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This book tells the intriguing story of Bela Bartok's Viola Concerto, a work left unfinished at his death in 1945. Drawing on interviews and documents that reveal previously unavailable information, it discuesses the commission, the reconstruction by Tibor Serly, events leading up to the premiere, its reception over the second half of the twentieth century, the revisions, and future possibilities.

Matthew Brown examines Debussy's sketches and drafts to show how the composer wrote one of his last great symphonic scores: Iberia (from Images for orchestra). He describes the work's compositional history, the various intentional goals and historical contraints that guided Debussy's thinking, and some of the technical problems Debussy faced while composing this remarkable score.

In this study of the sources for Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 109, Nicholas Marston suggests a unique way of understanding this major composition. Using letters, sketchbooks and other contemporary material, he builds up a detailed picture of Beethoven's compositional progress on the sonata, using many music examples.

"Elektra", the fourth opera written by Strauss, opened his successful partnership with the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal and solidified his status as a leading composer. This study examines the opera in a musical-historical context and analyzes its key features.

In this book, Warren Darcy traces the compositional genesis of Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold, the first opera of his great operatic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen. He also attempts a comprehensive formal and tonal analysis of the piece. Basing his work upon Wagner's textual and musical manuscripts, he employs the most up-to-date analytical techniques.

Following the earlier volumes in the Studies in Musical Genesis and Structure series, Mahler's Fourth Symphony is a study of origins of one of Mahler's most popular and accessible works. James Zychowicz examines how the composition evolved from the earliest ideas to the finished score, and in doing so sheds new light on Mahler's working process.

Following the earlier volumes in the Studies in Musical Genesis and Structure series, Mahler's Fourth Symphony is a study of origins of one of Mahler's most popular and accessible works. James Zychowicz examines how the composition evolved from the earliest ideas to the finished score, and in doing so sheds new light on Mahler's working process.

This study, the first of its kind on a work of Vaughan Williams, traces the genesis of the composer's enigmatic final symphony as documented in the surviving manuscripts. The latter reveal an underlying programme based on Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and chart the composer's struggle to find the technical means by which to realize his most complex spiritual vision.

In this study of the composition, reception, extramusical implications, and stylistic eclecticism of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, a staple of the 19th-century musical canon, Cooper devotes extensive attention to the differences between the posthumously published familiar version of the work and the composer's revision.

Setting the stage for a most intriguing journey into the world of minimalism, Robert Carl's Terry Riley's In C argues that the work holds its place in the canon because of the very challenges it presents to "classical" music. Carl examines In C in the context of its era, its grounding in aesthetic practices and assumptions, its process of composition, presentation, recording, and dissemination.

An examination of the Trakl cycle of the compositional process of one of this century's most rigorously intellectual composers. Professor Shreffler's close examination of the manuscript sources of Webern's middle-period songs enables her to shed light on Webern's musical language and his methods.