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The Music of Anthony Braxton

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Mike Heffley

Book Code: GM9956

ISBN: 0-313-29956-0

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-29956-8

DOI:

504 pages, figures,

Greenwood Press

Publication: 5/30/1996

List Price: $131.95 (UK Sterling Price: £75.00)

Availability: Print on demand

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance

Series Number: 43

Endorsement From
John Szwed, Yale University: This is such an unprecendented and remarkably visionary book that it seems unfair to categorize it. Incited by Anthony Braxton's music, Heffley accepts the challenge by going wherever it takes him. His interrogation of Braxton's work is irresistible, and every page dares the reader to keep up with him, whether to the beginnings of civilization or to the outer reaches of space. Though it is as ambitious as The Road to Xanadu--J.L. Lowes' exploration of the secrets which lie behind Coleridge's poetry-- I know of nothing quite like this extraordinary book.

Description: For three decades, Anthony Braxton has been alternately celebrated, dismissed, and attacked for his musical innovations. His ambitious efforts to reconcile and personalize the historically divergent and often conflicting worldviews and principles of African-American (jazz), American Experimental (post-Ives), and Western European (post-serial) traditions have attracted both loyal supporters and passionate critics. Mike Heffley has followed Braxton's widely varied music from its beginning, and in 1988 began a professional musical relationship with him. His "biography" of Braxton's music is just that--a look at the music as if it were a living entity, with a traceable ancestry, a describable place in the world, and a history full of drama, intrigue, and passion. The music scholar will find here all the information necessary to understand the contents, contexts, and concepts of Braxton's music, and to further that understanding. The general reader will find the human and trans-human qualities that make the music so compelling to its makers and lovers.

Table of Contents:

Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Millennial/Gravitational Intrigue
first arrow...from the bow of the past
Evocation
The Music's Grandparents
The Music's Parents
second arrow...on the string of the present
Invocation
The Musician's Words
The Musician Speaks
third arrow...in the five fingers of the archer
Provocation
The Solo Music's Axis (Tradition/Innovation)
fourth arrow...whistling through the air of the future
Duo Music
Trio Music
Quartet Music
Large-Ensemble Music
fifth arrow...in the eye of the bull
The Music's Muse
Appendix: Anthony Braxton: "Introduction" to "Catalogue of Works"
Sources
Index

LC Card Number: 95-43113

LCC Class: ML410

Dewey Class: 781


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