Ferruccio Busoni and His Legacy [Hardcover]

Many students of renowned composer, conductor, and teacher Ferruccio Busoni had illustrious careers of their own, yet the extent to which their mentors influence helped shape their success was largely unexplored until now. Through rich archival research including correspondence, essays, and scores, Erinn E. Knyt presents an evocative account of Busoni's idiosyncratic pedagogyfocused on aesthetic ideals rather than methodologies or techniquesand how this teaching style and philosophy can be seen and heard in the Nordic-inspired musical works of Sibelius, the unusual soundscapes of Var?se, the polystylistic meldings of music and technology in Louis Gruenberg's radio operas and film scores, the electronic music of Otto Luening, and the experimentalism of Philip Jarnach. Equal parts critical biography and interpretive analysis, Knyts work compels a reconsideration of Busoni's legacy and puts forth the notion of a Busoni School as one that shaped the trajectory of twentieth-century music.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Unconventional Maestro
2. Janus-Faced Modernism
3. New Instruments, New Sounds, and New Musical Laws
4. From Opera to Film
5. New Sonic Landscapes
5. New Music of the Weimar Republic
7. Conclusions: Passing the Torch
Selected Bibliography
Index

Erinn E. Knyt is Assistant Professor of Music History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Knyt specializes in 19th- and 20th-century music, aesthetics, and performance studies and has written extensively about Ferruccio Busoni. She has articles in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, the Journal of Musicological Research, American Music, the Journal of Musicology, the Journal of Music History Pedagogy, and Twentieth Century Music.

Erinn KnytsFerruccio Busoni and His Legacyis a most welcome addition to the literature on Busoni as a fine example of research based on primary sources.