Classical music's evocation of the myth of childhood / Ian Sharp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sharp, Ian, 1943-

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Series:

Studies in the history and interpretation of music ; v. 78.

Studies in the history and interpretation of music ; v. 78

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children--Songs and music--History and criticism.

Children.

Music--Juvenile--History and criticism.

Music.

Music and children.

Physical Description:

xviii, 223 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lewiston, N.Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, [2000]

Contents:

1 The changing nature of childhood 7

(i) A context for childhood: the child as father of the man 7

(ii) Some terminology: childhood, childlike, childish 12

(iii) Conditions of childhood: nurture and nature

inventing the child 15

(iv) The fadeless flowers of childhood 23

2 Musical expressions of childhood 29

(i) Childhood's social context: adult/child relationships 29

(ii) The language of music: music and meaning 35

(iii) Signs and symbols 40

(iv) Representation and characterization 43

(a) The stimulus of children's music and its realisation as musical expression 43

(b) The expression of childhood's moods and themes 50

(c) Titles and programmes 53

(v) A musical vocabulary of childhood 57

(vi) Growing up in music: the sequence of development 63

3 Schumann

the descriptive and the didactic 67

(i) Cultural and artistic contexts 67

(ii) The influence of Clara on the Scenes of Childhood 70

(iii) The Album for the Young 85

(iv) The Advice to Young Musicians 93

(v) Other piano music for young players 96

(vi) The Song Album for the Young 100

(vii) The musical vocabulary of Schumann's music for the young 103

(viii) The influence of Schumann's music for the young 105

(a) The descriptive and the didactic 105

(b) Mendelssohn 106

(c) Tchaikovsky 107

(d) Soldiers' marches and other imagery in the Schumann tradition 111

(ix) Instruction and encounter in Schumann 115

(x) A summary of Schumann's achievements 116

4 Lullaby and Berceuse

images of infancy 117

(i) Bonds between mother and baby 117

(ii) The origins of the lullaby 118

(iii) The music of folk lullabies: croons and more complex songs 119

(iv) Carols as cradle songs 122

(a) Folk and monophonic carols 122

(b) Polyphonic carols, to the present day 123

(v) Other Christmas music and instrumental pastorals 125

(vi) Musical settings of 'Et incarnatus est' 126

(vii) The art song and the lullaby 127

(viii) Britten's A Charm of Lullabies 135

(ix) Other choral and dramatic lullabies 138

(x) Instrumental music up to Schumann on a cradle song theme 142

(xi) Chopin's Berceuse, opus 57 143

(xii) The development of the keyboard berceuse in France 144

(xiii) Some other instrumental lullabies 148

(xiv) Busoni's Berceuse elegiaque 149

(xv) The significance of the berceuse 151

5 Beyond infancy 153

(i) Nursery rhymes and songs 153

(ii) Children's games 157

(iii) Natural and domesticated play 161

(iv) Jeux d'enfants: Bizet, Bartok and other composers 164

(v) Children in opera: a case study of The Turn of the Screw 169

(a) Background: children on the stage 169

(b) 'The ceremony of innocence is drowned' 172

6 Modifying the myth

the influence of adults on children 181

(i) Music, children and the National Curriculum 181

(ii) Musical composition: a child-centred experience? 184

(iii) Written for children: some commercial considerations 186

(iv) Childhood, proto-adulthood and musical performance 192

7 Disappearing childhood? 197

(i) Changing times 197

(ii) The resilience of the musical imagery of childhood 200.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [207]-218) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

0773474110

OCLC:

45890527