Böcker i Royal Musical Association Monographs-serien

Luciano Berio's Sinfonia (1968) marked a return by the composer to orchestral writing after a gap of six years. This in-depth study demonstrates the central position the work occupies in Berio's output. David Osmond-Smith discusses the way in which Berio used the Bororo myth described in Levi-Strauss's Le cru et le cuit as a framework for Sinfonia. This is one of many influences in the work, which also include Joyce's 'Sirens' chapter from Ulysses, Beckett's The Unnameable and the scherzo from Mahler's 2nd Symphony. The listener who takes refuge in the score of Sinfonia, argues Osmond-Smith, finds there a maze of allusions to things beyond the score. It is some of those allusions that this book seeks to illuminate.

Until relatively modern times, musicians relied upon patrons to fund their music - social savoir-faire was as important as technical proficiency when attracting wealth. This volume provides a reassessment of Salomon's uneven career as a violinist in London during the 1780s.

The grotesque is one of art's most puzzling figures. In "The Miraculous Mandarin" and "Cantata Profana", Bartok engaged scenarios featuring either overtly grotesque bodies or closely related transformations and violations of the body. This book argues that Bartok's concerns with stylistic hybridity, the body, and the grotesque are inter-connected.