Perfect Pitch: A Life Story - Hardcover

Slonimsky, Nicolas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0193151553 ISBN 13: 9780193151550

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1988

Synopsis

A man of untiring energy and humor, Nicolas Slonimsky has led a long and accomplished musical life, and today in his nineties he is a vital presence in American music. In 1985, an extensive New Yorker profile described him as "a man of countless daffy stunts and almost as many authentic achievements." Indeed, Slonimsky pursued four distinct careers, each with its own degree of success: as a pianist, as a composer, as an pioneering conductor who championed modern American composers, among them Ives, Varèse and Cowell, who long afterwards came to be acknowledged as giants of the new century. It was in his fourth career, as a musical lexicographer, that he achieved world-wide recognition, particularly as editor of the highly respected Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, a reference work renowned for its highly imaginative, lively, and gem-like entries.
He is also a master raconteur. In Perfect Pitch, his fast-paced and often hilarious autobiography, he recounts in fascinating detail a life that spans the whole of 20th-century music, ranging from his childhood in St. Petersburg, where he studied piano with his illustrious aunt, Isabelle Vengerova, to his years as secretary and "piano pounder" to Serge Koussevitzky, to his present career as musical lexicographer. He describes the extraordinary accomplishments of members of his family; Russia before, during, and after the Revolution; his successful appearances as conductor in Paris, Berlin, and New York, and his fall from grace at the Hollywood Bowl; the whimsical pleasures of lexicographical detective work; unexpected fame and fortune as a game show contestant; and much, much more. Along the way, the reader meets famous personalities as seen through Slonimsky's eye, names such as Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Eugene Ormandy, Leonard Bernstein, John Cage, and Frank Zappa. Also included is the correspondence from Henry Cowell in prison, providing a stirring commentary on the persecution of this remarkable American musician.
Crowded with illuminating anecdotes, Perfect Pitch captures a life packed with odd and arcane developments, related in a style full of wit, spice, and irreverence.

About this title

About the Author:

About the Author:
Nicolas Slonimsky is author or editor of numerous books on music, including Music Since 1900, Lexicon of Musical Invective, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, and the redoubtable Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians.

From Publishers Weekly:

Amusingly, Slonimsky looks back on his 93 years as a failed wunderkind, pianist, accompanist, conductor, composer, propagandist for 20th century music and lexicographical dynamo (Music Since 1900, Baker's Dictionary). Brought up as an adherent of Greek Orthodoxy by his wacky mother, who regarded him a genius, this descendant of two distinguished Jewish families discovered early in life that he had perfect pitch, a gift that helped him to become even more proficient in music than he already was in mathematics and languages. These irreverent memoirs, frequently interrupted by letters, reviews, anecdotes and wordplay, take him from late 19th century St. Petersburg, Paris in the 1920s and four decades in Boston, through travels in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and, ultimately, to the past 20 years in Los Angeles. Here are side-splitting stories about Koussevitzky, whom he served as secretary, translator and surrogate orchestra; Stravinsky, who did not have perfect pitch and was a poor proofreader; Charles Ives, who was touchy but generous; composer Henry Cowell, who wrote cheerful letters from San Quentin; Chaliapin, who was beastly to accompanists; and Frank Zappa, with whom the author performed in 1981. Music lovers will swallow most of this wholeand eagerly. But even those with tin-ears will enjoy individual chapters: "I, Diaskeuast!," in which Slonimsky tells how, as a person who derives "egotistical pleasure from finding errors in other people's books," he became the century's outstanding musical lexicographer; "Fame and Fortune," which describes his winning appearances on Mike Wallace's TV quiz show, "The Big Surprise" and his decision not to go for the $100,000 jackpot although he answered all the questions correctly. Slonimsky taught himself English by memorizing 20 polysyllabic words every day, and pronunciation by practicing sentences he made up, such as "Cat, caught on the cot, cut my coat." He describes his flaky friends as "furfuraceous" and regards his principal vice, sloth, as "pigritude." He cites the vowelless Czech tongue-twisting, jawbreaking sentence "Strcprst skrz krk" (put your finger on your throat) as the title of a choral work by composer Krsto Zyzik, whom he invented and considered including in one of his reference books. Still fit, though fat, this international treasure, concluding his "rueful autopsy," looks forward to 1994, when he'll be 100. Readers should stick around for the fun. Photos.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0193151553
• ISBN 13: 9780193151550
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288