Preface
Key to Source Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
1 Out of Austria
2 Critics and Musicologists
3 Music Survey
4 Dodecaphoneys
5 Functional Analysis
6 The BBC
7 The Time of My Life
8 Beyond Broadcasting
Index
Alison Garnham was the initial archivist of the Hans Keller Archive when it was first established at Cambridge University Library in 1996. She is the author of Hans Keller and the BBC (2003) and Hans Keller and Internment (2011).
Susi Woodhouse is the current archivist of the Hans Keller Archive at Cambridge. She also works with the online Concert Programmes Project and the London Symphony Orchestra photograph archive.
"This is a detailed and revealing biography, rich in context and
background, of one of the great musical thinkers, writers and
broadcasters of our time. It casts a penetrating light on the
post-war cultural scene and the passionate internal battles of
music broadcasting on the BBC. Keller's many enthusiasms, from
Schoenberg and Mendelssohn to Gershwin and the Beatles, shine
through his fiercely communicative prose. And all are illuminated
by the moving personal integrity of a man who, facing extinction by
the Nazis in 1938, swore that if he survived "I'll never again be
in a bad mood, whatever the circumstances of my life or death".
Alison Garnham and Susi Woodhouse have written a vital chapter in
the musical history of our times."Nicholas Kenyon, Managing
Director of The Barbican Centre, London, UK."[Keller's] mind worked
best in the heat of immediate controversy. He loved a sparring
partner and his brightest interventions are sparks that fly from
the friction of disagreement. Grasping this, Garnham and Woodhouse
have framed Keller as provocateur at the centre of a web of complex
musicological issues, the ever energising protagonist in a story of
rapid and momentous cultural change. Quoting extensively from
letters, essays and reviews, lectures, drafts and memoranda, they
hand over the writing of the book to Keller himself, directing him
from the sidelines, weaving his ebullient script into a tight
narrative line. Here Keller is back in his element." ̶Nicholas
Spice, London Review of Books"There are countless reasons why this
volume should find its place in the hands of all twentieth-century
music scholars …truly scintillating reading. …Garnham and
Woodhouse’s clarity and elegant weaving together of narrative and
primary source material represents an object lesson in contemporary
scholarship. … Keller’s cultural commentary — engaging in the
issues of ‘what music is’ — in a world when the experience of music
had been utterly changed by the technological revolution of mass
recording and broadcasting has never been more relevant." ̶Justin
Vickers, Brio"Hans Keller was perhaps the most influential music
critic on British soil in the 20th century. Never known for his
diplomacy, he communicated widely and passionately in provocative
and to-the-point prose. It is fitting that in this, the ‘first full
biography,’ authors Alison Garnham and Susi Woodhouse capture
Keller through his own arresting style, quoting extensively from
primary source material. … This richness of primary source
materials is undoubtedly what will draw researchers to the book:
they will be tempted to use it almost as a one-stop-shop to
Keller’s vast archive. Garnham and Woodhouse know Keller’s papers
and archive inside out, boast an impressive number of publications
on Keller’s life and work, and their sheer knowledge shows."
̶Florian Scheding, North American British Music Studies Association
Review"Ms Garnham and Ms Woodhouse have done a fully remarkable and
admirable job. No one who did not know Hans could possibly finish
reading this book without grasping what was so significant in his
life and writings … This is a worthy book of a noble subject."
Robert Matthew-Walker, Musical Opinion Quarterly"[this is] a
documentary life rather than a full life-and-works study (a massive
task), though the contexts, taken together, provide an invaluable
account of publishing, broadcasting, and music-making in Britain in
the first four decades after the war…The authors concede that there
are ‘many different paths’ through the wealth of the Keller
Nachlass, and indeed there are. But if this drawing together and
enriching of so many strands that have hitherto been handled
separately is ‘a start’, then it is a formidable one. Routledge
have produced a challenging text with exemplary care."Christopher
Wintle, Music and Letters
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