{"product_id":"the-sea-on-fire-jean-barraque-9781580461412","title":"The Sea on Fire: Jean Barraqué","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe life and works of one of the most difficult yet rewarding composers of modern time.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJean Barraqué is increasingly being recognized as one of the great composers of the second half of the 20th century. Though he left only seven works, his voice in each of them is unmistakeable, and powerful. He had no doubt of hisresponsibility, as a creator, to take his listeners on challenging adventures that could not but leave them changed. After the collapse of morality he had witnessed as a child growing up during the Second World War, and having taken notice of so much disarray in the culture around him, he set himself to make music that would, out of chaos, speak. \u003cbr\u003e Three others were crucial to him. One was Pierre Boulez, who, three years older, provided him with keysto a new musical language -- a language more dramatic, driving and passionate than Boulez's. Another was Michel Foucault, to whom he was close personally for a while, and with whom he had a dialogue that was determinative for bothof them. Finally, in the writings of Hermann Broch-and especially in the novel The Death of Virgil-he found the myth he needed to realize musically. \u003cbr\u003e He played for high stakes, and he took risks with himself as well as in hisart. Intemperate and difficult, even with his closest friends, he died in 1973 at the age of forty-five.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Paul Griffiths was chief music critic for the London \u003ci\u003eTimes\u003c\/i\u003e (1982-92) and \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e (1992-96) and since 1996 has written regularly for the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e. He has written books on Boulez, Cage, Messiaen, Ligeti, Davies, Bartók and Stravinsky, as well as several librettos, among them \u003ci\u003eThe Jewel Box\u003c\/i\u003e (Mozart, 1991), \u003ci\u003eMarco Polo\u003c\/i\u003e (Tan Dun, 1996) and \u003ci\u003eWhat Next?\u003c\/i\u003e (Elliott Carter, 1999).","brand":"Paul Griffiths","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48280651530491,"sku":"9781580461412","price":120.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/9781580461412.jpg?v=1772485045","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/the-sea-on-fire-jean-barraque-9781580461412","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}