The Musical Languages of Elliott Carter

by Charles Rosen, Morgan Cundiff (Contributor)

As part of its celebration of Elliott Carter’s seventieth birthday, the Library of Congress invited Charles Rosen to perform the composer’s 1946 Piano Sonata, a work that marks a turning point in Carter’s compositional technique from a more accessible to a more complex and difficult idiom. Mr. Rosen delivered a lecture, extemporaneous and with many musical examples, before his performance, and then refined and expanded the material for this publication.

The book includes a transcription of Mr. Rosen's interview with the composer, made for the BBC, and "A Guide to Elliott Carter Research Materials at the Library of Congress Music Division," by Morgan Cundiff.

Genres: Music

87 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Charles Rosen was a concert pianist, Professor of Music and Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and the author of numerous books, including The Classical Style, The Romantic Generation, and Freedom and the Arts.