Book

Barenboim, Daniel, 1942- author.

Parallels and paradoxes : explorations in music and society / Daniel Barenboim and Edward W. Said ; edited and with a preface by Ara Guzelimian.

New York : Pantheon Books, ©2002.

xvii, 186 pages ; 21 cm

This fascinating exchange between Daniel Barenboim, Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and Edward W. Said, the leading expert on the Middle East, grew out of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Talks. A unique and impassioned discussion about politics and culture, it touches on many diverse subjects: the importance of a sense of place; the differences between writing prose and music; the conductors Wilhelm Furtwangler and Arturo Toscanini; Beethoven as the greatest sonata composer; the difficulty of playing Wagner; the sound at Bayreuth; the writers Balzac, Dickens, and Adorno; the importance of great teachers; and the power of culture to transcend all national and political differences--something they both witnessed when they brought together young Arab and Israeli musicians to play at Weimar in 1999. Although Barenboim and Said have very different points of view, they act as catalysts for each other. The originality of their ideas makes this a book that is both accessible and compelling for anyone who is interested in the culture of the twenty-first century.

Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics.

Music -- Interpretation (Phrasing, dynamics, etc.)

Music -- Social aspects.

Said, Edward W., author.

Guzelimian, Ara, editor, writer of preface.

Explorations in music and society

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-186).

A question of place -- Rehearsal styles -- The Weimar workshop -- National identity and interpretation -- Globalism and partition -- An audition with Wilhelm Furtwängler -- The singularity of performance -- Ephemerality of sound -- The score and literary text as absolute -- The psychology of tonality -- Composers, writers, and society -- Art and censorship -- Detail is all -- Timing and the Oslo accord

Art, politics, and institutions -- On mentors -- A style of conducting -- The importance of extremes -- The art of transition -- Space and tone -- Flexibility of tempo -- The color and weight of sound -- The open pit and Bayreuth -- Adorno and Wagner -- National Socialism and Wagner -- Manipulation and yielding -- The question of a German art -- What is authenticity now -- Interpretation in text and music -- Past and contemporary masters -- A musically literate listener -- Modernism and inaccessibility

Organic Beethoven -- Symphonies and concertos -- Music of the social realm -- Long Crescendo versus Subito Piano -- Music and the line of most resistance -- Germans, Jews and music by Daniel Barenboim -- Barenboim and the Wagner taboo by Edward W. Said -- Afterword by Ara Guzelimian.

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