Virtuosity and the Musical Work

Jim Samson has been a Professor of Music at the Universities of Exeter and Bristol and is now Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published widely on the music of Chopin and on analytical and aesthetic topics in nineteenth- and twentieth-century music and has recently edited the Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and holds the Order of Merit of the Polish Ministry of Culture.

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Ecology by numbers; 2. Of maps and materials; 3. Composing the performance; 4. Making and remaking; 5. Forms and reforms; 6. Suggestion and symbol; 7. Mazeppa times 7; Bibliography; Index.

'In Virtuosity and the Musical Work: The Transcendental Studies of Liszt, Samson shows mastery of an enormous range of sources, a deep acquaintance with the music, and he writes with clarity and style. His exposition of Liszt's development of the études over a period of many years … is especially effective. I have no doubt that this will be the standard work on The Transcendental Studies for years to come.' The Times Literary Supplement