The Muse and the Fashion a Defense of the Foundations of the Art of Music

Publications

pdf scans
books
articles
dissertations

pdf scans

The Muse and the Mode: being a defence of the foundations of the art of music by Nikolai Karlovich Medtner. English translation past Alfred J Swan. Haverford Higher Bookstore, 1951
Muza i moda by Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (in Russian). Paris, 1935; reprinted 1957 and 1978.
English texts for the songs of Nicholas Medtner past Henry Due south. Drinker (1946)
Singable versions of all the songs except six of the Op.61.
Obituary by Richard Holt
The Gramophone, December 1951
Medtner society: volume one by Richard Holt
Medtner social club: book 2 by Richard Holt
Medtner society: book iii past Richard Holt
Booklets accompanying the Medtner Lodge recordings, 1948
Volumes 2 and 3 from the private collection of Adriano, Zurich
Nicolas Medtner: his influence as a teacher by Michael Jones
EPTA Piano Periodical, Consequence 125 (December 2021) pp 9-12.
Article by Iles' pupil with item focus on her fourth dimension with Medtner
Nicolas Medtner: an honorary British composer? by Michael Jones
British Music, volume 42 2020.
Article by Iles' pupil focusing on perception of Medtner's music in Britain and his time in England.
Nikolai Medtner by Leonid Sabeneev
The Musical Times, March 1928
One of several articles on Medtner by Sabeneev.
Medtner past Ernest Newman
The Musical Times, January 1915.
Seminal article referenced in Martyn'south biography.

Both articles above reproduced by kind permission of the editors

Books

Biographical

Nicolas Medtner: His Life and Music by Barrie Martyn (ISBN 0859679594, 1995)
The definitive biography, with commentary on all Medtner's compositions. Currently cheapest from Ashgate or Amazon; used copies are seldom cheaper.
Nicolas Medtner (1879-1951): A Tribute to his Art and Personality edited by Richard Holt (London, 1955).
Titled Medtner: A Memorial Volume on the book'due south spine.
A drove of essays and photographs put together by Medtner's friends and admirers after his death on the initiative of the Mysore Foundation. Not a scholarly work; the contributions are in the nature of reminiscences, tributes and eulogies, and the editing was much influenced past Anna. Available new from Waterstones, and adequately easy to obtain used.
Medtner and his music, A tribute to a bully Russian composer past Richard Holt (London, 1948).
24 page booklet with some of the hagiographical graphic symbol of the 1955 book.
N M Metner: Vospominaniya, Staty, Materialy (North Thou Medtner, Reminiscences, Papers, Materials) ed. Z A Apetyan, Soviet Composer, Moscow (1981)
A Russian parallel of Holt'south 1955 volume, with some chapters copied and other fabric added, including an expanded chapter by Anna Medtner. Formerly available online from a Russian site.
N K Metner: Pis'ma (Letters) ed. Z A Apetyan, Soviet Composer, Moscow (1973)
Includes Rachmaninoff'southward letters to Medtner, and Emil'due south letter to Pavel Ettingher.
Nikolay Metner past E B Dolinskaya (Moscow, 2013)
Biography, in Russian
Der Komponist Nikolai Medtner. Ein Porträt past Natascha Konsistorum (ISBN 3-89487-500-three, Henschel, Berlin, 2004)
German language translation past Christoph Flamm; also available in the original Russian. A personal account of Medtner's life and music, with selected messages and a proficient number of photographs. Includes two CDs with recordings of the piano quintet and a number of piano works and songs.
Nicolas Medtner pianiste, compositeur 1879-1951 by Bernard Pinsonneault (Éditions Beauchemin, Montréal 1956)
Biography by a educatee of Laliberté, in French. Out of print and hard to find. A scan has circulated on file sharing networks.

Scholarly

Nikolai Medtner: Music, Aesthetics, and Contexts ed. Wendelin Bitzan and Christoph Flamm (Olms, 2021)
Collection of articles to mark the 70th anniversary of Medtner'due south death
Nietzsche'south orphans: music, metaphysics, and the twilight of the Russian Empire past Rebecca Mitchell (Yale, 2015)
Includes a chapter on Nikolai and Emil Medtner
N. M. Metner. Lichnost, vzgljady, stil. Ispolnenie muzyki Metnera: analiticheskie etjudy (Personality, views and style. Functioning of Medtner's music: analytical studies) by Vasjutinskaja Evgenija (Kompositor, St Petersburg, 2014)
Nikolai Metner: Voprosy Biografii i Tvorchestva (Bug of biography and creativity) (Moscow, 2009)
Fabric from the international conference "The Metner Family and the Civilisation of the Silver Age"
Einführung in die Klaviermusik von Nikolai Medtner by Alexander Alexejew and others (Kuhn, Berlin 2008)
Vol 42 of studia slavica musicologica
Nikolaj Karlovic Medtner - der Pianist : sein kompositorisches Schaffen, seine Interpretationskunst und Pädagogik by I Zetel' (Studio, Sinzig, 2003)
Translated into German from the Russian publication (1981).

Other

The Russian Mephisto: a study of the life and work of Emilii Medtner past Magnus Ljunggren (Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm, 1994).
Provides background on the musical and intellectual environment in which Nikolai grew up, and details of his personal life non found elsewhere.
The Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and the 8 by Robert Rimm (ISBN 1574670727, 2002)
Contains a chapter on Medtner and Rachmaninoff.
Notes of a Moscow Pianist past Dmitry Paperno (ISBN i-57467-034-4, Amadeus Press, 1998)
A fascinating account of musical life inside the Soviet Spousal relationship in the mid-20th century, with a number of references to Medtner. Paperno turned downwards Anna Medtner's invitation to give the Russian première of the piano concerto no.3, but made two recordings of pieces from Op 38.
Modern Russian Composers past Leonid Sabaneev, translated by Judah A. Joffe (ISBN 0306706733, 1927; reprinted 1967 and 1975)
An important early work on Russian and Soviet music through the late 1920s. Typical of the menses, information technology tends to emphasise Medtner's German connections.
Contemporary Russian Composers by M. Montagu-Nathan (C. Palmer & Hayward, London, 1917; Greenwood Printing, Westport, Conn., 1970)
An early on survey of Russian music, including a chapter on Medtner.

Articles

Decision, Hope, and Resignation. Nikolai Medtner in Berlin, 1921�24 by Wendelin Bitzan, 2020
Nikolaj Metners einsätzige Sonatenformen. Konzepte von Symmetrie und Residual in den Klaviersonaten op.11 und op.22 by Wendelin Bitzan, Dice Tonkunst, 2016, no.iv.
A Milestone of Symbolist Music. A Multi-Perspective Examination of Nikolai Medtner'south Sonata-Ballade, Op.27 by Wendelin Bitzan, Problemy muzykalnoy nauki, 2016, no.iii (total text available).
Virtual Object and Reminiscing Amanuensis in Medtner's Sonata-Reminiscenza, Op.38, No.1 by Bradley Emerson, Semiotics 2015
Presented at the International Medtner Festival, London 2016.
Men and Music
Lecture on Medtner by Erik Chisholm in 1964, giving details of Medtner's visits to Scotland in 1931.
Medtner's fundamental preferences
My statistical analysis of the frequency of occurrence of keys in Medtner's output. Too available in Excel.
Russian Piano Music in Deepest Warwickshire by Duncan Honeybourne, BMI Insight, event 4, 2001.
Interviews with Edna Iles with details of the Medtners' stay at Wootton Wawen.

The Edna Iles Medtner Collection, containing messages, notes, photographs and other memorabilia, is kept in the British Library.
Journal of the British Institute of Recorded Sound, Apr-July 1978
Contains the following articles:
- Medtner, friend and master by Edna Iles
- Medtner Recordings by Eric Hughes, Barrie Martyn and Gerald Stonehill
- Recordings of Edna Iles in the BIRS collection
Metner and the Muse by Malcolm Boyd, The Musical Times, January 1980
Commodity exploring Medtner's concept of the muse as inspirer and instructor through his employ of the "muse" theme in The Muse Op.29 no.1, the Sonata-Ballade Op.27 and the Piano Quintet.
The Songs of Nicolas Medtner by Malcolm Boyd, Music and Letters, Jan 1965
Penetrating commodity on the most neglected office of Medtner's output.
Das Leben Nikolai Medtners (1880-1951) by Alfred J. Swan, Musik des Ostens, 4 (1967), pp. 65-116
Guide to the Daily Work of the Pianist by Nikolai Karlovitch Medtner
Translation of some of Medtner's notes by Olga Conus. See as well the thesis past Bondar.
Medtner's Piano Music. An beholden written report by Sidney Miller, The Musical Times, October 1941. Concluded in the November issue.

Dissertations

Most recent theses are downloadable. Many of the others can be purchased from ProQuest or borrowed from Academy libraries.

Nikolai Medtner's Skazki (Fairy Tales), Op.51: A Conservative Russian Romantic Composer�south Flights of Fancy past Yumin Na (Michigan State Univ, 2019)
The Sonata as an Ageless Principle. Nikolai Medtner'due south Early Piano Sonatas: Analytic Studies on their Genesis, Fashion, and Compositional Technique by Wendelin Bitzan (Vienna, 2019)
Telling Tales: The Use of Byron Almén's Musical Narrative Theory every bit a Filter for a Performance of Nikolai Medtner's Sonata-Skazka Op.25 No.1 (1910) by Jenny Lu (Monash, 2019)
Music as cosmos: a written report of Nikolai Medtner's Piano sonata in G minor, op.22, through the lens of The Muse and the Fashion past Iris Hsu (Peabody Inst., John Hopkins, 2019)
Narrative and Russian folktales in Nikolai Medtner's six Skazki Op.51 past Daniel Feiling Guo (New Southward Wales, 2018)
Nikolai Medtner: A New Source for Sonata in F Small-scale, Op.v by Clement Barrera Acevedo (James Madison Univ, 2018)
Nikolai Medtner's Fairytales, op.31, no.three and op.35, no.3: a performance guide to two lesser known works of a neglected composer by Maria Kurchevskaya (Colorado, 2018)
Tempo and rhythmical principles al rigore and flessibile in selected works by Nikolai Medtner: a report and recording by Aleksandr Ponomarchuk (Iowa, 2018)
Documenting developing performance: rethinking Nikolai Medtner at the piano by Hanna Choi (St Andrews, 2018)
Nikolai Medtner's Forgotten Melodies, op. 38: sources, analysis, and estimation by Haeshin Shin (Boston, 2018)
The culmination of the Russian romantic piano school equally represented past early on and late works of Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Medtner by Ekaterina Zaitseva (Maryland, 2017)
In Support of Nikolai Medtner: An Exam of Five of his Art Songs by Daniel J Liebeskind (Louisiana, 2017)
The Opus 41 Vocalises of Nikolai Medtner by Nathan Uhl (Arizona, 2017)
German Blood Russian Nativity: Nationality in the Solo Piano Music of Nikolai Medtner by Michael Hamilton (Liverpool, 2017)
A Study of Nikolai Medtner Compositional Technique: Form and Narrative in Tales past Oliver Markson (Metropolis University of New York, 2017)
The Motivic Economy in Nikolai Medtner'due south Sonata Romantica by Nellie Southward. Seng-Quinn (City University of New York, 2016)
The influence of romantic poetry on the career and music of Nicolas Medtner by Denise Rudell (South Carolina, 2016)
Nikolai Medtner: performing imagination in his Sonata reminiscenza, op.38 no.1 by Christopher Miranda (Indiana, 2016)
Medtner�s Sonata-ballade: interpreting its dramatic trajectory through virtual subjectivities by Bradley Emerson (Academy of Texas at Austin, 2016)
Nikolai Medtner'due south first piano concerto: A metrotectonic analysis by Aleksandra Sarest (Urban center University of New York, 2014)
New light on Nikolay Medtner as pianist and teacher : the Edna Iles Medtner Collection (EIMC) at the British Library by Alexander Karpeyev (Urban center University, London, 2014)
An analysis and interpretation of Sonata Triad op. 11 by Nikolai Medtner past Yi-Wen Hou (Fu Jen Catholic University, 2013). In Chinese.
Medtner'due south Fairy Tales: Texture and Subtlety by Hiroko Nagahata (Michigan, 2012)
Nikolai Medtner'due south Romantic sketches for the immature, op. 54: unifying elements and expression in the four preludes and four tales past Grace Eun Hae Kim (Peabody, 2012)
Nicolai Medtner'southward Piano concerto no. iii, op. 60: musical style and operation strategies past Shu-Hao Hsu (Iowa, 2012)
Medtner and the ur-human past Patrick Domico (Chapel Loma, Due north Carolina, 2012)
A Operation guide to 2 Fairy Tales of Nickolai Medtner by Jonathan Paul Tauscheck (Iowa, 2012)
Medtner's "Acht Stimmungsbilder", Op. i: a pedagogical guide with analysis by Min Yu Koh (Southern Illinois, 2011)
Nicolas Medtner, the neglected composer: comparative study of Nicolas Medtner'southward Piano concerto no. 2 in C small-scale, op. 50 and Serge Rachmaninoff's Piano concerto no. four in Chiliad small-scale, op. forty by Ching-Wen Hsiao (Juilliard School, 2010)
The Skazki (Fairy Tales) of Nikolai Medtner: the evolution and characteristics of the genre with compositional and functioning aspects of selected Fairy Tales past Ekaterina Chernaya-Oh (North Texas, 2008). May be downloadable here.
Contexts of symbolist music in Silver Age Russian federation, 1861--1917 by Amanda Marsrow (Southern Methodist Univ., 2008)
Three 1-motility sonatas of the Russian silverish age : a comparative study past David Westfall (Hartford, 2008)
4 piano recitals and an essay : "the muse and the mode: a comparative study of Goethe settings by Medtner and Schubert" by Riana Vermaak (Ottawa, 2007)
Selected late-Romantic Russian piano music by Hung Luo (Maryland, 2007)
Nicholas Medtner's piano music with special accent on his Fairy tales by Sungeun Kim (Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, 2006)
Genres of piano ensemble and its realization in the art of I. Stravinsky and N. Medtner by Olga Grines (Nizhny Novgorod State Solarium, 2005) – in Russian
Medtner: His beliefs, influences and piece of work by Natalya Kalendarev (Washington, 2005)
Piano sonatas by Nikolay Medtner: a performer'southward perspective by Hiroaki Takenouchi (RCM London, 2004)
An assay of Medtner'due south Piano concerto no. 2 op. 50 in C minor by Bo Won Hong (Illinois, 2003)
Performance Practice Problems in Russian Pianoforte Music by Gregory Michael Smith (Newcastle, Commonwealth of australia, 2003). Chapters 3 and 4 (downloadable) include commentary and analyses of several works by Medtner.
Thematic unity in Nicolas Medtner's works for piano : Skazki, sonatas, and piano quintet by David J Skvorak (Cincinnati, 2003).
An introduction to Nikolai Medtner and operation analysis in dialogue form of his works for ii pianos: Russian Round Dance and Knight Errant past Saida Kafarova (Texas, 2003)
Nicolas Medtner composer, pianist, and teacher (translation of Medtner's notes compiled into a book, "The Daily Work of the Pianist and Composer" by Gurvich and L. Lukomsky, with an introduction past his pupil, P. Vasiliev) by Liudmila E Bondar (Michigan, 2003)
Lecture-recital: the piano music of Nicolas Medtner by Felix Tao Chang (Kansas, 2003)
Symmetrical features of Medtner'due south linguistic communication: the Grozovaya sonata, opus 53, no. 2 by James L Pitts (North Texas, 1999).
Der russische Komponist Nikolaj Metner : Studien und Materialien past Christoph Flamm. Originally presented as the writer's Ph.D thesis (Heidelberg, 1995). Includes messages, reviews and other documents in German, Russian, English and French, bibliography (1903-1994) and discography. Published by Kuhn (ISBN 3928864246, 1995); out of print.
The fairy tales of Nikolai Medtner past William Bloomquist (Texas, 1993).
The songs of Nikolai Medtner by Terence Kelly (Maryland, 1988). Bachelor elsewhere in microfilm.
The fairy tales of Nikolai Medtner past Emily Alice Kelley (Virginia, 1981).
Orchestral transcriptions of selected piano compositions of Nicholas Medtner by Ronald Lamar Ackerman (Boston, 1976).
An exam of cadenzas to Beethoven's piano concerto no. iv in G major, op. 58 with an original cadenza by Paul Rutman (Juilliard School, 1974)
The solo piano music of Nicolas Medtner by Ronald D. Surace (Cincinnati, 1973).
Some Stylistic Considerations in the Piano Sonatas of Nikolai Medtner by Cenieth Catherine Elmore (North Carolina, 1972).
Vi lesser-known piano quintets of the twentieth century past James Gwynn Staples (Rochester, 1972). Now downloadable.
The Piano Sonatas of Nicolas Medtner by Charles William Keller (Ohio Land, 1971).
The Piano Sonatas of Nicolai Medtner by Bobby Hughes Loftis (West Virginia, 1970).
A performer'south analysis of eight piano sonatas of Nicholas Medtner by Sarah Louise Kinley (Butler University, Indianapolis, 1970).
The pianoforte solo music in smaller forms of Nicholas Medtner by M Annette Teresa Covatta (Boston, 1965)
The pianoforte sonatas of Nikolai Medtner by Lona Ruth Ginsburg (Los Angeles, 1961).

Medtner, 1943-44

grouping of musicians at Steinway, 11 Jan 1925
front: Stravinsky Medtner Furtwängler F.Steinway Hoffmann
2nd row: Ibbs (impressario) Kreisler Rachmaninoff ?
3rd row: ? ? Montyo ? Ziloti