Selected Songs
Sante Fe, NM: Soundings Press, 1984. 1st Edition. Quarto, publisher's stiff illustrated paper wraps, blue endpapers.
Collection of American expatriate writer, translator and composer Paul Bowles's songs. During the late 1920s and early 30s, Bowles studied under Aaron Copland (who later claimed, "Paul never wrote a dull piece"), before traveling to Guatemala, Mexico, Ceylon, southern India, and the Sahara, where he explored his interest in indigenous music styles. Upon his return, he began to produce incidental music for playwrights and artists such as Tennesse Williams, Orson Welles, Elia Kazan, and Salvador Dalí. The present volume contains lyrics and sheet music for previously published and new songs, the latter of which are written to his own poetry along with verses by Lorca, Gertrude Stein, Williams, his wife Jane, and more. Includes a preface by American composer and an early mentor of Bowles Virgil Thomson and an essay by Australian composer and critic Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Several pieces of ephemera related to a mid-1990s series of performances of and panel talks about Bowles's music laid in. Light rubbing and edgewear to wraps. Near fine. Item #12737
$75.00