More a biography of Mozart's music than a study of the man himself, Sadie's final opus—he died this year after publishing some 30 books—should delight musicologists but puzzle general readers. Not only is the music Sadie's primary interest, he does not believe it reveals anything, necessarily, about its composer. Indeed, he reminds readers not to impose contemporary values on Mozart's era. "Romantic eyes," for example, might see certain minor-key compositions as expressions of Mozart's grief over his mother's death, but Sadie argues that there's "no real reason to imagine that he used his music as [a] vehicle for the expression of his own personal feelings." Likewise, modern critics expect to see a certain type of progress in Mozart's oeuvre, with subsequent works building and elaborating former ones, in ways alien to Mozart on his contemporaries. Sadie is deft at situating various styles of musical composition in their cultural context: preferences for serious vs. comic opera, shorter vs. longer works, e
This original paperback brings together for the first time allof Donald Hall’s writing on Eagle Pond Farm, his ancestral home inNew Hampshire, where he visited his grandparents as a young boy andthen lived with his wife Jane Kenyon until her death. It includesthe entire, previously published Seasons at Eagle Pond and Here atEagle Pond; the poem “Daylilies on the Hill” from The Painted Bed;and several uncollected essays.
This is the story of the Owens' travel and life in theKalahari Desert. Here they met and studied unique animals and wereconfronted with danger from drought, fire, storms, and the animalsthey loved. This best-selling book is for both travelers and animallovers.