Perfect Pitch, Third Revised Edition: An Autobiography (Excelsior Editions)

Slonimsky, Nicolas

ISBN 10: 1438491638 / ISBN 13: 9781438491639

Published by Excelsior Editions/State Univers, 2023

About this Item

Mild to Moderate creasing / bending to covers and pages. Book is otherwise very clean, unmarked and 100% functional.

Seller Inventory # mon0003180302

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Perfect Pitch, Third Revised Edition: An Autobiography (Excelsior Editions)
• Publisher: Excelsior Editions/State Univers
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1438491638
• ISBN 13: 9781438491639
• Binding: hardcover
• Edition: 3rd Edition
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The autobiography of one of the 20th century's most innovative and wittiest composers/performers/authors who witnessed the birth of modern music.

Perfect Pitch tells the compelling story of Nicolas Slonimsky. A boy prodigy as a pianist, Slonimsky fled pre-Communist Russia, reaching Paris at the height of another revolution-one in music and the arts. His early association with conductor Serge Koussevitzky brought him into contact with many of the era's greatest talents, including Igor Stravinsky and Serge Prokofiev. Emigrating to Boston in 1925, he embarked on a writing career, authoring key works still in print decades after their first publication, including Music Since 1900, a chronological history; Lexicon of Musical Invective, which proved definitively that new works are rarely understood in their time; and Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, which inspired generations of composers and performers, including jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. Known for his sharp wit, Slonimsky appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and was befriended by Frank Zappa. Perfect Pitch captures a life that was rich with discovery and invention and spanned a century of revolutions and explorations. This new edition is enhanced with several previously unpublished photographs, an extensive oral history, and several original essays, some reprinted for the first time.

About the Author

Nicolas Slonimsky (1894–1995) was a Russian-born United-States-based writer, lexicographer, pianist, composer, conductor, and champion of contemporary music. His many books include Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns; and Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven's Time.