The Ring of Words: An Anthology of Song Texts

By Philip Lieson Miller

Book Overview

An anthology unlike any other, The Ring of Words assembles lyrics of the most famous art songs of Europe with literal line-by-line English translations printed on the facing pages. The editor-translator, a renowned music scholar and critic, has contributed an introductory essay on the relationship between lyrics and music, as well as notes on each poet and on the composer or composers who set each poem to music.

Here are over three hundred poems by such writers as Heine, Goethe, Ibsen, Villon, Verlaine, D'Annunzio, and Pushkin. Among the composers represented are Schubert, Wolf, Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky; a brief critical evaluation of each song is included, with notes on textual variations or omissions. The Ring of Words brings together a repertory of songs well known to every collector of recordings and everyone who attends concerts and recitals. It is a valuable reference work for students and teachers of singing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393006778
• ISBN13: 9780393006773
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 548 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

The Ring of Words...great help in the studio

I've read and studied from many books with translations of texts to lieder and song literature, but I can say that the layout of this book is what a singer needs. Phrase by phrase is made understandable and visually it helps to have the original on the left and the translation on the right, it helps me to memorize faster. The information about the composers who have handled these texts is most interesting and helpful in program planning. My students who are not fluent in German and French have found that they now can handle the subtleties of the songs and song cycles they are preparing. Cynthia Hansell-Bakiæ,opera singer, teacher Croatia