Background
Mellers, Wilfrid Howard was born on April 26, 1914 in Leamington, Warwickshire, England. Son of Percival Wilfrid and Hilda Maria (Lawrence) Mellers.
(The first book in English on the life and works of Couper...)
The first book in English on the life and works of Couperin le Grand, and possibly the first comprehensive study in any language.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0234771054/?tag=2022091-20
(Catalogue raisonne of Couperin's works; tempos of 18th-ce...)
Catalogue raisonne of Couperin's works; tempos of 18th-century music; symbolic interpretation of musical titles and other appendices.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006BV1U6/?tag=2022091-20
(One of the most original and insightful surveys of Americ...)
One of the most original and insightful surveys of American music is now available in a revised edition. Published to wide acclaim in 1965, Music in a New Found Land, in its original edition, selectively reviewed the development of American musical traditions from the 1600s to the early 1960s. With the addition of a new afterword and a revised bibliography, Wilfrid Mellers brings his book up to date, discussing the important developments in American music in the past 20 years. A British musical scholar and composer, Wilfrid Mellers brings to this work not only his musical scholarship but the objectivity of a European writing about American music. "As an outsider," he writes, "I may see and hear things that cannot be experienced from within the American context." Mellers explores the development of unique musical traditions within the confines of America's shores, dividing his work into two parts, the first concentrating on "serious" art-music, the second on "popular" music, jazz, and show tunes. Beginning with the "primitives" (the New England hymnodists), the section on "serious" music shows how the styles of all the great American classical composers developed. Mellers uses as examples only those composers whose work he considers to have had a lasting effect on the history of American music. Among these are Charles Ives, "the first authentic American composer"; Carl Ruggles; Aaron Copland, "the first artist to define precisely, in sound, an aspect of our urban experience"; Charles Griffes; and John Cage, who took abstraction to an extreme, considering each sound an audible event, with no past and no future. He also examines the importance of Samuel Barber and Virgil Thomson, decidedly non-avant-garde 20th-century composers, whose works are popular, he claims, because they appeal to Americans' regressive tendencies. The second section charts the development of "pop" music, jazz, and musicals from parlor songs, work songs, and spirituals. Here, Mellers examines the appeal of Stephen Foster, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, and John Philip Sousa; tells the fascinating story of Tin Pan Alley; and traces the development of jazz from its beginnings in the smoke-filled bars of Storeytown to a music that encompassed barrelhouse piano, piano rag, and blues and was played in Chicago, New York, and the Far West. George Gershwin, Mark Blitzstein, and Leonard Gernstein all receive their due, as do the jazz greats, band leaders, and showmen. Mellers weaves into his study of American music discussion of American intellectual traditions, including Puritanism, transcendentalism, abstraction, and Dadaism--so that we have a history not only of American music, but of the way that music has fit into the intellectual preoccupations of the country. Also included are excerpts from American literature, samples of musical scores, references to specific recordings, and a selected bibliography. Updated through the 1980s, Music in a New Found Land now offers a new generation of scholars and music lovers an absorbing and authoritative study of the development of American music.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007E0QXA/?tag=2022091-20
( The subject of this book is accurately defined by its s...)
The subject of this book is accurately defined by its subtitle. Music in a New Found Land does not pretend to be a comprehensive history of American music. Nor does Mellers strive to catalog what he considers to be authentic American music. Instead, he deals, in some detail, with comparatively few composers, most of whom have wellestablished reputations. It has always been difficult to separate American music from its immediate relevance to the twentieth century. Mellers' theme involves the relationship between "art" music, jazz and pop music; he sees the segregation of these genres as both illogical and artifi cial. If the pop music of Tin Pan Alley may be anti-art, it has also produced Gershwin, Ellington, and composing improvisers such as Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. The study of American music is as relevant into any inquiry into a national culture as the study of American literature and painting. This book contains a large number of quotations from American writers, because Mellers thought American sensibility should parallel, reinforce, and comment on American music. In sum, this is the closest available one-volume history of American music, and a window into American culture.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1412809967/?tag=2022091-20
(Angels of the Night falls into three parts. From the Jazz...)
Angels of the Night falls into three parts. From the Jazz explosion ignited by Black Musicians in the early years of the 1900s, in the Reliious context of Gospel Music and in the Secular context of the Blues.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0631146962/?tag=2022091-20
(Angels of the Night falls into three parts. From the Jazz...)
Angels of the Night falls into three parts. From the Jazz explosion ignited by Black Musicians in the early years of the 1900s, in the Reliious context of Gospel Music and in the Secular context of the Blues.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00T0MNOCU/?tag=2022091-20
(Wilfrid Mellers is a composer, musician and author. Honor...)
Wilfrid Mellers is a composer, musician and author. Honorary Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge. This is his classic work on Mompou.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1904331254/?tag=2022091-20
(This, the second edition, was significantly revised and e...)
This, the second edition, was significantly revised and expanded. It incorporates a substantial amount of new material - notably three sections on the operas Hugh the Drover, Sir John in Love and The Poisoned Kiss. Also Wilfrid inserted into the final chapter A Double Man's Last Harvest, an account of the late A minor sonata for violin and piano.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/190685761X/?tag=2022091-20
(Once considered as little more than the froth in the wake...)
Once considered as little more than the froth in the wake of the First World War, a witty boy-hedonist who, in the giddy Twenties, tweaked the noses of moribund establishmentarians, Poulenc has in fact proved unexpectedly durable--more so than any of his colleagues among Les Six, including those who developed more grandiose ambitions. Here is a survey of Poulenc's music, based on careful selection of his works, and written by an authoritative guide. After placing Poulenc in the context of French life and society after the First World War and considering him in relation to his masters and mentors, especially Satie and Chabrier, Mellers turns to Poulenc's Diaghilev ballet, Les Biches, to important sequels to it, such as Concert champêtre and Aubade, and to works of transition, such as the Concerto for two pianos and orchestra. The next section discusses the "social" music of Poulenc's middle years--especially the music for piano (for Poulenc a domestic instrument), written during the Thirties, and the centrality of song in his work; some account is offered of his relationship with his main poets, Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Eluard, and Louise de Vilmorin. Mellers next considers the impact on Poulenc of the Second World War, especially as manifest in the great choral work Quatre Motets de Pénitence and the Organ Concerto. Adopting a broadly chronological approach, Mellers traces Poulenc's development as a composer from enfant terrible to a mature composer both for secular society and for the liturgy of the Catholic Church; in so doing he points to the reasons for the durability and pertinacity of his appeal. Mellers further assesses Poulenc's place in the French tradition, and, in a Postlude, pays tribute to the warm regard with which Poulenc was held by so many of his fellow musicians.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019816338X/?tag=2022091-20
(This volume reprints a part of Mellers's output, mostly a...)
This volume reprints a part of Mellers's output, mostly articles from the 1980s and 1990s. The articles encompass diverse subjects such as musical means and meaning, music theater, and instinct and sensitivity. A concluding section deals with American composers; a select list of works by Mellers completes the book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0838637981/?tag=2022091-20
(Displaying the broad erudition and intellectual agility t...)
Displaying the broad erudition and intellectual agility that have informed a lifetime of scholarship, Wilfrid Mellers offers a set of diverse reflections on how western art music illuminates the shifting relationship between humankind and the natural world. Beginning with two turn-of-the-century operas - Frederick Delius' "A Village Romeo and Juliet" and Claude Debussy's "Pellias et Mlisande" - that present humankind as lost in a tangled wood that is at once internal and external, Mellers develops the theme of wilderness in sociological, psychological, ecological, and even geological terms. He discusses Leos Jan ek's "Cunning Little Vixen" ("the ultimate ecological opera") as a parable of redemption and explores the delicate yet dangerous equilibrium between civilization and the dark forest in works by Charles Koechlin and Darius Milhaud. Elements of wilderness and the city combine to infuse the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos and Carlos Chvez with a blend of primitivism and sophistication, while a creative tension between desert landscape and industrial mechanization inspires the works of Carl Ruggles, Harry Partch, Steve Reich, and Australia's Peter Sculthorpe. The volume culminates in a discussion of two American urban folk musicians, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin. By suggesting how the "musicking" of ecological issues articulates twinned perspectives on music and our place in the world, Mellers raises intriguing questions about the links among tradition, talent, learning, and instinct. Brimming over with fresh ideas and unexpected cross-pollinations, "Singing in the Wilderness" is a stimulating addition to the oeuvre of a distinguished and inventive scholar.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0252025296/?tag=2022091-20
(A man of extraordinary charisma, Percy Grainger was at on...)
A man of extraordinary charisma, Percy Grainger was at once a legendary virtuoso pianist, a composer of highly original music, an arranger, and a "disher up" of folk music who pierced to the music's heart, and figure of some historical significance in relation to ethnomusicology and music education. A study of the music of this paradoxical figure, this book looks at the musical influence on his compositions of folk-song and of Grieg, and of those apparent polar opposites, Delius and Bach. It examines some of his more significant pieces in detail; considers his work in recreating traditional material and the music of others; sees him as a champion and transcriber of what is now known as Early Music; and looks at his sometimes alarmingly eccentric notions as to music's nature and purpose. Overriding barriers between art, folk, and pop music, Grainger is difficult to categorize, and is, in the history of music, unique.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198162707/?tag=2022091-20
(Once considered as little more than the froth in the wake...)
Once considered as little more than the froth in the wake of the First World War, a witty boy-hedonist who, in the giddy Twenties, tweaked the noses of moribund establishmentarians, Poulenc has in fact proved unexpectedly durable--more so than any of his colleagues among Les Six, including those who developed more grandiose ambitions. Here is a survey of Poulenc's music, based on careful selection of his works, and written by an authoritative guide. After placing Poulenc in the context of French life and society after the First World War and considering him in relation to his masters and mentors, especially Satie and Chabrier, Mellers turns to Poulenc's Diaghilev ballet, Les Biches, to important sequels to it, such as Concert champêtre and Aubade, and to works of transition, such as the Concerto for two pianos and orchestra. The next section discusses the "social" music of Poulenc's middle years--especially the music for piano (for Poulenc a domestic instrument), written during the Thirties, and the centrality of song in his work; some account is offered of his relationship with his main poets, Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Eluard, and Louise de Vilmorin. Mellers next considers the impact on Poulenc of the Second World War, especially as manifest in the great choral work Quatre Motets de Pénitence and the Organ Concerto. Adopting a broadly chronological approach, Mellers traces Poulenc's development as a composer from enfant terrible to a mature composer both for secular society and for the liturgy of the Catholic Church; in so doing he points to the reasons for the durability and pertinacity of his appeal. Mellers further assesses Poulenc's place in the French tradition, and, in a Postlude, pays tribute to the warm regard with which Poulenc was held by so many of his fellow musicians.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019816338X/?tag=2022091-20
Mellers, Wilfrid Howard was born on April 26, 1914 in Leamington, Warwickshire, England. Son of Percival Wilfrid and Hilda Maria (Lawrence) Mellers.
Bachelor, Cambridge University, England, 1936. Master of Arts, Cambridge University, England, 1939. Doctor of Music, Birmingham University, 1960.
Doctor of Philosophy, City University, London, 1982.
Lecturer in Music, Downing College 1945-1948. Staff Tutor in Music, Extramural Department, University of Birmingham 1948-1960. Distinguished Andrew Mellon Visiting Professor, of Music, University of Pittsburgh, United States of America 196063.
Professor, and Head of Department, of Music, University of York 1964-1981, now Emeritus. Part-time Professor, Guildhall School of Music, London, City University, London and Keele University since 1981. Honorary D. Phil. (City) 1981.
(Once considered as little more than the froth in the wake...)
(Once considered as little more than the froth in the wake...)
(A man of extraordinary charisma, Percy Grainger was at on...)
(Displaying the broad erudition and intellectual agility t...)
(Catalogue raisonne of Couperin's works; tempos of 18th-ce...)
(The first book in English on the life and works of Couper...)
(One of the most original and insightful surveys of Americ...)
(This volume reprints a part of Mellers's output, mostly a...)
(This, the second edition, was significantly revised and e...)
(This, the second edition, was significantly revised and e...)
( The subject of this book is accurately defined by its s...)
(Wilfrid Mellers is a composer, musician and author. Honor...)
(Wilfrid Mellers is a composer, musician and author. Honor...)
(Wilfrid Mellers is a composer, musician and author. Honor...)
(Angels of the Night falls into three parts. From the Jazz...)
(Angels of the Night falls into three parts. From the Jazz...)
(softcover)
(Reprint)
Author: Francois Couperin and the French Classical Tradition, 1950, 2d. Edition, 1987, Music in a New Found Land, 1964, 2d revised edition, 1988, Bach and the Dance of God, 1980, Beethoven and the Voice of God, 1983, Angels of the Night: Popular Female Singers of Our Time, 1986, The Masks of Orpheus, 1987, Le Jardin Retrouve: The Music of Frederic Mompou, 1988, Vaughan Williams and the Vision of Albion, 1989, Percy Grainger, 1992, Francis Poulenc, 1993, Between Old Worlds and New, 1997, Singing in the Wilderness: Music and Ecology in the Twentieth Century, 2000, Celestial Music?: Some Masterpieces of European Religious Music, 2002.
Married Vera Hobbs, 1939 (divorced 1948). Married Peggy Pauline Lewis, 1950 (divorced 1976). Children: Judith, Olivia, Caroline, Sarah.
Married Robin Stephanie Hildyard.