The correspondence of Roger Sessions

Roger Sessions (1896-1985), one of this century's most highly respected American composers, was also a prolific and gifted writer. Besides authoring numerous books, essays, and articles, Sessions carried on lengthy written conversations with such noteworthy composers and musicians as Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Nadia Boulanger, Arnold Schoenberg, Ernest Bloch, Luigi Dallapiccola, Ernst Krenek, and his student David Diamond. Andrea Olmstead has edited and annotated. More than two hundred of Sessions's letters, as well as letters from his correspondents, covering nearly seventy-five years of the composer's long and productive life, from prep school until his death in 1985. In addition, Olmstead has included thoughtful commentary that places the letters in their context. Sessions's correspondence provides a fascinating firsthand view of music-making in the twentieth century. Among the richest exchanges are the letters between Sessions. And Copland in the late 1920s, when they decided to organize a series of concerts of new music in New York City. The volume also contains previously unpublished letters between Sessions and Thomas Mann on Mann's Dr. Faustus and letters from Ernst Kr