UI Press | William Kinderman | The Creative Process in Music from Mozart to Kurtag

Cover for kinderman: The Creative Process in Music from Mozart to Kurtag. Click for larger image

The Creative Process in Music from Mozart to Kurtág

Tracing the genesis of great musical works

Great music arouses wonder: how did the composer create such an original work of art? What was the artist's inspiration, and how did that idea become a reality? Cultural products inevitably arise from a context, a submerged landscape that is often not easily accessible. To bring such things to light, studies of the creative process find their cutting edge by probing beyond the surface, opening new perspectives on the apparently familiar.

In this intriguing study, William Kinderman opens the door to the composer's workshop, investigating not just the final outcome but the process of creative endeavor in music. Focusing on the stages of composition, Kinderman maintains that the most rigorous basis for the study of artistic creativity comes not from anecdotal or autobiographical reports, but from original handwritten sketches, drafts, revised manuscripts, and corrected proof sheets. He explores works of major composers from the eighteenth century to the present, from Mozart's piano music and Beethoven's Piano Trio in F to Kurtág's Kafka Fragments and Hommage ŕ R. Sch. Other chapters examine Robert Schumann's Fantasie in C, Mahler's Fifth Symphony, and Bartók's Dance Suite.

Kinderman's analysis takes the form of "genetic criticism," tracing the genesis of these cultural works, exploring their aesthetic meaning, and mapping the continuity of a central European tradition that has displayed remarkable vitality for over two centuries, as accumulated legacies assumed importance for later generations. Revealing the diversity of sources, rejected passages and movements, fragmentary unfinished works, and aborted projects that were absorbed into finished compositions, The Creative Process in Music from Mozart to Kurtág illustrates the wealth of insight that can be gained through studying the creative process.

"The Creative Process in Music from Mozart to Kurtág is a remarkable piece of work in terms of both depth and breadth. William Kinderman has succeeded in weaving analytical and historical perspectives into a compelling discourse about how music is created and what it means. Even more astonishing is the scope of this undertaking. Most sketch-study scholars work within the context of 'their composer.' This book expands that context to embrace the past two hundred years. In so doing, Kinderman has raised the bar for all of us."--Friedemann Sallis, University of Calgary

"An engaging investigation of the creative process and genetic criticism. These deeply thoughtful essays establish an enviable range, from Mozart through the grand figures of the German nineteenth century (Beethoven, Schumann) and beyond to three seminal figures of the twentieth (Mahler, Bartók, Kurtág). A significant contribution."--Richard Kramer, author of Unfinished Music

William Kinderman is a professor of music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author or editor of ten books, including The String Quartets of Beethoven and the three-volume study Artaria 195: Beethoven's Sketchbook for the Missa solemnis and the Piano Sonata in E Major, Opus 109.

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