Written in 1991 to commemorate the bicentennial of Mozart's death, Burgess's novella-length piece is a compendium of themes, genres and even art-forms revolving around the one central preoccupation of the entire Burgess oeuvre: the reconcilability of life and art. This is a kaleidoscope of a book, which stretches even the bounds of even Anthony Burgess's fiction in an attempt to understand Mozart through celestial dialogue, an opera libretto, and fragments of a film script.

As gracefully witty as it is daringly experimental, Mozart and the Wolf Gang is one of Burgess's late, great works, often overlooked due to its experimental form, which nevertheless remains accessible, entertaining and yet refreshingly original to this day.

This new critical edition with analysis from noted musicologist and a first-class literary critic Alan Shockley enables this work's significance to be assessed by a new generation of readers and scholars.

About the Author

Alan Shockley (1970-2020) was Professor of Music at California State University, Long Beach. He studied composition and theory at the University of Georgia, Ohio State University, and Princeton University. He was a prolific composer whose works often called for unconventional combinations of instruments, voices, and electronics. His publications include The Contemporary Piano: A Performer and Composer's Guide to Techniques and Resources (2018) and Music in the Words: Musical Form and Counterpoint in the Twentieth Century Novel (2009).

Will Carr is Deputy Director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. He has edited The Ink Trade, a selection of Burgess's essays, and the Irwell Edition of The Pianoplayers.

Christine Lee Gengaro is a Professor of Music at Los Angeles City College. She has edited the Irwell Edition of This Man and Music.

Reviews

'In this authoritative new critical edition, Mozart and the Wolf Gang involves other opera composers too, including Prokofiev, Rossini, Berlioz, and Wagner.'
Opera Now magazine

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Book Information
ISBN 9781526132727
Author Alan Shockley
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press