This collection of articles, tributes and reminiscences is an immensely rewarding reflection of the man himself, a literary context in which to place his work as a composer and performer, and a demonstration of the sheer exuberance with which Dickinson engages with his subjects.
PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC
Dickinson writes engagingly and with clarity. . . . Above all ... Read more[this book] may be appreciated as a major contribution toward a context for appreciating the music of Peter Dickinson.
MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTES
Selected by CLASSICAL MUSIC as one of the best music books of 2016.
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Major literary figures are subsequently given their due, including Emily Dickinson, as set by generations of composers, and the currently undervalued Ruth Pitter...Highly potent are Dickinson's meetings with WH Auden...and Philip Larkin. A fastidious and astute word-setter Dickinson is well placed to identify what attracts specific composers to authors (and vice-versa)...Literary food for thought indeed!
GRAMOPHONE
Dickinson is authoritative, lucid, persuasive, lively and sharply witty. With fine illustrations and selected music examples, this is a richly satisfying book.
CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE
This excellently produced book contains some beautifully reproduced illustrations, a number in colour, and musical examples. It offers a wide-ranging exploration of Dickinson's interests and enthusiasms, and provides a fertile source for further examination of his music.
BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY
[T]his is one of those essential retrospectives featuring any composer, his life, works and interests to have been issued in many years. It will retain its impact through the coming decades for scholars, critics, listeners, poetry readers and performers.
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL
'I think Professor Dickinson has made a unique contribution to the development history of our music merely by the degree of his interest in it. It's so enormously flattering for us to have a European musician of his calibre, who is interested in the music that has been written in America that I think of him as a unique figure.
Aaron Copland, Keele University, 19 October 1976 'Peter Dickinson the composer matters most . What will remain is a compositional strength and imagination equal to his day, newer days, and days far beyond both.
Professor Stephen Banfield Show Less