Singing Archaeology: Philip Glass's Akhnaten (Music/Culture)
by John Richardson
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Book Summary Information
Author: John RichardsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-01-01
ISBN: 0819563420
Number of pages: 310
Publisher: Wesleyan
Book Reviews of Singing Archaeology: Philip Glass's Akhnaten (Music/Culture)
Book Review: Astute, perceptive, revealing & stylish - a real treat.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of those rare books of musicology that succeeds in keeping your attention with solid musicianly insights (and liberal musical examples to back them up), written with panache and dispassionate admiration of the subject material. Richardson has a dazzling literary style which shines a musico-archaelogist's light into Glass's arcane compositional processes. There's a lot more in Akhnaten than a lot of repeated arpeggios! Alongside this is a perceptive investigation of the historico-literary sources for the libretto (Velikovsky, Moses et al), and even the raw material of the egyptology (Akhenamun versus Akhenaten, the mysterious familial relationships etc). Richardson wisely avoids getting into the hotbed of speculation about members of the Amarna dynasty (Smekhare etc) who don't feature in the operatic work anyhow.The musical analysis is careful and thorough - you'd benefit from having studied music-theory to grasp the necessary terminology used here. (If you aren't familiar with terms like plagal cadences, 12-note series, chord-inversions, 6/4 chords, etc, you'd have to skip this fascinating chapter).
Any composer would be honoured to have a book of this level of seriousness and depth written about their work. A marvellous bit of scholarship that should not get entombed in University Libraries.
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