Alfred Einstein on Music: Selected Music Criticisms

(Hardback)

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This collection is a tribute to the talent, teaching, and humanism of Alfred Einstein, whose scholarship and criticisms affirm his position as one of the foremost musicologists of the 20th century. Written by a former student of Einstein's, this portrait draws on the influences and events that shaped his life and work as a Jewish scholar in pre-Nazi Germany and that necessitated his emigration to the United States. Dower provides more than one hundred examples of his criticisms that document the music of Germany and the United States in the second quarter of this century and that demonstrate the art of music criticism at its best. Included is a chronology that is based on information provided by Einstein's daughter, Eva. Her insight into her father's personal life is combined with Catherine Dower's careful chronological documentation of Einstein's professional endeavours, provide a unique evaluation of a critic whose research produced valuable musical discoveries and whose writings always recognized the important relationship between music and its cultural background. The study affords further access to Einstein's writings by identifying the locations of Einstein collections in numerous libraries throughout the United States.

Author Bio

CATHERINE DOWER is Professor Emerita in Music History at Westfield State College, Westfield, Massachusetts. She is the author of Puerto Rican Music Following the Spanish-American War, and Yella Pessl, First Lady of the Harpsicord. Dr. Dower has also written numerous articles and music criticisms in local, national, international journals and newspapers, and encyclopedias.