MUSICAL ITALY REVISITED: A Traveler's Guide to Musical Monuments and Treasures

by Siegmund Levarie ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

This is an invaluable guide for persons interested in Italian music and composers. It is not a book you will read from beginning to end, but is rather a reference work. Siegmund Levarie, a music professor and ardent traveler, has annotated all the cities of Italy by way of their famous composers and important musical events. Cities are musical in different ways, with Cremona known for violinmakers and Naples for opera. Mr. Levarie suggests that the traveler read this book in bed before turning off the lights in a new town. ""His aroused curiosity might evoke a rich world otherwise muffled"" while walking about the city. You're in Venice? Remember Monteverdi! ""With the Byzantine style of (St. Mark's) cathedral came the Byzantine habit of antiphonal singing, i.e., of pitching two distinct choruses against each other. No wonder that St. Mark's had become the seat of two organs by 1316, establishing a musical style that is as characteristic of Venice as the pictorial style of the Bellinis."" These two organs are ""like the right and left punches of a boxer"". In Florence? See the Bardi Palace, where opera literally was born. A fine guide for the musically interested.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1963

Categories: NONFICTION