Author Description

The seventh volume of Music & Literature opens with a celebration of the prolific Welsh novelist, music critic, and librettist Paul Griffiths. Two exclusive interviews and generous selections of his musical and creative writings offer insight into Griffiths' extensive career and his many sources of inspiration, from Shakespeare to Japanese Noh theatre. Recent collaborations, including the song cycle 'let me tell you,' based on Griffiths Oulipian novel containing only the words spoken by Ophelia in Hamlet, and Gulliver, based on Jonathan Swift's classic satire, receive particular attention, with contributions from partners Barbara Hannigan and James Wood, among others, testifying to Griffiths status as one of the Anglophone world's premiere--and under-acknowledged--talents. Meanwhile, Ann Quin published just four novels before her death at the age of thirty-seven, but in the decades since has come to be recognized as one of the most original voices of her no-longer-modern, not-quite-postmodern generation. Collected here, alongside a pair of Quin's provocative and darkly humorous short stories, are new critical appreciations of her life's work by leading contemporary writers, who pay tribute to Quin's enduring legacy and influence. Finally, the compositions and performances of Russian-born artist Lera Auerbach have filled the most prestigious halls and stages around the world, while her visual art has filled some of its most renowned spaces. From the opening act of her play 'Gogol,' which was staged by the legendary John Neumeier, to appreciations of her poetry, this portfolio surveys the work of a genuine Renaissance woman.