Opera and the Morbidity of Music New York Review Books Collections

Editorial Review
The death of classical music, the distinguished critic and musicologist Joseph Kerman declares, is “a tired, vacuous concept that will not die.” In this wide-ranging collection of essays and reviews, Kerman examines the ongoing vitality of the classical music tradition, from the days of Guillaume Dufay, John Taverner, and William Byrd to contemporary operas by Philip Glass and John Adams.

Here are enlightening investigations of the lives and works of the greatest composers: Bach and his Well-Tempered Clavier, Mozart’s and Beethoven’s piano concertos, Schubert’s songs, Wagner’s and Verdi’s operas. Kerman discusses The Magic Flute as well as productions of the Monteverdi operas in Brooklyn and the Ring in San Francisco and Bayreuth. He also includes remembrances of Maria Callas and Carlos Kleiber that make clear why they were such extraordinary musicians.

Kerman argues that predictions—let alone assumptions—of the death of classical music are not a new development but part of a cultural transformation that has long been with us. Always alert to the significance of historical changes, from the invention of music notation to the advent of recording, he proposes that the place to look for renewal of the classical music tradition in America today is in opera—in a flood of new works, the rediscovery of long-forgotten ones, and innovative productions by companies large and small. Written for a general audience rather than for experts, Kerman’s essays invite readers to listen afresh and to engage with his insights into how music works. “His gift is so uncommon as to make one sad,” Alex Ross has said.
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Customer Reviews

Excellent reviews and essays about Music.-

2008-06-12
Yesterday I received this book from Amazon, and already today I have finished reading it, it so fascinated me.- I am sure that I will read it again, more leisurely, many times.- In the first place it is necessary to state that of the 30 essays the first 27 are all book reviews i.e. commentaries on several books -- but all these reviews are so enormously perceptive and add so many facts and so many insights to our knowledge that they make reading these mere book reviews certainly very rewarding and instructive and tell us much about the erudition and intelligence of Joseph Kerman.- They contain not only a wide range of unknown or little-known facts but also illuminating comments.- The four book reviews about Mozart, the four about Beethoven, the one about Berlioz, the two about Verdi and especially the three about Wagner are truly remarkable.- Only the last three essays (The Art of the Program Note, Maria Callas, Carlos Kleiber) are not book reviews but independent chapters written by the author himself, and all three of them are,again, not only astonishingly well informed, containing a wealth of new facts, but also superbly argumented, convincing, witty, original and inspiring.- Highly recommended for every music lover, but also for the general public.-

Classical Music is still alive!

2008-05-01
In spite of the title of this retrospective collection of essays, Opera and the Morbidity of Music by Joseph Kerman, the author presents a forceful and eloquent argument that opera and classical music in general is neither morbid nor moribund. He is successful through nuanced and informed writing and the use of a structure in which a group of musical themes is highlighted much like those of a Bach fugue. Kerman quotes Charles Rosen, " It is never the theme that is the central interest but the way the theme is embedded in the polyphonic structure" (p. 81). Thus the essays take on this aspect of music and in doing so become more than their individual essayistic parts. There is an ebb and flow to the collection that charmed this reader with references to musical memories and suggestions for future listening and reading. The breadth of the essays spans centuries of music and multiplicities of musical form while frequently narrowing the focus to specific composers. Over the course of thirty essays covering both the familiar (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner) and the unfamiliar (Byrd, Monteverdi and program notes), the life of music is reviewed from baroque to the present. The whole is lively and intelligent, both informative and accessible for the general reader.

Another Great Book from Joseph K

2008-04-30
I had read many of these essays before, but reading the whole thing last week blew me away. Kerman makes me open up my ears to music and open up my mind to thinking about music and its relationship with society. I found the essays on Wagner and Beethoven particularly revelatory.