The Muse and the Fashion by Nikolai Medtner

[mjames]

I stumbled upon an interesting find a couple of days ago. I was browsing over some stuff in www.medtner.org.uk and I found out that Medtner was also published writer. Wrote some articles, papers, and EVEN A BOOK!

One that particularly interested me was "The Muse and the Fashion" which talks about the "sacred elements" of music and its importance in the Western world. He gives his thoughts about the growing trend of what we now associate with modernism/second Viennese school.

I've only been reading it for a couple of days and even if you don't agree with him, you'll find this book to be pretty informative. I've read books about music from musicologists, critics etc but never have I read an in depth look into music by a MASTER composer!! Just reading about his perspective on things is absolutely amazing...you can truly see just how much of an understanding this man had about music.

Sadly I'm not Russian so I'm not able to read it in his own words but for those interested, the translated and original versions are available here:

https://www.medtner.org.uk/publications.html

FOR FREE!

Fun fact...

was published by medtner's life long admirer Rachmaninof!

[diomedes]

Interesting, I'm not surprised that he did writing but that Rachmaninov published it, that's unexpected. Might be good reading if i get stuck somewhere with 20 minutes to kill, thanks.

[mjames]

Glad you liked the info!