The British composer, conductor, and pianist Thomas Ades has achieved a level of recognition and celebrity within the world of classical music today that is almost unmatched. Once seen as the heir to Benjamin Britten, both in his importance to British music and his reputation as the enfant terrible of the concert world, Ades is a fascinating figure of contemporary composition. Reaching for the music behind the celebrity, author Drew Massey deftly tackles the challenges of writing about a living figure with such far-reaching impact by focusing on representative moments in his compositional career and critical reception. In this series of five interlocking essays, Massey provides an illuminating look at the formal characteristics of Ades's music, considers his work from the perspective of a contemporary listener, and places it within the larger context of developments in twentieth-century British music. He not only traces the diverse historical forms and traditions that Ades taps into but also reflects on where he is steering the future of composition and performance. An analysis of the key transitions in the artist's critical reception completes this book as the most comprehensive study of this pivotal figure of contemporary classical music in the English language to this day.

About the Author
Drew Massey is a scholar of British and American music since 1900. His first book, John Kirkpatrick, American Music, and the Printed Page, received the ASCAP Foundation's Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism in 2014. He has published on Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Leonard Bernstein, and other topics.

Reviews
Thomas Ades has a body of work behind him which has already ensured his place in the musical canon as one of the crucial cultural forces of the last and the present century. Drew Massey's new study of Ades, Thomas Ades in Five Essays, will bring his music to a new audience, as well as enriching the experience of those who already know it. Massey deftly places Ades in musical and cultural context, with an acute understanding of how Ades works his magic: by 'denying us any sense of stability he simultaneously enchants us'. Unmissable. * Ian Bostridge *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199374960
Author Drew Massey
Format Hardback
Page Count 216
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 436g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 162mm * 20mm