Charles Rosen, 1927-2012

[Brian]

Charles Rosen, the pianist, polymath and author whose National Book Award-winning volume "The Classical Style" illuminated the enduring language of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 85.

The death, at Mount Sinai Hospital, was of cancer, said Henri Zerner, a friend of many years.

Published in 1971, "The Classical Style" examines the nature of classical music through the lens of its three most exemplary practitioners. Given that these titans were working with the same raw materials — the 12 notes of the Western musical scale — as the Baroque composers who had preceded them, just what was it, Mr. Rosen's book asked, that gave their music its unmistakable character?

The answers, he concluded, could be gleaned from a penetrating analysis of the structure of classical compositions. It was precisely this structure that his book, through a painstaking unraveling of Haydn's string quartets, Mozart's comic operas, Beethoven's piano sonatas and other seminal works, sought to make plain.

Though some critics took the book to task for its heavy reliance on musical notation (a work aimed at a general readership, they argued, should be accessible even to those who could not read music), most praised it as a masterly work of synthesis.

"The Classical Style" received the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1972.

As a renowned writer and lecturer on music who was also a concert pianist of no small reputation, Mr. Rosen was among the last exemplars of a figure more typically associated with the 19th century: the international scholar-musician. If as a writer he was known for aqueous lucidity and the vast, ecumenical sweep of his inquiry, then as a pianist he tended to rate a similar description.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/arts/music/charles-rosen-pianist-polymath-and-author-dies-at-85.html?hp&_r=0

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As some may know Charles Rosen was also a major influence on our own member, (poco) Sforzando, and I believe a teacher of his at one point (?).

[San Antone]

Charles Rosen, the pianist, polymath and author whose National Book Award-winning volume "The Classical Style" illuminated the enduring language of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 85.

The death, at Mount Sinai Hospital, was of cancer, said Henri Zerner, a friend of many years.

Published in 1971, "The Classical Style" examines the nature of classical music through the lens of its three most exemplary practitioners. Given that these titans were working with the same raw materials — the 12 notes of the Western musical scale — as the Baroque composers who had preceded them, just what was it, Mr. Rosen's book asked, that gave their music its unmistakable character?

The answers, he concluded, could be gleaned from a penetrating analysis of the structure of classical compositions. It was precisely this structure that his book, through a painstaking unraveling of Haydn's string quartets, Mozart's comic operas, Beethoven's piano sonatas and other seminal works, sought to make plain.

Though some critics took the book to task for its heavy reliance on musical notation (a work aimed at a general readership, they argued, should be accessible even to those who could not read music), most praised it as a masterly work of synthesis.

"The Classical Style" received the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1972.

As a renowned writer and lecturer on music who was also a concert pianist of no small reputation, Mr. Rosen was among the last exemplars of a figure more typically associated with the 19th century: the international scholar-musician. If as a writer he was known for aqueous lucidity and the vast, ecumenical sweep of his inquiry, then as a pianist he tended to rate a similar description.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/arts/music/charles-rosen-pianist-polymath-and-author-dies-at-85.html?hp&_r=0

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As some may know Charles Rosen was also a major influence on our own member, (poco) Sforzando, and I believe a teacher of his at one point (?).

A longer post got lost in cyber space - but this is very sad news indeed.  I've got four of his books, The Classical Style, Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, Sonata Forms and The Romantic Generation.  All are excellent and well worth digging into.

[PaulSC]

A real loss — probably no one else of his generation achieved more as both a performer and a scholar. I particularly valued him for his early and sustained advocacy of the composer Elliott Carter, another great musician we lost this year.

[petrarch]

I've got four of his books, The Classical Style, Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, Sonata Forms and The Romantic Generation.  All are excellent and well worth digging into.

Seconded on all four books. I'm not that great a fan of the classical and romantic periods, but Rosen's writing makes it quite enjoyable.

[San Antone]

Last night I watched the Carter film, A Labyrinth of Time.  Besides Carter, the person who was featured the most was Rosen.  It was nice to see him at work, and quite unexpectedly. 

[snyprrr]

A real loss — probably no one else of his generation achieved more as both a performer and a scholar. I particularly valued him for his early and sustained advocacy of the composer Elliott Carter, another great musician we lost this year.

mm hm

[Sergeant Rock]

mm hm

Stop mumbling! Speak up if you have something to say 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Last night I watched the Carter film, A Labyrinth of Time.  Besides Carter, the person who was featured the most was Rosen.  It was nice to see him at work, and quite unexpectedly.

I've not watched this one in a while . . . .

[Chaszz]

Here's an appreciation, and a personal look at Charles Rosen through the eyes of a younger pianist, from the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/12/postscript-charles-rosen.html

[val]

I never liked him as a pianist, but I love his books. I am reading again his "Classic Style", the one I prefer. But the book about Beethoven piano sonatas is also remarkable.

[jlaurson]

Loved Rosen: approachable and friendly and patient... and would answer inane questions (mine, on tonality as such) even after having just performed a veritable tour de force of E.Carter (how apropos)...



Charles Rosen - With Overtones of Modernity
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/06/with-overtones-of-modernity.html