Charles Rosen
Encyclopedia
Charles Rosen is an American
pianist
and author on music.
. Rosenthal, born in 1862, had been a student of Franz Liszt
. Rosenthal's memories of the 19th century in classical music were communicated to his pupil and appear frequently in Rosen's later writings.
Rosen has said that the pianist Józef Hofmann
, whom he heard every year from age three, was a greater influence on him than Rosenthal. He recalls having played for Leopold Godowsky
at age seven; Godowsky asked Rosen what he would like to be when he grew up, and, to Godowsky's amusement, Rosen answered, "I want to be a pianist like Józef Hofmann." Rosen has also named Arturo Toscanini
as a great influence.
Following his training Rosen pursued a successful career as a concert pianist, appearing in numerous recitals and orchestral engagements around the world. He recorded a number of 20th century works at the invitation of their composers, including music by Stravinsky
, Elliott Carter
, and Pierre Boulez
. His recordings also include earlier literature such as Debussy's
Études
, Schumann's
works for solo piano, Beethoven's
late sonatas and Diabelli Variations
, and Bach
's Art of Fugue
and Goldberg Variations
.
Rosen is also the author of many acclaimed books about music. Perhaps his most famous work is The Classical Style (1971), which analyzes the nature and evolution of the high classical style as it was developed by Haydn
, Mozart
and Beethoven
. Sonata Forms (1980) is in some ways a follow-up on The Classical Style; it is an intensive analysis of the primary musical form used in the classical era. The Romantic Generation (1995) covers the work of the early generation of Romantic composers, including Chopin
, Liszt, Schumann, and Mendelssohn
.
Although Charles Rosen in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
is referred as one of the musicologist Oliver Strunk's
students, he never formally studied musicology and he has not gained a degree in musicology.
The polymathic Rosen has also published in other areas of the humanities: Romanticism and Realism: The Mythology of Nineteenth-Century Art and Romantic Poets, Critics, and Other Madmen.
Rosen has from time to time held positions as a university professor. He holds a Ph.D. in French Literature from Princeton University
and has taught at Harvard University
, Stony Brook University, University of Chicago
, University of Oxford
and the Royal Northern College of Music
. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and author on music.
Life and career
In his youth he studied piano with Moriz RosenthalMoriz Rosenthal
Moriz Rosenthal was a great Polish pianist. He was an outstanding pupil of Franz Liszt and a friend and colleague of some of the greatest musicians of his age, including Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, Anton Rubinstein, Hans von Bülow, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jules Massenet and Isaac...
. Rosenthal, born in 1862, had been a student of Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
. Rosenthal's memories of the 19th century in classical music were communicated to his pupil and appear frequently in Rosen's later writings.
Rosen has said that the pianist Józef Hofmann
Józef Hofmann
Josef Casimir Hofmann was a Polish-American virtuoso pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.-Biography:...
, whom he heard every year from age three, was a greater influence on him than Rosenthal. He recalls having played for Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky was a famed Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing, principles later propagated by Godowsky's...
at age seven; Godowsky asked Rosen what he would like to be when he grew up, and, to Godowsky's amusement, Rosen answered, "I want to be a pianist like Józef Hofmann." Rosen has also named Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
as a great influence.
Following his training Rosen pursued a successful career as a concert pianist, appearing in numerous recitals and orchestral engagements around the world. He recorded a number of 20th century works at the invitation of their composers, including music by Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
, and Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
. His recordings also include earlier literature such as Debussy's
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
Études
Études (Debussy)
Claude Debussy's Études are a set of 12 piano etudes composed in 1915. The pieces are extremely difficult to play, as Debussy himself admitted, describing them as "a warning to pianists not to take up the musical profession unless they have remarkable hands"...
, Schumann's
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
works for solo piano, Beethoven's
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
late sonatas and Diabelli Variations
Diabelli Variations
The 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120, commonly known as the Diabelli Variations, is a set of variations for the piano written between 1819 and 1823 by Ludwig van Beethoven on a waltz composed by Anton Diabelli...
, and Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Art of Fugue
The Art of Fugue
The Art of Fugue , BWV 1080, is an incomplete work by Johann Sebastian Bach . It was most likely started at the beginning of the 1740s, if not earlier. The first known surviving version, which contained 12 fugues and 2 canons, was copied by the composer in 1745...
and Goldberg Variations
Goldberg Variations
The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a work for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form...
.
Rosen is also the author of many acclaimed books about music. Perhaps his most famous work is The Classical Style (1971), which analyzes the nature and evolution of the high classical style as it was developed by Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
. Sonata Forms (1980) is in some ways a follow-up on The Classical Style; it is an intensive analysis of the primary musical form used in the classical era. The Romantic Generation (1995) covers the work of the early generation of Romantic composers, including Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Liszt, Schumann, and Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
.
Although Charles Rosen in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century...
is referred as one of the musicologist Oliver Strunk's
Oliver Strunk
William Oliver Strunk was an American musicologist.Strunk was the son of Professor William Strunk, Jr. . He attended Cornell University from 1917 to 1919 and again in 1927, studying under Otto Kinkeldey...
students, he never formally studied musicology and he has not gained a degree in musicology.
The polymathic Rosen has also published in other areas of the humanities: Romanticism and Realism: The Mythology of Nineteenth-Century Art and Romantic Poets, Critics, and Other Madmen.
Rosen has from time to time held positions as a university professor. He holds a Ph.D. in French Literature from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and has taught at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Stony Brook University, University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and the Royal Northern College of Music
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
.