Autograph letter signed. To contemporary American composer Dean Rosenthal (b. 1974)
1 page. On a postal card. In ink.
"... You expressed a desire to hear my opera - it has been released as a CD by E.M.I. "Powder Her Face" - any store should be able to receive one for you! I send you a card rather than e-mail as it is permanent. So glad you appreciate PULP ..." [the British rock band]
Slightly worn; minor browning; narrow strip of white tape laid down to recto not affecting autograph.
An English composer, "Adès's compositions showed exceptional assurance of style and technique from the beginning, and his success had much to do with the unmistakable presence of a personal accent in music which blends vividness of detail with a clear sense of compelling overall design: the inexorable build-up in the third section of Asyla is a particularly striking example. Employing well-established compositional genres, from chamber opera (Powder Her Face) and string quartet (Arcadiana) to symphonic form (Chamber Symphony, Asyla) his music often alludes to specific models while nevertheless keeping its distance from them. ...
In Powder Her Face the central character, the sex-obsessed Duchess, can be seen and heard as a monstrous operatic heroine in the well-established 20th-century tradition of Salome, Turandot and Lulu. Yet the opera's small-scale forces help to distance the Duchess from grand-operatic pretensions, and the character acquires considerable depth as the drama proceeds. ... Adès's music shows few signs of direct contact with the rigours of 20th-century constructivism, and he avoids the consistent textural fragmentation and formal disjunction of an Expressionist aesthetic. His delight in creating and sustaining tension through the accumulation of distinct, elaborately patterned layers of texture suggests an affinity with Ives, and his keen appreciation of the importance of composers such as Janáček and Szymanowski, who based their innovations on the need to preserve elements of Romantic expression, is complemented by a feeling for the kind of intricate, ebullient sound tapestries found in Nancarrow and Ligeti." Arnold Whittall in Grove Music Online
Rosenthal's special interests include electronic music, and sound installations. He is most closely associated with composers John Cage, Tom Johnson, and Wandelweiser.
Item #39258
Price: $150.00 other currencies