Harry Somers / / Brian Cherney.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Cherney, Brian,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2017]; ©1975
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (206 p.)

Harry Somers is one of Canada's leading composers, and one of the most original. In the 1950s he experimented with contrapuntal writing, serialism, and style juxtaposition; in more recent years he has been concerned with the development of new vocal resources and improvisation.Harry Somers, a detailed study of the composer and his works, has been commissioned by the Canadian Music Centre as the first of a series, each volume of which will cover in depth the career and works of a major Canadian composer.Within the framework provided by major biographical events, Brian Cherney traces Somers' development as a composer from 1939 to 1973 by analysing works from various stages in his career. He discusses in particular the influences on Somers of Bartók, Debussy, and Weinzweig, the interrelationships between his works, and his stylistic traits and compositional techniques. A chronological list of Somers' works is included, and, because of its importance, an entire chapter is devoted to the opera Louis Riel. In view of the scarcity of in-depth critical literature on Canadian composers, this thorough and objective book will be of interest to music students, professional musicians, composers, and the general music public, both in Canada and abroad.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- General foreword/Avant-propos général -- Acknowledgments -- 1. The early years -- 2. The apprenticeship -- 3. Paris 1950 -- 4. Consolidation, recognition 1951-9 -- 5. Paris 1960-1 and the orchestral works of the late fifties and early sixties -- 6. New directions: the vocal works of the sixties -- 7. Louis Riel -- 8. Rome 1969-71 and the early seventies -- Appendix 1. Compositions by Harry Somers -- Appendix 2. Discography -- Appendix 3. Synopsis of Louis Kiel -- Selected bibliography -- Index