977 and 1979 (Hans Keller Archive)

Politics & Social Sciences

Williams, Fiona

Keller, Hans

Wintle, Christopher

Social Sciences

Plumbago Books

For three or four decades after the Second World War, musical thinking in Britain was dominated by psychology. Among the earliest of the musical Freudians was Hans Keller (1919-85), an émigré from Vienna. For his case studies Keller drew on composers, performers, listeners and critics; and for his general topics he turned to opera, film music, creative character, genius, aesthetics and the issues of everyday musical life. The writing is impressive for its novelty, its insights, and the communicative clarity of its prose. The book includes a large number of aphorisms, two stories and a one-act play on British anti-Semitism. Most of the writings appear here in print for the first time and are drawn from papers held in the Hans Keller Archive at the University Library in Cambridge.

Music and Psychology: From Vienna to London, 1939-52 (Hans Keller Archive)

Arts & Photography

Music

For three or four decades after the Second World War, musical thinking in Britain was dominated by psychology. Yet, ironically, there has never been an account of exactly what is entailed. Among the earliest of the musical Freudians was Hans Keller (1919-85), an émigré from Vienna who later became a charismatic figure at the BBC and a trenchant commentator on a host of issues (including football). He arrived in London soon after the Kristallnacht of 1938, and from then until 1952 (a watershed year in his development as a critic) collaborated with leading sociologists an psychoanalysts in studies of politics, society, gender and sex. He also devised new ways of writing about music, inspired by a love for Mozart and Britten (notably Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia, I>The Little Sweep and Albert Herring). The Fruit of Keller's activity forms the subject of this book, the first thorough and informed exploration of how a psychoanalytical musical criticism may be grounded in individual and small-group psychology. For his case studies Keller drew on composers, performers, listeners and critics; and for his general topics he turned to opera, film music, creative character, genius, aesthetics and the issues of everyday musical life. The writing is impressive for its novelty, its insights, and the communicative clarity of its prose. The book includes a large number of aphorisms, two stories and a one-act play on British anti-Semitism. Most of the writings appear here in print for the first time and are drawn from papers held in the Hans Keller Archive at the University Library in Cambridge.

Music and Psychology: From Vienna to London, 1939-1952 (Hans Keller Archive)

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Lamenting the `regrettable tendency (of musical analysis) towards intellectual gymnastics that overlook aesthetic reality', Julian Littlewood makes good again and again his promise to consider the `broader contexts of affect, kinetic control, stylistic reference, and closural strategies'. He is particularly attentive to performance makings and matters of texture. It is a tribute to his originality of approach that he has been able to add distinctively to the already considerable literature on this subject. Nicholas Marston, King's College Cambridge

The Variations of Johannes Brahms (Poetics of Music, 1)

Littlewood, Julian

Variation is a fundamental musical principle, yet its most naked expression - variation form - resists all but the broadest of descriptions. This book offers listener, performer, analyst and composer an eclectic array of approaches to `Theme and Variations', including: patterns of departure and return; real versus perceived time; strategies of propulsion and closure in an intrinsically cyclic and open-ended form; the interplay of authorial voices deriving from dialogue between the `self' of variations and the `other' of their theme; critique of a theme through a set's generic references; drama and narrative achieved through textural and tonal control; and the intrinsic sound of a variation, so different from that of a freely composed work. These topics are introduced through a general survey of the form, seen through the prisms of the provenance of themes and the ideologies of sets, before being developed through close study of Brahms's variation sets and movements. Brahms was supremely aware of his place in music history and was uncommonly self-conscious in his manipulation of different techniques of composition. His variation sets - some of the most well-crafted and beloved examples - place the interplay of forms and styles at the heart of their identity. Moreover, in their stunning breadth and diversity they offer a microcosm of Brahms's entire output, a succinct revelation of his life-long concerns. Through them we marvel at his technical and poetic mastery, and journey to the heart of his creative character.

The Variations of Johannes Brahms (Poetics of Music) (Volume 1)

Between 1946 and 1959, the most outspoken voice in British film music was that of the celebrated Austrian émigré critic, Hans Keller (1919-85). He argued passionately for 'the need for competent film music criticism', laid out the main topics of the day, and studied the contribution of all the main British composers and many others besides. In particular he championed William Alwyn, Arthur Benjamin and Alan Rawsthorne as well as the more established names of Auric, Bernstein, Britten, Thomson, Vaughan Williams and Walton. In 1959 he also devoted a column to 'television music'. This important collection of writings will form a vital complement to the contemporary Composing for the Film by Eisler and Adorno, and will provide an invaluable and unparalleled account of a great age for film music.

Film Music and Beyond (Hans Keller Archive)

Hans Keller

Between 1946 and 1959, the most outspoken voice in British film music was that of the celebrated Austrian émigré critic, Hans Keller (1919-85). He argued passionately for 'the need for competent film music criticism', laid out the main topics of the day, and studied the contribution of all the main British composers and many others besides. In particular he championed William Alwyn, Arthur Benjamin and Alan Rawsthorne as well as the more established names of Auric, Bernstein, Britten, Thomson, Vaughan Williams and Walton. In 1959 he also devoted a column to 'television music'. This important collection of writings will form a vital complement to the contemporary Composing for the Film by Hanns Eisler and Theodor Adorno, and will provide an invaluable and unparalleled account of a great age for film music. Includes line drawings by Milein Cosman.

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

Between 1946 and 1959, the most outspoken voice in British film music was that of the celebrated Austrian émigré critic, Hans Keller (1919-85). He argued passionately for 'the need for competent film music criticism', laid out the main topics of the day, and studied the contribution of all the main British composers and many others besides. In particular he championed William Alwyn, Arthur Benjamin and Alan Rawsthorne as well as the more established names of Auric, Bernstein, Britten, Thomson, Vaughan Williams and Walton. In 1959 he also devoted a column to 'television music'. This important collection of writings will form a vital complement to the contemporary Composing for the Film by Hanns Eisler and Theodor Adorno, and will provide an invaluable and unparalleled account of a great age for film music. Includes line drawings by Milein Cosman.

Peter Pears once described Benjamin Britten as `a Greek who worships all the gods'; and in order to come to terms with Britten's music it is necessary to recognize a language deeply embedded in this Western tradition. This book is devoted to Night-piece (Notturno), written for the first Leeds International Pianoforte Competition of 1963. It addresses the work from many points of view: historical, documentary, analytical, formal, kinetic, hermeneutical, and affective. It also includes a wide range of illustrated allusions to other music, a full set of sketches, the printed score, arrays of modes and voice-leading graphs, and two appendices that take the issues of intensification and neapolitan relations further. In so doing, it provides a new model for the study of Britten's work in general.

All the Gods: Benjamin Britten's Night-piece in Context (Poetics of Music)

Our specialist times, with everyone confined to their own discipline, have left little room for the age-old view that, however transmuted, the issues of art and life belong together, or that, for all their differences, the arts have shared concerns: yet realism demands just such an outlook. This book offers an informal attempt to re-open closed borders by the established writer on music, Christopher Wintle. Through a host of aphorisms and thoughts it first probes people, politics, learning and the Gods. It then sketches out a Poetics in terms of style and idea, artists, critics, theory, performers, ethics, opera, sculpture, cinema and sport, before ending with a pair of Urban Fables. The volume includes a collection of Works with Music by the well-known Brazilian artist Ana Maria Pacheco.

Towards a Poetics of Music and the Arts: Selected Thoughts and Aphorisms with Works with Music by Ana Maria Pacheco

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Plumbago Books publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Plumbago Books

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Plumbago Books publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Jerusalem Diary: Music, Society and Politics, 1977 and 1979 (Hans Keller Archive)

Music and Psychology: From Vienna to London, 1939-52 (Hans Keller Archive)

Music and Psychology: From Vienna to London, 1939-1952 (Hans Keller Archive)

The Variations of Johannes Brahms (Poetics of Music, 1)

The Variations of Johannes Brahms (Poetics of Music) (Volume 1)

Film Music and Beyond (Hans Keller Archive)

Film Music and Beyond (Hans Keller Archive)

Film Music and Beyond (Hans Keller Archive)

All the Gods: Benjamin Britten's Night-piece in Context (Poetics of Music)

Towards a Poetics of Music and the Arts: Selected Thoughts and Aphorisms with Works with Music by Ana Maria Pacheco