Table of Contents

Preface; 1. Expressive sources and resources in Janácek's musical language Robin Holloway; 2. 'Nothing but pranks and puns': Janácek's solo piano music Thomas Adès; 3. Narrative in Janácek's symphonic poems Hugh Macdonald; 4. Evasive realism: narrative construction in Dostoyevsky's and Janácek's From the House of the Dead Geoffrey Chew and Robert Vilain; 5. Direct discourse and speech melody in Janácek's operas Milos Stedron; 6. Kundera's eternal present and Janácek's ancient Gypsy Michael Beckerman; 7. Janácek's folk settings and the Vixen Zdenek Skoumal; 8. Janácek's operas in Australia and New Zealand: a performance history Adrienne Simpson; 9. Janácek's Moravian publishers Nigel Simeone; 10. Janácek, musical analysis, and Debussy's 'Jeux de vagues' Paul Wingfield; Index.

Promotional Information

This is the first major book about the music of the Czech composer Leos Janácek.

Reviews

'After reading this volume, even those sceptical about Roger Scruton's recent claim that Janácek is the greatest of all twentieth-century composers should find it more difficult to ignore his music, and the interpretative challenges it poses, than they might have done before.' Arnold Whittall, Music and Letters