Ferruccio Busoni: A Musical Ishmael

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Part 1 Acknowledgments
Part 2 List of
Photographs
Part 3 Introduction
Chapter 4 1 Early Childhood
Chapter 5 2 Vienna Debut, Touring, First Compositions
Chapter 6 3 Graz, Trieste, Frohnleiten, Vienna: November 1879 to November 1886
Chapter 7 4 Leipzig: December 1886 to September 1888
Chapter 8 5 Helsinki, Marriage, and Moscow: September 1888 to August 1891
Chapter 9 6 Boston and New York: August 1891 to April 1894
Chapter 10 7 Berlin: April 1894 to 1902
Chapter 11 8 Berlin, Return to the United States, Touring, Piano Concerto: 1902 to 1906
Chapter 12 9 Vienna, Die Brautwahl: 1906 to 1913
Chapter 13 10 Bologna, Berlin, United States: 1913 to 1915
Chapter 14 11 Zurich: 1915 to 1920
Chapter 15 12 Return to Berlin, Doktor Faust, Final Years: 1920 to 1924
Part 16 Selected List of Compositions
Part 17 Bibliography
Part 18 Index
Part 19 About the Author

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The first full length biography of Busoni since Edward Dent's in 1933, this work contains a significant amount of material unavailable to Dent, and is not written under the restrictions imposed on Dent by Busoni's widow or the demands of others still living at the time. Drawing largely on Busoni's own letters to his parents, his wife, and his many friends, and much material published since his death on Busoni himself and on others with whom he came in contact. Couling offers a truer picture of the very complex genius, a Faustian figure torn between his allegiances to Germany and to Italy, between the demands (and attractions) of a life as a celebrity virtuoso pianist and those of a composer, between the family man and the restless seeker after solitude and contemplation. Busoni was a forerunner in his ideas on what music was, is, and could be, which drew the fire of conservatives during his lifetime. His ideas on musical notation, the division of the scale, and opera were well ahead of his time, but in many cases are common practice today. Only recently has the veil of shadow been lifted from his work and ideas. Della Couling shines a deserving light on Busoni's life, ideas, and profound influence on contemporary musicology.

Reviews

Ms Couling is particularly perceptive about human problems and child-parent relationships....her biography convincingly brings to life an exceptional human being-warts-and-all

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