Masterful essays honoring the great pianist and critic Charles Rosen, on masterpieces from Bach and Beethoven to Chopin, Verdi, and Stockhausen.Charles Rosen, the pianist and man of letters, is perhaps the single most influential writer on music of the past half-century. While Rosen's vast range as a writer and performer is encyclopedic, it has focused particularly on theliving "canonical" repertory extending from Bach to Boulez. Inspired in its liveliness and variety of critical approaches by Charles Rosen's challenging work, Variations on the Canon offers original essays by some of the world's most eminent musical scholars. Contributors address such issues as style and compositional technique, genre, influence and modeling, and reception history; develop insights afforded by close examination of compositional sketches; and consider what language and metaphors might most meaningfully convey insights into music. However diverse the modes of inquiry, each essay sheds new light on the works of those composers posterity has deemed central to the modern Western musical tradition. Contributors: Pierre Boulez, Scott Burnham, Elliott Carter, Robert Curry, Walter Frisch, David Gable, Philip Gossett, Jeffrey Kallberg, Joseph Kerman, Richard Kramer, William Kinderman, Lewis Lockwood, Sir Charles Mackerras, Robert L. Marshall, Robert P. Morgan, Charles Rosen, Julian Rushton, David Schulenberg, László Somfai, Leo Treitler, James Webster, and Robert Winter. Robert Curry is principalof the Conservatorium High School and honorary senior lecturer in the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney; David Gable is Assistant Professor of Music at Clark-Atlanta University; Robert L. Marshall is Louis, Frances, and Jeffrey Sachar Professor Emeritus of Music at Brandeis University.

Fugue and Its Discontents - Joseph KermanFugues, Form, and Fingering: Sonata Style in Bach's Preludes and Fugues - David SchulenbergNotational Irregularities as Attributes of a New Style: The Case of Haydn's "Sun" Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, no. 5 - Laszlo SomfaiThe Fugal Moment: On a Few Bars in Mozart's Quintet in C Major, K. 515 - Richard KramerA Tale of Two Quintets: Mozart's K. 452 and Beethoven's Opus 16 - William KindermanVestas Feuer: Beethoven on the Path to Leonore - Lewis LockwoodSonority and Structure: Observations on Beethoven's Early and Middle-Period Piano Compositions - Robert L. MarshallRecomposing the Grosse Fuge: Beethoven and Opus 134 - Prof. Robert WinterSchubert, the Tarantella, and the Quartettsatz, D. 703 - Julian RushtonOn the Scherzando Nocturne - Jeffrey KallbergChopin's Modular Forms - Robert P. MorganThe Hot and the Cold: Verdi Writes to Antonio Somma about Re Lear - Philip GossettThe Ironic German: Schoenberg and the Serenade, Op. 24 - Walter FrischWords for the Surface: Boulez, Stockhausen, and "Allover" Painting - David GableRosen's Modernist Haydn - James WebsterFacile Metaphors, Hidden Gaps, Short Circuits: Should We Adore Adorno? - Leo TreitlerThe Music of a Classical Style - Scott BurnhamMontaigne hors de son propos - Charles RosenTribute: Une culture vraiment intimidante - Pierre BoulezTribute: Charles Rosen for His Eightieth Birthday - Elliott CarterTribute: Charles Rosen: A Personal Appreciation by a Contemporary - Charles MackerrasAppendix 1: A Discography of the Recordings of Charles Rosen - David GableAppendix 2: A Bibliography of the Writings of Charles Rosen - Robert Curry