SAMUEL BARBER: His Life and Legacy

Walter Simmons on December 3, 2023

By Howard Pollack SAMUEL BARBER: His Life and Legacy. By Howard Pollack. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2023. 686 pp. Hardcover. $59.95 It has been more than 40 years since the death of Samuel Barber; 13 years have passed …

THE WAR ON MUSIC: Reclaiming the Twentieth Century

Walter Simmons on November 18, 2022

By John Mauceri. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2022. 232 pp. When a book appears that purports to deal with the mid-20th-century estrangement of classical music audiences from the fruits of their own time, which has largely continued since …

VINCENT PERSICHETTI: Grazioso, Grit, and Gold

Walter Simmons on March 3, 2019

VINCENT PERSICHETTI: Grazioso, Grit, and Gold. by Andrea Olmstead. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. 493 pp. Cloth. $110 The third quarter of the 20th century was an enormously fruitful period in American classical music, which saw the appearance of …

“SAMUEL BARBER: A Bio-Bibliography” By Don A. Hennessee

wswebmaster on November 29, 2018

SAMUEL BARBER: A Bio-Bibliography. By Don A. Hennessee. 404 pp. Westport, CT: Green­wood Press, 1985. $39.95.Don A. Hennessee is variously described both as “author” and “compiler” of this book. The latter term is far more appropriate because there is no evidence …

“THE ERNEST BLOCH COMPANION” By David Z. Kushner

wswebmaster on November 22, 2018

 THE ERNEST BLOCH COMPANION. By David Z. Kushner. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. 198 pp. $79. Information generally available about Ernest Bloch and his music is so stale, third-hand, and pervaded by ideas that are either misconceived, trite, or both, that …